Their First Words vs Dinolingo

Dinolingo is a language course for children aged 2 to 14 in fifty languages — videos, games, songs, books and worksheets — for $19 a month or $199 a year. Their First Words is first words and everyday phrases in eight languages, each spoken by two native voices, for $9.99 once. One is a course a child follows. The other is a set of cards a parent uses.

By the parents who make Their First Words · October 2026 · facts checked October 2, 2026

We make Their First Words, so this is our own comparison — written by the two parents who build it, not by a reviewer. The facts about Dinolingo were checked on October 2, 2026 against its store listings and website, and the sources are listed at the end. Prices are US prices and change. Where another app is the better choice for your family, this page says so.

The short version

Which one, in one minute.

Pick Dinolingo if…

You want a language we don’t have: Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish and forty more.
Your child is 5 to 14 and ready for lessons, games and worksheets they do themselves.
You want a course with structure — units, progress, printables — and a subscription fits.
You want videos and songs, not cards.

Pick Their First Words if…

Your child is 0 to 5 and the two of you are naming things at the table.
Your languages are among our eight, and you want a native voice on every word and phrase.
You want to own it for $9.99 — or stay free with 75 words and 35 phrases.
You want nothing to stream and no account.

At a glance

Side by side, no adjectives.

Fact	Dinolingo	Their First Wordsours
What it is	A language-course subscription for kids: videos, games, songs, books and worksheets in 50 languages	Parent-led flashcards: illustrated first words and everyday phrases, each spoken by a female and a male native voice
Ages	2–14, as the maker states	0–5, in three parent-chosen stages (phrases are not split by stage)
Price	Subscription: $19 a month or $199 a year; 7-day free trial	$9.99 once for everything; no subscription
What’s free	The trial	75 words and 35 phrases, forever, in all eight languages with both voices
Languages	50 languages, including all eight of ours and many more (Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese…)	English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Korean and Russian on every card (the app’s own screens are in English)
Who holds the phone	The child, through videos and games; worksheets and a parent area alongside	The parent. You say the word; the app is the prop.
Works offline	Not stated on its pricing page	Yes, completely — every picture and clip ships inside the app
Ads	None, as the maker states	None, at any tier
Account	Required	Not needed; optional sign-in only syncs progress between devices

Dinolingo facts checked October 2, 2026; sources below. “Who holds the phone” is who the app is designed around: a child playing, or a parent holding it and talking.

Credit where it is due

Where Dinolingo is better.

Fifty languages. Including all eight of ours and the ones we will never have.¹ If your family language is Vietnamese or Greek, this page is not a contest.
A real course. Lessons, videos, songs, books, games and worksheets, with a structure a child moves through, for ages up to fourteen.¹ Ours is vocabulary and phrases for the first five years.
Works in a browser. Web, iOS and Android.¹ Ours is iPhone, iPad and Android only.
Child-led. A seven-year-old can sit with it alone. Our cards need an adult to turn them, on purpose.
Breadth within a language. A course can carry colors, counting, stories and songs in one place. We carry words and phrases, and leave the rest.

And the other way

Where Their First Words is better.

Price. $9.99 once versus $199 a year.¹ Over a childhood that is the difference between a book and a car payment.
Two native voices on every card. A female and a male voice say each of 1,000+ words and 500+ phrases in every language, so a parent hears the word twice before saying it.
Built for the youngest. Dinolingo’s range starts at two and runs to fourteen; the youngest share a course with ten-year-olds.¹ Ours has three stages inside 0–5 and a parent holding the phone.
The phrases. Not just milk but “I want milk,” “All done,” “Hold my hand” — 500+ of the sentences a toddler grows into.
Free forever, not seven days. Dinolingo’s free part is a trial.¹ Our 75 words and 35 phrases are free in all eight languages, no account, no clock.
Fully offline, nothing to sign up for. Every clip ships inside the app. Dinolingo needs an account, and its pages don’t say whether it works offline.¹

The real difference

Two different ideas of an app.

A course is a thing a learner follows. Dinolingo is honest about that: units, lessons, worksheets, a path from “hello” toward reading, for a child old enough to sit with it. For a six-year-old learning Mandarin for the grandparents’ sake, that is exactly the right shape, and fifty languages is a genuine achievement.

A toddler is not a learner in that sense. The research on early words keeps finding that children learn them from a live person naming the thing the child is already looking at, and that the same words on a screen teach little; nine-month-olds learned the sounds of a new language from a person in the room and nothing measurable from identical recordings.² So for the first years we built a prop for the parent instead of a course for the child. You tap a card, a native voice says Hund or 강아지 once so you can hear it, and you say it, looking at your child. The step after single words — the phrases — is the second library.

The two can follow each other. Many families will use cards like ours from the first birthday and move to a course like Dinolingo once the child can read a menu and sit for a lesson.

Which one for your family

Four straight answers.

An eight-year-old starting Mandarin. Dinolingo. We don’t have Mandarin, and an eight-year-old wants a course.
A two-year-old in a German–English home. Their First Words. Every card in both languages, native voices, held by you.
Three children aged three, seven and ten learning Spanish. Dinolingo for the older two; ours for the three-year-old, with the same card in Spanish and English.
A family watching the budget. Ours. The free set may be enough for a year, and the full library is $9.99 once.

Questions

What parents ask us.

Does Dinolingo have Korean, Russian, Portuguese and Italian?

Yes — it lists fifty languages, which include all eight of ours.¹

Is there a Dinolingo lifetime plan?

Not when we checked. Its pricing page lists $19 a month, $199 a year, and a $199 one-time gift subscription that covers a year and does not renew.¹

Which is better for a toddler?

Dinolingo says it starts at two. For the first years we would use cards a parent holds — that is the thing the evidence supports — and move to a course when the child can follow one.

Can I try Dinolingo free?

Seven days with full access, cancel anytime during the trial.¹ Our free set has no trial clock.

Looking at it the other way round? Read Dinolingo alternatives, or see who each app suits in the best-for guides.

What this is based on

Sources

Dinolingo, Pricing — plans, trial, 50 languages, ages 2–14, platforms, ad-free. dinolingo.com/pricing
Kuhl, P. K., Tsao, F.-M. & Liu, H.-M. (2003). Foreign-language experience in infancy: effects of short-term exposure and social interaction on phonetic learning. PNAS, 100(15), 9096–9101. pnas.org
Tomasello, M. & Farrar, M. J. (1986). Joint attention and early language. Child Development, 57(6), 1454–1463. doi:10.2307/1130423

Facts about other apps were checked on October 2, 2026 against the sources above. Store prices are US prices on that day; they change, and the store is the authority for today’s price.

Keep comparing

Other head-to-heads.

Simple Words, Special Moments

Start with one word.

75 words and 35 phrases are free, forever, with both voices. One $9.99 purchase opens the rest of the 1,000+ words and 500+ phrases, in all eight languages at once. No subscription, nothing renews.

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

No ads, ever Private by design Works offline No account needed Up to 4 children