How to try an Anki alternative without losing your decks

You can try an Anki alternative without rebuilding your collection. Export a portable .apkg, keep the original file unchanged, import it into the new app, verify cards and media, and confirm that the new app can export your deck again before making it your daily review tool.

The important word is try. A migration should be reversible until you have reviewed real cards in the new workflow for at least a week.

1. Make a portable Anki export

In Anki, export the deck or collection you want to test as an .apkg. Include media when the export option is available. Keep this file as a snapshot rather than moving or deleting the original Anki data.

Start with one representative deck instead of your whole collection. Choose something that contains the features you care about—images, audio, cloze cards, non-Latin text, or a large number of notes. A ten-card demo deck can pass while the deck you actually use fails.

2. Inspect what the alternative promises to import

“Anki import” can mean several things. Before trusting it, check:

Are cards and deck names preserved?
Does included media appear on the correct cards?
Are card fronts and backs readable?
Are tags or other organization preserved if you rely on them?
Does the app use a real spaced-repetition scheduler?
Can you export again in a portable format?

Repeto is an Anki alternative built around two-way .apkg portability, FSRS scheduling, and AI card creation from words, notes, documents, links, recordings, and photos. The import is the beginning of the test, not proof that every workflow matches yours.

3. Verify a real sample after import

Open several card types and compare them with Anki. Check text, images, and audio. Search or filter for a familiar tag. Start a review and confirm that the Again, Hard, Good, and Easy flow feels understandable.

If a deck contains elaborate templates or add-on-specific behavior, test those cards explicitly. Portable data and custom Anki runtime behavior are not the same thing. A clean question-and-answer card is far easier to transfer than a card whose display depends on JavaScript or a desktop add-on.

4. Test the reason you wanted to leave

A successful import is not a reason to switch. Use the feature that motivated the search:

Generate cards from a PDF or lecture notes.
Type a vocabulary word and inspect the completed fields.
Review on the device you want to use every day.
Edit a generated batch before it enters your queue.
Try the interface with a normal day’s due cards.

The best Anki alternative is not the app with the longest feature list. It is the one that removes your main source of friction without weakening scheduling or trapping your collection.

5. Verify the exit before committing

Create a few new cards in the alternative, export the deck, and keep that export. If practical, import the result into a separate Anki profile and inspect it. This round trip answers the question marketing copy cannot: can you recover both your old material and the cards created after the move?

Only then decide whether to move more decks or make the alternative your primary review app.

What happens to review history?

Cards, media, and scheduling history are separate concerns. An .apkg may contain scheduling information, but applications do not always model every Anki field identically. Treat exact preservation of due dates and review history as something to verify with a sample, not something to infer from successful card import.

If the new tool uses FSRS, it can still provide adaptive scheduling for future reviews. The question is whether you require exact continuity of the old schedule or simply need the imported cards to enter a sensible FSRS queue.

The safe migration rule

Keep three things until you are confident:

The original Anki installation and profile.
A dated .apkg export with media.
A fresh export from the alternative containing a few newly created cards.

That gives you an original, a transfer file, and an exit test. You can then judge the new workflow on what matters—how quickly you can create accurate cards and whether you keep up with reviews—without turning the experiment into a one-way decision.