MatchDay Hub vs REF!
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MatchDay Hub
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Match Day Hub makes match day simple. Log every goal, card, penalty, and substitution live — all on one screen, with big buttons, no scrolling, and no signal required. Quickly set up matches with your squad, opposition, and home or away status, and capture a full record of every game. The free version gives you everything you need to manage one team: build and maintain your squad, log match events in real time, and review a complete match history. Every event is timestamped automatically, so you never have to reconstruct what happened after the whistle. For managers running multiple teams or looking for deeper insights, Elite adds advanced features: track and store games for all your teams, see detailed player and team stats over time, and uncover trends in discipline, home vs away performance, and set-piece vs open-play goals. Elite builds on the same simple match-day workflow while giving you the insight to plan, analyse, and improve across seasons.
REF!
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REF! is the ultimate app for football referees. Create the match, invite your trio, run it from your watch and fill in the match report on your federation's intranet without leaving the app. No paper, no hassle. BEFORE THE MATCH - Create the match with teams, category, pitch, date and time. - Save your teams with crest, colours and short name, and your usual pitches. - Match and travel fees by category, editable for each match. - Choose whether you're the referee or an assistant. - History for each team: how often you've refereed them and how it went. - Countdown to your next match in the widget, the Live Activity and on your watch face. - A calendar event, created automatically. ON THE PITCH, FROM YOUR APPLE WATCH - Timer by periods: set how many, how long and how long the break is. - Haptic alert when time is up and when the break runs over. - Added time: enter the minutes announced and the watch tells you when they run out. - Choose who kicks off at the start of each period. - Goals with one gesture and the scorer's number; stoppage time is logged like a match report: 45+2. - Yellow and red cards to players and team officials, with second yellows handled for you. - The reason for each card: reckless, promising attack, serious foul play, violent conduct… - Substitutions in the order you write them down, at half-time too. - Substitution windows: how many stoppages each team has used to make changes. - Events view for each team: you choose whether to see goals, cards or substitutions. - Match summary on your wrist at the final whistle. - Tournament mode: create and run matches on the watch itself, with their own times and fees. - If the app closes, the match picks up where you left it. AFTER THE MATCH - Fill in the match report: one tap takes you to your reports on the RFEF or regional federation intranet. - The full report in the app: goals, cards with their reason and substitutions, each with its minute. - Distance covered, per half too, sprints, top speed, heart rate, calories and steps. - Heat map of your position over the real image of the pitch, in satellite or pitch view. - Effort zones calculated from your real maximum heart rate, read from Apple Health. - The match is saved to Apple Health like any other workout. YOUR SEASON - Statistics by season or date range, as referee and as assistant. - History of teams, categories and pitches. FEES - Paid and pending for the season, by category and by month, with match and travel fees kept separate. - Annual PDF and CSV report, for your committee or your tax return. - Mark matches as paid one by one or all at once. WITH YOUR TRIO - Add other referees as friends by name or @alias and invite them to your matches. - The match syncs in real time between the three of you. - Combined heat map and statistics for the whole refereeing team. - Profile with avatar and alias, plus blocking and reporting. AND ALSO - Your federation's intranet one tap away from Home; your password never goes through REF!. - Everything synced with iCloud between iPhone and Apple Watch. - Exportable and importable backup. - Works without signal: whatever you record on the pitch is sent as soon as you're back online. - Match reminders, tutorials and a suggestion box. REF! PRO Refereeing with REF! is free, with no match limit: timer, goals, cards and substitutions from the watch, match metrics and effort zones. REF! PRO unlocks the heat map, statistics across all seasons and by date range, fee reports, friends and shared matches, tournament mode, substitution windows and card reasons. €2.99/month or €16.99/year, with the first month free on the annual plan. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. You can manage it in your Apple ID settings. Terms of use (EULA): https://therefapp.es/en/terms.html Privacy policy: https://therefapp.es/en/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MatchDay Hub at none against REF!'s 2. MatchDay Hub also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. REF! sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. MatchDay Hub asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | MatchDay Hub | REF! |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | — | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 47 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ben Aucamp | Rodrigo Vicente Valmorisco |
In-app purchases
MatchDay Hub
No in-app purchases
REF!
- REF! PRO Monthly$2.991 Month
- REF! PRO Yearly$14.991 Year









