A modern Anki alternative for Windows and macOS
Mneme is a native desktop flashcard app that runs FSRS scheduling by default and builds in a Pomodoro focus timer and an ambient sound mixer, so your cards, your timer and your background noise all live in one window instead of three. Anki is excellent, mature software with a huge community, and for a lot of people it is still the right answer. Here is the honest comparison, including the parts where Anki wins.
What Mneme does differently
Anki is a platform: enormously capable, endlessly configurable, and extended by a deck of community add-ons. Mneme is the opposite bet, a narrow and opinionated app where the decisions are already made. FSRS is the only scheduler, so there is nothing to enable or tune. The focus timer and the ambient mixer are not add-ons, they ship in the app and the timer's sessions are tracked next to your review stats. Cards are written in Markdown with LaTeX math rather than HTML fields.
Your decks, cards and review history stay in a local SQLite database on your machine. The free tier needs no account at all.
Mneme vs Anki, feature by feature
| Feature | Mneme | Anki |
|---|---|---|
| FSRS scheduling | ✓ | ≈opt-in |
| Cloze deletion | ✓ | ✓ |
| Markdown & LaTeX authoring | ✓ | ≈ HTML fields |
| Focus timer | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ambient soundscapes | ✓ | ✗ |
| Notes or PDF → cards | ✓ | ≈ third-party |
| Image & audio on cards | ✓ | ✓ |
| Works offline | ✓ | ✓ |
| Price | Free up to 300 cards, Pro is a subscription or lifetime | Free |
| Cross-device sync | ≈ on the roadmap | ✓ |
| iOS / Android app | ≈ on the roadmap | ✓ |
| Add-on ecosystem | ✗ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✓ |
- ✓ built in
- ≈ partial, or needs setup
- ✗ not available
When Anki is still the right choice
We would rather say this now than after you have paid. Stay with Anki if:
- You need cross-device sync today. AnkiWeb syncs your collection between desktop, phone and tablet. Mneme keeps everything local in the first release; sync is on the roadmap, but it is not here yet.
- You study on a phone. Mneme is Windows and macOS only for now. AnkiDroid and AnkiMobile have no Mneme equivalent.
- You rely on add-ons, or on shared decks. Anki's add-on library and its enormous catalogue of community decks are genuinely unmatched, and Mneme has nothing comparable.
- You want open source, or you want it free forever. Anki is both. Mneme is free up to 300 cards and paid beyond that.
Mneme makes sense if you want FSRS without configuring it, you want your timer and your study sounds to stop being two more browser tabs, and you study mostly at one desk.
Moving your decks over
Mneme imports Anki's own .apkg deck packages directly. In Anki, use
File → Export, pick Anki Deck Package (.apkg) with scheduling
information and media included, then import that file into Mneme. Your review
progress, suspended cards, images, audio, math and cloze cards come across. Tags and
custom text colors don't carry over yet. CSV, TSV, JSON and plain text imports work
too.
Questions people ask before switching
Does Mneme use the same algorithm as Anki?
Both can run FSRS, but the defaults differ. Anki still ships SM-2 as its default and offers FSRS as an opt-in setting. FSRS is the only scheduler Mneme has, so it is on from the first card with nothing to enable. We wrote up what actually changes between SM-2 and FSRS if you want the detail.
Can I import my Anki decks into Mneme?
Yes, directly from an .apkg deck package, review progress included, and
cloze cards survive the trip because the {{c1::answer}} syntax is shared.
Tags and custom text colors don't carry over yet.
Does Mneme sync between my computer and my phone?
Not in the first release. Decks, cards and review history live in a local SQLite database on one device. Cross-device sync and mobile apps are on the roadmap for a later release. If sync is non-negotiable for you today, Anki is the better tool.
Is Mneme free?
The free tier covers up to 300 cards across unlimited decks, with the full FSRS scheduler, the focus timer and the ambient mixer, and needs no account. Mneme Pro removes the card limit and adds the stats view and a custom theme editor, as a yearly or monthly subscription or a one-time Lifetime purchase.
Does Anki have a built-in focus timer?
No. Anki has no Pomodoro timer and no ambient sound of its own; both are things people bolt on with a community add-on or a second app. Mneme ships them in the app, and the timer's sessions are tracked next to your retention stats, so focus and recall stop being two separate charts.