Yomichan Alternative: Why Users Are Migrating in 2026
You installed Yomichan years ago on a recommendation, hovered a Japanese word, and got an instant definition. Then the project went quiet, and your browser started warning you the extension was outdated. If you went looking for a Yomichan alternative and landed on Yomitan, Migaku, 10ten Reader, and a dozen Reddit threads that all disagree, you are in the right place.
I ran Yomichan and then Yomitan for about two years before my wife and I started building immit. This post is the comparison I wish I'd had: what happened to Yomichan, what the real alternatives are for learning Japanese in 2026, and where each one fits. I'll concede what the open-source tools do better, because they do plenty better, and I'll be specific about where immit is the cleaner answer.
Yomichan was discontinued in February 2023. The original developer, foosoft, stepped back, and the project was archived. That is the single fact that reorders everything: if you are still running Yomichan, you are running an unmaintained extension, and Google Chrome's move to Manifest V3 has been slowly breaking unmaintained extensions across the board.
The community response was Yomitan, a fork that picked up where Yomichan left off. Yomitan is maintained by the yomidevs group and runs on both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. For most ex-Yomichan users, "migrate to Yomitan" is the obvious first move, and it is a reasonable one.
But a fork inherits the parent's shape. Yomitan, like Yomichan before it, is a lookup tool. It shows you a word, and then it hands the job of remembering that word to a separate app. In 2023 that tradeoff was just how things were done. In 2026, with Manifest V3 churn pushing people to re-evaluate their whole setup anyway, more learners are asking a bigger question than "which fork do I install." They're asking whether the lookup-plus-Anki split is worth maintaining at all.
Before comparing tools, it helps to define the bar. A pop up dictionary for reading Japanese has two jobs, and most tools only do the first one well.
The first job is lookup. You hover over Japanese text on a web page, and you get instant definitions, the reading, meanings, example sentences, and ideally native pronunciation audio so you can hear it the way a native speaker would say it. Good tools also surface grammar hints on conjugated forms, handle katakana loanwords and slang, and translate both single words and full expressions. Pitch accent information is a bonus that some tools display and some don't. This is the part Yomichan made famous and Yomitan inherited, and it works across web pages, YouTube subtitles, anime sites, and web-based manga and light novel readers.
The second job is retention. Looking a word up does not mean you learned it. If you look up the same word across three different visual novels over three weeks, the dictionary did its job each time and you still don't know the word. Building real Japanese language literacy depends on retention, and retention is the job that browser-based dictionaries traditionally punt to Anki. The gap between those two jobs is the whole reason this category is in motion.
Yomitan is the closest thing to "Yomichan, still maintained," and for a tinkerer it's excellent. Its basic usage is what made Yomichan famous: hover over a word and get an instant definition. It supports custom dictionaries in EPWING and Yomichan format, handles deinflection so 食べました resolves to 食べる, reads individual kanji and their component characters, and works on Firefox. It's free and open source.
Its anki integration is first-class. Click once and Yomitan pushes a flashcard to Anki through AnkiConnect. That is also where the cost hides. What Yomitan is built to do is lookup, and it leaves retention to Anki by design. The practical setup is real: you import dictionaries from custom sources through the settings page, you install and configure AnkiConnect, and you maintain the Anki deck on the other side. The community estimate is around 30 minutes if you read the docs. For learners who enjoy configuration as part of the hobby, that's time well spent. For learners who want to read Japanese rather than assemble a toolchain, it's the wall a lot of people find too difficult to tackle and never get over.
Yomitan is not the only option, and the broader field of browser-based dictionaries is worth a quick map.
10ten Japanese Reader (formerly Rikaichamp) is an actively maintained pop up dictionary for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, often named as the closest lighter drop-in. It does fast hover lookup, reads individual kanji, and is free. Rikaichan and Rikaikun are the previous generation, largely superseded by 10ten Reader but still searched by name as alternatives to Yomichan.
Outside the popup category, a few neighbors come up constantly in the same Reddit threads. Jisho is the popular standalone web dictionary people tab over to; it's an excellent English dictionary for Japanese but it isn't a hover tool, so you copy through the system clipboard rather than reading in place. JPDB provides built-in spaced repetition and tracks word frequency from various media, which is closer to immit's shape but has no popup lookup. Many language-learning platforms now integrate frequency data to help you prioritize common words, and immersion readers use selectable text to make Japanese literature easier to decipher. For video specifically, Language Reactor has a free tier for Netflix and YouTube, and Lexirise saves words with full context from videos, since Lexirise is designed for video learning and vocabulary saving. Migaku takes the all-in-one paid route, with video mining plus a built-in SRS and a real structured Course (Academy I).
