Anki alternativeAn Anki alternative that is calm by default.

When Anki is the right choice

Anki's desktop app is free and open source, and it has a huge ecosystem: desktop apps, a mobile app on each major platform, sync, add-ons and cloze cards. If you rely on add-ons, large shared decks or a native mobile app today, Anki has them and Cirello does not. Plenty of people stay with it happily. This page is for people who want something different, not for people it already suits.

Why people look for an Anki alternative

The reasons that come up most are consistent:

• The learning curve. Note types, card templates, deck options and add-ons take time to understand before you can study.
• A dated interface. Review works, but the surrounding screens can feel heavy.
• Making cards by hand. Building decks one at a time is where many people quit.
• Pressure. Big queues and streak counters can turn a good habit into a chore.

What Cirello does differently

• FSRS-6 built in, with nothing to configure. Cirello schedules with FSRS-6 from the first review and refits its 21 parameters to your own history once you have at least 1,000 reviews. There is no optimize button and no add-on to install. The one dial most people touch, desired retention, is a slider with a 90% default.
• Cheap capture. Paste a list of front::back pairs and get a deck, with duplicate detection. Attach images to either side. Point a card at a book or website with an instruction like "page 12" and review from the real source.
• A calm interface and a weekly rhythm. Progress is counted by the week against a target, not as a daily streak, so a missed day does not erase anything.
• A guided first run. A short personalization survey and built-in starter decks take you to a real review session instead of an empty app.
• AI assistants through MCP. A remote server lets Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor build decks, find duplicates and tell you what is due, with permissions you approve. See using Claude with your flashcards.
• Review modes and exam plans. Reverse, listening, four-option quiz and mixed sessions, a drill for hard cards, and exam plans that pull reviews in before a date you set.

What Cirello does not do (yet)

Honesty matters more than a long feature list:

• It is a web app today. iOS and Android apps are planned, with no date, and there is no offline desktop app.
• There are no cloze deletion cards.
• There are no add-ons and no shared deck library.
• There is no .apkg import. Import is pasting a front::back list, so moving a deck over means exporting your cards as text and reshaping them into that format first.
• Folders and decks are organized by you, not automatically.

The beta is free, no card required.

Moving from Anki to Cirello

1. Export the notes you want from Anki as plain text and open the file in a text editor.
2. Reshape each line into front::back. Strip extra fields and formatting you do not need.
3. Paste the list into Cirello's bulk import. Duplicate detection means you can safely paste an updated list later.
4. Start with a small number of new cards a day; the FSRS settings guide suggests a starting setup.

Review history does not carry over, so the scheduler starts learning your memory from your first Cirello reviews. Cards that depend on cloze deletions or add-ons will need rewriting as plain front and back cards.

Compare before you decide

For a dated, sourced side-by-side of several tools, see flashcard apps compared and spaced repetition apps compared. They state what each tool says about itself, including where Cirello does not fit.