Truly Simple Flashcards vs Retrieve

Truly Simple Flashcards is a clean, no-subscription spaced-repetition app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Whether you're a student cramming for exams, a language learner building vocabulary, a professional studying for boards, or an Anki refugee looking for a modern alternative, this app does the core job exceptionally well and stops there. Make decks, add cards, and study. The app decides when to show each card again using FSRS, which is the same modern spaced-repetition algorithm power users trust. By asking you to grade how hard a card was to recall, the schedule adapts, so you spend your time on the cards you're about to forget. Format your cards with bold, italics, and colors, keep related decks together in groups, and add audio when hearing something matters as much as reading it. Bring in your existing decks from Anki or a spreadsheet, export your decks to use elsewhere, study seamlessly across all your Apple devices, and own your software forever. Features: • Smart scheduling: Uses the proven FSRS algorithm to adapt to your memory, with an adjustable "target retention" rate per deck. • Two card types: Create classic front-and-back cards, or use fill-in-the-blank (cloze) cards to memorize words in context. Images are fully supported on either side of the card. • Formatting and color-coding: Make words bold, italic, or underlined, and color-code your cards with five text colors and four highlights. Colors stay readable in light and dark mode. • Audio on your cards: Attach audio to the front, the back, or both. Add an existing audio file, or record it right in the app. • Deck groups: Keep related decks together, like every topic in a unit. Groups fold away when you don't need them and show what's due inside. • Simple imports: Bring your existing decks with you. Import Anki files (.apkg / .colpkg, including the newest formats) or CSV/TSV spreadsheets. Anki subdecks arrive as groups, with their formatting intact. • Two-way study: Turn on two-way review to test your recall back-to-front, which is especially effective for learning vocabulary words. • Paced learning: Set a daily limit for new cards so a huge imported deck doesn't overwhelm your study session. • Study ahead: Caught up for the day and want more? Study tomorrow's cards early. • Undo a grade: Tapped the wrong button? Undo brings the card back so you can answer it again. • Flip-through mode: Review a deck casually without affecting your spaced-repetition schedule. • Reliable device sync: Your decks sync privately and securely through your own personal iCloud account across your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. • Genuinely accessible: Built natively for Apple devices with full VoiceOver support, Dynamic Type for comfortable reading, light/dark modes, and calm, minimal motion. • Pay once, keep forever: Use one deck for free with unlimited cards. Unlock unlimited decks with a one-time, lifetime in-app purchase. No subscriptions, no ads, no hidden fees or data-harvesting.

Retrieve is a flashcard app that tells you what to study each day. It schedules every card so you see it right before you'd forget it, which is the fastest way to actually remember things. Pay once. No subscription, no ads, no account. HOW IT WORKS Make a deck and add cards. Each day, Retrieve shows you the cards that are due. Flip a card, tap how well you knew it (Again, Hard, Good or Easy), and Retrieve picks the next date for it. There's nothing to set up. GET YOUR CARDS IN • Type cards one at a time, including fill-in-the-blank cards • Paste a list of terms and definitions. Retrieve works out the format. • Import a CSV or TSV spreadsheet • Import .apkg deck files, with their images and tags • Turn a photo of a diagram, map or textbook page into cards that each hide one label STUDY WITHOUT GETTING BURIED • New cards are capped at 20 per deck per day (you can change it), so a big deck doesn't flood you • Each deck shows how many cards are due today • The grade buttons show when you'll see the card again • Cards you miss come back later in the same session • Optional daily reminder at a time you pick • Study by tag, or review ahead when you want extra practice FIND AND TRACK • Search every card in every deck from the main screen • See your day streak, total reviews and cards learned YOUR CARDS STAY WITH YOU No account, no sign-in, no analytics. Export any deck as a CSV whenever you want. PRICE Free for one deck of up to 150 cards. A one-time $9.99 purchase gives you unlimited decks and cards. No subscription.