13 Best Brain Training Apps of 2024

The best brain training apps: Currently, there are many brain training apps that seek to cover almost every field of our life; one of these fields is mental training.

This niche has a lot of apps, many of them unusable or very poor to really affect our minds, that is why we have decided to save you time and take you directly to those that promise to be of great help.

Why do We need To Train Our Brain?

According to Harvard Health, Our brain is machinery that works in a rather curious way since most exercises do not represent a real improvement in the intellect.

Still, these same exercises do influence one of the most important characteristics of our brain: neuroplasticity.

This “plasticity” makes the brain very adaptive in terms of neuronal connections, so it can create synapses, destroy them, strengthen them, or weaken them depending on the type of exercises we do.

This characteristic leads us to another equally important in our brain and organism in general: savings, so when something is not used, it is minimized that is why there are less skilled people for certain things than others.

Best Brain Training Apps

Once you are aware of this, you know that you should do everything possible to maintain a balance and excellent performance in the areas that you are interested in developing or maintaining. Of course, one way to achieve this is through games, games that activate and improve memory, agility, linguistic ability, concentration, speed, among other brain abilities.

The 13 Best Brain Training Apps

The best brain training apps include Peak, Elevate, Lumosity, and NeuroNation, offering diverse exercises to enhance cognitive abilities and mental agility.

It also provides various cognitive practices and challenges to enhance memory, problem-solving skills, and mental agility. These apps offer scientifically designed activities to keep your mind sharp and engaged.

You will find many of these games in apps intended for this specific purpose. There may be many apps, but the best ones are. They will never become the focus of education, but many believe they can be helpful.

We talk about apps to train your brain, a category of programs that have grown like foam in recent years to position itself, in many cases, among the most downloaded.

  • 1. Peak
  • 2. Brain N-Back
  • 3. Elevate
  • 4. Mind Games
  • 5. Memorado – Brain Games
  • 6. Lumosity
  • 7. A Clockwork Brain
  • 8. NeuroNation – Brain Training & Brain Games
  • 9. Duolingo
  • 10. Fit Brains
  • 11. Eidetic
  • 12. Brainhq
  • 13. Happify

Not without some criticism, today, we propose apps to train your brain while you play. Of those fun to have a good time and think a bit, we can also recommend them to our students. along with any of these other educational apps:

1. Peak Brain Training – Level Up Your Brain!

Awarded as the best App Store application in 24 countries in 2014 and chosen as one of the best brain training apps of 2015 and 2016 by Google Play, Peak quality is assured.

Peak Brain Training

With Peak, in addition to developing mental abilities, you will also have fun, and it is that the format in which it was created is ideal for this. The game is based on specific problems or exercises that seek to develop the following skills: Memory, Attention, Deduction, Mental Agility, Language, Coordination, Creativity, and Emotional Control. There are also exercises aimed at relaxing the mind after a very stressful day.

best brain training apps
Peak App

The training of the best brain training apps is guided in a personalized way. It is rewarded with new scores and challenges that will increase its level of difficulty as we reinforce the different areas of our brain. Besides, the training will alert us when we have very low performance, or that progresses very little in some areas.

Peak Brain Training

When starting with the training, Peak asks us what areas we want to develop. We recommend that you select all, to take advantage of the benefits of the game to the fullest, and have comprehensive training (you will not want to be an expert in some skill but be a total disaster in the others ). The games are made or certified by neuroscientists.

Peak Brain Training

Visually the Brain Training App is very striking and well designed, and its interface is so fluid that it will not be any problem to scroll through it. You can also evaluate your performance and evolution in a very realistic way. If you need a little motivation or are a competitive being, you can evaluate the performance of other users of the same age or with that of your friends and thus receive the boost you need.

Peak Brain Training

The games are made or certified by neuroscientists such as Barbara Sahakian, Tom Piercy, professors at the University of Cambridge, and Bruce E. Wexler Professor at Yale University. Besides, he has been acclaimed by media such as The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and Techworld.

