
PureRef
ArtDeck
FrameCourier
BeeRef
Pixieset
Milanote
Refbox
FrameRef is a modern reference board for creative professionals, combining images, videos, and PDFs in one infinite canvas.

Milanote
Miro
Freeform
Heptabase
PureRef
Scapple
Bulletin Infinite Canvas
Infinite canvas and moodboard maker that saves real files

Which is more popular?
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
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|---|---|---|
| Website | frameref.app | visualos.app |
| Pricing | ||
| Platforms | — | |
| Company | — | Startup from Germany · 1 - 9 employees · 2026 |
| Listed in |
In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.


No description of FrameRef yet.
visualOS is an infinite canvas for people who think visually: notes, Markdown documents, to-dos, images, PDFs, colour swatches and freehand drawing, with boards nested inside boards. It is local-first: every board is a real folder on your disk, documents are Markdown files, and sync runs through...
What each product offers, as listed by its team.


Possible disadvantages
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.


Overall verdict
Why this product is good
Recommended for
No analysis of visualOS yet.
Walkthroughs and reviews on video.
FrameRef 1.0 – Organize All Your Reference Files in One Infinite Board
visualOS - Free Infinite Canvas and Moodboard App
How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.


As answered by people managing FrameRef and visualOS.
FrameRef's answer
FrameRef does everything you expect from traditional reference boards, and goes much further.
visualOS's answer:
Choose visualOS if you work alone and want your boards to stay yours. Compared with Milanote, there is no 100-note limit and no subscription: the web app is free and complete, and the iPhone, iPad and Mac app is a one-time purchase. Compared with Miro or Apple Freeform, you get boards nested to any depth, stored as plain files, and the app works offline. If your team needs real-time collaboration, comments or share links, Milanote or Miro fit better.
FrameRef's answer
In addition to supporting images and GIFs, FrameRef supports videos and PDFs, and even lets you drag and drop video links from platforms like YouTube, X, and Twitch to automatically download them into your board.
visualOS's answer:
visualOS stores your work as real files. Connect a folder and every board on the canvas becomes a folder on your disk, every document a Markdown file and every image an ordinary image file. There is no server and no account, so your boards work offline, sync through your own iCloud Drive or Dropbox, and stay readable even if you stop using visualOS.
FrameRef's answer
FrameRef is designed for visual creatives such as 3D artists, game developers, concept artists, and designers who need a powerful way to organize and work with large collections of reference images, videos, and PDFs.
visualOS's answer:
People who think visually and work on their own: designers, photographers, illustrators and artists who build moodboards and project boards, plus students, writers and researchers who organise ideas on a canvas. Users often come from Milanote, Apple Freeform or Kosmik and want an offline tool without a subscription.
visualOS's answer:
We're Sarah Dorweiler and Gerald Reimertz, a husband-and-wife team from Nuremberg, Germany, who have been building things together for more than 20 years. As creatives we always organised our projects on visual canvas tools, but our files and ideas were tied to cloud services. We wanted the same visual overview for the files on our own devices: offline and private. That became visualOS, launched in 2026. We build it as a two-person team.
visualOS's answer:
The app is written in plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with no framework and no build step. The canvas is drawn with the Canvas 2D API and stays fast with thousands of elements. Data lives in IndexedDB or, through the File System Access API, in a folder the user chooses. The native iPhone, iPad and Mac app uses Capacitor plus Swift plugins built on UIKit, PencilKit (shape recognition) and Apple's Vision framework (handwriting search).
Share your experience with using FrameRef and visualOS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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