Comparison

Goalee vs REF!

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

Head to head
About

Goalee

Features
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Goalee is your sideline assistant. Designed for youth soccer coaches, parents, and team managers, Goalee lets you track every moment of the match with precision and ease. Key features: • Accurate timer for match halves, extra time, and breaks • Quick event logging: goals, assists, penalties, cards • Live stats for players and teams • Export clean, professional PDF reports • Multi-sport support coming soon (basketball, volleyball, more) • Pro Mode to remove ads and unlock advanced features Analyze performance, empower your team, and enjoy the game like never before. Simple, clean interface for everyone. Download Goalee and take your matchday to the next level!

About

REF!

Features
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REF! is the ultimate app for football referees. Create the match, invite your crew and run it from the watch. No paper, no fuss. BEFORE THE MATCH - Create the match with teams, competition, ground, date and time. - Save your teams and the grounds you visit most. - Competitions with their own refereeing and travel fees. - Choose whether you're the referee or an assistant. - History for every team: how many times you've officiated them and how those matches ended. - A countdown to your next match in the widget, the Live Activity and your watch face. - A calendar event, created automatically. ON THE PITCH, FROM YOUR APPLE WATCH - Period timer: set how many periods, how long each one lasts and how long the break is. - Haptic alert when time is up, with added time and a warning if the break runs over. - Choose which team kicks off at the start of each period. - Goals with the scorer's shirt number. - Yellow and red cards, for players and for team staff - Substitutions with the numbers coming on and off. - A match summary on your wrist the moment you blow the final whistle. - Tournament mode to chain matches with their own timings and fees without leaving the watch. - Create a match on the watch itself if your appointment changes at the last minute. - Leave the app or let the screen sleep — the match picks up where you left it. AFTER THE MATCH - Distance covered, sprints, top speed, heart rate, calories and steps. - A heat map of your position over real imagery of the pitch, in satellite or pitch view. - Effort zones calculated from your maximum heart rate. - A full match report: goals, cards, minutes and substitutions across every period. YOUR SEASON - Stats across every season and any date range. - A complete history of teams, competitions and grounds. - Matches as referee and as assistant, counted separately. PAYMENTS - Total paid and total outstanding for the season, always in view. - Breakdown by competition and by month, with a per-match average. - Refereeing and travel fees kept separate. - A one-page annual PDF report and a CSV with one row per match, for your association or your tax return. - Mark matches as paid one by one or all at once. WITH YOUR CREW - Find other referees by name or @nickname and add them as friends. - Invite them to a match: they get a notification and accept it from their inbox. - The match syncs between all three of you in real time. - A combined heat map and stats for the whole refereeing team. - Your own profile with an avatar and nickname. AND ALSO - Everything synced through iCloud between iPhone and Apple Watch. - Backups you can export and import. - Works without a signal: whatever you record on the pitch is sent as soon as you're back online. - Tutorials for the app and the watch, plus a quick-start guide. - Match alerts and reminders. REF! PRO Core features are free. REF! PRO unlocks physical performance, full stats, payment reports, shared matches and tournament mode. €2.99/month or €16.99/year, with the first month free on the annual plan. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. You can manage yours in your Apple ID settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://therefapp.es/en/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://therefapp.es/en/privacy.html

Screenshots

Goalee4 screens
REF!4 screens

Verdict

The call

Goalee and REF! are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Goalee sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and REF! sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Goalee ships an update every 5 days, REF! every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on September 8, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Goalee versus REF!: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGoaleeREF!
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 6 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size142 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSalvatore TumminiaRodrigo Vicente Valmorisco

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Goalee

One-time1
  • Remove Adv$2.99
2 purchases

REF!

Subscriptions2
  • REF! PRO Monthly$2.991 Month
  • REF! PRO Yearly$14.991 Year

Questions

Is Goalee free?
Goalee is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is REF! free?
REF! is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Goalee or REF! have ads?
Neither Goalee nor REF! shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Goalee or REF!?
Goalee ships an update every 5 days, and REF! every 6 days. Most recently, Goalee was updated on September 8, 2026 and REF! on September 14, 2026.

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