Anki remembers the words for you. Immersed plans the hours where you hear them.
Anki is a spaced repetition flashcard program: it schedules each card for review just before you would forget it. Immersed shows what your hours were made of: SRS is one of nine activities, so your reviews sit next to your listening and reading, and the mix tells you more than a total does. It is a language immersion tracker and planner: a free plan built from your answers, a daily timeline for the shows, podcasts and books you learn from, and reports of your hours.
Free. About two minutes. No account, no card.
The short version
Checked October 24, 2026.
Something out of date? Tell me.
Anki and Immersed don't compete. Anki is for memorizing: vocabulary, sentences, kanji, anything you can put on a card. Immersed is not a flashcard app and doesn't teach vocabulary.
Immersed plans and tracks the hours you spend in your language, and SRS is one of its nine activities, so your daily Anki reviews can sit on the same timeline as your shows and podcasts. Most immersion learners use both: Anki tells you what you remember, Immersed tells you what your time was made of.
01What each one counts
Reviews and cards, or what your hours were made of.
Anki's statistics are about cards: reviews per day, how many you got right, cards due tomorrow, how mature your deck is. There is a review time graph too, but the unit is the card. That's exactly right for memorization.
Immersed's unit is the session, and every session is one of nine activities: Active Listening, Passive Listening, Active Subtitles, Reading, Study, SRS, Speaking, Writing or Shadowing. Reports stack your hours by activity, chart how much you understood over time and link back to the shows and channels you spent the most time with.
A total of hours is one number. Two learners with 1,000 hours can be in different places because of what those hours were: one spent a third of them on reviews, the other on listening at the right level. Anki answers "do I remember this word?" Immersed answers "what did my time in the language look like this month?"
02Your day
Where the reviews and the immersion both fit.
Anki tells you how many cards are due. It doesn't plan when you'll do them, or how they fit next to an episode, a podcast on the commute and a chapter before bed.
Immersed does. The free blueprint asks about your time, goals and level and gives you a daily protocol. The timeline runs from Wake up to Wind down: plan tasks into free gaps, set them to repeat, get reminders and tick them off. For example, a repeating 20-minute SRS task before work.
- Log Anki as SRS, so reviews show up in time by activity
- Plan it as a repeating task with a reminder
- The free blueprint's flashcard card is Anki, with a Shared Decks button (Migaku Memory is the alternative)
03Tracking Anki time in Immersed
Press play, open Anki, stop when the reviews are done.
Immersed doesn't connect to Anki or read its review log. You start a session in Immersed, pick SRS, do your reviews, and stop. Forgot? Log the session afterward with the start and stop time.
Over a month you'll see how your time splits between SRS, Active Listening, Passive Listening, Reading and the rest. That view is useful: if SRS starts eating the time meant for input, it shows.
Side by side · checked October 24, 2026
Immersed and Anki, feature by feature.
What it does
Flashcards with spaced repetition
Immersed · No, Immersed is not a flashcard app
Anki · Yes, with the FSRS and SM-2 schedulers
Shared decks
Immersed · No
Anki · Yes, on AnkiWeb
Audio, images and video on cards
Immersed · No
Anki · Yes
Add-ons
Immersed · No
Anki · Yes, on desktop
What to watch, listen to and read
Immersed · Library in 22 languages and Discover
Anki · No
Planning
A plan built from your answers
Immersed · Free blueprint
Anki · No
Daily timeline
Immersed · Wake up to Wind down
Anki · No
What to do today
Immersed · Planned tasks with reminders
Anki · Cards due today
Tracking
Hours broken down by activity
Immersed · Nine activities, SRS among them, stacked in reports
Anki · No
Time spent on reviews
Immersed · Logged as SRS sessions
Anki · Review time graph
Reviews and retention
Immersed · No
Anki · Yes, detailed
Comprehension rating per session
Immersed · Yes
Anki · No
Automatic tracking
Immersed · One press to start; Discover scroll and games log themselves
Anki · Every review is logged
Reports
Streaks and consistency
Immersed · Consistency grid with streaks
Anki · Review calendar
Export
Immersed · PDF, Excel, CSV
Anki · Decks and collections
Rewards for a daily SRS habit
Immersed · Archmage outfit for Aim and a badge at 30 days
Anki · Not built in
Apps and price
Platforms
Immersed · Web app on phone and computer; Android app in testing for Google Play
Anki · Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, web
Price
Immersed · Free blueprint; Pro $60 a year or $9.99 a month
Anki · Free, except AnkiMobile on iPhone at $24.99 once
Credit where it's due
Both are good. At different things.
