Bananote is an Anki alternative for students who'd rather study than type cards. Record or upload a lecture, or add a PDF, YouTube link or pasted text, and Bananote turns it into structured notes, flashcards and scored quizzes automatically, in 100+ languages. You choose when to review them.
In Anki, you add a card by typing into its Front and Back fields, as Anki's manual shows. A semester of lectures is a lot of typing. Bananote starts from the lecture itself: record it or upload it, and the flashcards and scored quizzes, with explanations, are made for you. See how it works with the AI flashcard maker.
Anki's getting started guide says most shared decks are made by people learning from textbooks and classes outside Anki, and that for complex subjects they should supplement your own material, not replace it. Bananote makes its cards from that material: the lecture you recorded, the PDF your professor posted, the reading you pasted in.
Anki is a flashcard program. Bananote starts with structured notes and a summary of the lecture, using a built-in template like lecture notes or one you make yourself. Then chat with your notes to ask questions, find gaps and explain ideas back in your own words before you test yourself.
Record a lecture on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or in your browser. Or upload an audio file, add a PDF, paste text or turn a YouTube video into flashcards. Slides work too once you export them as a PDF. Your whole course lands in one library, with folders, favorites and search.
Bananote transcribes lectures in 100+ languages and translates your notes into any language, so you can attend class in one language and review in another. That matters if you study in a second language or take classes in more than one.
Also weighing other study apps? Compare Bananote with Quizlet and Turbo AI, or see every comparison.
Anki does a lot well, and for some students it's the better pick. Here's where it comes out ahead.
After each card, you rate how well you remembered it, and Anki chooses the day it comes back. You can use its legacy SM-2 algorithm or FSRS, the Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler. Bananote makes your flashcards and quizzes, but you choose when to review. If you want an app to plan every review day for you, Anki is the better fit.
Anki's site says the computer version is free on Windows, Mac and Linux. AnkiDroid, its Android app, is free, and so is the AnkiWeb sync service. AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad is a paid app you buy once. If you study mostly on a laptop and want to pay nothing, Anki is hard to beat.
Click Get Shared in Anki and you can download a deck someone else has made, which saves time for a standard exam where a good deck already exists. Add-ons extend Anki with new features, so if you like to tinker with how your study app works, Anki gives you far more to change.
Anki lets you change card layouts and put audio, images, video and scientific markup on a card. Note types can hold several fields, and one note can make more than one card. If you want full control over what every card looks like, Anki is built for that.