Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you sign up to italki through the link below, at no extra cost to you. We earn nothing from Anki, which has not changed how they are ranked.
italki vs Anki
The only real spending decision in language learning, stated plainly. Anki fixes what you already met in place; a tutor tells you that the sentence you just invented was wrong. Nothing free does the second thing.
Side by side
| italki | Anki | |
|---|---|---|
| How you study | 1-on-1 tutor | Structured self-study course, App only |
| Supports up to | C2 | C2 |
| Typical cost | about $60/month at a normal cadence | Free |
| Last checked | 2026-08-07 | 2026-08-07 |
Pick italki if
You are producing sentences and nobody is correcting them. That is the specific shortage money solves, and it is worth more than any number of subscriptions.
Pick Anki if
You are still accumulating, and what you are losing is retention rather than accuracy. Anki is better at that than anything paid, and it costs nothing.
Pick neither if
Almost everyone who gets somewhere runs both, in that order: Anki throughout, a person from around B1. They are not alternatives so much as different stages of the same plan.
The same target, both ways
Hours to C2 at an hour a day, five days a week — the highest level both of these support, so the only one they can honestly be compared at. Method multipliers are 1.05×–1.05× for italki and 1.25×–1.7× for Anki, rising with the level in both cases.
What each costs over that project
Spanish to C2 at that pace runs about 43 months. Over that stretch:
- italki — about $60/month at a normal cadence, about $2,580 across 43 months — and it keeps charging after that if you keep going.
- Anki — Free, nothing at all over the whole project.
Prices were checked on 2026-08-07 and 2026-08-07 and go stale; confirm on each merchant's own site before paying. A one-off and a subscription are also not comparable as headline prices — the break-even is about nineteen months, and most real projects run longer than that.
Who each one is wrong for
italki
- Absolute beginners with no self-study habit — lessons are expensive silence otherwise
- People who cannot commit to a scheduled time each week
- Anyone uncomfortable speaking badly in front of a stranger, at least at first
Anki
- People who want a curriculum — Anki is a tool, not a course
- Anyone unwilling to spend an evening on setup
- Learners who need speaking practice, which this does not provide at all
What this comparison is not
We have not run these two side by side for a month and scored them. Everything above is either documented fact — price, method, the level each product covers — or the same matching logic the calculator uses. You will not find a star rating here, because we have not earned the right to give one.
Work out what your target actually takes first — it changes which of these two is even a candidate.