The problem is once people pay for a service or invest time on learning a free platform, they will irrationally defend their decision to the point it’s almost

The problem is once people pay for a service or invest time on learning a free platform, they will irrationally defend their decision to the point it’s almost impossible to get good recommendations on language learning tools online. Few people really tried multiple platforms fully (it takes years) to the point they are able to make criticism fairly about long term effect (which is the important point). The SRS approach with cards content made by yourself is more time consuming but works better long term due to the context from which you created the cards, but it takes some time to understand the process correctly (not only the software interface, but how it interfaces with your own memory). There are also other SRS platforms other than Anki, but Anki gets all the floor space because of its sheer number of users (popularity). Some may be better.