Anki

Who this is wrong for

• 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 costs in hours

Anki delivers structured self-study course, which our model prices at 1.25× the FSI baseline at A1 rising to 1.7× at C1. Below is what reaching C2 — the level this product supports — takes at an hour a day, five days a week.

What you actually pay

Nothing. Anki costs no money and earns us no commission, and it is in our recommendations anyway — every result on this site includes at least one zero-commission option, which is enforced by a test rather than by intention.

The catch is not price. It is that free tools decide nothing for you: you supply the material, the sequence and the discipline. How far the free route goes.

What else does this

Every option we track that delivers the same thing. We have not run side-by-side trials of any of them; what follows compares documented attributes and the same matching logic the calculator uses.

• Rocket Languages — about $260 once, up to B2. Learners who want one structured course covering grammar explicitly, bought once rather than rented.
• Pimsleur — about $150 once, up to B1. Learners who want to speak from the first lesson and can give it thirty focused minutes of audio a day, hands-free.
• Language Reactor — Free, up to C1. Intermediate learners who want native input from video with dual subtitles, at no cost. Earns us nothing.

What we do not know

• We have not used this in a controlled trial. No star rating appears on this site because we have no basis for one. What is above is arithmetic on published attributes.
• Prices change. Ours was checked on 2026-08-07 and is recorded with that date precisely so you can distrust it once it ages. Confirm on their site before paying.
• The method coefficients are estimates. FSI publishes hours for its own classes and nothing else, so the 1.25× and 1.7× above are ours. How they were set.