Comparison

Hive vs ArtDeck

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

Head to head
About

Hive

This app helps designers, creators, and innovators organize and manage all their creative assets in one place. It offers smart photo organization, an integrated video player, and multiple ways to save inspirations, streamlining your creative process. Effortlessly sort, categorize, and find your ideas with advanced filtering and search capabilities.

Highlights
  • Organize creative assets
  • Smart photo organizer
  • Integrated video player
  • Multiple save methods
  • Web capture
  • Multi-level folder system
  • Advanced search and filter
Features
Read full description

Hive is a private visual reference library for designers, illustrators, photographers, and creative teams. Save references the moment you find them—Share Sheet, clipboard, Safari, and links—then keep images, video, and files in one library you actually control. No feed. No tracking theater. Just a calm place to store and reopen what you need. Organize for real work • Folders, tags, filters, and search built for reference retrieval • Smart Folders to surface the set you need for a project • Mixed media in one place: images, video, links, and files Built for mobile creative workflows • Fast capture on iPhone and iPad • Browse and reuse references on the go • Works with an Eagle-compatible library workflow on mobile Privacy by default • Your library stays yours Hive is for people who already collect inspiration in Pinterest, moodboards, or Eagle on the desktop—and need a private, organized library on iOS. Download Hive and turn scattered references into a library you can find again. Privacy Policy: https://hive.ink/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

ArtDeck

Organize visual inspiration and study images with this app. Create moodboards by collecting images, videos, links, and notes, then analyze their composition, color, and values. Seamlessly sync your boards across all your Apple devices for easy access.

Highlights
  • Collect images, videos, and links
  • Create moodboards and reference boards
  • Analyze image values, color, and composition
  • Sync boards across Apple devices
  • Offline access to boards
  • Annotate and draw on images
  • Organize with infinite canvas
Features
Read full description

ArtDeck is a reference board for iPad, iPhone, and Mac. Collect images, videos, links, and notes, then arrange and zoom them on an infinite canvas. Make a moodboard or open the built-in tools when you want to analyze value, color, composition, or motion. You can also keep references next to Procreate on iPad or your creative apps on Mac. iCloud sync is optional. CAPTURE NOW, USE IT ANYWHERE See a texture, a color combination, or a striking composition while you're out? Take a photo right inside ArtDeck and drop it on a board. Because your boards sync, it's there on your Mac and iPad, ready next to your design, 3D, or drawing tools. COLLECT FROM ANYWHERE • Shoot photos and video on iPhone and iPad; on Mac, take the photo with the webcam or your iPhone • Import from Photos or Files • Scan a document on iPhone or iPad, or use Continuity Camera on Mac • Save any link as a card, or paste a link to an image, video, or PDF to import it • Drag and drop, paste, or use the Share menu from any other app • Opens all common image formats, plus WebP, AVIF, JXL, HDR, EXR, and SVG. Video, GIFs, and PDFs up to 300 pages • HDR images and video at full brightness on capable screens, for the whole app or per board STUDY WHAT YOU COLLECT Study any image or video frame through the ToolBox's five lenses, without touching the original: • Values: grayscale, a value ladder, and Notan to read your darks and lights • Color: pull a palette from any image, or see its temperature and saturation zones • Composition: overlay grids, test new framings, or check the symmetry • Read: simplify to the big shapes, find where detail piles up, follow the edge hierarchy • Measure: drop plumb lines, read an angle off a snapping guide, and compare two lengths The Analysis panel shows value range, a histogram, hue, saturation, and color distribution. Export a study, or keep a copy on your board. Step through GIFs and video frame by frame, with onion skin and a GIF filmstrip ANNOTATE AND DRAW • Mark up an image, or draw directly: pen, highlighter, and shapes • Draw a stroke, then hold at the end to straighten it ARRANGE IT YOUR WAY • An infinite canvas to drag, scale, rotate, and zoom • Snap to objects and grid; align, distribute, and tidy up • Group and nest, reorder, lock, with undo and redo YOUR BOARDS, EVERYWHERE • The same boards on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, synced through your iCloud • Works fully offline: sync catches up when you're back online • Choose which boards sync • Split View and Stage Manager on iPad • Keep your window on top of the others on Mac YOUR GALLERY • Carousel and grid views of every board • Labels and multi-label filtering • Favorite, archive, rename, or duplicate any board MAKE IT YOURS • Dark, light, and high-contrast themes • Set one theme for the whole app, or one per board • An editor to fine-tune the colors and create your own themes • Import and export themes by file or link ACCESSIBILITY • VoiceOver support across the app, including items on the canvas • Respects Dynamic Type and Reduce Motion • A theme editor that checks color contrast and flags colors that are hard to tell apart EXPORT AND HAND OFF • Export a whole board or just a selection • PNG, JPEG, HEIC, or PDF, up to 8K, with a transparent background where the format allows • Save a whole board as one .artdeck file to back up or hand off TRY IT FREE, KEEP IT FOR LIFE Start with a free, individual 7-Day Trial. It does not renew. Lifetime Access is a one-time in-app purchase, not a subscription. No separate ArtDeck account is required. Keep what catches your eye.

Screenshots

Hive4 screens
ArtDeck4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ArtDeck at none against Hive's 3. ArtDeck also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 78%). Hive's advantage is ratings volume (37 vs 4) and update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). On price, rating, ads and device support 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. Hive sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. ArtDeck asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Hive against 4.8 for ArtDeck. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hive has 37 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 78% of Hive's written reviews are positive against 100% of ArtDeck's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hive ships an update every 3 days, ArtDeck weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Hive versus ArtDeck: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHiveArtDeck
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (37 ratings) — better4.8 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews78.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings37 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size174 MB76 MB
Age rating17+4+
Developer易泓 刘Alexandre Alves

Customer experience

Hive

All ratings37 ratings
Positive97.3%
Neutral2.7%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews102 reviews
Positive78.4%
Neutral9.8%
Negative11.8%

ArtDeck

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Hive

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Annually$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime$34.99
None

ArtDeck

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hive free?
Hive is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ArtDeck free?
ArtDeck is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Hive or ArtDeck?
Hive is rated higher. Hive averages 4.9 out of 5 from 37 ratings, while ArtDeck averages 4.8 from 4 ratings.
Do Hive or ArtDeck have ads?
Neither Hive nor ArtDeck shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hive or ArtDeck?
Hive ships an update every 3 days, and ArtDeck weekly. Most recently, Hive was updated on October 17, 2026 and ArtDeck on October 8, 2026.

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