Anki vs Quizlet, which one to study with in 2026, and where Lumi fits

We make Lumi, a study app coming soon to iPhone, so read this page with that in mind. Every fact about Anki and Quizlet comes from their official page or their App Store listing, read on 6 November 2026. Prices change by country and over time, the table gives those of the US App Store.

Both apps rest on the same idea, cards with a question on the front and the answer on the back. They differ on three points that matter to a student, the price on iPhone, the time it takes to build your cards, and the way the app decides when to show them again. The table below sets them side by side, with Lumi in a third column to place a different approach.

Anki is free on Windows, macOS and Linux, and AnkiDroid is free on Android. Syncing through AnkiWeb is free as well (Anki, 2026). On iPhone, AnkiMobile costs 24.99 USD as a one time purchase, with no subscription and no sync fees. Its listing mentions the SM-2 and FSRS schedulers, offline study and collections of more than 100,000 cards (AnkiMobile (US), 2026).

It is the strongest tool if you study a big syllabus over several years, as in medicine or languages. Students share whole decks, and add-ons bring extra features. The flip side is the learning curve. You have to create or import your cards, tune a few options, and the interface stays plain. Anki rewards people who want full control.

Quizlet is free to download and its App Store listing mentions advertising. Quizlet Plus shows up as an in-app purchase at 9.99 USD and 44.99 USD, and the app is rated 4.8 out of 5 on 1.1 million ratings in the US. The listing describes an adaptive Learn mode, practice tests, spaced repetition, and study sets made from typed notes, documents or lecture recordings (Quizlet (US), 2026).

Its big strength is ease. You often find a set someone else already made, start a game mode, and study within two minutes. It is handy for vocabulary or a list of dates. The trade-off is that a set written by someone else does not always match your course, and you need to check it for mistakes before learning it.

Lumi starts from another idea. Instead of filling a deck of cards, you teach your notes to a companion, Lumi, from a photo, text, a PDF or dictation. Lumi writes its questions from them, forgets over the days, then comes back to quiz you in the evening, right before you forget in turn. Sometimes it offers a wrong answer on purpose, and you are the one who corrects it.

This frame uses two methods that research rates highly, practice testing and spacing your reviews (Dunlosky et al., 2013), and adds explaining, described in Does learning by teaching work? What research says about the protégé effect. The free plan gives 3 cards a week with no ads, Lumi Pro costs 4.99 EUR a month or 29.99 EUR a year with a 7 day trial. Lumi is coming soon to the App Store.

You are preparing for med school exams or a big language test, you have a computer or an Android phone, and you like tuning your tools. Pick Anki, it is free on those devices and it is the most powerful option. You mostly study vocabulary or lists in high school and want to start right away. Pick Quizlet, and check the sets you borrow.

You have an iPhone, your notes are on paper or in a PDF, and you do not want to type cards. Lumi is designed for that case, with questions written from a photo of your notes. Whatever the tool, what counts is the same. Answer from memory before looking, as explained in Active recall, why quizzing yourself beats rereading, and come back to each topic several days apart, as the page Spaced repetition calculator, your review dates up to the exam works out.