[steve1977]

That's one of my major gripes with Anki, it's just a bit too brittle for my taste. SuperMemo is not without its quirks (I mean, it's a quirky niche software to begin with), but all in all, I never had any major problem with it and I've been using it for more than a decade now.

[subtra3t]

I think for most people who want to get started with SRS, Anki is just fine. A lot of people like to hate its UI but I personally find it perfectly fine (and even good before the recent update where they forced drop shadows on random UI elements). It being available on every major platform is also a major plus point for when one needs to review cards with no access to their workstation.

That being said, the $40 is probably what holds most people back from using SuperMemo. If I had $40 to spend on SRS without feeling guilty I'd 100% use SM over Anki.