Comparison

Music Visualizer vs Refract

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Music Visualizer

Easily create eye-catching music videos for social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Import audio, select from various visualizers, add text and images, and apply reactive effects that sync with the music. Export in high resolution and share directly.

Highlights
  • Animated music video creation
  • 12 reactive visualizers
  • Customizable text and images
  • Beat-synced reactive effects
  • 4K export at 60fps
  • Direct sharing to platforms
Features
Read full description

@dmsongs5 built 711K followers and 31.9M TikTok likes posting music videos made entirely with Vibely. Vibely turns your music into scroll-stopping videos for TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Spotify Canvas - in minutes, not hours. On iPhone, iPad and now natively on Mac. WHAT YOU CAN CREATE: - Animated music videos for TikTok, Shorts and Reels - Spotify Canvas loops from your album artwork - Waveform and audio spectrum clips for podcasts - Lyric videos with custom text and backgrounds - YouTube intros and music promo content HOW IT WORKS: 1. Import any track - from Files, shared straight from another app, or extracted from a video. 2. Start from one of 48 ready-made templates, or build from scratch. 3. Stack layers: 11 reactive visualizers - audio spectrum, waveform, particles, particle ring, plasma, thunder, vortex, nebula, night sky, silk and synthwave sun - plus text, images, video, glass cards, vinyl disks, badges, progress bars and solid colors. Particles alone covers dust, starfields, snow, hearts, blossoms and numbers. 4. Add any of 36 effects, in five categories, and make each one react to the beat: glow, outline, drop shadow, vignette, god rays, star rays, ripples, twirl, liquify, melt, tiny planet, kaleidoscope, mirror, duotone, hue cycle, color cycle, strobe, invert, grayscale, adjust, VHS, TV static, glitch, pixel, blur, shake, dim, barrel, fisheye, flip, opacity and more. 5. Give every layer a blend mode and a place in depth, and the background video the same placement and effects as any layer. 6. Export in SD, HD, QHD or 4K, at up to 60fps. 7. Share directly to any platform. BUILT TO BE FAST: Vibely renders entirely on the GPU with Metal, so previews stay smooth while you work and exports finish in a fraction of the time. Undo and redo cover every edit, and your project saves itself as you go. Name any layer and its timeline bar says what it is. Every export keeps the song's title, artist and artwork, and is named after the project. THE SONG IS PART OF THE TIMELINE: The song sits as the timeline's first row, drawn as its own waveform. Trim it on that waveform, fade it in and out, and see every layer line up against it. A full-screen preview plays the result with nothing else on screen. EVERYWHERE YOU WORK: The editor is the same on iPhone, iPad and Mac. On a Mac and a wide iPad the panels sit in a column beside the canvas; on iPhone they are a sheet. VoiceOver reads and edits the timeline, layer by layer. WHAT CREATORS SAY: - "5 minutes with Vibely vs 3 hours anywhere else." - "All the music trends on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram you can do here, very very easy." - "The editing ability in this app is really high end." - "100% the best on the App Store." - "Best app I've used to make my videos on YouTube." - "You could possibly go very viral with it." - "Never have I ever become so quickly satisfied with a product. Exactly does the job, with lots of fine tuning options." BUILT FOR: - Music producers & independent artists promoting new releases - Content creators making TikTok, Reels & Shorts - Podcasters creating waveform preview clips - Artists animating album art for Spotify Canvas Available in 10 languages. Your next viral video starts here. ~~~ Terms of Service: https://tryvibely.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://tryvibely.app/privacy

About

Refract

Create dynamic music videos from any audio track using your own photos, text, and effects. This app analyzes music to choreograph visuals in real-time, offering a full timeline editor and export options for major social platforms.

