How to Choose Your First Japanese Vocabulary App

Your first Japanese vocabulary app should match your current problem with the least setup. For most beginners, that means a prepared word list with audio, on a device you already carry, with a daily review load you can finish. Five questions decide this faster than another ranking.

This page is the decision only. For the reasoning behind it, read ready-made flashcards versus a deck you build and what SRS is actually for.

1. Who should choose the words?

If you cannot yet name the words you want to keep, choose an app that supplies them. A blank card system asks you to design a curriculum before you know any Japanese. If you already have a source, such as a class, a textbook chapter or a show, a tool that accepts your own items becomes useful.

• Nothing to bring yet: a prepared library such as Inku, or the curated lesson packs on renshuu.
• A class or textbook: Anki with a small deck that follows the book. renshuu also lets you make your own lessons beside its prepared packs.
• A specific show or novel: JPDB. Its homepage lists prebuilt vocabulary decks for anime, novels and visual novels, and it can extract the words from text you paste in.

2. Can you read kana yet?

Vocabulary cards show words in hiragana, katakana or kanji. If you still sound out every character, each word card becomes slow kana practice, and the queue feels harder than it is. Fix that first. The two-week kana guide uses one drill and one review loop.

Some apps put kana at the start. Inku does: its free kana practice runs in the browser, and its help page describes kana cards with audio and a handwriting trace mode on iPhone. That helps if you want one app for both jobs. It is not required. A free kana drill followed by any vocabulary tool also works.

3. Do you need audio on every card?

For a first app, usually yes. You learn the sound of a word at the same time as its meaning. A card with no audio lets you learn a wrong pronunciation without noticing. Check how the audio is made, not only whether it exists.

• Inku’s help page says its main library ships with bundled audio made with ElevenLabs voice synthesis. Some smaller surfaces fall back to the device’s built-in Japanese voice.
• Anki supports audio on cards. Whether a card has audio depends on the deck you choose or build.
• JPDB’s FAQ lists word and sentence audio during reviews. It also notes that iOS browsers block audio autoplay.

Listen to ten cards before you commit. If the voice or speed bothers you now, it will bother you more after hundreds of reviews.

4. What review load will it create?

Every new word becomes future reviews. Apps differ in how hard they push. JPDB’s homepage says it does not limit how many new cards you learn per day, and that some users do 15 while others do 200. That freedom is a risk in your first month.

Decide your number before you choose. About five new items a day is the starting point in the SRS burnout guide. Then confirm that the app lets you set a daily limit and keep it. The SRS workload simulator shows how that number becomes later reviews.

5. Does it run where you study, at a price you will keep paying?

A good app on the wrong device does not get opened. Check the platform first, then the price.

• Anki: the official site lists a free computer version, free AnkiWeb sync and free AnkiDroid for Android. AnkiMobile is the official iOS app, and its purchases fund Anki’s development.
• Inku: an iPhone app plus a web app that runs in a phone browser. The native Android app is still in development. The help page says iPhone and web progress stay separate.
• renshuu: a website whose homepage links to iPhone and Android apps. Its App Store listing says the free version is unlimited, with optional in-app purchases.
• JPDB: the FAQ says there is no mobile app at present. You can add the website to your home screen.

Confirm current prices on each official page before you pay. Subscription terms change more often than features.

Put the answers together

• You want prepared words with audio on iPhone: Inku.
• You want prepared lessons for free, on web, iPhone or Android: renshuu. Turn on only one or two activities at first.
• You have a textbook or class and a computer or Android phone: Anki with one small deck that follows your course.
• You already read kana and want the words from one show or book: JPDB.
• You want a fixed kanji path: that is a different job. WaniKani teaches vocabulary through its radical and kanji sequence, so it is not a general first vocabulary app.

If two answers point to different apps, follow question 1. Who chooses the words matters more than any single feature.

Test one app for two weeks

Choose one app. Keep new cards low, finish the daily queue, and use a few of the words outside the app. After two weeks, ask three questions: Did I open it every day? Did the words appear in my other Japanese? Can I hear them clearly? If the answers are yes, keep it. If not, go back to question 1 instead of adding a second app. A beginner path that does not start with Anki covers the rest of the first month.

Next step: compare the tools in detail on the Japanese flashcard and SRS apps shortlist.

Sources

• Inku help center — Kana cards with audio and a handwriting trace mode on iPhone; main-library audio is ElevenLabs synthesis with device-voice fallback; iPhone and web progress stay separate; Android not available. (checked 2026-10-15)
• Inku official site — Web app runs in a phone browser alongside the iPhone app; native Android app still in development. (checked 2026-10-15)
• Anki official site — Free computer version, free AnkiWeb sync, audio on cards, free AnkiDroid, and AnkiMobile as the official iOS app whose purchases fund development. (checked 2026-10-15)
• JPDB official site — Prebuilt decks for anime, novels and visual novels; vocabulary extraction from pasted text; no daily limit on new cards, with users doing 15 to 200 per day. (checked 2026-10-15)
• JPDB FAQ — Word and sentence audio in reviews, iOS autoplay restriction, and no current mobile app with a home-screen option. (checked 2026-10-15)
• renshuu official site — Curated lesson packs plus user-made lessons, and links to the iPhone and Android apps. (checked 2026-10-15)
• renshuu on the App Store — The free version is unlimited, with optional in-app purchases. (checked 2026-10-15)
• WaniKani official site — Radicals, kanji and vocabulary taught through a mnemonic, level-based kanji sequence. (checked 2026-10-15)

Prepared by our editorial team with AI assistance. Product details are checked against the sources below.

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