There's no real right or wrong, just whatever works for you guys.

Probably fresh fruit is better - there are lots of fruits that are easy to eat raw (you might just need to peel it for her). Pear, watermelon, melon, stone fuits, banana of course. Depending on how many teeth she has, she might even manage apples, pineapple and other things.

I don't think those baby cereals are anything special really - they just add (often unnecessary) iron etc and jack up the price. We would use rice porridge (or you can just overcook regular rice). It's cheaper and no additives.