Quick verdict: choose Quizcam if you want to quiz yourself on your own notes today, with no card writing, and have the questions come back on a schedule afterwards. Choose Anki if you want a deeply configurable spaced repetition system, community decks, and are willing to spend hours building and tuning it. Both now schedule reviews; the difference is how much work you do first and how much control you get.
Play a five-question Quizcam round in your browser to see the format before installing anything.
The core difference
Anki is a spaced repetition system. It schedules flashcard reviews at precisely calculated intervals to maximize long-term retention. Students who use Anki correctly and consistently build durable memory over months. It is particularly popular in medical education, where the volume of material is enormous and needs to stick for years.
The catch is setup time. Making good Anki cards is a skill. For a single lecture, you might spend two or three hours writing questions, formatting cards, adding images, and organizing your deck. Many students spend more time building Anki decks than actually reviewing them.
Quizcam takes the opposite approach. You photograph your notes or import a PDF, and the app generates multiple-choice questions from your material in seconds. There is no card creation, no formatting, and no setup. You go from notes to active practice immediately.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Quizcam | Anki |
|---|---|---|
| Generate questions from a photo | Yes, via OCR | No |
| Generate questions from a PDF | Yes | No (manual entry) |
| Time to create a quiz from notes | Under 1 minute | 1 to 3+ hours |
| Spaced repetition scheduling | Yes, a daily review you do not configure | Yes, and far more configurable |
| Schedule built around an exam date | Yes, set the date and the review adapts | Possible, but you tune deck settings yourself |
| Send the quiz to a friend as a link | Yes, duels play in any browser, no app or account | No, decks are shared as files or through AnkiWeb |
| Community decks (Zanki, AnKing) | No | Yes, large library |
| Quiz format | Multiple choice with explanations | Flashcards (front/back) |
| Instant grading with explanations | Yes | Self-graded only |
| Learning curve | Very low | High |
| Devices | iPhone and iPad, one purchase | Desktop, iPhone, iPad, Android, web |
| Languages | English, German, Spanish (app, questions, duel page) | Interface translated into many languages |
| Cost | Three a month free, then $5.99/week, $9.99/month or $44.99/year, 7 day trial on the yearly plan. Reviewing quizzes you already made stays free. | Free on desktop and Android. The official iOS app is a paid one-time purchase. |
The Anki time problem
Anki's reputation in medical education is well-earned. The spaced repetition algorithm is one of the most research-backed tools for long-term memory. Pre-made decks like Zanki and AnKing cover the major medical school curricula comprehensively.
But for students who cannot use pre-made decks, or whose professors cover material in a way that does not match existing decks, Anki becomes a significant time commitment. Writing a good Anki card requires you to understand the material well enough to phrase both the question and a clear, unambiguous answer. For 80 lecture slides worth of pharmacology, that takes hours.
There is also the Anki learning curve. The desktop interface is not intuitive. Managing decks, understanding settings like "new cards per day" and "maximum reviews," adding image occlusion cards for anatomy diagrams, these all take time to learn. Many students start with Anki and give up before they see its benefits.
Where Quizcam fits in
Quizcam is not trying to out-configure Anki. The use case starts earlier: you just finished a lecture and you want to test what you retained, from your own notes, without building anything first.
This matters because the gap between a lecture and self-testing is where most forgetting happens. If you wait until you have built an Anki deck to test yourself, you might be testing yourself days later. Quizcam lets you test yourself within minutes, directly from your notes, while the material is still fresh.
What changed in 2026 is that the quiz no longer stops there. Every quiz you make joins a daily review built on spaced repetition: wrong answers return sooner, right ones later, subjects are mixed on purpose, and you can enter your exam date so the schedule works towards it. Reviewing quizzes you already made is free forever, with or without Premium. That closes the gap that used to be the honest argument for Anki.
Quizcam also does something Anki does not. Any quiz can be sent as a duel link, and whoever opens it plays the same questions in their browser with no app, no account and no sign-up, on a shared leaderboard. Anki shares decks as files or through AnkiWeb, which means the other person needs Anki and a bit of patience.
Many students still use both: Quizcam for immediate post-lecture practice and the daily review, Anki for a curated deck they intend to keep for years.
Choose Quizcam if
- You want to test yourself immediately after taking notes, with no card writing
- You find Anki's setup and settings more work than the studying itself
- Your material is not well covered by existing Anki decks
- You want a daily review that is scheduled for you and built around your exam date
- You want to send a round to a friend or study group as a browser link
- You prefer multiple-choice with an explanation after every answer over open-ended recall
Choose Anki if
- You have access to Zanki, AnKing or similar pre-made decks
- You want to control intervals, card types and deck options yourself
- You need image occlusion, cloze deletion and other card formats Quizcam does not offer
- You study on Android, desktop or the web, or want a free tool there
- You are already comfortable with Anki's workflow and committed to daily reviews
No setup. Just snap and study.
Photograph your notes and get quiz questions in under a minute. No card creation required, and the daily review is built for you.
Try Quizcam freeFrequently asked questions
Is Quizcam a good Anki alternative for med school?
Yes, for students who want to study their own lecture material without spending hours writing cards. Quizcam turns photos of notes or PDFs into quizzes in seconds and schedules a daily review around your exam date. Anki still has the deeper, more configurable scheduler and the large community decks, so many students use both. See Quizcam for medical students.
Does Quizcam have spaced repetition?
Yes. Since 2026 Quizcam has a daily review built on spaced repetition: questions you got wrong come back sooner, ones you got right come back later, subjects are mixed, and you can set an exam date so the schedule works towards it. It is deliberately simple. Anki lets you configure intervals, card types and deck options in far more detail, so power users still have the edge there.
How long does it take to create a quiz in Quizcam vs Anki?
In Quizcam, you photograph your notes and get a quiz in under a minute. In Anki, creating a quality deck from a lecture typically takes one to three hours of manual card writing. That is the core trade-off between the two apps.
Can I share a Quizcam quiz the way I share an Anki deck?
The mechanics are different. An Anki deck is shared as a file or through AnkiWeb, and the other person needs Anki to use it. A Quizcam quiz is sent as a duel link that opens in any browser, with no app, no account and no sign-up, and both of you appear on the same leaderboard.
Is Anki free?
Anki is free on desktop and Android, and the official AnkiMobile app for iPhone is a paid one-time purchase. Quizcam gives you three free quizzes a month, then Premium at $5.99 per week, $9.99 per month or $44.99 per year, with a 7 day free trial on the yearly plan. Reviewing quizzes you already made in Quizcam stays free. See pricing.
