Anki vs Imprimo: An Honest Comparison From the Person Who Built One
TL;DR: Anki is the more powerful tool: free on desktop, endlessly customizable, with a deep add-on ecosystem and shared decks for almost every exam. Imprimo is a native iPhone app built around FSRS by default, AI card generation from PDFs and notes, and a calmer interface. If you want maximum control and a free desktop workflow, use Anki. If you study mostly on iPhone and want less friction getting from material to review, Imprimo is the better fit. This comparison is written by Imprimo's founder, so read it with that in mind. I have tried to be fair about where Anki wins.
I built Imprimo, so I am not a neutral party. But "Anki vs Imprimo" is a real question people search, and a vague marketing answer helps no one. I used Anki seriously for years before building anything, and there are things it does that Imprimo does not. Here is the honest version.
What each one is
Anki is a mature, open-source spaced repetition system. It runs on desktop (free), Android (free), web (free), and iPhone (a one-time ~$25 official app). It is extraordinarily flexible: custom note types, add-ons, scripting, image occlusion, and shared decks built by communities for everything from the USMLE to Japanese kanji. The trade-off is an interface that feels dated and a learning curve that puts off a lot of students.
Imprimo is a native iPhone and iPad flashcard app built around three ideas: FSRS scheduling from day one, AI card generation from your own material, and a calm interface that does not punish you for missing a day. It is newer, narrower, and deliberately not trying to be everything Anki is.
Anki vs Imprimo at a glance
| Anki | Imprimo | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Desktop, Android, web (free); iOS (~$25 one-time) | iPhone and iPad |
| Default algorithm | SM-2 (FSRS opt-in) | FSRS from day one |
| AI card generation | Via third-party add-ons | Built in (PDF, notes, URL, scan) |
| Interface | Functional but dated | Modern, calm design |
| Customization | Very high (note types, add-ons, scripting) | Front/back and cloze, no scripting |
| Shared decks | Huge community library | None (build your own) |
| Offline | Yes | Yes |
| Price | Free desktop; one-time iOS fee | Free tier (50 cards), paid plan |
Where Anki wins
I would rather say this plainly than pretend otherwise.
Customization and card types. Anki lets you build any note type, add image occlusion, and install add-ons that change how the app works. Imprimo supports front/back and cloze cards and nothing fancier. If your subject needs image occlusion for anatomy or custom templates, Anki is the tool.
Shared decks. The AnKing deck for medical school, mature language decks, and exam-specific community decks are a genuine, free head start that Imprimo does not replicate. Imprimo expects you to build from your own material.
Price for desktop users. If you study at a laptop, Anki is free forever with no card limit. That is hard to beat.
Maturity. Anki has been refined for over fifteen years. It is stable, well-documented, and battle-tested at huge deck sizes that Imprimo is not designed for (50,000+ cards).
Where Imprimo wins
FSRS by default. Anki ships with SM-2 and offers FSRS as a setting you have to find and enable. Imprimo runs FSRS from the first card, with no legacy mode. FSRS predicts recall with roughly 4% error versus SM-2's ~14%, and most students cut daily reviews by 20–30% at the same retention. If you want the modern algorithm without configuration, Imprimo gives it to you out of the box. More on this in FSRS vs SM-2.
Making cards from real material. Imprimo generates cards directly from PDFs, pasted notes, URLs, and scanned pages. In Anki, getting cards from a lecture PDF means add-ons or manual typing. For students whose source material is slide decks and readings, this removes the slowest part of the workflow. See how to make flashcards from a PDF.
The iPhone experience. Imprimo is built for the phone first: swipe-to-rate, haptics, offline review, widgets, and a share extension. AnkiMobile works, but it is a port of a desktop app. If your studying happens on a phone between classes, the native experience matters.
A calmer feel. Anki's interface is purely functional. Imprimo uses a deliberately calm design and treats streaks as a passive stat rather than a pressure mechanic, so coming back after a missed day does not feel like a penalty. That sounds soft until it is the reason you keep going in week ten.
The honest decision guide
- You study on a laptop and want free, unlimited, deeply customizable cards: Anki.
- Your exam already has a great shared deck (USMLE, big language decks): Anki, at least to start.
- You need image occlusion or custom note types: Anki.
- You study mostly on iPhone and want FSRS without setup: Imprimo.
- Your material is PDFs and notes you want turned into cards fast: Imprimo.
- You bounced off Anki because it felt ugly or punishing: try Imprimo's free tier.
What about switching?
A lot of people reading this already use Anki and wonder about moving. Anki .apkg import is coming soon to Imprimo, with support for Basic, Basic and Reversed, and Cloze cards, and automatic conversion of Anki scheduling state into FSRS state. Image occlusion and custom-script cards will not carry over. Until that ships, the honest answer is that moving a large Anki deck is not seamless yet.
If you want the longer story of what switching actually feels like, I wrote about leaving Anki and what happened to my streak.
The bottom line
Anki is more powerful and free on desktop. Imprimo is a calmer, FSRS-by-default iPhone app that turns your own material into cards with less friction. The right choice is about where you study and how much control you want, not which one is "better." If you are on iPhone and tired of fighting the tool, try Imprimo. The free tier is enough to see whether the workflow fits before you commit.