If you are hunting for a free flashcard app, you have almost certainly run into Anki and Quizlet. Both are good tools — but Anki has a steep learning curve and a paid iPhone app, and more of Quizlet keeps moving behind a subscription. HopQuiz is a lighter, genuinely free alternative that keeps the part that matters — spaced repetition — while dropping the account walls, paywalls, and setup friction. Here is an honest look at how the three compare so you can pick the right one.
| HopQuiz | Anki | Quizlet | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no paywall | Free on desktop; paid iPhone app | Free tier; Quizlet Plus paywall |
| Spaced repetition | Yes, built in | Yes, advanced | Limited (Learn mode) |
| Works on iPhone | Yes — free in the browser | Paid app (AnkiMobile) | Yes — app and web |
| Account required | No — guest mode | No | Usually yes |
| Learning curve | Minimal | Steep | Low |
| Card types | Flip, multiple choice, type, cloze | Highly customizable | Flip, MC, type |
| Built-in extras | Focus timer, planner, notes, music | Add-ons (desktop only) | Study games |
Three things: spaced repetition (so you review at the right time instead of re-reading), fast card creation (so you actually build decks), and low friction (so you study instead of fiddling with settings). Everything else is a bonus. HopQuiz is built around those three, and adds the small tools a study session needs — a focus timer, planner, and notes — in one place. To understand the method itself, see spaced repetition, explained.
Anki is powerful and free on desktop, with a deep spaced-repetition engine and thousands of community decks — but it has a famously steep learning curve, a dated interface, and its official iPhone app (AnkiMobile) is a paid, one-time purchase. HopQuiz gives you the same core idea — cards scheduled by how well you know them — with nothing to install, a clean interface, and no paid mobile app. If you want maximum configurability and add-ons, Anki wins; if you want to start studying in thirty seconds, HopQuiz does. (Specifically after a free iPhone option? See a free Anki alternative for iPhone.)
Quizlet has an enormous shared library and a polished interface, but over the years more of it has moved behind the Quizlet Plus paywall, and you generally need an account to do much. HopQuiz keeps flip, multiple-choice, type-the-answer, and cloze study modes free, works without an account at all, and never gates spaced repetition behind a subscription. Quizlet’s library is still larger; HopQuiz’s growing deck collection is free to browse and import with no sign-up.
You do not have to rebuild your decks by hand. Export your cards from Anki or Quizlet as plain text or CSV, then paste them into HopQuiz’s text import — it splits each row into a card and builds a deck in seconds. Your existing study material moves with you.
Where HopQuiz differs most is scope: alongside flashcards you get a pomodoro focus timer, a study planner, sticky notes and a drawing pad, a flowchart editor, and background study music — so a full study session lives on one calm page instead of five browser tabs. Progress stats (streaks, accuracy, a heatmap) tie it together.
You can use HopQuiz entirely as a guest — every deck and note stays in your own browser, nothing is sent anywhere. Sign in with Google or Apple only if you want your decks to sync across devices. No trial, no credit card, no locked features.
Choose Anki if you want the deepest, most customizable SRS and do not mind the learning curve. Choose Quizlet if its huge library or classroom features matter most. Choose HopQuiz if you want free spaced-repetition flashcards plus a focus timer and planner, with zero setup and no paywall.
Yes. HopQuiz is free with no paywall or subscription — spaced repetition, every study mode, and the built-in timer and planner are all free, and you can use it without even making an account.
Anki’s official iPhone app, AnkiMobile, is a paid purchase. HopQuiz runs free in Safari on iPhone — no purchase and no account needed — and you can add it to your home screen so it opens like an app. See a free Anki alternative for iPhone.
Yes. Export your cards as text or CSV from Anki or Quizlet and paste them into HopQuiz’s import, and it builds a deck from them automatically.
Yes. Correct cards are scheduled further into the future and missed cards stay due — the same core idea as Anki, just without any configuration to set up.
No. You can use everything as a guest, with your decks and notes saved in your own browser. Signing in with Google or Apple is optional and only used to sync across devices.
The best way to decide is to try it: open HopQuiz or browse the free decks — no account needed.