Comparison

Imagine Learning Student vs Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Imagine Learning Student

This app provides interactive language and literacy instruction for students from Pre-K to 6th grade. It offers a personalized learning path with thousands of engaging activities to improve reading, vocabulary, and spelling skills. It requires a site code from a school or district to function.

Highlights
  • Interactive language and literacy instruction
  • Personalized learning paths
  • Thousands of engaging activities
  • Focus on letters, phonological awareness, reading, and vocabulary
  • Develops reading comprehension and spelling skills
  • Learn to read over 250 books and articles
Features
Read full description

Imagine Language & Literacy® harnesses the power of technology to teach language and literacy to students around the world through engaging, interactive instruction. This mobile app is a companion to Imagine Learning's cloud-based services which allows students and teachers to have flexible access to the extensive curriculum activities. Imagine Language & Literacy lessons and activities are designed for Pre-K through 6th grade students. A personalized learning path differentiates instruction and boosts student achievement for English language learners, struggling readers, early childhood students, and students with disabilities. Imagine Language & Literacy includes thousands of fun, interactive, research-based activities, so students have fun while learning! Build a crazy monster while learning the alphabet. Play basketball while learning to spell. Free aliens by identifying the correct letter. Learn to read more than 250 books and articles. Children encounter activities in four main areas: letters, phonological awareness, reading, and vocabulary. Instruction is offered in a variety of literacy skills including letter recognition, reading comprehension, idiom comprehension, vocabulary development, phonic rules, spelling, rhyming, and phoneme segmentation. Please note this app will not work without being assigned a site code specific to your school or district. Please visit http://support.imaginelearning.com for information about System Requirements and Release Notes.

About

Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.

This app helps children learn to read through a research-based methodology that breaks down reading skills into thousands of micro-actions. It offers personalized learning paths and detailed progress reports for educators and parents.

Highlights
  • Personalized reading paths
  • Micro-action learning methodology
  • Phonemic awareness focus
  • Progress reporting for educators
  • Adaptive learning technology
  • Offline access
Features
Read full description

New from Scholastic! A new adventure in learning to read! Small Actions. Big Results. Ooka Island transforms teaching foundational reading skills by breaking the process down into thousands of micro-actions — 6,695 to be exact. With an instructionally robust methodology and highly adaptive technology, Ooka Island actively personalizes each student’s path toward fluent reading. - Steeped in Research and Efficacy Built on Dr. Kay MacPhee’s proven, research-based concepts, Ooka Island purposefully leads with securing children's phonemic awareness while teaching phonological skills to ensure reading words becomes as effortless as speaking-so students can focus on comprehension. Dive into the research to learn more about Ooka Island's effective foundational reading program. - Reporting for Educators at All Levels It's important to know how a student, class, school or district is progressing at both a high-level and the most granular. It's equally important to make that data actionable for educators. Ooka Island’s meaningful reports are filled with the richest and most impactful metrics, giving educators the tools they need to help meet their critical reading goals. - Adaptive. Really. Being highly adaptive means seamlessly supporting all students throughout their early reading journey. With three levels of adaptability—immediate scaffolding, adaptations to pacing, and more complex interventions—Ooka Island's continuous formative assessment understands the precise moment, and the right type of intervention, to help a student succeed. - Learning After the Bell Connecting reading to the home and family has a significant lifelong impact. Purposefully designed to be equitable for outside of school access, Ooka Island can be used anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Using their personalized account, students pick up wherever they left off, continuing to make measurable progress on their own learn to read adventure.

Screenshots

Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Imagine Learning Student at 36% against Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.'s 10%. Imagine Learning Student also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (1K vs 60). Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.'s advantage is rating (3.5 vs 3.2) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. holds the better App Store score, 3.5 against 3.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Imagine Learning Student has 1K ratings behind it against 60, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 36% of Imagine Learning Student's written reviews are positive against 10% of Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Imagine Learning Student ships an update fortnightly, Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 18, 2026 and August 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Imagine Learning Student versus Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterImagine Learning StudentScholastic F.I.R.S.T.
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.2 (1K ratings)3.5 (60 ratings) — better
Positive reviews36.5% of reviews — better10.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1K — better60
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.012.0
Further details — not scored
Size85 MB433 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperImagine Learning, Inc.Scholastic Inc.

Customer experience

Imagine Learning Student

All ratings1,017 ratings
Positive53.1%
Neutral5.2%
Negative41.7%
Written reviews96 reviews
Positive36.5%
Neutral8.3%
Negative55.2%

Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.

All ratings60 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral6.7%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews10 reviews
Positive10.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative80.0%

Bugs and requests

Imagine Learning Student

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and log-outs
  • Incorrect scoring/grading in activities
  • Compatibility issues on certain devices
  • Syncing/progress issues when switching devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • More engaging and challenging content for older students
  • Improved stability and fewer bugs
  • Faster pacing and less repetition
  • Better customization options

Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Imagine Learning Student

No in-app purchases

None

Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Imagine Learning Student free?
Imagine Learning Student is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. free?
Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Imagine Learning Student or Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.?
Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. is rated higher. Imagine Learning Student averages 3.2 out of 5 from 1K ratings, while Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. averages 3.5 from 60 ratings.
Do Imagine Learning Student or Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. have ads?
Neither Imagine Learning Student nor Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Imagine Learning Student or Scholastic F.I.R.S.T.?
Imagine Learning Student ships an update fortnightly, and Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. every 2 months. Most recently, Imagine Learning Student was updated on September 18, 2026 and Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. on August 24, 2026.

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