Comparison · Flashcards, quizzes & spaced repetition · Verified on October 27, 2026
Summry or Anki?
Anki is not a content generator. It is a spaced-repetition engine, and it has been the benchmark for years. Summry starts from the other end: it turns your course into study sheets, flashcards and quizzes, then lets you export to Anki if you want. So the right question is not which one is better, but where you lose the most time: making your cards, or reviewing them.
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Two tools, two approaches.
The two tools are not used at the same moment. Anki is the moment you review: you open your deck, the algorithm decides what to show again, you rate your answer on four buttons. Summry is the moment before: you upload a PDF, a photo of your notes or lecture audio, and you get material in about twenty seconds.
That difference changes everything else. Anki does not read your course for you: you have to write the cards, or import a deck someone else made. Summry does not claim to replace a scheduler that manages months of revision: it produces the material, and exports Anki-compatible CSV if you want to keep your engine. One maintains memory, the other builds the content.
Summry is our tool. We compare it with its limits, and we also say what Anki does better.
What Anki does well.
What really works in Anki, and when it helps.
The spaced-repetition engine.
Two algorithms to choose from: SM-2, the historical one, and FSRS, which models the difficulty and stability of each card. Over a semester, it decides when you see each card again.
Zero entry cost.
Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux), AnkiWeb and AnkiDroid are free. On iPhone, the official app costs €29.99, once, with no subscription.
Very large volumes.
Anki advertises decks of more than 100,000 cards without a problem, and itself cites medical and law exams among its uses.
Rich cards, readable offline.
Images, sounds, videos, LaTeX and MathJax stay clean. Media is stored on the device, so you review on the train without a network.
An open, customisable ecosystem.
Public code, .apkg decks, thousands of shared decks, add-ons, HTML/CSS templates and adjustable intervals. It is powerful, provided you accept spending time on it.
Statistics, not impressions.
Review graphs, per-card history, and leech detection when you fail too often. You see what is stuck instead of guessing.
What Summry adds.
The differences that matter when the study load grows.
Your course as input, not your card.
PDF, photos of notes, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, audio, YouTube, text. Summry reads the document and outputs study sheets, flashcards and quizzes in about twenty seconds, sometimes less. That is the work you would do by hand in Anki.
The quizzes.
Anki has no quiz mode: its FAQ explains that multiple-choice questions are not the most effective method and advises turning them into question/answer cards. Summry generates them from your course.
An AI chat over your documents.
You ask a question at 11 pm about chapter 4: the answer draws on your courses, not the web. On Anki’s side, no AI assistant appears in the official documentation we checked.
Mind maps.
An overview of the chapter, next to study sheets and cards. Useful when you need to link concepts before an oral test or a seminar.
A bridge, not a war.
Summry exports Anki-compatible CSV and prints to PDF. You generate in Summry, you review in Anki, your revision history stays intact.
A PWA, and a free plan that lasts a month.
Summry is added to your home screen without going through a store: no €29.99 to pay on iPhone just to try. The free plan gives 50 credits a month; the number of courses depends on their size.
The study load, in medicine and beyond.
In the PASS, the LAS or medicine, the problem is not reviewing: it is producing. The course lands on Tuesday, the seminar follows, the exam is in May. In between, you need study sheets, cards, and the time to go through them several times. Anki gives you the engine for those passes; Summry gives you the cards for the first one.
The calculation repeats elsewhere. In law, it is definitions, case law and essay plans you have to hold; in preparatory classes, formulas, authors and examples. Anki does not distinguish between those contents: it schedules what it is given. The bottleneck stays the same — making the cards — and that is where time goes.
The loop holds up. You generate in Summry from the PDF or the photo of the course, you check and fix the cards — that is a step, not an option —, you export as CSV, you import into Anki, and you let FSRS schedule over four months. The production time happens once; the review comes back every day. If you already have solid decks, do not break them: nothing forces you to change tools.
The head-to-head.