The application is free, but paying a low sum of money, you can access Peak Pro, which offers some extra features such as a catalog of more than 40 games. More personalized workouts, unlimited access to all games, more statistics, and help so you can Control and review your performance.

And, now, we enter fully with the Brain Training App for mobile platforms. The first is Peak, a compendium of games designed to improve cognitive skills as we use it. Especially interesting are the statistics that the program itself shows you as you progress, and that determines the degree of improvement you get.

2. Dual N-Back Brain Training / Dual N-Back

best brain training apps

We started talking about Brain N-Back, an open-source and completely free brain training apps with many years of experience behind it, perhaps being one of the pioneers of this new fashion.

Dual N-Back Brain Training

On the contrary that the common thing is only available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux – nothing of smartphones or tablets – and it can even seem to us something ‘shabby’ in terms of interface and possibilities.

Dual N-Back Brain Training
Dual N-Back Brain Training
Dual N-Back Brain Training

But do not be fooled by the appearance, because it is one of the most complete there are thanks to its possibilities and its academic context.

3. Elevate – Brain Training and Brain Games

Elevate

Elevate, ideal for those who wish to develop their language skills and reinforce English. The best brain training apps are designed to maximize your skills in areas such as concentration, language, speed, memory, and mathematical skills.

Since most of his games are based on linguistic skills, his approach in this regard is undeniable. You are helping us to improve speech, reading, and writing, making it an ideal application for anyone who wants to maximize their skills in these areas in English, since these exercises are only available in that language.

Elevate

However, it may seem a disadvantage. It is not, since if you are bilingual or want to learn the language intensively, you can do it in a very fun way with this best brain training app.

It has more than thirty games (forty in its pro edition) that seek to improve your writing, to listen, speaking, and mathematical skills while reinforcing memory, speed, and concentration. The games are developed by neuroscience experts and have been certified by independent analysis.

Elevate

When you start, the Brain Training App will ask us very specific questions about what we want to improve, and again we recommend choosing each question for complete training. Once we select the areas, Elevate will do a small test to evaluate and rate our skill level in each of them and thus create our training program that will be adapted and hindered according to our progress. Its minimalist interface based on icons facilitates its use.

Elevate

Elevate daily workouts are organized in a calendar that allows us to maintain a more organized order and record of our activity. The sessions are made up of at least 5 mini-games, but we will not be able to play them all in the free mode, to access the full training we must select the Pro option, from which we offer 14 days of testing to help us decide if we want to make the investment final.

Since its launch, Elevate has been recommended and selected by the App Store as an application of the year in the United States. And has also been approved by media such as CNET and The Washington Post. And we finish with one of the most worked, called Elevate – Brain Training that promises maximum customization for each person, showing statistics and other numbers of our activity and improvement. It also works based on multiple mini-games and focuses on the most diverse variables, for which the program itself recommends activities according to the needs of each one. Free – although with micropayments – and available on iOS and Android.

4. Mind Games Pro

Mind Games Pro

To promote the ‘cognitive exercise’, this is how Mindgamer presents what they say has been developed with the work of experts in the field.

Mind Games Pro

Specific works for each day and that include memory exercises, visual analysis, spatial exercises, mathematics, etc.

Mind Games Pro

Three exercises per day that we must complete to improve and unlock new tasks, all through a browser and completely free.

5. Memorado – Brain games and mental exercise online

“A strong brain. A healthy life,” Memorado welcomes us, and that is what the application seeks through its cognitive exercises, a strong brain.

Memorado

With more than 20 games, Memorado develops our speed, concentration, memory, reaction, logic, and mathematical skills through 450 levels. The best brain training apps also offer relaxing exercises at the end of the training sessions.

Memorado

Some special features of Memorado are scientific tests developed by the Memorado team to demonstrate our progress and the possibility of challenging your friends through the “duel” mode.

Memorado

Upon entering the game, Memorado will perform a test a little more intensive than the rest of the best brain training apps mentioned to determine things in a more specific way. Once the test is over, it gives us access to our first training session that, after being finished It gives way to the relaxing exercise of the day, which is undoubtedly one of the best features of Memorado. By gathering enough points, you can take a scientific brain test a little more intensive than a common training session. As for the design, many things can be improved. It can even seem bland.

