Open Elifba vs Nur
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Open Elifba
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Open Elifba is a free, open-source app designed to help you learn to read Arabic script — from the very first letter to advanced Tajweed (Quran recitation) rules. LEARN AT YOUR OWN PACE Whether you are an absolute beginner or looking to sharpen your Tajweed knowledge, Open Elifba guides you through a structured curriculum with clear, bite-sized lessons organized into categories. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • Arabic Letters — Recognize and pronounce all 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet. • Letter Forms — Learn how each letter changes shape at the beginning, middle, and end of a word. • Diacritics (Harakat) — Master Fatha, Kasra, Damma, Sukun, Shadda, and Tanween. • Vowel Lengthening (Madd) — Understand Natural Madd, Connected Madd, Disconnected Madd, Necessary Madd, Temporary Madd, and Soft Madd. • Tajweed Rules — Practice Ikhfā' (Concealment), Izhār (Clear Pronunciation), Idgham (Merging), Iqlāb (Letter Change), Qalqalah (Echoing Sound), and more. • Pronoun Rules — Learn extended and non-extended pronoun rules. • Lafzatullah — Study the special pronunciation rules for the word "Allah." AUDIO-GUIDED PRACTICE Every exercise comes with native audio pronunciations. Tap the card to hear the correct sound and practice until you get it right. SMART SPACED REPETITION Open Elifba uses a spaced repetition system to intelligently schedule your reviews. Exercises you've mastered appear less frequently, while ones that need practice come back sooner — so you spend your time where it matters most. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS • See your accuracy rate and average response speed for each category. • Monitor how many exercises you've reviewed vs. how many remain. • Categories are color-coded to highlight what needs attention. BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED A clean, modern interface with dark mode support. Elegant card-based exercises with smooth animations make learning feel effortless. 12 LANGUAGES SUPPORTED The app interface is available in English, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Hindi, Japanese, Chinese, and Danish — so you can navigate in the language you're most comfortable with. FREE & OPEN SOURCE Open Elifba is completely free with no in-app purchases. The source code is openly available, making it a community-driven project you can trust. Start your Arabic reading journey today with Open Elifba.
Nur
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Most apps rush past the Arabic alphabet in ten minutes and leave you sounding out words from a transliteration forever. Nur teaches the script itself. Seven stages take you from a single letter to a full sentence: the 28 letters on their own, their forms inside a word, the short vowels, tanween and sukoon, the long vowels, joining, and finally reading. KEY FEATURES • Every letter in three steps — hear it, trace it in the correct stroke order, then record yourself and play it back against the reference. • Stroke-order tracing that shows where the pen starts and where it goes. This is what makes ج, ح and خ stop looking identical. • 260 words across themed classes — numbers, colours, family, the body, animals, food and drink, and more. • Four practice games: spot the letter, name the letter, find them all, and build the word. • Progress you can see — mastery per letter, a streak, and an optional weekly summary. • Works on iPhone and iPad. WHAT IT COSTS Nur is free. No subscription, no in-app purchase, nothing locked behind a paywall. It is supported by ads shown between practice games. YOUR RECORDINGS Your voice stays on this device. No account, no sign-in, and recordings are never uploaded. Nur counts which lessons get finished so the hard parts of the course can be improved, and you can turn that off under Progress. REQUIREMENTS iOS 17 or later. The microphone is needed for the recording step — decline it and everything else still works.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Open Elifba at none against Nur's shown. Open Elifba also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On price, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Open Elifba | Nur |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Omer Bilal Yay | Mohamed Smina |
In-app purchases
Open Elifba
No in-app purchases
Nur
No in-app purchases









