Mochi is the closest peer to Discito — both are modern, design-conscious flashcard apps using FSRS-family scheduling, both aimed at studiers who outgrew AnkiMobile's UI. The forks are real but narrow: iOS-native vs web-first, on-device AI vs cloud AI, one-time pricing vs subscription. Here's where each fits best.
| Discito | Mochi | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $14.99 once | $5/mo or $50/yr |
| Scheduling algorithm | FSRS-6 (latest) | FSRS (varies by version) |
| Platform priority | iOS-native (SwiftUI) | Web-first, native secondary |
| Account required | No (iCloud only) | Yes (email + password) |
| Image occlusion authoring | Yes (Pro) | Yes |
| LaTeX rendering | Yes (Pro) | Yes |
| Markdown rendering | Yes (Lite) | Yes |
| AI card generation | On-device (Apple Intelligence) | Cloud-based |
| Lecture audio → flashcards | Yes (on-device) | No |
| Home Screen widget + Live Activity | Yes | No |
Mochi is a web-first product. The web app is the primary surface, with macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux clients built around it. The architecture means feature parity across platforms is a real focus and a desktop/web user gets the full experience.
Discito is iOS-only and SwiftUI-native. No web app, no Android app, no desktop client. The trade-off: if you study on a desktop browser, Mochi fits better. If your primary device is an iPhone or iPad, Discito's iOS depth shows up everywhere — Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen Live Activity, Dynamic Island review controls, Control Center widget, Focus Mode integration, 5 reading themes, dark mode app icon. These features can't be built on a web-first product.
Mochi's AI features run in the cloud — your notes and source material are processed on their (or an upstream provider's) servers. That's the standard model and not inherently bad, but it does mean your study material leaves your device, and it usually means an ongoing AI-cost component baked into the subscription.
Discito's AI features run on-device via Apple Intelligence (iOS 26 Foundation Models). Card generation from text, PDF parsing, lecture audio transcription via SpeechAnalyzer, and smart MCQ distractor generation all happen on your phone. No API key, no cloud round-trip, no recurring AI fees, no data-broker risk. Requires iPhone 15 Pro or later or M1+ iPad — the hardware floor is the trade-off for the privacy guarantee.
Discito ships an end-to-end lecture-audio capture flow: record (up to 90 minutes), transcribe via on-device SpeechAnalyzer, segment the transcript, generate Q&A cards via Apple Intelligence, review and edit before saving. Source-timestamp attribution lets you jump from a flashcard back to the exact moment in the audio that produced it. For medical students, law students, and language learners doing immersion-style study, this is the feature that closes the loop from "I just attended a class" to "I have study material" without manual transcription work. Mochi doesn't ship this feature as of this writing — check their site for current status.
Both apps ship image occlusion authoring and LaTeX rendering for math/science material — these are table stakes for modern flashcard apps targeting medical students and STEM learners. In Discito, image occlusion authoring is a Pro feature (rendering of imported IO cards from .apkg files works in Lite); LaTeX rendering is Pro; Markdown rendering is Lite. The boundaries reflect what's expensive to build (IO authoring touch + drag canvas, WKWebView + MathJax integration) vs what's table stakes (Markdown rendering via swift-markdown-ui).
Mochi Pro is $5/month or $50/year. Over 5 years on the annual plan, that's $250.
Discito Pro is $14.99 once, lifetime, Family Sharing included. Founder pricing through end of 2026 — going to $19.99 in 2027. Discito Lite is free forever.
Mochi and Discito both use FSRS-family scheduling. Discito ships FSRS-6 specifically, bit-exact with the py-fsrs reference (validated by a parametric fuzz harness for every algorithm touch). Mochi's exact FSRS version isn't always published in marketing; check their current docs.
Mochi supports exporting decks in Anki .apkg format. The migration is straightforward:
.apkg format..apkg directly via the Share Sheet or Files app.
FSRS state, cards, cloze cards, image occlusion cards, images, audio, and tags all carry over via Discito's bit-exact .apkg import. Card templates (Q&A, cloze, basic-reverse, image occlusion) map directly. Anything Mochi-specific (deck linking, custom card styling specific to Mochi's renderer) may need adjustment after import.
Mochi Pro annual is $50/year. Discito Pro is $14.99 once (founder pricing through end of 2026).
Family Sharing is included with Discito Pro — one purchase covers up to 5 family members.
Discito Lite is free forever — full FSRS-6, iCloud sync, unlimited cards, .apkg import. Try it with your existing Mochi export before deciding on Pro.