SuperMemo's installer is 47MB and looks like it was designed during the Windows XP era—because parts of it were.
I'm not saying that to mock it. I'm saying it because SuperMemo represents something rare in 2026: software built by researchers who care more about algorithm correctness than user acquisition metrics. Piotr Wozniak invented the SM-2 algorithm in 1985, and SuperMemo has been iterating on spaced repetition science ever since. It's now on SM-18.
SmartRecall, the tool I built, took the opposite path. Modern web app, AI-generated flashcards, FSRS algorithm under the hood, designed to get you reviewing in under 60 seconds. I wanted to see if the 40-year-old Windows app could teach me something about what actually matters in spaced repetition.
TL;DR: SuperMemo is unmatched for serious polyglots and researchers willing to invest 10+ hours learning incremental reading. SmartRecall is faster to start, works everywhere, and uses AI to eliminate card creation friction—but lacks SuperMemo's advanced knowledge management features. If you're learning a language from scratch or building a 10,000+ card medical deck, try SuperMemo first. For everything else, SmartRecall's speed and AI generation win.
How I evaluated them
I used both tools for three weeks with the same material: intermediate Spanish vocabulary (600 words), a technical book on distributed systems, and random facts I wanted to remember from articles.
I measured six things:
- Time to first review — how long from install to actually studying
- Card creation speed — manual entry vs AI generation vs import
- Algorithm effectiveness — retention rates and review load
- Incremental reading — SuperMemo's killer feature vs SmartRecall's lack of it
- Cross-platform access — where can you actually use it
- Learning curve — hours to competence
Pricing context: SuperMemo 18 is $59.99 one-time (Windows only). SmartRecall is $8/month or $60/year (web, iOS, Android).
1. Time to first review: 90 minutes vs 90 seconds
SuperMemo took me 87 minutes to get to my first review session. Not because the software is slow—because I had to learn what I was doing.
The installer works fine. But then you're dropped into a UI with 14 top-level menus, a "Knowledge Tree" concept you need to understand, and a workflow that assumes you've read the manual. I spent 40 minutes just figuring out how to create a basic flashcard deck without accidentally triggering incremental reading mode.
The SuperMemo documentation is comprehensive—over 200 pages—but it's written for people who want to understand why the software works this way, not people who want to start reviewing in five minutes.
SmartRecall took 94 seconds. I pasted a Wikipedia article about the Byzantine Generals Problem, clicked "Generate Cards," reviewed the AI-generated flashcards, edited two that were too vague, and started my first session. No manual. No knowledge tree. No decisions about card templates.
Honest critique of SmartRecall: This speed comes at a cost. You can't customize the algorithm parameters the way SuperMemo lets you. If you want to manually tune your retention target or adjust the difficulty multiplier for specific card types, SmartRecall doesn't expose those controls. We made a bet that FSRS defaults work for 95% of users—but the other 5% will feel constrained.
Winner: SmartRecall for speed, SuperMemo if you value control over convenience.
2. Card creation: AI generation vs manual mastery
SuperMemo's card creation is entirely manual. You type the question, type the answer, optionally add images or audio, and assign it to a category in your knowledge tree. For my 600 Spanish words, this took 4 hours and 12 minutes including looking up example sentences.
But here's what surprised me: by hour three, I was faster in SuperMemo than I expected. The keyboard shortcuts are extensive (Ctrl+N for new item, Alt+A for answer field, Ctrl+Enter to save). If you're creating thousands of cards and willing to learn the shortcuts, SuperMemo's manual workflow becomes muscle memory.
SmartRecall generated those same 600 Spanish cards in 11 minutes. I pasted my vocabulary list, selected "Language Learning" as the card type, and GPT-4 generated questions with context sentences, pronunciation hints, and common usage examples. I spent the 11 minutes reviewing and editing about 40 cards where the AI chose awkward example sentences.
For the distributed systems book, the gap was even wider. SmartRecall generated 89 cards from a 12-page chapter in 3 minutes. Doing that manually in SuperMemo would have taken me over an hour.
The catch: AI-generated cards are only as good as your source material. When I tried generating cards from a poorly-written blog post, SmartRecall produced vague questions like "What is the main concept?" SuperMemo forces you to think through each card, which means you're encoding the knowledge as you create it. There's learning value in that friction.
Winner: SmartRecall for speed, SuperMemo if card creation is part of your learning process.
3. Algorithm effectiveness: SM-18 vs FSRS
This is where I expected SuperMemo to dominate. The SM-18 algorithm is the result of 40 years of iteration. FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler), which SmartRecall uses, is newer—published in 2022.
After three weeks, my retention rates were nearly identical:
- SuperMemo: 91.2% retention, average 47 reviews/day
- SmartRecall: 89.8% retention, average 52 reviews/day
SuperMemo's algorithm is more conservative. It schedules reviews slightly further apart, which means fewer daily reviews but occasionally forgetting a card I thought I knew. SmartRecall's FSRS is more aggressive early on, front-loading reviews to establish memory, then spacing them out.
