Brainscape To Anki: The Complete Guide To Switching Flashcard Apps (And The Smarter Alternative Most People Miss) – Learn a faster way to move your decks and upgrade your whole study workflow.

Moving From Brainscape To Anki… Or Is There An Even Better Option?

If you’re searching “Brainscape to Anki”, you’re probably:

• Tired of Brainscape’s limitations or pricing
• Overwhelmed by Anki’s clunky interface and setup
• Wondering if there’s a simpler way to get powerful spaced repetition on your phone

Short answer: yes, there is.

Before you spend hours wrestling with export formats and Anki add-ons, it’s worth looking at a third option that gives you the best of both worlds: Flashrecall – a fast, modern flashcard app that does all the spaced repetition magic without the headache.

You can grab it here (free to start):

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

Let’s break down:

• How Brainscape and Anki compare
• How you could move from Brainscape to Anki
• Why a lot of people end up happier just switching to Flashrecall instead

Brainscape vs Anki: What You’re Probably Feeling Right Now

Brainscape: Pretty, But Limiting

Brainscape is:

• Clean and simple
• Web-based with a decent mobile app
• Uses a confidence-based spaced repetition system

But you might be frustrated by:

• Paywalls for decks or features
• Limited control over how the algorithm works
• Being stuck in their ecosystem with not-so-easy exporting

Anki: Powerful, But Painful

Anki is:

• Extremely powerful and customizable
• Free and open source
• Used heavily in medicine, languages, and exams

But it’s also:

• Ugly and outdated
• Confusing for beginners (card types, decks, note types, add-ons…)
• Annoying to sync across devices unless you set everything up properly

That’s why a lot of people search “Brainscape to Anki” — Brainscape feels too limited, Anki looks like the “pro” option… but it also looks like a part-time job.

The Smarter Third Option: Why Many People Skip Straight To Flashrecall

Instead of jumping from one slightly annoying system to another, you can move to something that:

• Has built-in spaced repetition (no config hell)
• Is fast, modern, and actually nice to use
• Lets you create cards from almost anything in seconds

That’s what Flashrecall is built for.

👉 Download it here:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

What Flashrecall Does Better Than Both Brainscape And Anki

Here’s how it stacks up:

With Flashrecall, you can instantly turn content into flashcards from:

• Images – take a photo of your notes or textbook, auto-generate cards
• Text – paste lecture notes, definitions, summaries
• Audio – great for languages or lectures
• PDFs – upload slides, articles, or textbooks and pull cards from them
• YouTube links – make cards from videos you’re studying
• Typed prompts – just write what you want to learn and generate cards

And of course, you can make cards manually if you like full control.

That’s way smoother than manually recreating every Brainscape card in Anki.

Flashrecall has:

• Built‑in spaced repetition
• Automatic study reminders so you don’t forget to review
• A clean schedule – you just open the app and it tells you what to study

No need to tweak intervals, install add-ons, or learn Anki-speak. It just works.

Flashrecall is built around active recall – you see the prompt, try to remember the answer, then reveal it and rate how well you knew it.

This is baked into the experience, not something you have to configure.

This is where it gets fun: if you’re unsure about something, you can chat with the flashcard to get extra explanation, examples, or clarification.

Confused about a biology term? Ask it.

Need another example sentence in a language? Ask it.

You’re not stuck with “front/back only” like traditional decks.

• iPhone and iPad support
• Works offline, so you can study on the bus, plane, library, wherever
• Great for languages, exams, school, university, medicine, business, anything

And it’s free to start, so you can test it without committing.

“But I Already Have Brainscape Decks… How Do I Move?”

Totally fair. Let’s talk options.

Option 1: Manually Rebuild (Surprisingly Not That Bad With Flashrecall)

If your decks aren’t huge, this can be faster than trying to hack exports.

With Flashrecall, you can:

• Screenshot or photo your Brainscape cards → use image-to-flashcard
• Copy text from Brainscape → paste into Flashrecall to auto-generate cards
• If you have notes that match your deck → dump them into Flashrecall and let it propose cards

Because creation is so fast, rebuilding small–medium decks is actually manageable, and you can even improve them as you go (combine cards, split long ones, add context).

