Home › Compare › vs Khan Academy Kids

Compared honestly

Their First Words vs Khan Academy Kids

Khan Academy Kids is the best free early-learning app there is: thousands of games, books and videos, no ads, from a nonprofit. Their First Words does one narrow thing it doesn’t: it puts a native voice for a first word, in eight languages, in a parent’s hand, for $9.99 once. If you only install one app for a 3-to-6-year-old in an English-speaking home, install Khan Kids. If your child is younger, or your home has two languages, read on.

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 Khan Academy Kids 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 Khan Academy Kids if…

You want a complete, free preschool-and-up curriculum: letters, reading, math, feelings, drawing, books.
Your child is 3 to 8 and can play on their own while you cook.
English is your home language, or the one you want more of.
You want zero purchases of any kind, ever.

Pick Their First Words if…

Your child is under three and you are the one doing the talking.
You want words and phrases in Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Korean or Russian, with native voices — not only English.
You want a card that waits for you, not a learning path that moves on.
You want it to work with no account and nothing to download first.

At a glance

Side by side, no adjectives.

Fact	Khan Academy Kids	Their First Wordsours
What it is	A free early-learning library: 5,000+ games, books and videos across reading, writing, math and social-emotional skills, guided by Kodi Bear	Parent-led flashcards: illustrated first words and everyday phrases, each spoken by a female and a male native voice
Ages	2–8, as the maker states	0–5, in three parent-chosen stages (phrases are not split by stage)
Price	Free — no ads, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases	$9.99 once for everything; no subscription
What’s free	Everything	75 words and 35 phrases, forever, in all eight languages with both voices
Languages	English, with a section of books translated into Spanish	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, following an adaptive learning path; teacher and parent dashboards	The parent. You say the word; the app is the prop.
Works offline	Partly — books and some activities after they are downloaded	Yes, completely — every picture and clip ships inside the app
Ads	None	None, at any tier
Account	Required — an adult with a verified email creates it	Not needed; optional sign-in only syncs progress between devices

Khan Academy Kids 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 Khan Academy Kids is better.

Free, with no catch. No ads, no subscription, no in-app purchases, from a nonprofit.^{1, 3} Ours is free to start and $9.99 once to unlock.
A real curriculum. Reading, writing, math, logic and social-emotional skills, aligned to the Head Start framework and Common Core, with 5,000+ activities.^{1, 2} Ours teaches words and phrases and nothing else.
Reading and math. Phonics, sight words, counting, addition. We make a separate free web app for phonics, Their First Reading, but it is not inside this one.
Independent play that adapts. A learning path adjusts to the child, and teacher and parent dashboards follow along.^{1, 2} Our cards do nothing until an adult turns them.
A smaller download. About 211 MB against our 556 MB — we ship every picture and 24,000+ voice clips inside the app so nothing streams, and that is the cost of it.¹
Years in classrooms and homes. Launched in 2018, used in schools, with a web dashboard for teachers.² Their First Words launched in 2026.

And the other way

Where Their First Words is better.

Eight languages with native voices. Khan Kids is English, with a shelf of books translated into Spanish.^{1, 4} Every one of our 1,000+ words and 500+ phrases is spoken in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Korean and Russian by a female and a male voice.
Built for the first years. Khan Kids says ages 2–8.¹ Our First Words stage starts in the babbling months, because the parent is doing the talking and the child is doing the pointing.
The phrases. 500+ everyday phrases in nine kinds of moment — the step from “milk” to “I want milk” — which a curriculum app has no reason to carry.
No account. Khan Kids needs an adult with a verified email to create an account, and Wi-Fi to set it up.³ Ours opens to the cards; with no sign-in, your child’s data never leaves the phone.
Fully offline out of the box. Khan Kids works offline for books and games you downloaded first.¹ Ours has everything in the download.
One card at a time. No Kodi, no path, no library to navigate. The calmest thing on the phone, by design.

The real difference

Two different ideas of an app.

Khan Academy Kids is what we hand friends with a four-year-old. It is free, it is careful, and it covers what a preschooler is supposed to be learning. We have no quarrel with it and no clever argument against it; for the family it was built for, it is better than ours, and it costs nothing.

Their First Words is what we hand friends with a one-year-old, or with two languages at home. It does not try to teach a child anything on its own, because at that age a screen can’t: the research on babies and language keeps finding that the sounds and words come from a live person, and that the same material on a screen teaches little.⁵ So the app is a prop for the person. You tap a card, a native voice says the word once so you can copy it — in Korean, say, if your parents speak Korean and you are unsure of your own — and then you say it, looking at your child. The second library carries the phrases that come next.

The honest shape of it: Khan Kids is a free school in your pocket for a child who can hold the pocket. Ours is a free-to-start picture book that speaks eight languages, for a child who still needs you to turn the page.

The 2026 pediatric guidance asks parents to play alongside their children and to favor content that starts conversation over content that keeps them there; for children under eighteen months it says plainly that learning comes from real-world interaction, not screens.⁶ Either app can be used that way. Only one of them was built for it.

Which one for your family

Four straight answers.

A four-year-old in an English-speaking home. Khan Academy Kids. If you want the phrases or a second language on top, add ours; otherwise you are done.
An eighteen-month-old who points at everything. Their First Words — or a board book. You name what the child points at; the app is there so the word is in a language you are sure of.
A Russian–English home. Ours for the Russian, with a native voice on every card. Khan Kids for the English, from about three.
A tight budget. Both, free. Khan Kids costs nothing at all; our 75 words and 35 phrases cost nothing and never expire.

Questions

What parents ask us.

Is Khan Academy Kids really free forever?

Its listing says “Always 100% free, no ads, no subscriptions,” and its privacy policy says it shows no advertising.^{1, 3} It is run by the nonprofit Khan Academy. We have no reason to doubt it.

Does Khan Academy Kids have Spanish?

Its Library has a section of books translated into Spanish; the games and the app itself are English.^{1, 4}

Why pay $9.99 when Khan Kids is free?

Only for what Khan Kids doesn’t do: native voices in eight languages on every word and phrase, a parent-led design for the under-threes, and the 500+ phrases. If you don’t need those, don’t pay. Our free set is yours either way.

Do you actually recommend Khan Academy Kids?

Yes. It is on our best-for guides wherever it belongs, including as the better choice.

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

What this is based on

Sources

Apple App Store, Khan Academy Kids — free, no ads, ages 2–8, 5,000+ activities, offline downloads, privacy label. apps.apple.com
Khan Academy Kids, official page — subjects, standards, teacher tools. khanacademy.org/kids
Khan Academy Kids, Privacy policy — account requirement, what is collected, no advertising. khanacademy.org
Khan Academy support — the app is English-only; Spanish books in the Library. support.khanacademy.org
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
American Academy of Pediatrics (2026). Helping kids thrive in a digital world: the AAP policy explained — play alongside your child; under 18 months learn best from real-world interaction. healthychildren.org

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