Impulse Alternatives for iPad, Older iPhones and No Trial

Impulse is an iPhone app: its listing has no iPad version, it needs iOS 18.0 or later, and its free trial lasts three days. If any of those is your reason to leave, the other trainers fit better: Elevate, Peak, Lumosity and MindPal all run on iPad and need an older iOS. If what you want to drop is the subscription, a logic puzzle is the plain answer: Sudoku Royale is free with no ads on iPhone and iPad, and Good Sudoku is a one-time unlock. One thing no app here replaces is Impulse's IQ and personality tests.

Impulse describes itself as more than a brain training app: alongside a personalized daily plan of memory, attention, mental math and problem-solving games, it has a library of self-discovery tests (IQ, personality type, emotional intelligence) with recommendations. It has 25 app languages, more than any other trainer here. This page looks at the practical limits that send people elsewhere, and at who handles each one better.

The App Store facts

From each app's US App Store listing, checked October 26, 2026. Prices and paid items change, so check the listing before you buy.

Devices, iOS and trials, side by side

The iPad and iOS columns come from each App Store listing's compatibility section. The trial column quotes what each description says, which is not always much.

If you want to train on an iPad

Impulse's listing is marked "Only for iPhone" and gives iPhone, Apple Vision as its devices, so there is no iPad layout to play on. The closest swaps by content:

• Elevate also builds a personalized daily plan and includes math, but its center of gravity is reading, writing and vocabulary. It lists a 7-day free trial, twice as long as Impulse's, and a basic free version.
• Peak has 45+ games in six categories, including Problem-Solving, Mental Agility and Emotion Control, and runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision, Apple Watch.
• Lumosity starts with a free 10-minute Fit Test that compares your baseline with your age group, the nearest thing here to Impulse's test library, though it is a game score, not an IQ or personality test.
• MindPal covers memory, attention, language, math, flexibility, speed and problem solving across 40 games, and lists monthly, yearly and lifetime plans.

If your iPhone cannot run it

Impulse needs iOS 18.0 or later. Elevate, Peak, Lumosity, MindPal, Sudoku Royale, Good Sudoku and Nonogram.com need an older version, so they install on iPhones Impulse no longer supports. Among the training apps, Elevate, Peak, Lumosity and MindPal are the ones to check first. Sudoku Royale needs iOS 17.0.

If three days was not enough to decide

A three-day trial is short for an app built around a daily routine: you barely get past the novelty before the first charge. Impulse's paid items include Premium Access $6.99, Premium Access $28.99, Premium Access $7.99, Premium Access $49.99. If you would rather decide slowly, Elevate's listing describes a 7-day trial and a basic free version, and Peak and MindPal both describe a free basic version alongside Pro. Or skip the decision entirely with something that never asks for money.

Sudoku Royale

This is ours. It has no ads, no purchases and no subscription, so there is no trial clock. It runs on iPhone and iPad (the iPad version rotates; the iPhone one is portrait only) and needs no account. It is a single game, classic sudoku, with Practice at six levels, a Daily Challenge with a streak, an 88-level Journey that teaches one technique per chapter, and a coach that picks positions from your own games to practise. Like Impulse, it shows your progress back to you, here as a skills radar of speed, accuracy and consistency. That describes your sudoku, not your IQ.

Good Sudoku

Runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision and sells a Full Game Unlock for $4.99. Its hints read your notes and point you to the next technique. See how the two compare.

Nonogram.com

Free with ads on iPhone, iPad, with Nonogram.com No Ads at $14.99. Picture logic from number clues, with no tests or plans, and its listing gives 17 languages.

Where Impulse is still the better pick

• You came for the tests. None of the other listings here offers IQ, personality or emotional intelligence tests.
• You want the app in your language. Its 25 languages beat every other trainer on this page.
• You only play on iPhone and run a current iOS. Then the device limits do not touch you.

We do not judge what any of these apps does for memory, focus or IQ; we compare what their listings say they contain and charge. More on this: sudoku apps for iPad, Peak alternatives, sudoku for brain training and every page on sudoku app comparisons. For a daily puzzle that works on both your iPhone and iPad, get Sudoku Royale.