LingunAI vs Anki

What Anki does well

Anki is a free, open-source spaced-repetition program, and for flashcards alone it’s the most flexible tool available. You can design any card you like, with text, images and audio, and arrange fields however suits you. Add-ons extend it further, and a large library of shared decks covers everything from vocabulary to medicine.

Its scheduling is its other strength. Anki schedules each card from your own answers, and since 2023 it has offered FSRS, a modern algorithm that models how well you remember each individual card. If you want to fine-tune exactly when each card returns, Anki gives you the controls.

For learners who enjoy building their own system, and are willing to spend time on it, Anki rewards that effort like nothing else.

Where LingunAI is different

LingunAI starts one step earlier: with the text you read. Rather than asking you to decide which words deserve a card, it gives you something worth reading, at your level, and lets you keep the words that stop you.

• Cards from reading. StorySplice writes complete stories of 50 to 500 words at any CEFR level from A1 to C2, and the article reader rewrites an article you paste at your level. Select any word and choose “Add to Flashcard”.
• Less card-making. “Fill with AI” writes a definition, synonyms, antonyms and five example sentences in the card’s own language for 1 credit, and making cards by hand is always free.
• Words return in context. Pick due cards when you set up the next story, and those words turn up in new sentences on the day you’re meant to review them.
• More than review. Free quizzes with nine question types, AI Review for harder questions, plus roleplay, an AI tutor and a grammar coach for speaking and writing.

Scheduling: adaptive vs. a ladder

This is the clearest technical difference, so it’s worth being precise. Anki moves each card’s next review date according to how you answered it, and FSRS goes further by estimating your memory of each card individually. LingunAI uses a Leitner-style ladder: “Remembered” moves a card up one step, “Forgot” sends it back to the first. The default steps are 1, 3, 7 and 15 days, and you can design your own patterns of up to 20 steps, each from 1 to 3,650 days, per deck.

A ladder is simpler and completely predictable: you always know when a card is coming back. An adaptive scheduler is more efficient for very large collections because it spaces easy cards further apart. Both rest on the same research, the spacing effect and retrieval practice. The guide to spaced repetition explains how each approach works.

Who should choose which

Choose Anki if:

• you want full control over card design and scheduling
• you study more than languages and want one system for everything
• you’re happy to build your own decks or curate shared ones

Choose LingunAI if:

• you want vocabulary to come from stories and articles at your level
• you’d rather spend your study time reading than making cards
• you want speaking and writing practice in the same place as your reviews

Using Anki and LingunAI together

You don’t have to pick one. A practical split is to read and collect words in LingunAI, then export them to Anki if you prefer its scheduler or want everything in one collection. The Anki export is a tab-separated text file with the word on the front and the definition, synonyms and examples on the back.

Going the other way works too: export your Anki notes as plain text, give the columns the headers word and definition in a spreadsheet, and import the file into LingunAI to use those words in your next story. See what’s free on the pricing page, or read the full overview of LingunAI’s flashcards.