I’m using the WaniKani free trial right now, but am unable to pay for the free version. I heard Kanji Garden is a good alternative. I know you can’t review often due to it being behind a paywall but Renshuu and Anki can get me through that. Is there any other things I should know? Any advice or information is well appreciated (“⌒∇⌒”)
— Previous article
Tochoji Temple, Fukuoka, 2022
Next article —
4 comments
I don’t think it is. It only quizzes you on kanji, while wanikani teaches vocabulary. Plus it also costs money anyway – it’s not just reviews that are limited but you can also only learn new kanji very slowly.
But if you already use Anki, you don’t need a separate tool for kanji anyway. They do the same thing, they basically just sell you the setup and extra work like example sentences and audio. All stuff you can gather yourself from free resources online. Or look for an existing kanji focused Anki deck.
You can do WaniKani on Anki for free. Just take the highest rated WaniKani deck.
If you’re not able to pay for either not really. I prefer Kanji Garden bc I do my vocab learning outside of these programs, additionally when I read and find a new Kanji I want to study I can add that to Kanji Garden whenever I want but with wanikani you’re forced into their learning order.
A friend of mine is about 600 kanji into Kanji Garden, and he likes the app but gets frustrated with the fact that it only teaches lone kanji and not any vocab words that use or combine the kanji. (WaniKani includes vocab.) He puts in a lot of time studying, but it’s not as useful as it would be with the vocab connection.
The best free (and legal) alternative to WaniKani I’m aware of are the RTK Anki decks based on Heisig’s Remember the Kanji books. Those also teach kanji in isolation, but they use a quicker format meant to give you basic familiarity, then let you switch into studying vocab directly. I think the Resources section for this sub has links to suggested decks.