The real difference is control. SuperMemo lets you set a target retention rate (default is 90%, you can adjust from 70-98%), modify the difficulty multiplier for individual cards, and even override the algorithm's scheduling if you want. SmartRecall gives you three buttons: Again, Hard, Good, Easy. That's it.
For my use case—learning Spanish and technical concepts—I couldn't tell the difference in outcomes. Both algorithms work. SuperMemo's extra control matters if you're optimizing for specific retention targets (medical students memorizing drug interactions) or if you have strong opinions about how your memory works.
Winner: Tie on effectiveness, SuperMemo for control, SmartRecall for simplicity.
For a practical breakdown of the major algorithms, read how SM-2 compares to FSRS.
4. Incremental reading: SuperMemo's secret weapon
This is SuperMemo's killer feature and the reason serious users tolerate the learning curve.
Incremental reading lets you import articles, books, and PDFs, then read them in small chunks over time while automatically extracting flashcards. You highlight a sentence, press a hotkey, and SuperMemo converts it into a cloze deletion or Q&A card. The system schedules both your reading and your reviewing using spaced repetition.
I used it to work through a 40-page research paper on consensus algorithms. Instead of reading it in one sitting (and forgetting most of it), I read 2-3 paragraphs per day, extracted 6-8 cards per session, and reviewed them alongside my other cards. After two weeks, I had 94 cards from the paper and actually retained the concepts.
SmartRecall has nothing like this. You can paste text and generate cards, but there's no incremental reading workflow. If you want to learn from long-form content, you're either generating all the cards upfront (which defeats the purpose of incremental reading) or manually copying sections as you go.
Honest critique of SmartRecall: We don't have incremental reading because it's genuinely hard to build well, and I'm not convinced most users would use it. But for the users who would use it—researchers, students working through textbooks, polyglots reading foreign-language novels—it's a dealbreaker feature we don't have.
Winner: SuperMemo, no contest.
5. Cross-platform access: 2026 vs 1995
SuperMemo 18 is Windows-only. There's an Android app (SuperMemo for Android) but it's a separate product with a different algorithm and no sync with the desktop version. If you use a Mac, you're running Windows in a VM or not using SuperMemo.
I tested this by trying to do my reviews on three devices: my Windows desktop, my MacBook, and my iPhone. SuperMemo worked on one of them.
SmartRecall is a web app with native iOS and Android apps. I started a review session on my laptop, continued it on my phone during a coffee break, and finished on my iPad that evening. Everything synced instantly. This is table stakes for software in 2026, but it matters.
Winner: SmartRecall.
6. Learning curve: investment vs instant gratification
I spent 11 hours learning SuperMemo before I felt competent. That includes reading documentation, watching YouTube tutorials, and experimenting with incremental reading. I'm still discovering features.
I spent 8 minutes learning SmartRecall because there's almost nothing to learn. Paste text, generate cards, review them. The AI handles card formatting, the algorithm handles scheduling, and the UI has six buttons total.
SuperMemo's learning curve is a feature, not a bug. The software is complex because spaced repetition done right is complex. If you're building a 10,000-card medical school deck or learning three languages simultaneously, those 11 hours are worth it.
But most people aren't doing that. Most people want to remember what they read, learn some vocabulary, or study for a certification exam. For them, SuperMemo's learning curve is a barrier they'll never cross.
Winner: SmartRecall for most users, SuperMemo for power users.
Final verdict
Use SuperMemo if:
- You're learning a language from scratch (5,000+ cards)
- You want incremental reading for textbooks or research papers
- You're on Windows and don't need mobile access
- You value algorithm control and customization
- You're willing to invest 10+ hours learning the system
Use SmartRecall if:
- You want to start reviewing in under 5 minutes
- You learn from articles, videos, and short-form content
- You need cross-platform sync (Mac, iOS, Android, web)
- You want AI to generate cards from your source material
- You value simplicity over configurability
I'm biased—I built SmartRecall—but I genuinely learned from using SuperMemo. It showed me that spaced repetition can be more than flashcards. Incremental reading is a workflow I want to build into SmartRecall eventually, and SuperMemo's keyboard-driven efficiency made me rethink some of our UI decisions.
But for 90% of learners, SmartRecall's speed and AI generation eliminate the friction that stops people from actually using spaced repetition. SuperMemo is the tool for people who want to master the system. SmartRecall is the tool for people who want the system to get out of their way.
The best spaced repetition tool is the one you'll actually use every day. For most people in 2026, that's not a Windows app from 1985—no matter how good the algorithm is.
Want the full field? SuperMemo is one of four tools I compare in Anki vs RemNote vs Mochi vs SuperMemo.
