Damien Elmes says he’s stepping back from being Anki’s bottleneck—without saying goodbye.
Anki’s creator, Damien Elmes (often known as “dae”), shared a major update about the future of Anki: after nearly two decades of largely solo stewardship, he intends to gradually transition business operations and open-source stewardship to the team behind AnkiHub.
The headline reassurance is clear: Anki is intended to remain open source, and the transition is framed as a way to make development more sustainable, reduce single-person risk, and accelerate improvements—especially long-requested quality-of-life and UI polish.
Why this change is happening
Damien described a familiar pattern for long-running open-source projects: as Anki grew in popularity, demands on his time increased dramatically. Over time, the work shifted away from “deep work” (solving interesting technical problems) toward reactive support, constant interruptions, and the stress of feeling responsible for millions of users.
- Time pressure and stress: Unsustainably long hours began affecting well-being and relationships.
- Delegation limits: Paying prolific contributors helped, but many responsibilities remained hard to delegate.
- Bottleneck risk: Relying on one person puts the entire ecosystem at risk if they become unavailable.
Why AnkiHub?
According to the announcement, AnkiHub approached Damien about closer collaboration to improve Anki’s development pace. Through those conversations, Damien concluded that AnkiHub is better positioned to help Anki “take the next level,” in part because they’ve already built a team and operational capacity.
Crucially, Damien also emphasized that he has historically rejected buyout or investment offers due to fears of “enshittification” and misaligned incentives. This new transition is presented as different: it aims to preserve Anki’s values and open-source nature, while removing the single-person bottleneck.
“This is a step back for me rather than a goodbye — I will still be involved with the project, albeit at a more sustainable level.”
What AnkiHub says they believe
In their reply, AnkiHub emphasized that Anki is “bigger than any one person or organization” and belongs to the community. They echoed the principles associated with Anki’s development: respect for user agency, avoiding manipulative design patterns, and focusing on building genuinely useful tools rather than engagement traps.
Commitments and reassurances
- Open source: Anki’s core code is intended to remain open source.
- No investors: They state there are no outside investors influencing decisions.
- No pricing changes planned: They explicitly say no changes to Anki pricing are planned.
- Not a financial rescue: They say Anki is not in financial trouble; this is about improving capacity and resilience.
- Mobile apps continue: They say mobile apps will remain supported and maintained.
- AnkiDroid remains independent: They state there are no plans/agreements changing AnkiDroid’s self-governance.
What might improve (and why users should care)
If the transition works as intended, users may see benefits in areas that are hard to prioritize under constant time pressure:
- Faster development: More people can work without everything bottlenecking through one person.
- UI/UX polish: Professional design support to make Anki more approachable without losing power.
- Better onboarding: Improved first-run experience and fewer rough edges for beginners.
- Stronger add-on ecosystem: Clearer APIs, better docs, fewer breaking changes, more predictable releases.
- Lower “bus factor”: Reduced risk if any one contributor disappears.
Open questions
AnkiHub also acknowledged that many details are still undecided and invited community input. Areas still being worked out include:
- Governance: How decisions are made, who has final say, and how community feedback is incorporated.
- Roadmap: What gets built when, and how priorities are balanced.
- Transition mechanics: How support scales up without breaking what already works.
FAQ
Will Anki remain open source?
Yes. Both Damien and AnkiHub explicitly frame the transition around keeping Anki’s core open source and aligned with the principles the project has followed for years.
Is this a sale or VC takeover?
The announcement positions this as a stewardship transition, not a typical investor-led acquisition. AnkiHub states there are no outside investors involved.
Are pricing changes coming?
AnkiHub says no pricing changes are planned and emphasizes affordability and accessibility.
What about mobile and AnkiDroid?
They say mobile apps will remain supported. AnkiDroid is described as continuing as an independent, self-governed open-source project.
Bottom line
Damien isn’t leaving—he’s stepping back to a more sustainable role. The goal is to remove a long-standing bottleneck, reduce ecosystem risk, and speed up improvements without compromising what makes Anki special.
If you’ve wanted faster progress, better UI polish, and a more resilient future for Anki—this transition is designed to make that possible, while keeping the project open source and community-oriented.
Published: February 2, 2026 • Category: Announcements • Tags: Anki, Open Source, AnkiHub, Study Tools
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