Best Flashcard Apps for Language Learning: Anki, Memrise and the Rest, Priced

The best flashcard app for language learning is Anki if you are willing to build or download your own decks, because its desktop version, its sync service and its Android app are all free and it schedules every review for you. If you would rather open an app and find the words already there, with native speakers saying them on video, Memrise is the stronger pick. Clozemaster is the one to add once you know a few thousand words and need them inside sentences. Quizlet suits school vocabulary lists better than a whole language. Below are the dated prices, what each is really for, and a daily routine that keeps flashcards from eating your study time.

Why flashcards work for vocabulary, and where they stop

A good flashcard app is a scheduling machine. Anki describes its own job plainly: you rate how well you recalled a card, and it "will schedule the next review for when you're most likely to forget the information". Words you know drift to long intervals; words you miss come back tomorrow. That is spaced repetition, and it is the most efficient way we know of to keep thousands of words alive without rereading lists.

The limit is just as plain. A card teaches you that a word exists and roughly what it means. It does not teach you to hear that word at speed, to use it with the right grammar, or to say it in a conversation. So flashcards belong beside a course, not instead of one. Our ranking of the best language learning apps covers the course side; this page covers the memory side.

Anki: free almost everywhere, and the strongest scheduler

Anki is a free, open-source flashcard program for Windows, macOS and Linux, with a free sync service, AnkiWeb, that keeps your cards the same across devices. On Android, AnkiDroid is free and built by volunteer contributors. The one paid piece is the official iPhone and iPad app, AnkiMobile, listed at $24.99 as a one-time purchase in the US App Store on 18 October 2026. Its developer explains the price: sales fund development of both the computer and mobile versions, which is why the app "is priced as a computer application". The same listing warns that other apps using "Anki" in their name are not compatible with the Anki ecosystem and often charge subscriptions, so check the developer name, Anki Software, LLC, before you pay.

The strengths are control and stamina. Cards can carry audio, images and video; layouts and review timing can be changed; and the site says it handles decks of 100,000 cards or more. Thousands of shared decks exist for common languages. The cost is your time: Anki looks plain, and getting a good deck set up can take an evening. If that sounds like a chore, skip to Memrise. Anki pays us nothing.

Memrise: ready-made decks with native speakers

Memrise (partner link; a paid plan bought through it can pay us a commission) is less a blank flashcard tool than a course with review built in. Its App Store description centres on "real native-speaker videos" and courses aimed at specific goals, such as an exam, work or travel, and it lists well over a hundred languages. You can start free; the paid plan unlocks the extras.

Prices in the US App Store on 18 October 2026 were crowded and partly promotional: an annual plan at $61.99, a lifetime plan at $329.99, and lifetime "offer" listings at $98.99 and $131.99. Those offers come and go, so if lifetime appeals, wait for one rather than paying the full figure. Memrise suits the learner who wants vocabulary with real voices and no setup, and who is happy to follow someone else's word list.

Clozemaster: when single words are no longer enough

Clozemaster turns review into fill-in-the-blank sentences: you see a real sentence with one word missing and either pick the answer or type it. Its site claims more than 170 language pairings across 50-plus languages, so you can learn, say, Russian from French, and it brings sentences back for review on a spaced schedule. It says everything you need "is free and always will be", with Pro adding features for heavy users; we could not see the Pro price on the pages we read. This is the best tool here for the long middle of learning, when you know many words but trip over how they behave in a sentence. For a true beginner it is too hard on day one. Clozemaster pays us nothing.

Quizlet: fine for a class list, thin for a whole language

Quizlet is built for any subject: students type, paste or upload material and it builds study sets. Its US App Store listing showed Quizlet Plus at both $9.99 and $44.99 on 18 October 2026, without the terms beside the prices, so read the checkout screen. For a language, Quizlet is strongest when a teacher or course hands you a word list each week. It has no language course behind it, and its scheduling is less central to the product than Anki's. Quizlet pays us nothing.

Flashcards already inside apps you may pay for

Before you add an app, check what you already have. Rosetta Stone's web subscription, at $19.99 a month or $159 billed yearly on 18 October 2026, includes what it calls "500+ flashcard sets" alongside the lessons (Rosetta Stone, partner link). Babbel and Busuu also run review of the words their lessons taught. These built-in decks are convenient but tied to one course; Anki and Clozemaster stay with you across courses and years.

A daily routine that keeps cards in their place

• Cap new cards. Ten to twenty new words a day is plenty for most adults with a job; the review pile grows from every new card you add.
• Do reviews first, new cards second, and stop at a set time. A flashcard habit that takes an hour a day crowds out listening and speaking.
• Add words you met, not words from a list. A card made from a sentence you read or heard is easier to remember than one from a frequency list.
• Put audio on every card where you can. Memrise does this for you; in Anki, choose shared decks with recordings.

The test of whether a deck is working is simple: are the words turning up, recognised, when you read or listen? If not, spend less time on cards and more on input. For zero-cost options beyond flashcards, see our guide to free language learning apps.

Edge cases

• Japanese or Chinese: flashcards are close to essential for characters, and Anki's shared decks for kanji and hanzi are deep; check that a deck shows readings in a form you can use.
• You are on an iPhone and want Anki free: AnkiWeb works in a phone browser at no cost, though the paid AnkiMobile app is smoother.
• Preparing for a school exam with a set word list: Quizlet's shared class sets may save you typing, and that is its best use.