Significantly better, yes, I've never felt like String methods were missing while using Elixir, they've also got some goodies like Jaro distance right in the stdlib. Docs on Elixir strings are here, plenty of methods: https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/1.12/String.html
This getting started guide also covers some more examples of working with strings (vs. charlists, the erlang string type, which are described at the end): https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/binaries-strings-and...