Art Reference Board vs Proref
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Art Reference Board
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Your references should stay as close as your next brushstroke. Mica is an art reference board built for illustrators, painters, animators, concept artists, character designers, tattoo artists, art students, and anyone who thinks visually. Gather images, photos, GIFs, WebP animations, video, and PDFs on an infinite canvas. Then study color, value, shape, pose, and motion without breaking your creative flow. BUILD THE BOARD YOUR ART NEEDS β’ Import from Photos, Files, folders, camera, document scanner, or clipboard β’ Drag and drop on iPad and Mac β’ Save references from other apps with the system share sheet β’ Send new ideas to Capture Inbox and organize them later β’ Reuse original images from your asset library across multiple boards STUDYβDONβT JUST COLLECT β’ Generate six- or twelve-color palettes from the dominant colors in your references β’ Combine grayscale with two-, three-, four-, or six-level posterization for value studies β’ Crop, flip, rotate, resize, and adjust opacity β’ Play GIF and WebP animation, inspect timelines, and step frame by frame β’ Step precisely through video and save useful frames to your canvas β’ Run timed reference studies with interval and shuffle controls β’ Annotate, highlight, measure, and sketch with Apple Pencil KEEP REFERENCES BESIDE YOUR WORK β’ Work beside your drawing or painting app on iPad β’ Float a reference with Picture in Picture on iPhone and iPad β’ Keep an always-on-top reference window on Mac β’ Enter focus or presentation mode when you want the interface to disappear ORGANIZE SERIOUS CREATIVE PROJECTS β’ Build boards with pages and layers β’ Arrange references in rows, columns, or a masonry-style grid β’ Group, lock, hide, duplicate, snap, and reorder canvas items β’ Add folders, tags, notes, sticky notes, styled text, and saved canvas regions β’ Search reusable assets by name or tag, filter by dominant color, and find boards with Spotlight β’ Keep favorites, recent work, reusable assets, and captured ideas within reach PRIVATE, PORTABLE, AND YOURS β’ Work offline by default β’ Protect private boards and folders with a passcode or supported biometrics β’ Restore an earlier local board version without overwriting your current work β’ Export pages as PNG or PDF, share selected references, or export original files β’ Move a complete project with Micaβs portable .refboard archive Collect what inspires you. Study what matters. Keep creating. Start free with one board, one page and up to 12 items. Advanced features require Mica Pro. Available purchases and any eligible trial are shown in the app. Privacy Policy: https://rezonating.app/privacy.html?id=mica Terms of Service: https://rezonating.app/terms.html?id=mica
Proref
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Proref is where your references live while you draw β and where the finished piece goes afterwards. GATHER YOUR REFERENCES Drop everything you're looking at onto one huge canvas and arrange it into a board. Import from Photos, your camera, Files, a web link, the share sheet, or by dragging straight in from Safari. Zoom from 2% to 25,600%, so the board grows with the project. WORK BESIDE THEM Proref is built for Split View: your references on one side, your drawing app on the other. Sketch and annotate over them with Apple Pencil, with pressure. Tune brightness, contrast and saturation, or crop non-destructively β the original is always recoverable. A minimap shows where you are, and saved views jump you back to any spot in one tap. KEEP THE PIECE, AND THE LESSON When something's finished, keep it. Attach a piece to the board it came from, open it full screen, and see everything you've made on a dated timeline β as a gallery to swipe or a list to scan. Note what worked and what didn't while it's fresh, star the things to carry forward, and those notes sit in a pane on the board while you draw the next one. If you'd rather Proref stayed purely a reference app, turn the art journey off in Settings and it does. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No accounts. No sign-in. No server. No tracking, no analytics, no ads. Your boards, your artworks and your critique notes stay on your device. FREE, WITH A ONE-TIME UNLOCK Proref is free to use with 2 boards, 10 images per board, 3 saved views, 5 finished artworks, and 3 focused critique notes per piece. Proref Pro removes those limits and unlocks every feature β a single one-time purchase, not a subscription. Buy it once and restore it on your other devices.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Art Reference Board at every 2 days against Proref's every 6 days. Proref's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Art Reference Board sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Proref sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Art Reference Board ships an update every 2 days, Proref every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Art Reference Board | Proref |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days β better | Every 6 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod β better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 15.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 44 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rezonating Apps, LLC | John Oliver Atienza |
In-app purchases
Art Reference Board
- Mica Pro - Monthly3 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Mica Pro - Lifetime$5.99
Proref
- Proref Pro$7.99
Questions
Is Art Reference Board free?
Is Proref free?
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Which is updated more often, Art Reference Board or Proref?
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