Highlights
  • Beat-synced visualizers
  • Customizable effects and overlays
  • Full multi-track timeline editor
  • Import audio from various sources
  • One-tap presets for social platforms
  • Offline processing and export
Features
Read full description

TURN ANY TRACK INTO A VIDEO THAT MOVES WITH IT An audio visualizer and music video maker: beat-synced visualizers, your photos, text and effects, exported for Reels, Shorts, TikTok and YouTube. Refract is an audio-reactive video studio for your iPhone. Load a song and a real-time engine listens to its beat, bass and energy, then choreographs every layer to the music. No keyframes. No guesswork. No template that ignores your track. No account, no sign-in. Your music and your videos never leave your phone. YOUR MUSIC, FROM ANYWHERE Pick a song from Files, iCloud Drive or Voice Memos. Take the soundtrack straight from a video you shot, in Photos or Files, or from a direct link to an audio or video file. Refract checks the video first, keeps only its sound, and lets you hear it before you begin. Keep that sound as its own audio file in one tap. A VISUAL ENGINE THAT LISTENS • 8 GPU-accelerated visualizers — Linear Spectrum, Waveform, Ring, Polar Bars, Dual Wave, Pulse, Streaks and Dots • 20 studio effects — Glow, VHS, CRT Scanlines, Film Grain, RGB Shift, Oil Paint, Fisheye, Wave Warp, Swirl, Posterize, Edge Detect and more • 8 particle overlays for depth, atmosphere and motion • 6 auto-choreographed looks — Neon Pulse, VHS, Poster, Liquid, Handheld, Drift — each a finished edit in a single tap • A text tool with 8 typefaces and 4 ink styles, and type that pulses with the bass A REAL TIMELINE, NOT A TEMPLATE Every layer lives on a full multi-track timeline. Move it, retime it, restyle it, bind any parameter to the audio, and watch the preview follow at 60 fps. Trim a five-minute track to its strongest thirty seconds, add precise fades, and export exactly that. READY FOR EVERY PLATFORM One-tap presets for portrait, square, tall and widescreen — 9:16, 1:1, 4:5 and 16:9 — with resolution, frame rate and quality set for you. Or take full manual control, up to 4K at 60 fps, at any length. LIGHT OR DARK Refract follows your iPhone's appearance, or stays in the one you choose. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Analysis and rendering happen on your phone's GPU. Nothing is uploaded, so creating and exporting work anywhere — on a plane, in a studio, offline. Refract counts which features get used, anonymously and with no identifier of any kind, so we can see what to improve. Unlimited projects and exports, every aspect ratio, your own photos and the full timeline editor — free. Refract Pro unlocks the entire catalogue, 4K at 60 fps, unlimited length and watermark-free export. Everything you make keeps working and keeps exporting, whichever you're on. Made for musicians, producers, DJs, podcasters and labels who need a release-ready visual for every track. Privacy Policy: https://greg-wolny.github.io/refract/privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Music Visualizer4 screens
Refract4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Refract at 5.0 against Music Visualizer's 4.4. Refract also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks). Music Visualizer's advantage is ratings volume (651 vs 2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Music Visualizer sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days and Refract sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Refract holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Music Visualizer has 651 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Music Visualizer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Refract's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Music Visualizer ships an update every 3 weeks, Refract every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Music Visualizer versus Refract: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMusic VisualizerRefract
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (651 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews67.2% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings651 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size102 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAibek MazhitovGreg Wolny

Customer experience

Music Visualizer

All ratings650 ratings
Positive83.8%
Neutral5.4%
Negative10.8%
Written reviews658 reviews
Positive67.2%
Neutral9.7%
Negative23.1%

Refract

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Music Visualizer

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent app crashes
  • Issues with SoundCloud API limit
  • Exported videos have app logo
  • Difficulty importing audio files

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to rotate/landscape mode
  • More audio spectrum styles
  • Save and load project presets
  • Background video support
  • Longer video export duration

Refract

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Music Visualizer

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly$0.997 Days
  • Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Annually$24.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime$8.99
  • Lifetime$44.99
2 purchases

Refract

Subscriptions2
  • Refract Pro — Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Refract Pro — Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Music Visualizer free?
Music Visualizer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Refract free?
Refract is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Music Visualizer or Refract?
Refract is rated higher. Music Visualizer averages 4.4 out of 5 from 651 ratings, while Refract averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Music Visualizer or Refract have ads?
Neither Music Visualizer nor Refract shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Music Visualizer or Refract?
Music Visualizer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Refract every 5 days. Most recently, Music Visualizer was updated on October 29, 2026 and Refract on October 29, 2026.

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