Anki vs Novli
Which should you use for studying Chinese?

Last updated: Feb 4, 2026

If you are trying to build a consistent flashcard habit, you will almost certainly hear about Anki. It is the default spaced repetition tool for everything from languages to medicine.

But, if your goal is specifically learning Chinese, Novli might be a better fit.

This post compares Anki vs Novli in a practical way: which one saves you time, which one gives you more power, and which one you should pick depending on what you are studying.

TL;DR

• Choose Novli if you are studying Chinese and want the fastest workflow: tap a word, get pinyin, meaning, and audio, and create a flashcard instantly.
• Choose Anki if you want one system to study anything: Chinese, biology, law, trivia, and you want deep customization.
• Spaced repetition effectiveness is a tie in practice: both use active recall and spaced repetition. The real difference is convenience vs flexibility.

Quick comparison table

What Novli is (in one sentence)

Novli is a Chinese learning app that turns real-world Chinese text into flashcards fast: snap a photo, tap words for translation, pinyin, and audio, and add them to Anki-style spaced repetition flashcards in a single tap.

What Anki is (in one sentence)

Anki is a powerful flashcard program built on active recall and spaced repetition, designed to help you focus more on material you are about to forget and less on what you already know.

1) What should you use if you only study Chinese?

If your main goal is Chinese, especially reading-based learning, Novli usually wins on time and consistency.

Why Novli is more convenient for Chinese

When learning Chinese from real text, the hidden cost is not reviewing. It is everything that happens before the review:

• Copying characters
• Getting pinyin
• Finding a definition that fits the context
• Finding or generating audio
• Formatting the card
• Then finally reviewing it

Novli collapses that whole pipeline into: tap, flashcard.

If you are studying Chinese only, choose Novli.

2) What should you use if you study multiple subjects?

If you want one system for everything, biology, medicine, languages, law, trivia, Anki is hard to beat.

Why Anki is more flexible

Anki is content-agnostic and has a giant ecosystem:

• Shared decks across tons of categories
• Add-ons to extend features
• Custom note types and templates in HTML and CSS

That means if you want:

• A special biology diagram card
• Cloze deletion variants
• Custom formatting
• Custom scheduling experiments
• An entire workflow of add-ons

Anki supports it.

If you study other subjects, choose Anki.

3) Spaced repetition algorithm: basically a tie

From a learning-science perspective, both tools are built around the same foundation: active recall and spaced repetition. Anki does have a little more flexibility, with two scheduling algorithms: SM-2 and FSRS, but for practical purposes, they are essentially the same.

In practice, most learners do not fail because of the scheduling algorithm. They fail because they stop reviewing, or creating cards is too slow. So consider spaced repetition a tie, and choose based on workflow.

4) Flashcard creation: Novli wins for Chinese

This is the biggest difference.

Novli: designed for fast capture

Novli's pitch is simple: do not waste time copying and formatting. Take a photo of a Chinese text, then tap words to add it to spaced repetition flashcards immediately, right from what you are reading. You can also use their auto-fill feature: type a Chinese character, and Novli generates a spaced repetition flashcard with the translation, pinyin and audio instantly.

Anki: powerful, but creation can be fiddly (especially for Chinese)

Anki supports media, including audio, and lets you attach it to notes. However, you have to assemble these pieces yourself: translations, pinyin, audio files, templates, and formatting. Often, you will need to write some custom code to generate audio, such as a python script that connects to the openAI speech API.

You can streamline this by coding up custom workflows, but that is the point: Anki is flexible, not turnkey.

5) Customization: Anki wins by a lot

If you are the kind of learner who wants full control, Anki is the tool:

• You can create and manage custom note types
• You can edit templates in HTML and CSS
• You can embed JavaScript in card templates
• You can extend functionality with add-ons (and even write your own)

Novli, by design, is more constrained. It focuses on a specific learning problem (Chinese learning) rather than being a programmable flashcard platform.

Final recommendation

Choose Novli if:

• You are primarily studying Chinese
• You learn by reading real text (books, screenshots, web pages, signs)
• You want the fastest path from "I saw a word" to "I will remember it"
• You value convenience and speed over infinite customization

Choose Anki if:

• You study multiple subjects
• You want custom card types, add-ons, scripting, and deep control
• You want access to a big universe of shared decks

One honest framing

If you only care about which tool is more powerful, Anki wins. If you care about which tool makes you actually follow through every day, Novli often wins because it removes the friction of making good Chinese flashcards.

FAQ

What makes Novli easier than Anki for Chinese?
Novli is built specifically for learning Chinese. Scan or screenshot a Chinese text, tap words, and it creates a flashcard with pinyin, meaning, and audio. Anki can get there too, but it requires more setup and manual formatting.

Does Anki have audio support?
Yes. Anki supports audio and other media, and you can attach audio via the editor. You usually need to write some custom code to generate the audio though, such as a python script that connects to openAI's speech API. Novli can add audio automatically when you create cards from text, which saves setup time.

What if I just want the easiest workflow?
If your main focus is learning Chinese, Novli is usually the shortest path from "I saw a word" to "I will remember it." If you want total control over templates and scheduling, Anki is still the best choice.

Can I use both?
Yes. Many learners use Novli for their Chinese studied, and Anki for other subjects.

Do both use spaced repetition?
Yes. Both use identical spaced repetition algorithms.

Try Novli free

Install Novli on iOS or Android to start learning from real Chinese text today.