Comparison

First Words Professional vs Cursive Writing Wizard

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

Head to head
About

First Words Professional

This app helps children develop early reading and language skills through interactive word and letter recognition. It offers extensive customization for educators and parents, including word selection, category management, and language options.

Highlights
  • Over 350 words in 12 categories
  • Six language options
  • Phonics or letter name spelling
  • Customizable word categories
  • Customizable word lists
  • Develops fine motor control and letter recognition
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Thousands of schools use First Words to help their students develop pre-reading, early reading, and language skills. Now there’s a version of First Words specifically for educators and speech language pathologists. Of course, it's great for kids at home, too! First Words Professional has the same child-friendly design and uncluttered interface that made First Words one of the all-time best selling lines of educational apps for iOS. The new additional features make it the ideal choice for individual, institutional and professional use: * More Words --- Over 350 words in 12 categories, including shapes, numbers, food, feelings, clothes, animals, and more. * Six Languages --- Options include American English, British English, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese. * Phonics -- English word lists includes options for spelling with phonics or letter names. * Category Management --- Choose which categories of words are shown to students. Hide word lists that you don't want them to see. * Word Management --- Choose which words to include in each category. Focus on shorter words, longer words, or words with particular letter combinations. Hide words that your child finds particularly distracting. First Words Professional uses the same intuitive interface that is so easy for preschoolers, kindergartners, and kids with special needs to use. They'll giggle with delight at the beautifully drawn pictures and entertaining sounds, all the while learning how letters correspond to sounds and how letters sounds form words. First Words Professional helps kids develop: * Fine Motor Control * Letter Recognition * Phonemic Awareness * Word Recognition First Words Professional includes a large number options: * Phonics or Letter Names * Uppercase, Lowercase, or Capitalized Words * Spell Words Slowly or Quickly * Serif or Sans-Serif font Here's what educators and reviewers have said about earlier versions First Words: “First Words is an app that teaches letters and words in fun and interactive way. Very easy to use these apps will help support your little ones learning with great illustrations and bright colors. Each app supports kids learning and encourages kids to explore and discover by revealing, rewarding and teaching.” -- Fun Educational Apps “Excellent - As a teacher, I love this game! Just what technology was meant to do!” -- iTunes Review “This app has great settings that let you control the level of difficulty for the child – either with lots of hints or almost none at all. The letters slide nicely into each word and when completed the child is rewarded by having the pictured animal enlarge and animate briefly.” --Carisa Kluver at Digital Stortyime “First Words Deluxe is a very straightforward word-building game. Words are either said letter by letter as they are dragged into the appropriate gray boxes or, if chosen in the settings, a smaller set of words can be sounded out with phonics. This makes this game a treat for both pre-readers and early spellers.” --Common Sense Media “Looking to guide your toddler towards recognizing letters and how to spell words up to eight letters long? Then First Words Deluxe might be just what you are looking for. This pre-reader and spelling application encourages vocabulary development in a wide range of categories such as: vehicles, animals, at home, colors, and shapes.” --Andrea Gardner at Applicable2u "First Words is a great app -- as I said at the time, 'Leo loves First Words because it's fun and easy. I love it because he's learning to spell words, and the interface makes that learning error-free.'" ---Shannon Des Roches Rosa at Squidalicious

About

Cursive Writing Wizard

This app teaches children cursive handwriting through interactive tracing, games, and customizable word lists. It supports various fonts, phonics, and progress tracking, with features for left-handed users and accessibility.

Highlights
  • Cursive letter and word tracing
  • Customizable word lists with audio recording
  • Interactive games and animated stickers
  • Progress tracking and replayable tracings
  • Multiple font options (US, UK, French, Swiss)
  • Left-handed mode
  • Printable worksheets
Features
Read full description

