Anki is a flashcard program for any subject, and many language learners use it to keep new words. You make a card, rate how well you remembered it, and Anki shows it again around the time you'd forget. On Reddit (r/languagelearning), learners who look for something else often say the reviews feel boring. One learner with about 6,000 cards asked whether reading novels could take their place. Another wrote, "I'd rather watch TV shows and movies with the words I'm learning."
Flashcards drill each word on its own. With Regenerative Review™, the words you save come back inside new lessons that Poppy, your AI tutor, writes at your level, so you read them again in new contexts.
What Anki Does
Anki
Anki suits learners who want to decide what goes on each card and when it comes back. The computer version runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and the phone apps are AnkiMobile for iPhone and AnkiDroid for Android.
- Put audio, pictures, and video on your cards.
- Study decks that other learners have shared.
- Sync your cards between your computer and phone with free AnkiWeb.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Read Saved Words Again in New Lessons
Bubblegum
Bubblegum is the best app for serious learners. You learn from text and audio you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
In Bubblegum, Poppy, your AI tutor, writes stories and conversations at your level, with audio. A word you saved from a story about a café might come back next week in a story about a train trip.
If you like flashcards too, Bubblegum can turn your saved words into an Anki deck, and you choose what goes on each card.
The trade-off is that Bubblegum only helps with the language you're learning. For cards on any other subject, keep using Anki or Quizlet.
- Save a word, and Poppy works it into new lessons at your level.
- You pick what each lesson is about.
- Paste a word list or snap a photo of your notes, and those words join your saved words.
- Send your saved words to Anki, with example sentences and the line where you saved each one.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You can't write your own cards or study a shared deck inside Bubblegum.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Make Flashcards From Your Notes
Quizlet
Quizlet is a study app for school subjects and languages alike. One learner on Reddit who wasn't a fan of Anki's look said they liked Quizlet's. It can also turn your notes and sets into audio you can listen to away from your desk.
- Type, paste, or upload your notes, and Quizlet builds a study set for you.
- Learn mode changes as you improve.
- Spaced repetition brings back what you need to review.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Fill In Missing Words in Sentences
Clozemaster
Clozemaster has fill-in-the-blank sentences in more than 50 languages, and it's made for learners from A2 to C1. One Reddit learner liked it more than the Anki app, because each word comes inside a sentence and still returns on a schedule.
- Each round shows a real sentence with one word missing.
- Pick the answer from a list, or type it yourself.
- Sentences come back for review when they're due.
MobileWeb
Save Words From Shows and Videos
Migaku
Migaku is a Chrome extension and phone app for 11 languages. It suits learners who want their cards to come from the shows they already watch, which is what one Reddit learner asked about.
- Make a flashcard from Netflix, YouTube, or a web page in one click.
- Each card keeps the sentence, the audio, a screenshot, and the meaning.
- Migaku tracks the words you know and scores how much of a show or page you'll follow.
- Flashcards
MobileBrowser extension
Lingopie
Lingopie has more than 5,000 TV shows, plus music, podcasts, and books, in 15 languages.
- Watch with subtitles in your new language and in English at the same time.
- Click a word in the subtitles to see what it means.
- Every word you click is saved for flashcards and quizzes.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Save Words From Books and Web Pages
LingQ
LingQ is built around reading and listening to things you enjoy, in 53 languages.
- Highlight words you don't know as you read, and LingQ helps you review them.
- Pick lessons from its library, or import a page with its browser extension.
- Learn from podcasts, books, and TV shows.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Readlang
Readlang works in your browser with more than 100 languages, and you can upload your own texts to read. It suits learners who want to keep using Anki and fill it with words from what they read.
- Click any word or phrase on a web page to translate it.
- Words you translate become flashcards, with the most useful ones first.
- Send your words and phrases to Anki.
- Flashcards
WebBrowser extension
Other Apps We Looked At (4)
- MochiMochi is a flashcard app where you write your notes in Markdown. For language cards, it has built-in dictionaries, translation, text-to-speech, and image search, and it runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, and Android.
- MemriseMemrise teaches words and phrases with short videos of real people, in more than 130 languages.
- DropsDrops teaches words with quick games and a picture for every word, in more than 55 languages.
- WaniKaniWaniKani is a Japanese app that takes you through 2,000 kanji and 6,000 vocabulary words.
Common Questions
Which Anki alternative should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning a language, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Or start with Quizlet if you want flashcards that are quick to set up, or with Clozemaster once you know the basics.
Can I keep my Anki deck if I try another app?
Yes. Bubblegum and Readlang both send your saved words to Anki, so your deck keeps growing. When you export from Bubblegum, you can keep each word's review date, and exporting again adds only the new words.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Anki: Powerful, intelligent flashcards (sync, media, add-ons, AnkiMobile and AnkiDroid)
- r/languagelearning: Can reading/input be a good alternative for flashcards?
- r/languagelearning: I can't keep up with motivation with flashcards. What's an alternative to flashcards?
- r/languagelearning: Alternative to Anki?
- Quizlet: App Store listing (study sets from your notes, Learn, spaced repetition, podcasts)
- Clozemaster: Fill-in-the-blank sentences in 50+ languages
- Clozemaster: App Store listing (made for A2 to C1 learners)
- Migaku: One-click flashcards from Netflix, YouTube and the web
- Lingopie: Learn with TV shows, movies and music in 15 languages
- LingQ: Learn languages from books, podcasts and TV shows
- Readlang: Features (flashcards, Anki export, web reader)
- Mochi: Spaced repetition flashcards
- Memrise: App Store listing (short videos of real people, 139 languages)
- Drops: Visual vocabulary in 55+ languages
- WaniKani: 2,000 kanji and 6,000 vocabulary words
- Bubblegum
- Quizlet
- Migaku
- Lingopie
- LingQ
- Readlang
Checked on October 15, 2026 against each app's own pages.
