Neuriva Brain Performance and Prevagen are easily two of the most popular nootropics on the market today. Both of these supplements receive thousands of monthly searches on Google, have been featured in major news outlets and magazines, and aggressively advertise both online and on TV.

Both of these brain supplements claim to be the best nootropics on the market today. Obviously, they both can’t be telling the truth; both Neuriva and Prevagen can’t be the best!

So which is better, Prevagen or Neuriva?

Who comes out on top in a fight of Neuriva vs Prevagen?

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at both Prevagen and Neuriva, examining the benefits, negatives side effects, and value for money of each nootropic. We will then tell you which nootropic supplement we think is better.

If you want to read our detailed review of Neuriva, here it is: Neuriva review.

If you want to read our detailed review of Prevagen, here it is: Prevagen review.

Neuriva vs Prevagen: Ingredients & Doses

If we’re going to really decide between Prevagen and Neuriva Brain Performance, the first thing we need to look at is the ingredients and doses of each stack.

Right off the bat, we need to point out that Prevagen and Neuriva have one thing in common: both nootropics only contain 2 ingredients.

This is really surprising, especially given the claims Neuriva and Prevagen make regaridng their benefits. Both of these stacks claim to be complete brain supplements delivering total cognitive enhancement, from focus and learning to memory function and brain health.

Achieving this with just two ingredients is pretty much impossible. Most natural nootropics only have a few beneficial effects, so a nootropic supplement thatuses jusyt two ingredients is highly unlikely to do everything.

It is certainly unlikely that two-ingredient stacks like Neuriva and Prevagen can deliver the same benefits as a stack like Mind Lab Pro, which uses a dozen potent nootropics.

Let’s take a look at the Neuriva Brain Performance ingredients list and the Prevagen ingredients list and see which looks better.

Neuriva Ingredients

Check out the Neuriva Brain Performance ingredients list:

Coffee fruit extract – 100mg
Phosphatidylserine – 100mg

As you can see, Neuriva is just two ingredients. If it contained two incredible, powerful nootropics, with large doses, then it might have gotten away with using just two ingredients. But it doesn’t.

Instead, Neuriva uses one effective long-term nootropic and one totally unproven, practically useless ingredient.

Phosphatidylserine is an excellent natural nootropic. It is a natural phospholipid found in both plants and animals.

In humans, phosphatidylserine is a primary constituent of brain cell membranes (where it is also involved in cell signalling). As we age, our phosphatidylserine levels decline, which leads to impaired brain cell maintenance and reduced brain cell growth. Supplementing with phosphatidylserine has been found to drastically improve memory function and learning over the long-term. The 100mg we get from Neuriva is plenty to see benefits over many months and years.

Coffee fruit extract, however, is a different story altogether. This is not a robustly proven, effective natural nootropic. On the contrary; coffee fruit extract has almost no scientific evidence behind it whatsoever. Many supplement manufacturers claim that whole coffee fruit extract is able to boost the production of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in the brain.

If this were true, it would be a signifiant finding for neuroscience and cognitive medicine. BDNF is a neurotrophic factor which controls the growth, maintenance and differentiation of neurons in the brain. More BDNF means more neurons, which mans more raw brain power.

But the only studies showing that whole coffee fruit extract boosts BDNF were conducted by supplement manufacturers!

There is no way that 100mg of phosphatidylserine is going to deliver rapid increases in focus, memory, learning and concentration; the benefits that Neuriva promises to deliver! Whole coffee fruit extract is an unproven waste of money.

Prevagen Ingredients

Prevagen Extra Strenght contains two ingredients just like Neuriva. But if we’re talking about the original Prevagen, Prevagen Regular Strength, then we actually only have ONE INGREDIENT in this supplement!

To provide a fair comparison between Neuriva and Prevagen, let’s compare Neuriva and Prevagen Extra Strength, as both of these nootropics have two ingredients.

Here is the Prevagen Extra Strength ingredients list:

Apoaequoring -20 mg
Vitamin D – 250% RDI

That is a pretty pathetic formula for any supplement, but it is especially laughable considering the claims that Quincy BioScience make about Prevagen!

According to Quincy BiScience (makes of Prevagen), this nootropic stack can enhance memory function, improve focus, increase learning capacity, and even help ameliorate the symptoms of mild cognitive decline.

In the past, Quincy went as far as to say that Prevagen could reverse or prevent age related mild cognitive impairment. But subsequent lawsuits forced them to backtrack on these claims quite a bit.

