Yes, the free version costs nothing and, according to Mochi, allows unlimited cards, decks and offline use including templates and import/export. Sync between devices is only available with Pro, which according to the pricing page costs 5 USD per month with annual payment.

Can I go back from Mochi to Anki?

Only via CSV. An .apkg export is not documented, and according to Mochi the CSV export loses review history and templates.

Optional. The default is its own algorithm with fixed multipliers; FSRS can be selected. Even then, ratings are only Remembered or Forgot.

checkst vs. Mochi: Markdown cards or iPhone app?

Q: Can Mochi import Anki decks?

Yes, .apkg including review history. In doing so, Mochi removes CSS and JavaScript and converts HTML to Markdown, so elaborate Anki templates may look different afterwards.

Mochi is the app for people who want to write their notes in Markdown and keep flashcards right alongside them. Local-first, usable without an account, available on almost any device you own. That is a clear philosophy, and it is a good one.

checkst is a different bet: a native app for iPhone and iPad that takes the work of building cards off your hands and aims to make everyday studying more pleasant. Here is where the two differ.

Status: November 2026. All information about Mochi comes from the sources linked below.

The comparison at a glance

	checkst	Mochi
Platforms	iPhone and iPad	iPhone, iPad, Android, Web, macOS, Windows, Linux
Free version	Core features free	unlimited cards and decks, offline, without sync
Payment model	Pro 4.99 EUR for six months (subscription, renews automatically)	Pro 5 USD per month with annual payment; Euro price not found
Sync	iCloud free, checkst account with Pro	Pro only, with account
Algorithm	FSRS, four rating levels	own algorithm or FSRS, two levels (Remembered/Forgot)
.apkg import	yes, with learning progress; Anki templates, cloze, image occlusion and formulas are rendered	yes, with review history; CSS and JavaScript are removed
.apkg export	yes	no; CSV without review history or its own .mochi format
AI cards	from text, PDF and photos; on-device or your own OpenAI key	AI Text Generator from entered text; Free 5,000, Pro 500,000 tokens per month
Notes	no, pure flashcard app	Markdown notes and cards in the same workspace
Offline	yes	yes, local-first

Where Mochi is ahead

Available everywhere. iPhone, iPad, Android, browser, Mac (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows, Linux as AppImage. If you write cards on desktop and study on your phone, Mochi keeps everything in one place. checkst is only available for iPhone and iPad.

Notes and cards in one place. Mochi is Markdown-based, so you write notes and turn them into cards without switching apps. One Reddit user explicitly names the links between cards as an advantage over their Anki workflow. checkst is a pure flashcard app; you write notes elsewhere.

Templates that think ahead. With Dynamic Fields, Mochi automatically adds translation, example sentence, pronunciation and images from an image search to vocabulary cards. For structured vocabulary decks, this saves a lot of typing.

Generous free version. Unlimited cards and decks, offline, without an account, with import and export. According to the privacy policy, Mochi stores no user data on its servers without an account.

FSRS with history. You can switch from Mochi's default algorithm to FSRS, and according to the documentation the existing learning history is carried over.

Where checkst is ahead

Four rating levels instead of two. Even with FSRS, Mochi only knows "Remembered" and "Forgot", which are mapped internally to Good and Again. "Hard" and "Easy" do not exist. checkst rates with all four levels and shows you in advance when each card will come back.

Anki decks look the way they do in Anki. When importing .apkg files, Mochi removes CSS and JavaScript and converts HTML to Markdown. For simple decks that does not matter, but for elaborately designed medical or language decks, a lot looks different afterwards. checkst renders Anki templates with fields, conditions, cloze and type-in answers.

The way back is open. Mochi exports only CSV for Anki, and according to the documentation review history, templates and tags not contained in the text are lost in the process. Mochi's own .mochi format contains everything, but only Mochi can read it. checkst exports .apkg.

AI for the material you actually have. Mochi's AI Text Generator works with entered text; the research did not find a direct PDF upload with card generation. In checkst you open the lecture PDF in split view, photograph whiteboard content (OCR), or have cards generated from text. By default this runs on the device via Apple's Foundation Models, without a token quota.

Sync via iCloud. Mochi offers cross-device sync only with Pro and an account. Add to this a detail from the privacy policy: according to Mochi itself, data in Mochi's database is not encrypted, and Mochi advises against sensitive content. checkst syncs via iCloud.

Built for the iPhone. Whether Mochi's iPhone app is built with native Apple technologies is not documented. Users report problems: one App Store review describes Mac and iPhone as "do not sync together very well", and a forum user describes an iOS sync that seems never to finish. The developer has confirmed weaknesses in incremental sync after longer pauses and admitted that mobile startup and sync times are too long. checkst is a native SwiftUI app with widgets, streaks and study groups.

Who is behind it?

Mochi is offered by Mochi Cards, LLC; the App Store lists Matthew Steedman as the provider. Matt describes himself in the forum as founder and "main developer" and writes that Mochi is profitable and self-sustaining. Whether he works on it alone is not confirmed. Concern about long-term maintenance nevertheless comes up in the forum, and with small teams it is always justified, incidentally also with checkst.

Moving from Mochi to checkst

Export your cards from Mochi. For Anki compatibility, Mochi offers CSV.
Expect that review history and templates will be lost in the process.
If you originally imported the decks from Anki, it is better to use the old .apkg. You can open it directly with checkst, and templates are preserved.

Conclusion

Mochi fits if you think in Markdown, want to link notes and cards, study on desktop and Android, or are looking for a strong free version without an account.
checkst fits if you mainly study on iPhone or iPad, want to use Anki decks faithfully and export them again as .apkg, and want to generate cards from PDFs and photos.