Option 2: Brainscape → CSV → Anki (The Classic Painful Route)

If you still really want to push things into Anki, here’s the rough flow:

1. Export from Brainscape (if allowed)

• Some classes/decks can be exported as CSV, but not all
• You may need a paid plan or owner access

2. Clean the CSV

• Make sure columns are something like: `Front, Back`
• Remove weird formatting, HTML, or extra fields

3. Import into Anki

• Open Anki on desktop
• File → Import → choose your CSV
• Map columns to Front/Back fields
• Pick your deck and note type

4. Tweak settings

• Adjust new card limits, review limits, intervals, etc.
• Optionally install add-ons for quality-of-life improvements

This works, but it’s not exactly plug-and-play, and you’ll still be stuck in Anki’s complexity afterwards.

Option 3: Skip Anki Entirely And Move Straight To Flashrecall

For most people, this is the sweet spot:

• You get serious spaced repetition like Anki
• You keep the simplicity you liked in Brainscape
• You gain modern features that neither has

You can:

• Recreate only the decks you actually use (not the junk)
• Use PDFs, notes, or YouTube videos to recreate content faster
• Let Flashrecall handle the scheduling and reminders

If you’re already thinking “I just want something that works and doesn’t feel like a 2005 program,” Flashrecall is the move.

Practical Example: Converting A Brainscape Deck Into Flashrecall

Let’s say you have a Brainscape deck for Spanish vocabulary.

Here’s how you might move it:

1. Open Brainscape on your computer or iPad

2. Select a batch of cards (e.g., 20–30 at a time)

3. Copy the text (Spanish on one side, English on the other)

4. In Flashrecall, create a new deck: “Spanish – Core Vocab”

5. Paste the text and let Flashrecall help you turn them into cards

6. Add audio or example sentences by asking the built-in chat to generate them

7. Start reviewing – spaced repetition and reminders are automatic

Or, if your deck is based on a PDF or textbook chapter, just:

• Upload the PDF to Flashrecall
• Generate cards from key sections
• Edit anything you want, add tags, group by chapter, etc.

You end up with a cleaner, smarter version of your original deck, without wrestling with CSV files and import settings.

When Anki Still Makes Sense (And How Flashrecall Fits In)

To be fair, Anki does still make sense if:

• You’re super technical and love tweaking settings
• You rely heavily on niche add-ons or custom note types
• You’re in a community where everyone shares .apkg decks

In that case, you might even use both:

• Anki for huge, community-shared decks (e.g., med school mega decks)
• Flashrecall for your own notes, PDFs, YouTube lectures, and daily learning

Because Flashrecall makes it so easy to turn anything into flashcards, it’s perfect for all the stuff that never makes it into a polished shared deck.

How Flashrecall Helps You Actually Stick With Studying

Switching apps is pointless if you stop using them after a week. Flashrecall is built specifically to make studying feel sustainable:

• Study reminders so reviews don’t pile up
• Offline mode, so you can study in dead zones (subway, flights, bad Wi‑Fi)
• A clean, modern interface that doesn’t feel like homework every time you open it

And because you can chat with your flashcards, you’re not just memorizing — you’re actually understanding.

So… Brainscape To Anki, Or Brainscape To Something Better?

If you’re:

• Bored or limited by Brainscape
• Intimidated or annoyed by Anki
• Want powerful spaced repetition without the mess

Then jumping straight to Flashrecall is honestly the most painless path.

You’ll get:

• Instant flashcards from images, text, audio, PDFs, YouTube, or manual input
• Active recall + spaced repetition built in
• Auto reminders so you never forget to review
• A fast, modern, easy-to-use app that runs on iPhone and iPad
• Offline studying for anywhere, anytime learning

Try it for free and see how it feels compared to both Brainscape and Anki:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

If you’re going to go through the effort of switching, you might as well upgrade to something that actually makes studying easier, not more complicated.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Anki good for studying?

Anki is powerful but requires manual card creation and has a steep learning curve. Flashrecall offers AI-powered card generation from your notes, images, PDFs, and videos, making it faster and easier to create effective flashcards.

What's the fastest way to create flashcards?

Manually typing cards works but takes time. Many students now use AI generators that turn notes into flashcards instantly. Flashrecall does this automatically from text, images, or PDFs.

How do I start spaced repetition?

You can manually schedule your reviews, but most people use apps that automate this. Flashrecall uses built-in spaced repetition so you review cards at the perfect time.

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