Cursive Words vs Handwriting Success
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cursive Words
Practice cursive writing with this educational app designed for families. Customize settings to tailor the learning experience and play until mastery is achieved. It's a fun way to improve handwriting skills.
- Cursive writing practice
- Family-friendly
- Customizable settings
- Mastery-based gameplay
- Educational tool
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Cursive Words is a great way for the family to practice cursive writing. Select the options in the "Settings" screen. Play until you master the game. If you like this app, please consider giving it a rating. Your support will help keep the updates coming! Thank you for your support!
Handwriting Success
This app brings a popular handwriting program to your tablet, offering digital workbooks for instruction and practice. Users can write, erase, and practice repeatedly with customizable pen tools. It's designed for students, adults, and professionals seeking legible, modern handwriting.
- Interactive digital workbooks
- Customizable pen color, width, and opacity
- Digital eraser for repeated practice
- Screen rotation and pinch-zoom
- Bookmark creation
- Screenshot sharing for teachers
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Welcome to handwriting in the 21st century. Compatibility: iPad Pro 12.9", iPad Pro 11", iPad Air 10.9" or iPad 10.2". Requires iOS 13.0 or later, and the use of Apple Pencil or similar paired stylus with palm-rejection features. The Getty-Dubay® Handwriting Success App brings the popular Getty-Dubay® handwriting program in eight workbooks to your tablet and stylus. Each ebook is a complete program that you can write in, with pages and pages of instruction and practice. You’ll be able to use the worksheets over and over by digitally erasing your previous sessions — practice to your heart's content. Free ebook samples come with the download. Full content is available via the in-app bookstore, with monthly and yearly subscription options, each with a free trial period. All nine Getty-Dubay® handwriting ebooks are available via in-app purchase or subscription. Free samples allow you to try before you buy. There’s a responsive drawing engine, screen rotation for smaller tablets and pinch-zoom. The Getty-Dubay® Handwriting Success App is simple to use. Turn pages, scroll, navigate and create bookmarks in the same way you would with an ebook. The fun comes when you touch your stylus to the screen. Now you can select the color, width and opacity of your pen line. Trace and copy the handwriting models, reading the instructions and tips as you go. Redo your work and practice more by selecting the eraser icon, or by erasing the entire page at once. Teachers and parents, with the Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series ebooks you can now incorporate technology into your handwriting instruction with seven age-appropriate workbooks (Books A-G) and an Instruction Manual. Books A through G are available on this app as one-year subscriptions. Adults and professionals, with the WRITE NOW ebook you can learn to use your stylus with confidence and ease to produce notes that you feel good about sharing, and that your colleagues & friends (and your handwriting recognition software) can read. This is not your grandparent's handwriting. For over 40 years, the authors Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay have been teaching people — from medical professionals to school children — how to have legible, handsome handwriting without the loops and curlicues of conventional looped cursive. Getty-Dubay® Italic is already enjoyed by tens of thousands of adults and students worldwide. It's real handwriting, for real life. The App content takes you step-by-step through the printed italic alphabet (lowercase and capitals) and numerals, then onto joining these letters for flowing, legible cursive italic writing. And the books walk the talk: All are handwritten by the authors. Students can take a screenshot of their work to send to their teacher. This App replaces the need for the paperback workbook, which means you're saving paper and the resources that would have gone into producing and shipping the product. While you may experience improved handwriting after just a few sessions, most gains will come from repeated practice over time. As you use this app, try out your new handwriting on whiteboards, or with pen and paper for thank you notes, other correspondence or school work. For help, and to access the free online resources that come with this app: www.handwritingsuccess.com/app-support Privacy Policy: https://handwritingsuccess.com/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://handwritingsuccess.com/app-terms-of-use/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Handwriting Success at none against Cursive Words's shown. Handwriting Success also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 12 months) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). Cursive Words's advantage is review sentiment (57% vs 26%) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, rating, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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. Cursive Words sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Handwriting Success sells 33 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Handwriting Success holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 353 and 233 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 57% of Cursive Words's written reviews are positive against 26% of Handwriting Success's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Cursive Words ships an update every 12 months, Handwriting Success every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cursive Words | Handwriting Success |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (353 ratings) | 4.0 (233 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 57.0% of reviews — better | 26.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 353 — better | 233 |
| Update frequency | Every 12 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 157 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Horizon Business, Inc. | Handwriting Success, LLC |
Customer experience
Cursive Words
Handwriting Success
Bugs and requests
Cursive Words
Reported bugs
2 issues- App crashes or stops working after a few days of use
- Occasional freezing or unresponsiveness
Requested features
5 requests- Add uppercase letters and more advanced words
- Implement feedback/correction on writing
- Allow use of pen/stylus instead of just finger
- Incorporate mini-games or challenges to make it more engaging
- Introduce different difficulty levels or progression
Handwriting Success
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Cursive Words
- Remove Ads$4.99
- Uppercase Words$4.99
Handwriting Success
- Book E Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book D Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book C Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
Show 21 moreShow fewer
- Book B Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book A Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book E Monthly (Legacy)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book D Monthly (Legacy)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book G Monthly (Legacy)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book C Monthly (Legacy)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book A Monthly (Legacy)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book B Monthly (Legacy)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Book F Monthly (Legacy)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- WRITE NOW Monthly Subscription3 Days trial$3.991 Month
- WRITE NOW Monthly (Legacy)3 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Annual Subscription7 Days trial5 variants$8.991 Year
- Book D Annual Subscription7 Days trial$8.991 Year
- Book A Annual Subscription7 Days trial$8.991 Year
- Book B Annual Subscription7 Days trial$8.991 Year
- Book C Annual Subscription$8.991 Year
- Book G Annual Subscription$8.991 Year
- Book A Annual (Legacy)7 Days trial$8.991 Year
- Book E Annual Subscription$8.991 Year
- WRITE NOW Annual Subscription3 Days trial$12.991 Year
- WRITE NOW Annual (Legacy)3 Days trial$12.991 Year
- Handwriting curriculum age 5-6$8.99
- Handwriting curriculum age 6-7$8.99
- Handwriting curriculum age 7-8$8.99
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Handwriting curriculum age 8-9$8.99
- Handwriting curriculum age 9+$8.99
- Handwriting curriculum age 10+$8.99
- Handwriting curriculum age 11+$8.99
- Handwriting Success for adults$12.99
- Handwriting curriculum manual$12.99
Questions
Is Cursive Words free?
Is Handwriting Success free?
Which has better reviews, Cursive Words or Handwriting Success?
Do Cursive Words or Handwriting Success have ads?
Which is updated more often, Cursive Words or Handwriting Success?
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