Nine criteria, the same for every tool. A “—” means “not verified”, not “no”.
| Criterion | Summry | Anki |
|---|---|---|
| AI study sheets | Yes | — |
| AI quizzes | Yes | No |
| Mind maps | Yes | — |
| Multi-format import | Yes | — |
| AI chat on your course | Yes | — |
| Anki export | Yes | YesAnki-compatible CSV on Summry’s side, native .apkg on Anki’s side. |
| PDF export / printing | Yes | No |
| 100% in French | Yes | — |
| Based on neuroscience | Yes | YesActive recall and spaced repetition on both sides; Anki documents its references and offers FSRS. |
When to choose which?
Two different uses. See which one looks like yours.
Choose Anki
You already have decks, you want a free and durable engine, and you accept making your own cards — or grabbing someone else’s. The right choice if you study on a computer and want to keep control of your settings.
Choose Summry
Your courses arrive faster than you can turn them into cards: PDF, photos, audio, Word, Excel, YouTube. You generate in about twenty seconds, fix things, and export to Anki if you care about it.
Pricing.
Prices listed on the official sites, with no sponsored offer.
Summry
- Free (50 credits/month)
- Essentiel €7/month (€5.83/month billed yearly, €70/year)
- Major €15/month (€10/month billed yearly, €120/year)
Anki
- Free on desktop, Android and AnkiWeb
- AnkiMobile (iOS) €29.99 one-off purchase
- no subscription
Summry: the free plan gives 50 credits a month; the number of courses depends on their size. Essentiel costs €7/month, or €5.83/month billed yearly (€70/year). Major goes to €15/month, or €10/month billed yearly (€120/year).
Anki: zero subscription. Desktop, AnkiWeb and AnkiDroid are free; the iOS app is a one-off €29.99 purchase. If you buy that app, Anki stays cheaper over time: €29.99 once, against €70 a year. But the price does not measure the same thing: Anki does not charge for making cards, you provide that work.
Watch out for lookalikes: AnkiApp and Anki Pro sell subscriptions and are not part of the official ecosystem. Anki’s FAQ lists them among unofficial apps (“knockoffs”).
Reviews.
Our Trustpilot rating and Anki’s ratings, with their sources.
Summry
Read Trustpilot reviews
Rating checked on October 27, 2026.
Anki
4.1/5 on the French App Store (322 ratings) for AnkiMobile; 4.8/5 on Google Play (about 168,000 reviews) for AnkiDroid. Those ratings are about the apps, not the method.
Frequently asked questions.
Answers to the most common questions about Anki and Summry.
Is Anki really free?
Yes on desktop, on Android and for AnkiWeb. On iPhone and iPad, AnkiMobile costs €29.99 as a one-off purchase. No monthly plan.
Do you have to write your own cards in Anki?
Yes, or import a shared deck from AnkiWeb. Anki imports CSV/TSV files and .apkg decks, not a course PDF: that is exactly the work Summry takes on.
How do you move from Summry to Anki?
Summry exports Anki-compatible CSV. In Anki, you import it as a text file, map the fields and choose the destination deck. The cards stay editable.
Are Anki Pro and AnkiApp the same thing?
No. The official ecosystem is Anki, AnkiMobile, AnkiDroid and AnkiWeb. AnkiApp and Anki Pro sell subscriptions and do not come from the publisher; Anki’s FAQ lists them among unofficial apps.
Can Summry replace Anki?
For producing material, yes. For planning over several months, Anki keeps the advantage of age and FSRS. The simplest is to chain them rather than choose.
Sources.
Information collected from the official sites of Anki and from review platforms on October 27, 2026.
- Anki — official site: home, features, version 26.09.3 (checked on October 27, 2026)
- Anki — manual, Background: active recall, spaced repetition, medical and law exams (checked on October 27, 2026)
- Anki — FAQ: unofficial apps (AnkiApp, Anki Pro) (checked on October 27, 2026)
- French App Store — AnkiMobile: €29.99, 4.1/5, 322 ratings (checked on October 27, 2026)
Compare further.
2 more tools for the same use case.
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