Memorado

The games are developed by neuroscientists based on the principles of neuroplasticity, and at the end of the day, we will receive reports on our progress.

The premium version of Memorado offers us unlimited access to games, tests and statistics, more personalized training, and other premium features.

Available on iOS and Android.

6. Lumosity Brain Training: Challenge & Improve Your Mind

With more than 85 million downloads, Lumosity is another option to consider when looking for an application that develops our mind.

Lumosity Brain Training

Its main focus is attention and memory, but they also offer development in three other cognitive areas, which are: speed, memory, and problem solving, through more than 50 games.

Lumosity Brain Training

The game has been developed by scientists and designers, who fused their specialties to achieve a fluid, demanding, and effective experience.

Lumosity Brain Training

With different analyzes, Lumosity adapts to our needs and preferences, in addition to offering a report of our strengths, weaknesses, and cognitive patterns.

Lumosity Brain Training

When accessing the app, Lumosity will make a questionnaire about us quite similar to that made by Peak. The design of the games seems less serious than that of Peak and Elevate, but we could say that this somewhat childish design makes it very special and quite entertaining to the eye.

Lumosity Brain Training

Lumosity also offers us a premium version that allows us to modify our training program and obtain special tools. One of the most successful apps in this of ‘training’ the brain is Lumosity, which with more than 25 games, aims to test you in different skills and abilities.

Lumosity Brain Training

It also includes a registration part that will allow you to check what your evolution has been over time. It has versions for Android, iOS, and web, and it’s free.

7. Clockwork Brain Training – Mem

Clockwork%20Brain%20Training

A Clockwork Brain has a beautiful aesthetic, and like so many others, it is formed by small mini-games, puzzles, and quizzes with which they promise to stimulate your brain activity.

Clockwork Brain Training

They attack variables such as attention, dexterity, language, memory, or reasoning, and all with a mere app available on iOS, Android, and Windows desktop.

Clockwork Brain Training

8. NeuroNation – Brain Training & Brain Games

NeuroNation

The main focus of NeuroNation is in the development of operational memory. The virtues that NeuroNation seeks to improve are: memory, concentration, logic, and perception, as well as reducing stress.

NeuroNation

Unlike the rest of the best brain training apps, NeuroNation is based on 8 specialized courses. But share the same training benefits and statistics. You can also compare your progress with that of your friends or that of people your age.

best brain training apps

The exercises are based on the most recent studies of neuroscience and were performed hand in hand with experts in that field. Recently the application was certified by the Freie University of Berlin as extremely effective for brain training.

NeuroNation

Besides, the app is certified by Dr. Gunther Karsten, PhD, on NeuroNation’s brain games: “I don’t know of any other program as intense and effective. You have to test your limits in order for your brain to grow!”, winner of the World Memory Championship.

NeuroNation

You can opt for a premium subscription that will further enhance your experience with NeuroNation. Available on iOS, Android, and its web version.

9. Duolingo

Duolingo

It is no secret to anyone that Duolingo is one of the best brain training apps when it comes to learning almost any language.

Duolingo

The invention of the Guatemalan professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Luis von Ahn, has been impressive in the public and the media, since its launch in 2011, which is inevitable since the application offers you an incredible experience from the beginning. Innovative, entertaining, helpful, and free.

best brain training apps

Duolingo was developed based on the fact that not everyone learns in the same way, so a series of analyses were carried out to be effective for everyone equally and to convey the feeling of being guided by a personal tutor who knows all about your process. Another of Duolingo’s principles is fun and equality since they believe that entertaining education exists and that we all have the right to learn a language to improve our opportunities without spending large amounts of money in the process.

Duolingo

Once you enter Duolingo, you discover that its teaching method encompasses the four main language skills: speaking, reading, writing, and listening, all through courses, divided into short and stimulating lessons. In Duolingo, you will not be able to advance until your “tutor” is 100% sure that you have learned the words in their entirety, so there is no trap that is worth it. The evaluation in Duolingo is immediate if you fail somewhere in the lesson, the system immediately suggests how you can improve; also, you also know immediately when you are right.

