Anki has been the default recommendation for Chinese learners for over a decade, and it deserves the reputation it built. The spaced repetition algorithm is solid. The community has produced some genuinely impressive shared decks. But if you have spent more than a few months seriously studying Mandarin, you have probably hit the wall that Anki quietly builds around character-based learning.
The core problem is that Anki treats every card the same way. A card for the radical for water looks identical to a card for a vocabulary word, which looks identical to a tone pair drill. There is no structural relationship between them. You learn the character for river and the character for sea in total isolation from each other, even though they share the same radical and understanding that connection is half the battle. Anki does not know or care about that relationship.
Apps built specifically for Chinese, or at least for spatial and relational learning, handle this differently. Skritter tracks your stroke order and handwriting separately from recognition. Pleco is a dictionary first, with flashcard features bolted on. And newer tools like Gridually use a grid format where character relationships can be arranged spatially, so visual pattern recognition does real work alongside rote memory.
Anki's card-by-card model was designed for isolated fact recall. For Chinese characters, that model has a specific failure mode: you can pass your reviews every day and still not recognize a character in the wild because you memorized the flashcard image rather than the underlying structure. The radical system exists precisely so learners can decompose unfamiliar characters into known components. Anki does not reinforce decomposition. It reinforces pattern-matching on a specific card. Skritter and Pleco both embed radical information directly into the learning flow, which changes what you actually retain. If you are serious about reading authentic Chinese text, that difference matters a lot more than Anki's scheduling algorithm.
Preparing for HSK exams means learning vocabulary in defined bands. HSK 1 through 6 have official word lists, and the jump from one level to the next is not linear. HSK 5 and 6 involve characters that are visually complex and contextually dense. Anki lets you import HSK word lists as CSV files, which works, but the setup burden is entirely yours. You find the deck, you verify it is accurate, you configure the card template, you handle audio separately. Apps like Pleco and Gridually come with structured content already organized by HSK level, so you spend your time studying instead of configuring. For learners with a specific exam deadline, that is not a small difference.
Anki is not wrong for Chinese, but it is a general tool being pushed into a specialized role. If you are past the beginner stage and working toward HSK 4 or above, a purpose-built alternative will get you to reading fluency faster. Try Skritter for writing, Pleco for reading, and Gridually if you want a spatial review format that makes radical patterns stick. Gridually's spatial encoding is based on memory research from the University of Chicago, University of Bonn, and Macquarie University.
For Chinese characters, Gridually's spatial grids help with radical pattern recognition by placing related characters near each other. Skritter specializes in character writing practice. Pleco is the best Chinese dictionary app with built-in flashcards. Anki has extensive HSK decks but requires significant setup for Chinese-specific features.
Focus on the radical system. Chinese characters are built from about 200 common components that carry meaning and pronunciation hints. Spatial grids let you group characters by shared radical so you see these patterns visually - much more effective than memorizing characters one at a time.
Yes. Gridually imports Anki .apkg files. Your HSK vocabulary becomes spatially organized grid items where radical relationships and character component patterns become visually apparent.