WaniKani Alternatives

WaniKani is one of the most discussed ways to learn kanji, and for good reason: it teaches radicals, then the kanji built from them, then vocabulary that uses those kanji, with a mnemonic for every item and spaced repetition for reviews. Learners still go looking for alternatives, usually for one of five reasons: price, the lack of an official phone app, no handwriting practice, a fixed order they cannot skip through, or the need for grammar as well. This guide is sorted by those reasons, so you can jump to the one that applies to you.

A note on fairness: this guide is published on the website of a kanji app, and that app appears below. Every claim about the other apps comes from their official sites or store listings, linked at the bottom of the page, and prices are in US dollars as of November 2026. Prices change and can differ by country, so check before you pay.

What WaniKani does well, and where it stops

Before switching, it is worth being clear about what you would give up. WaniKani says it covers over 2,000 kanji and over 6,000 vocabulary words, and its order is designed so that each new kanji is built from parts you already know. If you like being told exactly what to study next, that structure is its biggest strength. It is also free until you reach Level 4, so you can try the method without paying.

The limits are just as clear. WaniKani is a web app, and its help center says it does not have an official iOS app, though it points to third-party apps built by users. Its lessons train recognition, meanings and readings rather than writing by hand. The order is fixed, so kanji you already know still come up in turn. A subscription costs $9 a month, $89 a year or $299 for lifetime access. None of this makes it a bad tool. It just means a different tool can fit better.

WaniKani alternatives at a glance

If you want it free: Anki and renshuu

Anki is the classic free option. It is a general flashcard app with spaced repetition, free on Windows, Mac and Linux, free on Android as AnkiDroid, with free sync through AnkiWeb. The official iPhone app, AnkiMobile Flashcards, is a one-time $24.99 purchase. Anki does not include a kanji course: you download a shared deck or build your own. That is more setup than WaniKani, but you can change card layouts and review timing, and add your own mnemonics. If you miss WaniKani's stories, our guide to writing your own kanji mnemonics shows how to make them stick. More detail is in our Anki comparison.

renshuu is the better free pick if you want more than kanji. Its App Store listing describes over 12,000 kanji, over 2,000 mnemonics and over 800 grammar expressions, and says the free version is unlimited, with no timer before you have to pay and no ads. renshuu pro is an optional purchase. It suits learners who want one place for most of their Japanese study. See our renshuu comparison.

If you want to write kanji by hand

Writing is the most common gap learners mention, because recognizing a kanji and producing it from memory are different skills. Three kinds of app fill it:

• Skritter is built around writing. Its Japanese App Store listing says you recall each kanji and kana stroke by stroke, with instant handwriting and stroke order feedback in Premium, spaced repetition, JLPT vocabulary decks from N5 to N1, and decks that follow popular textbooks chapter by chapter. On its website, plans start at $14.99 a month, with $59.99 for six months and $99.99 for a year, each with a 7-day free trial.
• Kanji Study on Android has writing challenges that use stroke detection: correct strokes snap into place and hints appear when you are stuck. Its Google Play listing says the free version has no ads and covers beginner kanji, radicals, hiragana and katakana, and a one-time upgrade unlocks the remaining levels. See our Kanji Study comparison.
• Phone-first kanji apps such as the one described in the next section check stroke order as you draw.

If you are not sure you need a whole app for writing, start with the kanji stroke order tool on this site, which animates each stroke so you can copy it on paper.

If you study on your phone, at your own pace

Moji, the app behind this site, is aimed at this gap. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Android with an offline library of 2,140 kanji from JLPT N5 to N1. You choose a starting level and 1 to 20 new kanji a day, and you can mark kanji you already know so they never enter your queue, which matters if you are coming from WaniKani with hundreds of kanji learned. Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets keep a kanji in view, and guided writing checks stroke order, direction and shape as you draw. It teaches kanji only, so pair it with a grammar resource. The full trade-offs are in our WaniKani comparison.

Kanji Study is the other choice here on Android, with study sets by JLPT level or Japanese school grade. And if your only complaint is that WaniKani has no official mobile app, the third-party apps its help center mentions may solve that without switching at all.

How to switch without losing your progress

The real cost of switching is not money but momentum. A few habits keep you from starting over:

1. Note your level before you leave. Your WaniKani level tells you roughly which kanji you know. Start the new app at the matching JLPT level, or mark known kanji as learned, rather than starting from the first lesson.
2. Keep one review queue per kanji. Reviewing the same kanji in two apps doubles your workload without doubling your memory. If you keep WaniKani for reading, use the second app only for what WaniKani lacks, such as writing or grammar.
3. Keep your daily new-item count modest. Most burnout comes from review piles, not from lessons. Our guide to spaced repetition explains why a steady, small daily number beats bursts.
4. Try before you commit. WaniKani's free levels, Skritter's trial, Kanji Study's free tier and the free versions of Anki and renshuu all let you test a week of real study first.

For a wider look at kanji apps beyond WaniKani alternatives, including Duolingo, see the best apps to learn kanji.