What it does: FlipCards lets you:
- Create cards for any concept (math, language, coding, etc.) - Add multiple variations per card – the more variations, the better your understanding - Study smarter – the algorithm randomly selects variations so you can’t just memorize Q→A patterns
Why it’s different:
- Most apps use reverse cards (Q→A, A→Q). FlipCards uses variations to reinforce concepts in multiple contexts. - Powered by the SM2 spaced repetition algorithm, scientifically proven for long-term retention.
Pricing:
- Free – 1 deck, 3 cards, 1 study session - Annual – $20/year for unlimited decks and cards - Lifetime – $50 one-time for unlimited everything
I built FlipCards because I kept getting stuck decorating cards in other apps. Now I can create as many variations as I want, and the algorithm mixes them for me.
I’d love feedback from the HN community:
- Does this approach to flashcards make sense? - Would you use an app like this for learning?
Try it here: https://flipcardsapp.vercel.app
Thanks, Felipe
1. The landing page and app UI is beautiful and fast, great work.
2. Never require signup for trying an app, especially for a Show HN.
3. I see the value in trying to prevent memorization of Q → A patterns, but creating cards takes time. Instead of making 1 card, I now need to make 3, that triples the amount of time spent. Additionally, why do variations need to be associated to a parent card? What's wrong with flattening your card structure?
4. The annual subscription price seems a little high, especially since there are so many free SRS programs out there.
5. Memorization of Q → A patterns can be mitigated by other means, such as making more open ended cards, requiring longer answers, or by simply trying not to just memorize and forcing yourself to think about the card and it's applications.
> Would you use an app like this for learning? Would I use it? Perhaps. Would I pay for it? No. Anki has so many more features, plugins, local control over my data, and... it's free.
Source: This is what I do on my Anki decks
People that complain that Anki ends up being just Q -> A memorization are often using it superficially. And even then, won't the algorithm just phase the useless cards out anyways when they become too easy?
The meaning of this is obvious to you, while being obscure for me. Perhaps have a link within your site to expand on the meaning of 'Decorating Cards'. ( I assume it is prettifying. Perhaps it is initial card creation, or bulk loading. Perhaps it is includes other steps. ) Describe how your software is superior to putting minimal effort into using default anki cards with text and images.
What is this app on? Is it just a website or is it a mobile app? Is it going to work offline?
What does "decorating cards" mean? I haven't heard that term before but it seems to be a key part of your selling point.
Also, how does adding variations to a card in your app differ to just adding variations as new cards in another app?
The screenshot of the app could be a lot bigger (Firefox mobile). There's two layers of blank space around so I can't actually read the text without zooming.
"Most apps use reverse cards (Q->A, A->Q)" I don't understand what this means.
I like the pricing scheme. It's simple. The only thing I would change is to add rent to buy. E.g. if you pay 20 for a year and then decide you want lifetime it's only 30. This helps to avoid the situation where 50 is too much for someone when they aren't sure they'll keep using it but 20 feels like a bad deal if they end up using it a lot and get the lifetime anyway (they've "wasted" 20).
I only ask because I've implemented various sm-2 packsges in Python, Typescript and Rust and have made them available under the MIT if anyone's interested: https://github.com/orgs/open-spaced-repetition/repositories?...
(Also, nerdy aside, but the original sm-2 technically had 6 possible ratings)
This app was the starting point for presenting interactive content in Emurse. We're currently focusing on filling in areas of language learning that are missing - like phonetics.
If anyone is interested, they can checkout Dogen's Phonetics Course on Emurse: https://emurse.io/courses. There's also an "instant demo" for the Thai Course where you can try a demo without creating an account.
I'm taking this to extreme with Vocabuo[1] for language learning. For a single word, I have cloze cards, reverse cloze, definition cards, dialogs, audio and a few more.
At some point, I'd like to take the card type into account when calculating the next repetition stage, but that's a bit far into the future.
[1] https://vocabuo.com