Anki vs Chinese flashcard apps: which one should you use? (video)
Anki is free but you build it. Pleco, Skritter and Hack Chinese bring audio and HSK lists. Six Chinese flashcard apps compared, plus a review-load simulator.
Chapters
- 0:00Start
- 0:23The short answer
- 0:47Why spaced repetition works
- 1:13Anki: powerful, but you build it
- 1:43Pleco, Skritter and Hack Chinese
- 3:17FSRS vs SM-2
- 4:08New words decide your workload
- 5:08The best pick for each learner
- 5:30Where SayMei fits
- 5:57What to do next
Transcript
Start
Learners argue about flashcard algorithms as if they decide everything. We ran the numbers. In our model, the better algorithm saves you about one review in eight. But every new word you add a day turns into about five reviews a day, within three months. From SayMei Guides, by Mei Lin: Anki versus Chinese flashcard apps. Which one should you use?
The short answer
The short answer: pick Anki if you'll spend an evening setting it up. It's free on computers and Android, and it runs FSRS once you switch it on. Rather skip the setup? Pick the app built for your goal: Pleco if it's already your dictionary, Skritter for handwriting, Hack Chinese for HSK vocabulary. Then add new words slowly: about ten a day, at most.
Why spaced repetition works
Every app here shows you a word again just before you'd forget it. That's spaced repetition, one of the best-tested ideas in learning research. Take 认识, to know. A week after you learn it, FSRS's memory model gives you about an 81% chance of recalling it. After a month, 67%. But review it on time twice, and a month away barely dents it.
Anki: powerful, but you build it
Anki is the free, open-source program most serious learners end up trying. It's free on computers, the web and Android, and $24.99 once on iPhone. But Anki knows nothing about Chinese. You add a deck, an add-on for pinyin, tone colours and audio, and you switch on FSRS yourself. That's an evening of work, but you can build exactly the deck you want. If you enjoy setting up your tools, it's the best free option there is.
Pleco, Skritter and Hack Chinese
Pleco, Skritter and Hack Chinese were built for Chinese, so those parts come ready: HSK lists, audio and tone help. The real difference is what each one is built around. Pleco is a dictionary first, Skritter a handwriting tutor, and Hack Chinese a vocabulary manager. Pleco's flashcards grow out of its dictionary: one tap on any entry makes a card. The free version shows cards at random. Spaced repetition, tone drills and handwriting tests come in the $29.99 Basic Bundle, which you buy once. And tone colours make 买, buy, and 卖, sell, differ in colour as well as shape. Skritter makes you write each character on the screen, and grades every stroke. Its tone cards have you draw or tap the tone mark. It's $14.99 a month. In our view, it's the only app here that trains handwriting properly. If you don't need to write, it's an expensive way to review words. Hack Chinese runs in your browser. It estimates the words you already know, then teaches the HSK words you don't, and words you've remembered long enough stop coming back. It's $12 to $18 a month, after a free three-week trial. For HSK word lists with no setup, we found nothing as smooth. What about the review screen you'll open every day? Anki shows when each card comes back. Pleco and SayMei ask whether you were right. Skritter makes you draw. Pick the one you'll want to open tomorrow.
FSRS vs SM-2
Every app has to guess when you'll forget a word. Anki's old algorithm, SM-2, grows each gap by a multiplier. FSRS tracks how hard each word is for you, and how likely you are to recall it today. So which guesses better? In the open-spaced-repetition benchmark, across 9,999 Anki users, SM-2's predictions missed by 14.84%. FSRS with its default settings: 7.86%. And fitted to each user: 4.37%. Anki's Optimize button fits FSRS to your own reviews, and the fitted version beat the defaults for 84% of users. As far as we could find, only Anki lets FSRS learn your memory. And SayMei, ours, uses the default settings for everyone.
New words decide your workload
A better algorithm saves you some reviews. Your new words decide how many you'll have. In our model, add 10 new words a day, and by day 90 you'd have 52 reviews a day with FSRS, and 59 with SM-2. Both lines keep climbing for all three months. Each word you add today brings reviews for months. Your recall goal, desired retention in Anki, moves the workload far more. At 10 new words a day, FSRS at 80% means 32 reviews on day 90. At 90%, it's 52, and at 95%, 83. Going from 90 to 95 costs more than switching algorithms saves. So when reviews pile up, cut new words before you lower the goal. So how many new words? Hack Chinese suggests no more than about 200 a month, unless you study full-time. That's six or seven a day: under a quarter of an hour a day by month three, in our model.
The best pick for each learner
Here's where we'd start. Free and flexible: Anki. Already using Pleco as your dictionary? Use its flashcards. To write characters: Skritter. HSK words with no setup: Hack Chinese. If your class shares word lists: Quizlet. And if you learn with SayMei's lessons: SayMei. Most learners need only one.
Where SayMei fits
Our own flashcards suit SayMei learners. Words from your lessons with Mei Lin, the songs and the dialogues save in one tap, and FSRS schedules them. Where do we lose? The free plan covers just 10 words a day, reviews included. It's browser-only. It can't fit FSRS to your memory yet. And there's no handwriting practice. Premium removes the limit, for $5.99 a month.
What to do next
So, what next? Decide how much setup you'll put up with. Pick a pace you could keep on a busy day. In Anki, switch on FSRS and press Optimize. Keep your recall goal near the default. And use your words out loud: speaking and reading make them yours. You can talk with Mei Lin for free: your first lesson is 10 minutes, with no account and no card. The simulator and every source are on the page at saymei dot app.