There are 4 alternatives worth naming, and which one is right depends entirely on what you actually want fixed. Nothing here is “the best nootropic”. That phrase means nothing without a job attached to it.
I’ve reviewed most of the market on this site, and the honest position is that Mind Lab Pro is a good general formula with 2 specific weaknesses. Both of those weaknesses are somebody else’s strength. So here is where to go instead, and why.
Here’s what I’ll cover:
- The cheaper, sharper option if you want a better morning
- The one with 3 times the rhodiola if you’re tired rather than foggy
- The stripped-back option from the same company
- The ones I’d steer you away from, and why
If you want a sharper morning: Vyvamind
$56.99 for 30 servings, and it does one job properly.
Citicoline 200 mg, tyrosine 300 mg, theanine 150 mg and 75 mg of caffeine. The tyrosine is nearly double Mind Lab Pro‘s 175 mg, and the theanine is set at a 2:1 ratio to the caffeine on purpose.
It has no bacopa, no lion’s mane and no phosphatidylserine, so it does nothing for memory over weeks. That’s not a criticism, it’s just what it is. If you already drink coffee, this replaces the coffee and does it better.
If you’re tired rather than foggy: Nooceptin
$67 a month, caffeine-free, and it fixes Mind Lab Pro’s biggest weakness.
Rhodiola at 150 mg against Mind Lab Pro’s 50 mg, plus 200 mg of panax ginseng and 200 mg of theanine. If your problem is running out of energy at 3pm rather than forgetting names, this is the better-dosed formula and I’d rather say so.
It costs you the phosphatidylserine, the tyrosine, the pine bark and the B vitamins, none of which are in it. And it’s 3 capsules a day rather than 2.
| Vyvamind | Nooceptin | Performance Lab Mind | Separates | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A sharper morning | Fatigue and stress | Fewer ingredients | Knowing your doses |
| Price | $56.99 | $67 | Lower per capsule | About $18 for a month of PS |
| Caffeine | 75 mg | None | None | Your choice |
| The catch | No memory ingredients | 3 capsules a day | Only 4 ingredients | You have to actually take them |
READ: My full Mind Lab Pro review
If you want less, not more: Performance Lab Mind
Same company as Mind Lab Pro, 4 ingredients instead of 11, 1 capsule a day.
This is the right buy for a specific person: someone who wants clinically dosed citicoline and phosphatidylserine and does not want to pay for 7 other things. It’s cleaner and it’s cheaper per capsule.
The trade is obvious. No bacopa, no lion’s mane, no rhodiola. If you wanted the broad formula you’d have bought the broad formula.
READ: Citicoline
If you want the doses in your own hands: buy separates
This is the option nobody selling a nootropic will tell you about, and for a lot of people it’s the right one.
Bacopa at a full 300 mg costs around $0.20 a day. Phosphatidylserine at 100 mg is about $0.25 a day. A bottle of PS-100 runs roughly $18 for 60 softgels. So the 2 ingredients Mind Lab Pro underdoses are the 2 cheapest to buy properly on their own.
The catch is compliance, and it’s a real catch. A stack of 6 bottles is a stack you’ll take 4 days a week by month 2. If you know that about yourself, buy the formula.
The ones I’d skip
Three, briefly, and all for the same underlying reason.
Alpha Brain. Three proprietary blends: 650 mg, 240 mg and 60 mg. Alpha-GPC is studied at 300 to 600 mg and bacopa at 300 mg, but the entire Focus Blend is 240 mg shared across everything in it. So it cannot contain a studied dose of either. You cannot verify what you’re taking, at $79.95.
NooCube. My own review of it was blunt: tyrosine and bacopa come in decent amounts, the rest is too light, and it’s expensive for what it offers.
Prevagen. Two ingredients, one of which is vitamin D, and the active is a protein taken orally. It gets digested before it reaches your brain.
The pattern is the same in all 3. Either the doses are hidden, or they’re published and too small.
READ: Bacopa Monnieri
Conclusion
Better morning, buy Vyvamind. Tired rather than foggy, buy Nooceptin. Want fewer ingredients from the same people, buy Performance Lab Mind. Want the real doses and you’ll actually take them, buy separates.
And if you want one bottle that covers most bases without a stimulant, that’s still Mind Lab Pro, with the honest caveat that its rhodiola and bacopa are under the doses the studies used.
That would be it folks. If there’s something you think belongs on this list, put it in the comments and I’ll go and read the label.
