Sticky Study is a genuinely good app, and that is the right place to start an honest comparison. It is a flexible, customizable iOS flashcard tool that includes a writing mode and data export, which makes it a strong all-rounder. If you are looking for an alternative, the useful question is what you want more of, because the answer points in different directions.

What Sticky Study does well

Sticky Study’s strength is flexibility:

  • Customizable flashcards you can shape to your needs.
  • A writing mode alongside recognition study.
  • Data export, which power users value for owning and moving their study data.
  • An all-in-one feel, covering several study modes in one app.

For a learner who wants one configurable tool that does many things, including some writing, that is a real and reasonable choice.

The trade-off: breadth versus writing depth

The flip side of a flexible all-rounder is that no single mode is the entire focus. A writing mode inside a broad flashcard app is one feature among many, where a tool built only for writing can make from-memory production the center of everything, the difference we keep returning to in the case for a dedicated Hanzi writing app.

So if writing recall is your single priority, you may want depth over breadth: a tool where hiding the character, producing it from memory, checking stroke order, and scheduling review is the whole product, not a tab. If you value configurability and export across many study types, Sticky Study’s breadth is the advantage instead. This is the same breadth-versus-focus call we make in a minimalist Anki alternative.

On export specifically

Export matters to people who want to own and move their data, a fair priority, related to the questions in importing Pleco flashcards. If that is central to you, weigh it heavily, because a focused writing app may not offer the same export flexibility.

Where Hanzi Write Practice fits, honestly

Hanzi Write Practice is the focused-writing alternative, not a Sticky Study clone. It centers entirely on from-memory writing: hide the character, draw it on a grid, check stroke order, pinyin, and meaning, and let spaced repetition return what you forget. The honest trade is that it does not match Sticky Study’s flashcard breadth, customization, or export, and we will not pretend it does.

Choose by your priority. For a flexible, exportable all-rounder, Sticky Study is excellent. For depth in writing recall specifically, that is the lane we are built for.

Join early access and go deep on writing recall.