Anki vs Quizlet vs Elly: which should you use?

The short answer

• Use Anki if you're a power user who wants the most sophisticated spaced repetition algorithm and is willing to spend hours creating cards.
• Use Quizlet if you want pre-made decks for common subjects and don't mind paying for AI features.
• Use Elly if you want AI to generate flashcards from your own notes and PDFs instantly — without the setup.

Anki: the gold standard for serious memorisation

Anki has been around since 2006 and is still considered the best flashcard app by many medical students, language learners, and bar exam takers. Its spaced repetition algorithm (SM-2) is genuinely excellent — it schedules reviews based on your performance so you spend the least time possible on cards you already know.

The catch: you have to create every card yourself. For a 300-page textbook, that's easily 10+ hours of card creation before you've studied a single thing. Anki also has a steep learning curve with plugins, note types, and card templates. The iOS app costs $24.99.

Best for: Medical students, language learners, bar exam candidates — anyone doing long-term, high-volume memorisation who is willing to invest the setup time.

Quizlet: the most popular, with trade-offs

Quizlet has the largest library of pre-made decks — over 500 million sets across virtually every subject. For common courses (intro biology, US history, Spanish vocabulary), there's a good chance a usable deck already exists.

The problem: those decks were made by other students, for other professors, at other schools. Your exam tests your professor's specific content. Quizlet also locked most of its best features — including AI generation — behind a paywall. The free tier is increasingly limited.

Best for: Students who need quick access to decks for common subjects and don't need to study professor-specific content.

Elly: built for the AI era

Elly takes a different approach: instead of asking you to create cards or search for pre-made ones, it reads your notes and PDFs and generates a complete flashcard deck automatically.

Upload your lecture slides → get 40 flashcards in 30 seconds. The cards are built from your material, so they match what your professor actually tested on. Elly also includes an AI quiz generator and an AI tutor that can explain any concept in depth.

The trade-off: Elly doesn't have Anki's decades-refined spaced repetition algorithm or Quizlet's massive library of pre-made decks. But for most students, the ability to go from notes to quiz in under 2 minutes is worth more than either.

Best for: Students who study their own material (lecture slides, textbooks, study guides) and want to skip the manual card creation entirely.