So, can Prevagen really do these things?

No! Of course not!

Apoaequorin is a protein obtained from a specific species of jellyfish which exhibits bioluminescence. In simple terms, apoequorin, or just aequorin in the case of the active protein, glows in the dark when exposed to calcium.

According to Prevagen, apoaequorin has some incredible nootropic properties. They claim that it has been shown – in clinical trials – to drastically improve cognitive function in older people experiencing mild memory loss and cognitive impairment.

The only evidence they provide to support these claims is a “clinical trial” that they themselves carried out!

No peer review.

No external third-party validation or observation.

Importantly, these findings have never been repeated outside of Prevagen’s own trials either.

So Apoaequorin is a total dud of an ingredient. But what about Vitamin D?

While Vitamin D may be good for supporting overall health and energy levels, it is not thought to have any significant nootropic effects.

Neuriva vs Prevagen: Prices & Value For Money

In terms of value for money, which of these nootropics comes out on top?

How much do these nootropics even cost?

Neuriva Original costs $32.99 per bottle. This works out at around $1.10 per day, assuming you take Neuriva every single day (which is how phosphatidylserine works best).

Neuriva Plus is $49.99 per bottle. This wporks out at $1.66 per serving; significantly more than Neuriva Original. For this extra $17 a bottle, all you get is a little more coffee furit extract and some B Vitamins – hardly $17 worth of supplement!

I don’t think Neuriva represents very good value for money at all.

But Prevagen is even worse value for money!

A single box of Prevagen Regular Strength is $39.95. So for $1.33 per serving, you get 10mg of jellyfish flurescent protein that has absolutely NO effect on your cognitive function.

If you want to stretch for the Prevagen Extra Strength box, then you’ll pay a massive $59.95. So for around $2 per day, you will get 20mg of useless jellyfish protein and a standard dose of Vitamin D.

Even though Neuriva is massively over-pricved, I think it still represents better value for money than Prevagen.

Neuriva vs Prevagen: Side Effects & Safety

In terms of side effects and health risks, which is the better nootropic, Neuriva or Prevagen?

The problem with both Prevagen and Neuriva is that they both contain ingredients that do not have any beneficial effects.

In the case of Neuriva, it’s whole coffee fruit extract.

For Prevagen, it’s apoaequorin.

Any ingredient that does not confer benefits only serves to increase the chances of side effects and interactions with other supplements, medications, foods, etc. So, neither Prevagen nor Neuriva can be said to be 100% safe.

However, of these two nootropics, it’s clear to me that Prevagen poses significantly higher health and safety risks, and is considerably more likely to cause side effects than Neuriva.

Apoaequorin has never been studied in independent clinical trials. We have no long-term side effect informaiton available for Prevagen’s active ingredient.

Can you take Neuriva and Prevagen together?

There is absolutely nothing preventing you from taking Neuriva and Prevagen together. The ingredients in these two nootropic supplements are highly unlikely to interact with one another in any way, either positively or negatively.

However, there is also no good reason to take Neuriva and Prevagen together either. Taking Prevagen and Neuriva at the same time is unlikely to produce any benefits at all beyond what you would experience from merely taking Neuriva by itself.

This is because Prevagen doesn’t do anything!

Prevagen vs Neuriva: Which is better?

In Neuriva vs Prevagen, there is one clear winner: Neuriva Brain Performance by Schiff Vitamins.

Neuriva is vastly superior to Prevagen.

Both Neuriva and Prevagen claim to boost certain aspects of your cognitive function. Prevagen claims to enhance your memory specifically, and is supposedly most effective for elderly adults and those with mild cognitive impairment. Neuriva claims to boost a wider array of mental functions, including focus, memory, clarity and mental energy.

However, neither nootropic seems to be very effective, and neither can realistically deliver on its promises.

Considering we awarded Neuriva with the better ingredient profile, and the fact that it’s cheaper than Prevagen, we have to say Neuriva is better than Prevagen. It’s cheaper and there’s more research on the ingredients. Clearly then Neuriva wins in a fight between Neuriva and Prevagen.

However, Neuriva is far from a good nootropic.

Quite the contrary; compared to the best nootropics on sale today, Neuriva looks like a total rip-off.

Compared to full spectrum, comprehensive nootropics like Mind Lab Pro, Neuriva is extremely over-priced and under-powered.

Even more minimalist stacks like Performance Lab Mind offer far better value for money than Neuriva as it uses no unproven ingredients; just pure, potent nootropics.