The experience you get when learning a language with Duolingo is quite similar to a game: you earn points for correct answers, compete against the clock and to level up. Besides, you have three lives. You lose one every time you make a mistake. If you lose all three, you must start over; This and “the streak” (the number of days in a row you have been learning the language), motivate you to strive and be constant.

It is shown that 34 hours of Duolingo, equivalent to a university semester. There are already many studies that support the effectiveness of Duolingo, as well as being praised by media such as PC Magazine, Wall Street Journal, and TIME Magazine.

Duolingo is absolutely free, but you can still use the Duolingo Plus mode if you wish. However, it is guaranteed that payments will never limit your learning since Duolingo’s main objective is to guarantee language education available to everyone.

We recommend all the mentioned apps with total security. Still, if we had to choose the best ones, they would undoubtedly be Peak, in the first place, followed by Elevate and Lumosity, and Duolingo is the best in its own category. They all have incredible characteristics, exercises that seriously test your mind and offer an excellent experience in every way.

10. Fit Brain trainer – Memo training. Logic pairs

Fit Brain trainer

An app that develops a subscription model: for about 10 euros a month, Fit Brains promises to train your brain based on small games and logic challenges, with problems to ‘hit the coconut’ and thus improve your mental rhythm.

It includes more than 60 games to choose from, and in addition to a free trial period, it also has a specific section for use in the educational field.

11. Eidetic

Eidetic

Not so many games or fun, Eidetic is an application to memorize those things that matter to you. For example, passwords, phone numbers, lists of things.

Putting it into practice is simple: you enter a concept, and you will have to repeat it several times over time until you get it memorized.

12. BrainHQ

BrainHQ

Small games to have a good ‘brain health’. BrainHQ incorporates up to 29 exercises that will allow you to exercise attention, speed, memory, or intelligence, in 5-minute batches and periodic repetitions.

best brain training apps

Endorsed by a team of neuroscientists, it has a freemium model composed of some levels available for free, and others that can only be accessed by paying a monthly subscription.

13. Happify – Science-Based Activities and Games

Happify

More than skills and abilities, Happify is an app to achieve development and mental health.

Seek tranquility and relaxation while removing stress and bad thoughts through mini-games and gamification, always to strengthen good emotional health. It also has a registration section to monitor your evolution while using the app.

But Beware: What the App Scientists Say to Train Your Brain?

Although you will see that the official websites of these apps are flooded with resources that – supposedly – endorse the objectives of each of them, independent scientific studies are not so positive. A quick search gives us some answers, such as this study in which there are no significant improvements or this one in which they compare an app to ‘train the brain’ and a video game, Portal 2. The conclusions: Portal 2 has a significantly positive impact on certain cognitive abilities, while the app – in this case, Lumosity – barely achieves positive results. They are only two references of much that has already been studied.

By this, I mean that a good part of the supposed benefits of this type of application is, in view of the studies carried out, pure marketing, and they have much more entertainment than brain training. By this, I do not mean that they will have a negative impact on our cognitive abilities – although certain studies assure that in some cases it is so – but that they are far from offering the Fierabrás Balm of our brains.

They are games, and as such, their priority objective will be to entertain us. And by the way, perhaps, to improve some cognitive ability. Of glancing.

What is Brain Training?

brain training

The other day, scientists from the German University of Erlangen scared the public: rest, they say, is harmful! Just two weeks spent lazily by the sea can reduce a person’s IQ * by 20 points at once! Indeed, from idleness, cells of the frontal lobes of the brain partially atrophy. Therefore, we offer you scientifically proven ways to train memory and attention.

What else is good for the brain?”

Sleep, move, and study. When we learn something, the brain changes at the anatomical level. The more you engage in intellectual activity, the easier it is for you to do it.

Conclusion

As you can see, your smartphone includes so many benefits that can be fully usable for any aspect of your life, including the productive one. Do not hesitate to turn your mind training and reinforcement into something extremely entertaining with these best brain training apps.