Learning in an automatic is easier. That is not a controversial claim, and instructors generally agree on it. The more useful question is whether the difference matters for the kind of driving you intend to do, and whether anything is lost by taking the simpler route.
What an Automatic Removes
A beginner is managing steering, speed, positioning, mirror checks, signaling, and traffic judgment at the same time, and each of these still requires conscious effort. Adding clutch control and gear selection consumes a meaningful share of the attention available.
Manual transmissions are hardest precisely where beginners are already struggling: pulling away smoothly, hill starts, and stop-and-go traffic. Removing that layer lets a new driver spend their attention on observation and hazard recognition, which are the skills that actually keep them safe.
What You Give Up
Less than most people assume in the United States, where automatics dominate and manual vehicles are increasingly rare. Learning manual remains useful if you expect to drive commercial vehicles, older cars, or to rent vehicles abroad, since much of the world still sells predominantly manual transmissions.
The claim that manual drivers are more engaged and therefore safer is widely repeated but not well supported. Attention spent on the clutch is attention not spent on the road.
Licensing Restrictions
This is the practical consideration that catches people out. Some jurisdictions record the transmission type used during the road test and restrict the resulting license accordingly, meaning a test taken in an automatic does not authorize driving a manual.
Rules differ substantially, and in much of the United States no such restriction applies. Confirm before you choose, because discovering the limitation afterward means retesting.
Electric Vehicles Change the Question
Electric vehicles have no conventional gearbox, so the manual skill set does not transfer to them at all. As they become more common, the long-term argument for learning manual weakens further for most drivers.
A Reasonable Approach
For most new drivers, learning in an automatic and concentrating on observation, spatial judgment, and hazard prediction is the better use of limited lesson time. Manual can be added later in a handful of sessions once the fundamentals are secure, and it is far easier to learn when everything else is already automatic.
Check the licensing rules in your state before booking a test, and review what a first lesson covers if you have not yet started.