Inku

We recommend Inku over Anki for most Japanese learners who want prepared daily review on iPhone. Its native app supplies kana, vocabulary, kanji, phrases, audio, and an FSRS queue, so you can study without selecting a deck or maintaining templates. Anki remains better when your own sentences and collection are the point. Ownership disclosure.

What is prepared in the native iPhone app

Inku’s current native catalog includes:

• 208 hiragana and katakana cards;
• 2,701 vocabulary cards, including 2,461 organized from JLPT N5 through N1 and 240 topic cards;
• 429 kanji with guided lessons;
• 436 phrases across casual, polite, and travel packs; and
• 6,000 bundled audio clips across the main library.

The JLPT does not publish official vocabulary lists, so those decks are curated by level rather than claims of complete exam coverage. The 429-kanji path is useful for a focused N5 to N3 foundation, but it is smaller than a specialist course built around more than 2,000 characters.

Prepared material is the reason to choose Inku. You pick a bundle, set a manageable number of new cards, and complete the daily queue. The product has already made the card-format, reading, audio, and content-order decisions.

The role it fills

Inku is a companion for a textbook, class, tutor, reading habit, or listening practice. It gives you a compact recall loop without asking you to design the review system first.

The app uses FSRS and the familiar Again, Hard, Good, and Easy grades. The scheduler stays under the daily flow instead of becoming a separate configuration project. If you want to estimate how a new-card habit becomes later reviews, the SRS workload simulator provides a generic model. It is not Inku’s scheduler.

Inku also lets you save personal cards for words you meet. That is useful for a small amount of personal vocabulary, but it does not turn Inku into Anki. There is no Anki deck import, template system, add-on ecosystem, or transfer of existing review history.

Native iPhone and web are separate

The full prepared catalog described above belongs to the native iPhone app. It stores learning progress locally and does not require an Inku learning account.

A separate account-based web app offers a smaller selection of kana, N5 vocabulary, and phrases. Its progress and Pro access do not sync with the iPhone app. Do not assume that buying or completing material on one surface unlocks or updates the other.

Android is not currently available. If you need Android, desktop review, or one collection synchronized across several platforms, Anki is the more capable choice.

Where Anki is stronger

Anki is better when you want to mine sentences, import an existing deck, build custom prompt directions, attach source-specific media, or control the collection for years. You can also start Anki without add-ons and choose a prebuilt deck. Its setup burden depends on how much control you decide to use.

The choice is about who owns the curriculum. Inku supplies a maintained Japanese library. Anki lets you supply or select every card. Read Inku vs Anki for the detailed decision.

Try Inku if the prepared iPhone job fits. Start with a small daily set and keep Anki if you already have a trusted custom collection.

Other limits

Inku is not a complete Japanese course. It does not replace grammar explanation, conversation, listening to natural Japanese, or extensive reading. Bunpro is designed for prepared grammar retrieval. WaniKani supplies a fixed radical, kanji, and vocabulary sequence with a larger kanji target.

Bundled audio covers the main native library. Some smaller surfaces can fall back to the device’s Japanese voice when a clip is unavailable. Use the trial to decide whether the voice and pacing fit your listening needs.

Pricing and a fair test

Subscription terms can change. Confirm the current trial and price on inkujapanese.com and the App Store before subscribing.

During the trial, start one relevant bundle and keep the new-card count low. Check four things after a week: whether you completed the queue, whether the prepared material matched your current Japanese, whether the audio helped, and whether you wanted more control than the app provides.

If kana is the current bottleneck, use the two-week kana guide. For a phone-first setup, read Japanese flashcards on iPhone. For the content-ownership decision, read ready-made Japanese flashcards versus a deck you build.