cards.study vs Spark
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
cards.study
Master subjects like languages and trivia with a spaced-repetition flashcard system. Create your own study materials or use pre-made courses. Gain insights into your learning progress with advanced statistics.
- Spaced-repetition algorithm
- Pre-made courses
- Custom card editor
- Advanced statistics
- Trivia and language learning
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Learn more, faster with Cards. Master trivia, practice languages, or study for a test using our flash cards system, and remember what you learn forever using our spaced-repetition algorithm. From French Vocabulary to Countries of the World, memorize anything from our hundreds of pre-made courses, or create your own cards with our easy-to-use editor. Improve your learning efficiency with insights from advanced statistics about your learning. Start learning with Cards today! Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Spark
Engage with daily learning puzzles centered around a single theme. Explore history, science, and pop culture through four unique, human-crafted games designed for discovery and fun.
- Daily themed puzzles
- Four unique game modes
- Human-crafted puzzles
- Explore history, science, and pop culture
- Archive of past puzzles
- No timers or tests
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Replace doomscrolling with learning. Each day, Spark explores a single theme through thoughtful puzzles spanning ancient history, mythology, movies, food, geography, and more. With five unique games and new puzzles every day, Spark makes learning part of your routine. Each game offers a different way to explore the day's theme, and each one teaches you as you play. Spark's games include: This or That: Choose between two options to learn more about the day's theme Links: Find the common thread connecting people, places, and ideas Chrono: Put events in order to see how history really unfolded Knockout: Uncover surprising comparisons in a series of fun head-to-head matchups Hindsight: Pinpoint when and where a photo was taken to uncover the story behind it All of Spark's puzzles are crafted by experts, not AI, and designed to spark those "aha" moments that make ideas stick. Explore hundreds of topics in the Library, from ancient history to the animal kingdom, with past themes to revisit anytime. Along the way, you'll uncover facts that are fun to learn and even better to share. From the creators of Elevate and Balance, Spark is part of a collection of mental fitness apps designed to strengthen your mind. For additional information, please read our Terms of Service (https://themindcompany.com/terms-and-conditions?from=spark) and Privacy Policy (https://themindcompany.com/privacy-policy?from=spark).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: cards.study at none against Spark's shown. cards.study also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Spark's advantage is ratings volume (2.8K vs 8) and update cadence (weekly vs every 4 weeks). On price, review sentiment, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. cards.study sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $5.99 per month and Spark sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
cards.study holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spark has 2.8K ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of cards.study's written reviews are positive against 93% of Spark's.
cards.study ships an update every 4 weeks, Spark weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | cards.study | Spark |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (8 ratings) — better | 4.8 (2.8K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 92.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 2.8K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #93 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 43 MB | 151 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ben Jenkins | The Mind Company |
Customer experience
cards.study
Spark
Bugs and requests
cards.study
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Spark
Reported bugs
1 issue- AT&T blocking the website as potentially malicious
Requested features
2 requests- More games and puzzles
- Dark mode option
In-app purchases
cards.study
- All Access$5.991 Month
Spark
- Spark+$2.991 Month
- Spark+$4.991 Month
- Spark+1 Year trial4 variants$39.991 Year
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- Spark+7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Spark+3 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Spark+7 Days trial$59.991 Year
- Spark+7 Days trial$79.991 Year









