Proref vs BeamSpace
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Proref
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Proref is where your references live while you draw โ 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 โ 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 โ 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 โ a single one-time purchase, not a subscription. Buy it once and restore it on your other devices.
BeamSpace
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Beamspace let you map everything onto surfaces using only your iOS device and a projector. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Proref at 15.0 against BeamSpace's 17.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Proref sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and BeamSpace sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Proref ships an update every 6 days, BeamSpace every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Proref | BeamSpace |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days โ better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod โ better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 โ better | 17.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 45 MB | 72 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | John Oliver Atienza | Marvin Krueger |
In-app purchases
Proref
- Proref Pro$7.99
BeamSpace
- PRO$3.997 Days
- PRO3 Days trial$24.991 Year









