Ferromagnetic vs Refract
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ferromagnetic
Transform music into real-time visual art with dynamic audio-reactive effects. Enhance personal listening, create ambiance for gatherings, or perform live with captivating visuals that sync to every beat. Offers thousands of unique visual combinations for a fresh experience with every song.
- Real-time audio-reactive visuals
- Multi-band frequency analysis
- Automatic beat detection
- Metal-powered rendering engine
- Multi-layer compositing system
- Customizable visual parameters
- Thousands of unique visual combinations
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Ferromagnetic: Music Visualizer & VJ App for iPhone, iPad, and Mac Ferromagnetic turns Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, and any other sound into stunning real-time visuals. It's a professional audio visualizer for everyone, from home listening and house parties to DJ sets, live shows, and VJ performances. FM Visualizer: Effortless Background Visuals Start a System Broadcast and Ferromagnetic follows the audio of Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, and most other apps on your device. Or use the microphone to visualize anything around you, from a DJ set to a live band. The 12-band frequency analysis and tunable beat detection catch every beat and note, and a GPU-accelerated Metal engine renders it all in multiple layers. Pick a Vibe like Calm, Energetic, Trippy, or Retro to set the mood in one tap. Or let Ferromagnetic take the wheel and build new scenes on its own from over 1,000 combinations. Set how fast the scenes change and choose from ten transition styles, including Morph, Zoom, and Color Distance. Choose from over 20 audio-reactive effects: the signature Ferrofluid and Electromagnetic fields, plus Starfield, Petals, Laser, Glitter, Cloud, Refractions, and more. Build your own scene from three effect layers and particles, each with its own blend mode, and tune every layer to the bass or the highs. Particles burst and flow with the sound, and glitch and shake hit harder as the volume rises. Transform the image with Kaleidoscope, Droste Spiral, Voronoi Mirror, or Tunnel, then shape the look with pixelation, dithering, blur, and color palettes like Vivid, Warm, or Triadic. Show your own logo text on screen, perfect for cafes, bars, and venues. Mirror the visuals to a TV or projector with AirPlay or a cable, and the screen stays awake for as long as the music plays. Visuals render at up to 60 fps. FM Producer: Live Visual Performance On iPad, FM Producer turns Ferromagnetic into a VJ app for live shows. The dual-deck interface works like a DJ controller: prepare the next scene on one deck, then crossfade it in. Add the iPad camera or NDI® sources as live layers, and send your visuals to OBS, Resolume, and other apps with NDI output. Connect a MIDI controller or keyboard, map any control with MIDI Learn, and trigger effects and scenes without touching the screen. FM Producer also unlocks the complete Mac app, with video, image, and 3D model layers, presets, and video recording. Try It Free Download Ferromagnetic for free, then unlock only what you need with an affordable subscription or a one-time purchase. One purchase works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Already on FM Visualizer? Your purchase counts toward FM Producer. NDI® is a registered trademark of Vizrt NDI AB. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Refract at 5.0 against Ferromagnetic's 4.1. Refract also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 80%). Ferromagnetic's advantage is ratings volume (26 vs 2) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Ferromagnetic sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month 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.
Refract holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ferromagnetic has 26 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Ferromagnetic's written reviews are positive against 100% of Refract's.
Ferromagnetic ships an update weekly, Refract every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ferromagnetic | Refract |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (26 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 26 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Daniel Eke | Greg Wolny |
Customer experience
Ferromagnetic
Refract
Bugs and requests
Ferromagnetic
Reported bugs
14 issues- Song titles don’t update
- Custom image wasn’t saving in presets (reported fixed)
- Logo makes imported images blurry
- App crashes on launch
- Poorly implemented controls (MacOS)
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- Does not work with Apple Music for some users
- Does not sync with music for some users
- Repeating visualizer scenes
- Shoddy integration with Streamlabs
- Does not work with microphone for some users
- Visuals are seemingly random and endless
- App asks to update when there's no update
- Crashes every time audio input is changed after update
- Recurring shapes pop up every few seconds
Requested features
20 requests- Add a 'go back' button for controls
- Add Airplay mirroring or tvOS app
- More options in visualizer types
- Configurable presets for cycling settings
- Ability to stream to TV without a cable
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- Apple TV app development
- More shaders and 4k-8k resolution options
- More options to customize and create own shaders
- More style options (e.g., retro equalizer, symmetric bars)
- Ability to navigate a catalog or favorite visuals
- Rotation feature for effects
- Output to a file without screen capture
- Choose output frame rate and size
- Get rid of or manipulate recurring shapes
- Remove Source/editor column from viewer window
- Option to load songs directly from user's library
- Transparency option for windows
- More customization options
- Effects inspired by Apple's classic visualizer
- Bug fix for audio input crashes
Refract
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Ferromagnetic
- FM Visualizer7 Days trial$2.491 Month
- FM Producer7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- A generous tip$0.99
- FM Visualizer One-TIme$17.99
- FM Producer Upgrade$39.99
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- FM Producer One-Time$59.99
Refract
- Refract Pro — Monthly$3.991 Month
- Refract Pro — Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year









