Elevate app alternatives, for five minutes that stick

By the edgi team Facts checked October 19, 2026

The best Elevate alternative is edgi. It's free, a Lesson takes 60 seconds, and instead of getting better at a game you come away knowing something new, kept as a card on a Map of what you know. If you want brain games specifically, Peak and Lumosity are the closest swaps, BrainHQ is built around published trials, and Brilliant teaches the math itself.

We make edgi, and we built it to be the most fun way to spend five minutes getting sharper.

Prices are from each app's US App Store listing or its own site, checked October 19, 2026.

What Elevate does well

Elevate is a polished set of games for everyday skills. Its listing counts "40+ Brain Training Games" for focus, memory, speaking, math and reading, in a daily workout of 3 to 5 games whose difficulty adapts as you improve. It has 4.77 stars from 544,815 App Store ratings. The free version is real: Elevate's site says it's one three-game workout a day plus a game of the week, and the full version is $39.99 a year with a 7-day trial or $9.99 a month.

Top pick: edgi, five minutes that leave something behind

edgi fits the same slot in your day as a brain-training workout, with a different thing at the end of it. A Lesson takes 60 seconds, and you play it rather than read it, then use the idea on a question before you leave. You finish knowing how a flying buttress holds up a cathedral wall, or why money you've already spent keeps you in a bad movie, or why a feed never runs out.

Every idea you finish becomes a card, lit up on your Map next to everything it connects to, so the next Lesson is whatever you just got curious about. There are more than 104,000 ideas, 44,000 with a Lesson, joined by 296,000 connections. Cards turn foil, then gold, as you learn more around them. There's a streak too.

Brain games make you better at brain games. A 2016 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, "Do 'Brain-Training' Programs Work?", went through more than 130 papers to check what else they do. Training improved the trained tasks. There was less evidence for closely related tasks, and "very little evidence" that it improves distantly related tasks or everyday cognitive performance. Lumosity's own homepage, describing its randomized study of 4,715 people, says "more research is needed to determine the connection between improved assessment scores and everyday tasks."

You can feel why in about a minute. In our Lesson on working memory, nine letters flash and you type them back. Then the same nine come back in groups you already know, and you hold far more. Then you meet a student who practised a digit test until he could repeat 79 digits, up from 7. Given letters instead, he was back to about six.

Working Memory Working memory is the cognitive system that holds and manipulates information temporarily so you can reason and make decisions.

60-second Lesson

Working Memory

Practice didn't give him a bigger memory. It gave him running times to hang the digits on.

Play it here Read about working memory

What grew was what he knew. That's the case for spending your five minutes learning something.

More brain training: Peak, Lumosity or BrainHQ

Peak is the closest thing to Elevate with more variety: "45+ games covering six categories," a "Coffee Break" workout under five minutes, and a free basic version. Pro is listed on the App Store from $2.99 to $34.99.

Lumosity is the best-known name in the category, with "40+ Brain games that adapt as you play" and a free 10-minute Fit Test that compares your scores with your age group. It runs on the web as well as phones. The App Store lists Premium from $11.99 to $89.00.

BrainHQ, from Posit Science, leans hardest on research. Its listing says it is "backed by more than 100 scientific papers," including the NIH-funded ACTIVE study, and its exercises target memory, attention and processing speed. The App Store lists it at $13.99 and $94.99.

The math games were your favorite: Brilliant

If Elevate's math games were the part you looked forward to, Brilliant teaches the math itself, by having you work interactive problems. Its App Store name is "Brilliant: Learn Math & Coding," and plans run from $19.99 to $191.99. Our Brilliant alternatives page covers the rest of that shelf.

Pick something else only if…

• You want a daily score to beat: Peak, Lumosity, or Elevate itself.
• You want exercises built around published trials: BrainHQ.
• You want to work math problems: Brilliant.
• You need Android. edgi runs on iPhone and in the browser.

FAQ

What's the best alternative to Elevate? edgi, if you want the minutes to leave you knowing something: it's free, a Lesson takes 60 seconds, and every idea becomes a card on a Map of what you know. For brain games, Peak is the closest swap.

Is Elevate free? Partly. Elevate's free version is one three-game workout a day and a game of the week. The full version is $39.99 a year with a 7-day trial, or $9.99 a month.

Is there a free app like Elevate? Peak has a free basic version, and Lumosity's 10-minute Fit Test is free. edgi is free, and every Lesson teaches you something new.

Do brain training apps work? They make you better at their games. A 2016 review of more than 130 studies found "very little evidence" that brain training improves distantly related tasks or everyday cognitive performance.

Is edgi free? Yes. Lessons, cards and the Map are free, and Sets unlock with coins you earn by learning, not money. An optional Pro subscription adds extras like offline access.