Of every flashcard app we looked at, Mochi is the one whose instincts most resemble ours. It is also the one where the remaining difference is easiest to state precisely, because Mochi already got most of the way there.
At a glance
| Mochi | aitutors.me | |
|---|---|---|
| Card states | New · Learned · Archived | Active · Mastered · Put away · (deck) Archived |
| Archiving keeps history | Yes | Yes |
| Distinguishes achievement from abandonment | No — one bucket | Yes |
| Anything happens when a card ends | No | A moment, a brighter star, a counter |
| Who writes the cards | You | The tutor, from the lesson |
| Forgotten cards | Re-review queue before resetting | Requeued in session, then tomorrow |
| Notes / markdown | Strong | Not applicable |
| Audience | Adults and self-directed students | KS3 students with a tutor |
Give Mochi its due
Two things Mochi does that most of its competitors do not.
It has a proper retirement state. Mochi's documentation is explicit: cards are New, Learned or Archived, and "archiving a Learned card will retain its learned state and review history". Archived cards are ignored by the review system. That is genuinely closer to our model than anything Anki or RemNote offers, and when we wrote our own specification we had it slightly wrong — we assumed Mochi's retirement was an automatic, retention-triggered setting. It is not. It is a deliberate manual action, much like our put-away.
Forgetting is handled gently. When you forget a card in Mochi, it goes into a re-review queue rather than immediately resetting its progress; only forgetting again resets the interval. That is a kinder design than a hard reset and it rhymes with our own approach — a Tricky card comes back within the same session before its schedule restarts.
Mochi is also, simply, beautifully made. If you are an adult looking for a flashcard app you will actually enjoy opening, it is the one we would point you at.
The one real difference
Mochi's archive is a single neutral state.
The card you have genuinely mastered and the card you are sick of both go to the same place, and nothing happens when either arrives. For an adult that is fine — you know which is which, and you do not need the software to acknowledge it.
For a twelve-year-old it is not fine, and this is the whole reason we split it:
- Mastered keeps its star in the Sky, stays counted on the shelf, is badged ★, and produces a small moment the first time it happens.
- Put away leaves quietly. Not counted, no star, no ceremony — because sometimes a card is just not useful, and that should be unremarkable.
If finishing something and abandoning something produce the same screen, the product is quietly teaching a child that the two are equivalent. That is a small design decision with a large message inside it.
There is a second-order effect too. Because mastering is distinguishable, it can be counted — and "★ 12 locked in" is the only number in our flashcard product that goes up when a child gets better rather than when they fall behind. A single neutral archive cannot produce that number, because it does not know which cards were victories.
Where the reason goes
One further difference, less philosophical and more mechanical. When a child puts a card away here, they can say why in one tap: too simple, not relevant any more, don't want to, or something looks wrong with it.
That reason does something. If too simple starts dominating a subject, it means the tutors are pitching low in that subject — a signal that changes how the child is taught. Mochi has nobody to send that signal to, which is not a flaw in Mochi; it is a consequence of being a tool rather than a teaching service.
The one exception is something looks wrong with the card, which routes to a human for review, and also holds any copy of that card that had been shared with other children.
Who should use which
Mochi, if you are an adult or an older student who wants a well-made flashcard app with notes, will write your own cards, and wants to own the workflow.
Us, if the person using it is a KS3 child, the cards need to appear without a fight, and you want the difficulty signal to reach a teacher rather than sit in an app.
FAQ
What is Mochi?
A polished spaced-repetition flashcard app with notes, markdown support and a clean review flow. It is widely considered the best-designed alternative to Anki.
Does Mochi let you retire a card?
Yes. Mochi has three card states — New, Learned and Archived — and archiving a learned card keeps its review history while removing it from review. It is a manual action, not automatic.
So what is the actual difference?
Mochi's archive is one neutral state. Ours separates mastered from put away, because for a child, learning something and giving up on something must not produce the same outcome.