Alkas vs. iNaturalist
iNaturalist is the best platform for recording and identifying wildlife observations. Alkas is the best platform for learning to identify species yourself. They're complementary tools.
The short version
iNaturalist is a citizen science platform. You photograph a species, upload it, and the AI plus community experts tell you what it is. Your observations contribute to real scientific research. It's an incredible tool - nearly 300 million observations from 4 million contributors worldwide.
But iNaturalist identifies species for you. It doesn't teach you to identify them yourself. You can use iNaturalist for years and still need to pull out your phone every time you see a warbler.
Alkas picks up where iNaturalist leaves off. It uses spaced repetition - the most effective learning technique known to science - to help you actually memorize species. You can even sync your iNaturalist life list to study species you've already observed but can't yet recognize on your own.
Recording observations vs. building knowledge
iNaturalist: Identify what you see
You find a species in the field, photograph it, and upload it. The AI suggests an identification, and community experts confirm or correct it. Your observation becomes part of a global biodiversity dataset.
The platform does the identifying for you. You don't need to learn species to participate - that's by design. It's optimized for data collection, not education.
Alkas: Learn to identify yourself
You create a deck for your region or an upcoming trip. Alkas shows you species photos and asks you to identify them. Cards you struggle with appear more often. Cards you know space out to weeks, then months.
Over time, you build the skill to recognize species without pulling out your phone. This is the same technique medical students use to memorize thousands of terms - and it works just as well for wildlife.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Alkas | iNaturalist |
|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | Learn to identify species yourself through spaced repetition | Record observations and get species identified by AI + community |
| Learning tools | Flashcards, spaced repetition (FSRS), mastery tracking, study streaks | None - identification is done for you |
| Species coverage | 152,000+ species across US and Canada | Global - millions of species worldwide |
| Photos | Community-voted photos optimized for identification learning | User-uploaded observation photos (scientific documentation) |
| Identification traits | Community-curated traits (appearance, behavior, habitat) attached to species | Identification remarks in observation comments (unstructured) |
| Study decks | Custom decks by region, park, taxa, season, or traits | Not available |
| Life list | iNaturalist connection + eBird (includes Merlin) / Audubon CSV import | Automatic from observations (the gold standard) |
| Community | Photo contributions, trait voting, shared decks | Observation IDs, projects, forums, expert community |
| Trip preparation | Build a deck for any park, study species before you go | Browse species by location (no study tools) |
| Pricing | Free | Free (nonprofit, donation-funded) |
Better together
iNaturalist and Alkas aren't really competitors - they solve different problems. iNaturalist is where you record what you see. Alkas is where you learn to see more.
The workflow: Sync your iNaturalist life list to Alkas. Now you can study the species you've already observed but can't confidently identify on your own. Create a deck for your region and spend 15 minutes a day reviewing. Next time you're in the field, you'll recognize species before reaching for your phone.
iNaturalist's own community has been asking for flashcard features since 2020. Users on the forum have requested the ability to "make flashcards from a selection of species" and to "study local biota before traveling." Alkas is the tool they've been describing.
The identification crutch problem
AI identification is incredible. But there's a downside: if someone always identifies species for you, you never learn to do it yourself. Some iNaturalist users call this "clicker" culture - uploading photos and relying on the AI without building personal knowledge.
That's not a criticism of iNaturalist - it's designed for data collection, and it excels at that. But if your goal is to walk through a forest and recognize what you see, you need active practice. Spaced repetition is how you get there.
What the community has been asking for
"When I travel, it would be great to be able to use iNaturalist to learn the local biota before I get there."
"I was joking the other day that I should make 'flashcards' to reinforce my learning of common plant galls."
"iNat data would make for a great natural history quiz app. The trick would be to empower users to create their own quizzes... It could also be used to learn how to ID certain species before going to a new place."
"I did struggle with Anki in the end though. I wanted to focus on birds I wasn't getting right, but the cards I was getting was automated and fixed."
"What I had wanted, in order to prepare for those trips, was a birding game that would teach me the species we'd need to learn. Such things do not exist, unless you want to construct them."
"We've all been in that situation where we thumb through our field guide on the plane with a naive sense of confidence, only to be completely overloaded with unfamiliar identification challenges."
When iNaturalist is better
- - You want to identify something you just found in the field
- - You want to contribute observations to real scientific research
- - You want to explore what species exist in any location worldwide
- - You want to connect with expert naturalists and join projects
When Alkas is better
- + You want to memorize species so you can identify them without your phone
- + You want structured study sessions with proven learning science
- + You're preparing for a trip and want to learn species you'll encounter
- + You want to study species from your life list that you can't yet ID on your own
- + You want community-curated identification traits on your flashcards
Learn the species you observe
Sync your iNaturalist life list and start studying. Free.
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