Anki Alternative for Chinese

Chinese SRS that builds itself

You want spaced repetition for Chinese, not a second job building Anki decks. Aelu gives you SRS with a curriculum, 44 drill types, and adaptive scheduling — ready to go from day one.

Free to start. No credit card required.

You're on the list. We'll let you know when it's ready.

Anki vs. Aelu

Feature	Anki	Aelu
Spaced repetition	Yes	Yes
Chinese-specific curriculum	No (DIY)	HSK 1-9
Deck building required	Yes	No
Drill types	Flashcards only	27 types
Listening drills	Manual setup	Built in
Speaking/tone practice	No	With grading
Graded reading	No	By HSK level
Adaptive difficulty	Limited	Per-skill
Word lookup → drill pipeline	No	Automatic
Price	Free	Free / $14.99/mo
Customizability	Infinite	Opinionated

What you get instead of deck-building

A ready-to-go HSK curriculum — 10,000+ items across HSK 1-9. No shared decks of questionable quality.
44 drill types, not just front/back cards — tone pairs, cloze deletion, listening comprehension, character recognition, sentence construction, and more.
The cleanup loop — read Chinese passages, tap words you don't know, and those exact words appear in your next drill session. Anki can't do this.
Adaptive scheduling — the system tracks which skills are weakest (listening? tones? reading?) and adjusts your session mix automatically.
Context notes — every word has handwritten usage notes, register information, and common collocations. Not auto-generated.
Diagnostics — HSK readiness projections, weak spot analysis, and progress tracking that goes beyond "cards reviewed."

Honest take

If you love building decks, tweaking card templates, and having total control over your SRS — Anki is still great. It's free, it's powerful, and it's battle-tested.

Aelu is for the learner who wants to study Chinese, not build a study system. You open the app, start a session, and the system handles the rest.

"I want to learn Chinese, not become an Anki power user."

Simple pricing

Free

HSK 1-2 vocabulary and drills
All 44 drill types
Basic progress tracking
Beginner reading passages

Full Access

$14.99 /month

HSK 1-9 full curriculum
All 44 drill types
Adaptive scheduling
All reading and listening
Speaking drills + tone grading
Cleanup loop
HSK diagnostics