Tap OChem vs BrainRetain
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Tap OChem
Visualize complex organic chemistry reactions and concepts with animated explanations. This app covers a wide range of undergraduate organic chemistry topics, aiding in exam preparation and understanding of molecular behavior.
- Animated organic chemistry reactions
- Detailed concept explanations
- Electron pushing diagrams
- Full-color text descriptions
- MCAT, PCAT, OAT, DAT prep
- Regular content updates
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"Awesome" writes a reviewer! More reviewers comments! "I have used it for all of my exams so far and it is extraordinarily helpful." "This is the best investment that you can make to visualize the reactions. There are a ton of them and they are AWESOME!!!!!" Another reviewer writes “Covers all of the major topics and the videos help me visualize the details of the molecules and reactions”…“Could almost replace a whole textbook.” While we never claim to cover an entire organic chemistry class, with content added in each update (major free updates each year since publishing ten years ago!), Tap OChem is the app that delivers! The reactions and concepts included are many from the one year sequence of undergraduate organic chemistry that is offered at all major colleges and universities. Students have told us that this app was essential in their preparation for the MCAT. Whether you are currently in the one year sequence of classes or reviewing for the MCAT, or PCAT, OAT, and DAT, this app will help! Designed by two award winning chemists with over 48 years of combined experience teaching at major universities, Tap OChem makes organic chemistry reaction come to life for each included reaction or concept. The following animations are currently included: Substitution reactions (20 animations), Elimination reactions (11 animations), Alkene Chemistry (15 animations), Free Radical Chemistry (4 animations), Alkyne Chemistry (7 animations), Epoxide chemistry (4 animations), Benzene chemistry (10 animations), Diene Chemistry (8 animations), Carbonyl Chemistry (8 animations), Major concepts (62+ animations), and Molecules in Motion (35+ animations). The Concepts section includes valence bond theory, molecular orbital theory, electrostatic potential maps, radical spin density maps, alkene stability, dienes and stability, conformational analysis of alkanes and cyclohexane, etc. We've just started adding information on intermolecular interactions and plan on more spectroscopic topics! One animation on dipole/dipole attraction was added. Two animations, one focused on the introduction to IR spectroscopy are included. We are developing and updating more animations for future updates! Each animation has an accompanying text that drills down to the main facts of each reaction or concept. These are in FULL COLOR! They are short, handy, descriptions with important information regarding each reaction or concept. In the case of reaction animations, the concise scrollable text descriptions include electron pushing. We will continue to update the app with future releases. Tap OChem is native to both iPhones and iPads! In addition to the animations being very sharp on your iPhone and iPad, they are of excellent quality when projected (iPhone 4S and iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, X, 11, 12, and later, iPad 2 and later, using appropriate adapters) in a classroom. For the iPhone 6s and later; and iPad Air 1 and 2 and later, an appropriate adapter is needed like Lightning Digital AV Adapter (this is an HDMI adapter), or a USB C to HDMI adapter, or a Lightning to VGA Adapter. Please visit www.tapochem.com for further information.
BrainRetain
This app helps you retain information from videos, podcasts, and articles using spaced repetition. Share content, and it will extract key ideas, quizzing you over time to ensure long-term memory. It supports various platforms and aims to make online learning stick.
- Spaced repetition learning
- Content sharing from various apps
- Extracts key ideas from content
- Personalized recall algorithm
- Supports videos, podcasts, articles
- Long-term memory retention
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You'll spend years of your waking life on this content anyway, so you might as well retain the ideas you take in! Most of them vanish within days. BrainRetain fixes that with spaced repetition, the memory method med students use to hold thousands of facts for years. Whenever you see something you want to remember for the long term, share it with BrainRetain, and our algorithm forces your nervous system into remembering it. What you learn online finally stays. It uses the same method about 68.3% of US med students use to remember thousands of facts: spaced repetition. IT ACTUALLY WORKS: • 317 published experiments confirm spaced repetition beats cramming information for long-term recall (Cepeda et al., Psychological Bulletin 2006). • About 68% of US medical students use spaced repetition (Halperin et al., J Med Educ Curric Dev 2024). • Week-later recall jumps from 36% to 80% when you swap re-reading for being quizzed (Karpicke & Roediger, Science 2008). HOW YOU USE IT: • You see content that you want to remember for the long run. • Share a video, podcast, article, screenshot, or your own notes from any of the supported apps. • BrainRetain pulls out the key ideas in minutes. • Rate how difficult each idea was to remember. • Our algorithm shows you the ideas in a pattern that forces them to become long-term memory. WORKS WITH: • YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Medium, Substack, news sites, and any text you can paste. PRIVACY: • https://brainretain.app/privacy BrainRetain Pro is an auto-renewable subscription. Your subscription auto-renews unless canceled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. You can manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: BrainRetain at Free against Tap OChem's $4.99. BrainRetain also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Tap OChem's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (39 vs 4). On ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
BrainRetain is free to download; Tap OChem costs $4.99 up front. BrainRetain sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Tap OChem asks for nothing beyond the download.
BrainRetain holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tap OChem has 39 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 92% of Tap OChem's written reviews are positive against 100% of BrainRetain's.
Tap OChem ships an update every 3 months, BrainRetain every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tap OChem | BrainRetain |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (39 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 91.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 39 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 13.2 — better | 16.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3.5 GB | 66 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tap OChem, LLC | Bering Digital Group LLC |
Customer experience
Tap OChem
BrainRetain
In-app purchases
Tap OChem
No in-app purchases
BrainRetain
- BrainRetain Pro$4.997 Days
- BrainRetain Pro (Monthly)7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- BrainRetain Pro - Annual$79.991 Year
Questions
Is Tap OChem free?
Is BrainRetain free?
Which has better reviews, Tap OChem or BrainRetain?
Do Tap OChem or BrainRetain have ads?
Which is updated more often, Tap OChem or BrainRetain?
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