Brain Science
Six brain training apps for iPhone compared on price, content and evidence, with what each is genuinely good for and the claims none of them can support.
The brain training market is worth billions, and a great deal of that revenue comes from apps marketing cognitive benefits they cannot reliably deliver. The clearest marker in the record is 2016, when the US Federal Trade Commission fined Lumosity two million dollars over claims that its games could stave off memory loss and dementia.
So this guide does something slightly unusual for a best apps list: it separates what these apps demonstrably do from what they advertise, and recommends on the first basis only. We make one of the apps below, which you should factor in when reading our verdict on it.
| App | Best for | Free tier | Typical price | Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MyRin | Logic, memory and Japanese puzzle games | Everything, no limit | Free | 30 games, 18,000 levels |
| Elevate | Reading, writing and verbal reasoning | Limited daily set | About 45 dollars a year | 40+ skill games |
| Peak | Multi domain variety with clean design | A few games a day | About 35 dollars a year | 45 games |
| Lumosity | Structured multi domain training | 3 games a day | About 60 dollars a year | 40+ games |
| Lichess | Deep strategic reasoning against people | Everything, no limit | Free | Chess, puzzles, lessons |
| Chess.com | Chess with heavy coaching features | Limited puzzles daily | About 50 dollars a year | Chess, drills, analysis |
Prices drift and free tiers get trimmed, so check the in app purchase list on the App Store page before installing anything. The method for reading those listings quickly is in free brain training apps without a subscription.
Look for: apps that target specific cognitive mechanisms, such as working memory updating, inhibitory control or pattern abstraction. Apps whose difficulty rises in meaningful ways rather than simply getting faster. Apps that are explicit about what they do and do not claim. Apps that work offline, because a grid puzzle needing a connection is doing something other than the puzzle.
Ignore: claims about preventing dementia or raising IQ, which are not established for any app in this category. Phrases like scientifically proven with no cited research. Percentile scores that manufacture a feeling of progress without evidence that the progress goes anywhere. The longer argument is in does brain training work.
MyRin is a collection of 30 games with 18,000 levels, 600 per game across easy, medium and hard, spanning five areas: logic, memory, math, speed and attention. It includes the Nikoli family of Japanese logic puzzles, Sudoku, Kakuro, Hashi and Nurikabe, alongside reaction and working memory games such as Simon Says, Stroop Challenge and Memory Match.
It is free with no ads and no subscription, works offline, needs no account, and includes the ebook The Mind Games of Japan covering the rules of Go, Shogi, Mahjong, Hanafuda and Karuta. Ten of the games have free browser demos if you want to try before installing.
We build it, so treat the recommendation accordingly. What we will not claim is that it changes your general cognition, because we do not think that claim is supportable from anyone. It is a large, well made set of puzzles designed for ten minutes a day.
No account, no install, no daily limit. Play in your browser and see whether the format suits you.
Play the free browser gamesElevate concentrates on language oriented skills: reading comprehension, writing, listening and mathematics. It won Apple's App of the Year in 2014 and has kept its quality since. If your goal is verbal reasoning, reading speed or arithmetic fluency rather than visual and spatial logic, it is the strongest app on this list.
The free tier gives a limited daily set, with full access on subscription. A direct comparison is in MyRin vs Elevate.
Peak has around 45 games across cognitive domains. Its interface is cleaner than Lumosity's and it avoids the more aggressive gamification that makes some competitors feel pushy. The Coach feature assembles a structured daily session so you are not choosing from a menu every time, which removes a small but real barrier to a daily habit.
Its free tier is more generous than Lumosity's, and its subscription is the cheapest of the paid options here.
Lumosity offers 40 or more mini games across memory, attention, processing speed, problem solving and flexibility, with a structured programme that tells you what to play each day. For people who want to be led rather than choose, that structure has genuine value.
Two caveats belong in any honest write up. The 2016 FTC fine over dementia and memory loss claims is part of its public record. And the task specific learning problem is more pronounced in repeated fixed format mini games: you improve at the game's particular patterns, which is the narrowest form of improvement available. The free tier is limited to three games a day. See MyRin vs Lumosity.
Chess exercises the same mechanisms as logic puzzle apps, planning, pattern recognition, inhibitory control and working memory, and adds something no self paced app reproduces: a real opponent who is trying to beat you. That pressure changes the quality of the thinking.
Lichess is free and open source with no paid tier at all, which makes it the best value on this page. Chess.com has deeper coaching and analysis features behind a subscription. Both demand more time than a ten minute session, so treat chess as a different commitment rather than a substitute. If you want the contrast with the Japanese strategy tradition, see Go vs chess and Shogi vs chess.
Every app here trains specific skills that improve with practice, with reasonable evidence of transfer to closely related tasks and weak evidence of transfer to anything else. None will prevent dementia or raise your IQ. What they will do is make you better at the kinds of thinking they exercise, which done consistently is a worthwhile outcome and a smaller promise than the category usually makes.
Given that, the deciding question is not which app is most scientific. It is which one you will still be opening in three months. On that basis: pick the free ones first, since no subscription survives a month of not using it.
For the habit side, which matters more than the app choice, see five brain training habits that actually work. For what the research does and does not support, dual n-back: does it really work covers the most studied case in detail.
For a genuinely free option with no daily limit, MyRin offers 30 games and 18,000 levels with no ads or subscription and works offline. Lumosity, Elevate and Peak all have free tiers, but each restricts you to a few games or sessions a day and keeps the rest behind a subscription.
They reliably make you better at the games you play and at closely related tasks. Evidence that they raise general intelligence or prevent cognitive decline is weak and contested. The US Federal Trade Commission fined Lumosity two million dollars in 2016 over unsubstantiated claims of exactly that kind.
Only if you will use the app several times a week for a year. The paid apps typically cost between 35 and 60 dollars annually. Since the measurable benefit is skill at the exercises themselves, the honest test is whether you enjoy them enough to keep going.
Ten to fifteen minutes daily beats an hour once a week, because memory consolidates between sessions rather than during them. Consistency matters more than duration, so pick the app you will actually open tomorrow.