What Anki does well
- Spaced repetition that works, with the modern FSRS scheduler built in
- Free on desktop, Android and the web, with free sync between them
- A one-time price on iPhone instead of a subscription
- Total control over card design, with audio, images, video and more
- Thousands of shared decks, from frequency lists to kanji
- Add-ons for almost anything, and handles decks of 100,000+ cards
- Open source, with a huge community and years of reliability
What Immersed does that Anki doesn't
- Counts the hours you spend in your language, not the cards you review
- Plans your day on a timeline, with your Anki reviews as one task among many
- Breaks your time into nine activities, from Passive Listening to Shadowing, with SRS as one of them
- Asks how much you understood, and charts comprehension over time
- Tells you what to watch, listen to and read in your language
- Exports reports as PDF, Excel or CSV
- Rewards the SRS habit: 30 days in a row earns the Archmage outfit for Aim and a badge that levels up at 100 and 365 days
Pick Anki if
- You want to memorize vocabulary, sentences or a writing system
- You want something free that will run on every device you own
- You like building your own cards from what you watch and read
- You want detailed stats on retention and how well each card is sticking
Pick Immersed if
- You want to know how many hours of immersion you are really getting
- You want a plan for where reviews and immersion fit in your day
- You want to see if SRS is taking time away from input
- You want help finding things to watch, listen to and read at your level
Use both, or move over
Review in Anki, log it in Immersed
Keep Anki for your cards. In Immersed, add a repeating SRS task to your timeline at the time of day you usually review. When it's time, press play in Immersed, pick SRS and open Anki. Stop when you're done.
Your Anki minutes then show up next to your shows, podcasts and reading in Growth. Anki tells you how well you remember. Immersed tells you how much time you spent in the language, and how that time is split.
Pricing · checked October 24, 2026
What each one costs.
Immersed
- Free: the blueprint for one language (with the Toolkit, Library picks and the Fluency Checklist's Foundations), the listening games in 12 languages with their leaderboards, Aim Runner, the Discord and the sample app. A free account also gets the Fitting Room's day-one outfits, Hour Marks and badges from game time.
- Immersed Pro: $60 a year (starts with a free week, about $5 a month) or $9.99 a month. Timeline, sessions with the nine activities, Discover, Library, Growth and reports, monthly Sprints, more languages.
Anki
- Anki desktop for Windows, macOS and Linux: free.
- AnkiDroid for Android: free, built by volunteers, takes donations.
- AnkiWeb sync and the web version: free.
- AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad: $24.99, a one-time purchase that funds development.
Anki is free on everything except iPhone, where it's a one-time $24.99. It's one of the best values in language learning. Immersed isn't a replacement for it, so the question is only whether you also want a plan and a record of your immersion hours.
FAQ
Questions people ask.
Is Anki free?+
Yes on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android (AnkiDroid) and the web, with free AnkiWeb sync. AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad is a one-time $24.99, as listed on the App Store when I checked on 24 October 2026.
Does Immersed replace Anki?+
No. Immersed is not a flashcard app and doesn't teach vocabulary. It plans, tracks and shows your immersion. Use Anki for memorizing and Immersed for the hours.
Can I track Anki time in Immersed?+
Yes. SRS is one of Immersed's nine activities. Start a session, pick SRS, do your reviews and stop, or log it afterward. Immersed doesn't connect to Anki, so it won't read your review count.
Does Immersed recommend Anki?+
Yes. The free blueprint's Toolkit has a flashcard card, and it is Anki, with a Shared Decks button. Where Migaku supports your language, Migaku Memory is listed as the alternative.
Does Anki track how much time I study?+
Partly. Anki records how long each review takes and has a review time graph, but its stats are built around cards and reviews. It does not know about the episodes, podcasts or books you immerse in.
Should Anki time count as immersion?+
Most immersion learners keep it separate: SRS supports immersion but isn't input. Immersed logs it as its own activity, SRS, so your immersion hours and your review time stay apart in your reports.
Who makes Anki now?+
Anki was created by Damien Elmes. In February 2026 he announced that AnkiHub would take over its business operations and open-source stewardship, with Anki staying open source. AnkiDroid is a separate volunteer project.
More comparisons
Stop guessing. See what your hours add up to.
Answer a few questions and Immersed builds your plan: a daily routine that fits your life, milestones for your first months, and things to watch at your level. Free, about two minutes, no account needed.
The plan is free and stays free. No card.
Checked October 24, 2026 against published product information. Prices and features change; if something here is out of date, tell me on Discord and I'll fix it.