Anki ownership transferred to AnkiHub

Anki, the spaced repetition software, has recently transferred ownership to AnkiHub. AnkiHub is a separate company that has been built around the Anki ecosystem over the last couple of years. Damien, the previous steward and main contributor has further commented on the subject here. The maybe most important points for casual users:

There are zero planned changes to the revenue model:

• The computer version of Anki, and future releases of it, will remain free and open source.
• Syncing will continue to be free, supported by sales of the iOS app.
• AnkiMobile will continue to be a $25US one-time purchase.

The popular AnkiDroid app will, to my understanding, continue to be independent, although there, too, the primary contributor is in discussion with joining AnkiHub.

Damien continues to note

I feel the need to stress that I was the one that reached out to them about this transition, not the opposite. I’ve struggled with the pressure of being project lead for some time, but felt trapped as I didn’t want to leave things in the hands of people I don’t trust. AnkiHub are the first people to come along where I have a reasonable degree of confidence in their ability to execute, and preserve the ethics I’ve run it by until now. Had Nick and Andrew not agreed to step up and take on this responsibility, I suspect I would have ended up burning out completely, leaving Anki in an even worse state.

Events like this can be a great chance for a project to prosper or to be driven into the ground. I was never interested in all the bells and whistles AnkiHub offers; I just want a simple app that does my reviews right. For now, I’ll just follow the developments and hope for the best. In the meantime, thank you, Damien, for creating such an amazing piece of software and leading it for a long 19 years! Burnout is a common problem among OSS devs, and I hope this can help you to work with a more healthy pace and focus.