• Editor's Choice Award (96/100) - Children's Technology Review • "Simply an amazing app for kids to learn cursive writing." - 5/5 - Top Pick - smartAppsForKids.com 142,000 units sold (including 62,000 to schools)! • Teach and reinforce the accurate tracing of cursive letters, as well as the proper way to join letters within words, utilizing our proprietary technology • 3 most popular US fonts (ZB, DN & HWT) + UK , French and Swiss fonts • Customise by adding your word lists (and record audio for each word) • Enjoy engaging tracing with 50+ animated stickers, sound effects, and interactive games that bring letters to life at the end of each tracing • Uppercase & lowercase letters, numbers, and words • Fully customizable to suit every child’s needs (letter size, difficulty,...) • Phonics and letter names for each letter • Monitor progress through reports that allow the replay of the child's tracing • Introduce toddlers to shapes tracing activities, fostering early developmental skills • Left-Handed Mode • Create printable Worksheets to assist your child with handwriting practice on paper • Apple Pencil support • Accessibility settings for children with visual impairments _______ PERFECT FOR KIDS Kids want to have fun, and Cursive Writing Wizard offers a lot of fun to keep them motivated in the learning process! • They can trace using 50+ animated stickers and sound effects • Once tracing is complete, they can interact with them on 5 games that animate letters • They can trace any word - like their name - and record their voice for each word • They can collect stars in 5-Stars play mode _______ PERFECT FOR PARENTS & TEACHERS • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Detailed reports provide information on what kids have done, including the ability to replay and export the tracings to view kids' progress • Share word lists via iCloud drive or other cloud providers, adhoc network, or email • Multiple parameters to customize the app according to the child’s current education level (e.g. letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc.) • 3 most popular US fonts (ZB, DN & HWT) + UK and U French fonts • Upper and lower case letters, numbers + word lists • Letter names and letter sounds (which can be customized) • A customizable 5-Stars play mode prompting the child to trace a letter or a word 5 times using different parameters (each step is more challenging) • Create an unlimited number of users • Many settings to customize the app (sound, game time limit, black background,...) • Left-Handed Mode • In the A-Z section, special graphics available to match letters (e.g. ant graphic for A/a) • Accessibility settings for children with visual impairments _______ "Cursive Writing Wizard is just as wonderful and well-designed as the original Writing Wizard" 5/5 - AppyMall.com _______ Privacy Policy KNOW WHAT'S INSIDE As a Moms with Apps member, we follow the "Know what's inside" best practices for kids’ apps L’Escapadou takes children’s privacy seriously. We believe you should not have to worry about your kids being tracked by apps or websites. This app: • Does not collect any user information (we do not use data collection tools) • Does not contain in-app purchases • External Links: Protected parent sections are available where you can send us a mail and check out our others apps. Before accessing a parent section, an addition must be solved so that young kids cannot access it.

Screenshots

First Words Professional4 screens
Cursive Writing Wizard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Cursive Writing Wizard at every 5 months against First Words Professional's every 16 months. Cursive Writing Wizard also leads on ratings volume (793 vs 39) and rating (4.4 vs 4.2). First Words Professional's advantage is price ($9.99 vs $12.99) and chart position (#181 vs unranked). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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

First Words Professional costs $9.99 and Cursive Writing Wizard $12.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cursive Writing Wizard holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cursive Writing Wizard has 793 ratings behind it against 39, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of First Words Professional's written reviews are positive against 89% of Cursive Writing Wizard's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

First Words Professional ships an update every 16 months, Cursive Writing Wizard every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
First Words Professional versus Cursive Writing Wizard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFirst Words ProfessionalCursive Writing Wizard
Price$9.99 — better$12.99
Rating4.2 (39 ratings)4.4 (793 ratings) — better
Positive reviews77.4% of reviews88.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings39793 — better
Update frequencyEvery 16 monthsEvery 5 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#181 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.2 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size103 MB65 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLearning Touch LLCPierre Abel

Customer experience

First Words Professional

All ratings39 ratings
Positive79.5%
Neutral5.1%
Negative15.4%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive77.4%
Neutral3.2%
Negative19.4%

Cursive Writing Wizard

All ratings793 ratings
Positive84.9%
Neutral6.1%
Negative9.1%
Written reviews107 reviews
Positive88.8%
Neutral2.8%
Negative8.4%

Bugs and requests

First Words Professional

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Cursive Writing Wizard

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Tracing not recognized properly at times
  • App crashes or freezes unexpectedly
  • Certain words not working as expected

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add uppercase cursive letters
  • Implement a coin/reward system for practicing
  • Include International Phonetic Alphabet support
  • Expand content and add more variety

In-app purchases

None

First Words Professional

No in-app purchases

None

Cursive Writing Wizard

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is First Words Professional free?
First Words Professional costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cursive Writing Wizard free?
Cursive Writing Wizard costs $12.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, First Words Professional or Cursive Writing Wizard?
Cursive Writing Wizard is rated higher. First Words Professional averages 4.2 out of 5 from 39 ratings, while Cursive Writing Wizard averages 4.4 from 793 ratings.
Do First Words Professional or Cursive Writing Wizard have ads?
Neither First Words Professional nor Cursive Writing Wizard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, First Words Professional or Cursive Writing Wizard?
First Words Professional ships an update every 16 months, and Cursive Writing Wizard every 5 months. Most recently, First Words Professional was updated on October 15, 2026 and Cursive Writing Wizard on October 16, 2026.

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