What none of the free browser-based dictionaries close, except the paid all-in-one tools, is the lookup-to-retention gap inside one tool. 10ten, Rikaikun, and Jisho are lookup tools. They send you to Anki, same as Yomitan.
immit is a pop up Japanese dictionary with a built-in spaced repetition system, available as a Google Chrome extension and a desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux. You hover over a word and get an instant definition with the reading, part of speech, example sentences, and pronunciation audio you can click to hear. You save it with one click. The built-in 8-stage SRS schedules the review for you, and spaced repetition systems like this use review-timing intervals to move words into long-term memory. There is no AnkiConnect to configure, no plugin to install, no dictionary to import, and no account required. It works offline on local files and data stored on your device, and it's free.
The design idea is that lookup and review are the same loop, not two tools bolted together, closer to an all-encompassing learning tool than a single-purpose extension. immit ships JP to EN, EN to JP, and JP to JP (monolingual) directions out of the box, and the default dictionary is production-grade with no manual import. Every entry is maintained by an internal audit engine that reviews and corrects definitions based on user reports, so the dictionary gets cleaner over time rather than drifting.
There's a second surface worth knowing about: the Pocket Dictionary, a pinned window that stays in the corner of the page while you read. You can type a word into it to search without leaving the page, and you can review your flashcards in it during a reading break. It's a dictionary you read alongside, not one that takes over the screen. Yomitan and 10ten are popup-only; this is a structural difference.
The honest read: if you want maximum customization, custom sources, deinflection, and Firefox, and you don't mind maintaining Anki, Yomitan is the better tool and you should use it. If you want lookup and retention in one place with no setup, that's immit.
If you want to see it work, you can add the immit Chrome extension (free, no account) and look up a word in the next minute.
The migration is lighter than people expect, because there's almost nothing to move. Install the immit Chrome extension and the desktop app, and lookup works the moment you hover. There are no dictionaries to download through an options page and no Anki bridge to wire up, so the half hour of setup you remember from Yomichan or Yomitan isn't there.
The one thing that doesn't transfer automatically is your existing Anki deck. immit starts your vocabulary capture fresh from the words you save as you read, rather than importing a years-old Anki collection. For most lapsed Yomichan users I've talked to, that's fine, because the old deck had become a source of dread rather than a thing they reviewed. Reading volume rebuilds the deck quickly when saving is one click and review is built in.
Use immit if you want a pop up Japanese dictionary with built-in spaced repetition, zero setup, and offline support, for free. Use Yomitan if you want maximum customization, custom dictionary sources, deinflection, and Firefox support, and you're comfortable maintaining Anki alongside it. Use 10ten Japanese Reader if you want a lighter lookup-only extension across Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Use Jisho for quick standalone lookups when you're not reading in place. Use Migaku if you specifically want its structured Course plus streaming-subtitle mining and you're fine paying for it. Don't keep running Yomichan itself: it was discontinued in 2023, and on Manifest V3 it will keep degrading.
For the lapsed Yomichan user who reads a lot but never quite got vocabulary to stick, the missing piece was never a better lookup. It was retention that lives in the same place as the lookup. That's the gap immit was built to close.
For most Japanese learners, the best Yomichan alternative in 2026 is either Yomitan or immit, depending on what you want. Yomitan is the direct open-source successor and the best fit if you want maximum customization and already maintain Anki. immit is the best fit if you want popup lookup and built-in spaced repetition in one tool with no setup, free on Chrome and desktop. 10ten Japanese Reader is a strong lighter option, and Migaku is worth it if you specifically want a structured course.
Is Yomichan still available, or was it discontinued?
Yomichan was discontinued in February 2023 when its developer archived the project. It may still run in your browser, but it is no longer maintained, and Chrome's Manifest V3 transition is gradually breaking unmaintained extensions. The community-maintained successor is Yomitan.
What is the difference between Yomichan and Yomitan?
Yomitan is a maintained fork of Yomichan. Yomichan was the original popup dictionary extension, discontinued in 2023; Yomitan picked up the same codebase and continues development under the yomidevs group, with bug fixes, Manifest V3 support, and Firefox compatibility. Your old Yomichan dictionaries import into Yomitan.
Can I get a popup Japanese dictionary with built-in flashcards?
Yes. immit is a popup Japanese dictionary with a built-in 8-stage spaced repetition system, so you can look up a word and save it to review with one click, no Anki required. This is the main structural difference from Yomichan, Yomitan, and 10ten Reader, all of which do lookup and hand flashcards to a separate app like Anki.
Do I need Anki if I use immit?
No. immit has spaced repetition built in, so you don't need Anki or AnkiConnect to review the words you save. Yomichan and Yomitan, by contrast, are built for lookup and rely on Anki for review. If you're already happy maintaining an Anki deck and want maximum control, that workflow is still valid; immit is for people who'd rather not run two tools.
Does immit work offline and without an account?
Yes. immit's dictionary lookup and spaced repetition review both work offline, with no account required on the free tier.
Is there a free Yomichan alternative?
Yes. Yomitan and 10ten Reader are both free and open source, and immit's core lookup and spaced repetition are free with no account. The paid option in this category is Migaku, which bundles a structured Course and streaming-subtitle mining for a monthly fee.
