You are looking for a Quizlet alternative. Before comparing tools, it is worth naming exactly what is going wrong, because switching platforms without doing so risks landing you in the same place a few weeks later.
Why people leave
Three reasons come up, and they do not call for the same answer.
The product changed. According to Quizlet's help pages, some study modes such as Learn and Test are limited without a subscription, and free accounts show ads. That is a legitimate reason, and switching tools solves it.
Shared decks are uneven. Anyone can publish a card set and nobody reviews it, so you find errors and approximate definitions. Here, switching tools solves nothing: the problem is revising on content you did not produce.
You study a lot and retain little. This is the most common reason and the only one no tool will ever fix. If you reread your cards instead of testing yourself on them, no platform compensates.
The question to ask before switching
One question settles it: does the content you are studying already exist, or do you have to build it?
Memorizing a hundred Spanish words, a list of dates or a set of formulas is content that exists. You need a repetition tool.
Understanding a course you are just discovering, deciding where to start and in what order, is content you have to build. A card tool will not help with that, it waits for you to already know what to put on the cards. For that kind of work, a good study guide beats a deck of cards.
Many students disappointed by Quizlet are in the second situation and go shopping in the first.
Alternatives by situation
| What you are doing | What you need | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Memorizing vocabulary, dates, formulas | Spaced repetition | Anki, Brainscape, Knowt |
| Following an existing academic syllabus | Structured course platform | Khan Academy, Coursera |
| Preparing for an exam on a fixed date with a course to organize | Session plan up to exam day | Fastudy |
| Revising in a group on shared material | Collaborative tool | Quizlet is still a good fit, especially in a class set up by the teacher |
For memorizing content that already exists
A spaced repetition system schedules when each card comes back, based on your hits and misses. Anki is the long-standing reference in this category: the desktop app is free on Windows, macOS and Linux, AnkiDroid is free on Android, and the iOS app is paid, according to Anki's website. Its interface is plain and its settings are numerous, which can take some getting used to.
Brainscape rests on the same principle, with one twist: you rate your confidence in each card from 1 to 5. According to its website, the free plan lets you create cards and use spaced repetition, and the paid plans unlock, among other things, unlimited AI card creation. Knowt, for its part, says on its website that it offers flashcards, study modes including spaced repetition, and practice tests for free, with the option to generate cards from your notes or a PDF.
The benefit of spacing is not cosmetic. In 2009, Kornell compared two ways of studying word pairs with flashcards: massed in one block, or spaced over intervals. Spacing gave better results for 90% of participants. After the first session, though, 72% of them thought massing had worked better. A tool that decides the timing for you applies that finding without you having to think about it.
For an academic syllabus that already exists
If your subject maps onto an existing curriculum, maths, science, economics, course platforms have the advantage of a progression designed by teachers and coherent coverage. Khan Academy, a nonprofit whose courses are free, covers elementary school through early college. Coursera offers courses, certificates and degrees with partner universities and companies.
Their limit mirrors their strength: they cover what has been produced. They know neither your exam date nor your teacher's syllabus.
For an exam on a fixed date and a course to organize
This is the situation of the midterm or quiz that is getting close: the course exists, but you do not know where to start or how to spread the work until exam day. A deck of cards does not answer that, and neither does a generic online course.
That is where Fastudy can help. You describe your goal (quiz, midterm, exam, resit or competitive exam), the exam date, the subject and the chapters as they appear in your course. You can add your course as a PDF, slides or photos, and past papers, to refine the plan. Fastudy then builds a path of short sessions, unlocked one at a time, up to exam day: a starting point, one block per chapter with its study guide, then a stretch before the big day. Each session lets you view the lesson, test yourself or mark it as done. Exercises are corrected as soon as your answer is complete, and George, the mascot, answers your questions in a chat.
To retain vocabulary or formulas over the very long term, a spaced repetition flashcard app such as Anki or Brainscape remains a reference, and the two approaches complement each other. If you would rather first understand how a work schedule is built, how to create a study plan walks through the method.
What none of these tools will do for you
Whatever the platform, one thing cannot be delegated: the effort of retrieval.
Dunlosky and colleagues reviewed ten widely used learning techniques in 2013. They rated the utility of highlighting and rereading as low, and that of practice testing and distributed practice as high. In 2006, Roediger and Karpicke showed that, for texts you need to remember, testing yourself gives much better results than another reading pass when the assessment comes two days or a week later, whereas rereading works better for an assessment five minutes later.
A tool can impose retrieval on you by hiding the answer and forcing you to produce it. None can stop you flipping the card too early. If you scroll through cards thinking "yes, I knew that," you are rereading, whatever logo sits at the top of the screen.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free Quizlet alternative?
It depends on the job. For pure memorization, Anki is free on desktop and on Android, and its iOS app is paid. Brainscape and Knowt also offer a free plan, with limits that vary according to their websites, so check before you commit. To prepare for a specific exam with a course to organize, what you need is a session plan, not a deck of cards.
Is Anki better than Quizlet?
For long-term retention, Anki has an advantage in principle: the whole app is built around scheduling reviews based on your hits and misses, instead of leaving you to choose what to review when. The trade-off is a plain interface and a learning curve that can take time. For a one-off need before a quiz, that rigour is sometimes out of proportion.
Can AI replace flashcards?
For producing the cards, yes, and it saves real time when the course is long. For memorization, no: the effort of retrieval is what makes information stick, and handing it to an AI removes the useful mechanism. Use AI for the structure, for example with an AI study guide maker, and keep retrieval for yourself.
Why do shared decks give poor results?
Because the sorting and rephrasing work, which is where most of the benefit lives, was done by someone else. You inherit the output without having performed the mental operation, and with no guarantee that the content is accurate. A deck found online can work for testing yourself, but it cannot learn for you.
Should I switch tools if I am not retaining anything?
Rarely. Start by checking how you use the one you have: if you reread instead of testing, and study in one block instead of spacing, switching changes nothing. Fix the method first, the tool second.
Useful resources
- Create my study plan with Fastudy
- Kornell, N. (2009). Optimising Learning Using Flashcards: Spacing Is More Effective Than Cramming. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(9)
- Dunlosky, J. et al. (2013). Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1)
- Roediger, H. L. & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-Enhanced Learning. Psychological Science, 17(3)