Elevate wins for practical skills — writing, math, vocabulary, reading. Peak wins for variety and gamified daily fun. Both are similarly priced (~$35-40/year) and both are excellent choices. The right pick depends on whether you want workplace skill sharpening (Elevate) or a broader cognitive workout you look forward to (Peak).
Peak and Elevate are two of the most polished brain training apps in the category, and they represent genuinely different philosophies about what brain training should be. If you have been trying to decide between them, here is the honest head-to-head.
Head to head
| App | Best for | Price (annual) | Rating | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elevate | Practical, workplace-relevant skills | $39.99/year | 8.4 | iOS, Android |
| Peak | Variety and gamified daily fun | ~$34.99/year | 8.0 | iOS, Android |
Both are excellent apps. The choice really comes down to what you want brain training to do for you.
Approach — the fundamental difference
Elevate trains real skills. Its games are essentially exercises in writing (fixing grammar, editing for concision), math (mental calculation, estimation), vocabulary (word usage in context), reading (comprehension speed), and communication (listening, speaking). The exercises resemble tasks you do at work, in emails, and in conversations.
Peak trains cognitive functions. Its 45+ games span six scored categories, as listed in Peak’s help center: memory, focus, problem solving, mental agility, language, and emotion, plus two coordination games. Some games are practical, some are abstract. The overall program is designed to give your brain broad variety across cognitive domains.
Winner on approach: depends on your goal. If you want to be a sharper communicator, mathematician, or reader — Elevate. If you want general cognitive variety and to have fun doing it — Peak.
Everyday skills — Elevate wins
For many people this is the deciding criterion, and here Elevate’s design has a genuine advantage.
The biggest question in brain training is whether the gains transfer to daily life. As we explain in our guide on whether brain training apps work, a major 2016 review found that training reliably improves performance on the trained tasks, but there is little evidence that it improves distantly related tasks or everyday cognitive performance.
Elevate practices everyday skills directly, such as reading, writing, and math. Fifteen minutes a day of concise-writing exercises is practice that looks like real writing, which is a sensible design. But evidence that the gains carry over outside the app is limited. The only peer-reviewed Elevate study we found, a 2025 survey of Elevate users with authors employed by Elevate’s maker, measured self-reported improvement and had no control group.
Peak’s abstract games face the same transfer question. They are well-designed and enjoyable, but “will they make me broadly sharper” has the same nuanced answer as most brain training claims.
Winner on everyday skills: Elevate, for practice that looks like the tasks you actually do, though neither app has shown that its gains carry over outside the app.
Variety and fun — Peak wins
Peak’s 45+ games across six categories provide genuinely more variety than Elevate’s narrower catalog. Some Peak games (like Apprentice Wizard for memory, or Turtle Traffic for mental agility) are legitimately fun in a way that Elevate’s more workmanlike exercises are not.
If you are the kind of user who will only stick with a brain training app if it feels like a game rather than practice, Peak’s gamified approach is more sustainable.
Winner on variety and fun: Peak.
Design and polish — essentially tied
Both apps have excellent, modern design. Elevate’s aesthetic is cleaner and more restrained — a slightly more “grown-up” feel. Peak’s design is more colorful and gamified, with more visual celebration of progress.
Which feels better is genuinely a matter of taste.
Winner on design: tie, with a slight edge to Peak for celebratory feedback loops.
Free tier — Elevate wins
Elevate’s free tier is genuinely generous. Free users get several full games each day — not locked previews, not 30-second teasers. Real, complete exercises. For a casual user who wants to sharpen practical skills without paying, the free version has real, lasting value.
Peak’s free tier is more limited. You get some free daily games, but full access to the game catalog requires Peak Pro.
Winner on free tier: Elevate.
Personalization — Peak wins narrowly
Peak’s Coach feature builds a personalized daily workout that emphasizes your weaker cognitive areas. It is a real personalization feature, not just difficulty adjustment.
Elevate personalizes difficulty and topics within each skill, but its scope is narrower (skills, not cognitive domains).
Winner on personalization: Peak, slight edge.
Price — essentially tied
Elevate’s paid plan: around $40/year.
Peak Pro: around $34.99/year.
Both are similar prices, both appear to cost less than Lumosity (which does not publish its prices), and both are far cheaper than BrainHQ ($96). Free tiers exist for both.
Winner on price: tie.
Statistics and progress tracking — Peak wins
Peak provides more detailed statistics, cognitive category breakdowns, and comparison to age groups. For users who want to see their improvement quantified, Peak is more satisfying. Our guide to the Peak Brain Score explains how Peak’s scores and comparisons work.
Elevate tracks progress within each skill but with less depth than Peak.
Winner on statistics: Peak.
So which should you choose?
Choose Elevate if:
- You want practice that looks like everyday tasks rather than abstract games
- You write, present, communicate, or do mental math for work
- You are studying or learning a new field
- You want a generous free tier to try before paying
- Practical skills matter more to you than variety
Choose Peak if:
- You want variety and fun over practical focus
- You value gamified feedback and detailed statistics
- You prefer a broader cognitive workout across many categories
- You would appreciate the Coach feature building daily workouts for you
What about the alternatives?
Both Peak and Elevate are good choices. But for completeness, here are the alternatives worth considering:
BrainHQ — $96/year. The deepest research record in brain training, but more expensive and feels dated. Best for users specifically focused on cognitive health with a research emphasis.
Lumosity — prices not published. The best-known name, with a broad library of 40-plus games. Its US App Store listing shows purchases from $11.99 to $89.00, mostly without naming the plans; our Lumosity cost guide explains what we could confirm. Best if you want cross-platform access including desktop.
For the full comparison across all major apps, see our best brain training apps roundup.
Zenelia is a brain training app made by Mindkindly’s owner, so we don’t rank or score it here. It costs $6.99 a month or $44.99 a year, has a 7-day free trial, and is iPhone only for now; read more about Zenelia or see it on the App Store.
The honest truth about both
Peak and Elevate are both excellent apps at similar prices. If you can afford $40/year, either one is a good choice if you use it consistently. The bigger determinant of results is consistency, not the choice between these two.
If forced to pick one for a broad audience, we would recommend Elevate for its focus on everyday skills like reading, writing, and math. But if you already know you want variety and fun over practical skill-building, Peak is the right choice for you specifically.
The bottom line
Elevate wins if you want practice in everyday skills like reading, writing, and math, though evidence that the gains carry over outside the app is limited. Peak wins for variety, gamification, and broader cognitive workouts. Both are excellent choices at similar prices around $35-40 per year. Try both free tiers — Elevate’s is more generous — and pick the one you find yourself opening more consistently. That is the only test that matters for a daily habit.
For more brain training apps, see our best brain training apps roundup. For the honest picture on whether brain training works at all, see our guide on brain training research.