Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PureRef VS Roadmark

Compare PureRef VS Roadmark and see what are their differences

PureRef logo PureRef

The simple way to view and organize your multiple reference images.

Roadmark logo Roadmark

A visual roadmap you branch rather than overwrite: both timelines stay, each with its own decision. Syncs from Linear, Jira, GitHub, and more, so a shared link stays true.
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  • PureRef Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-23
  • Roadmark Visual roadmap board with branched timelines
    Visual roadmap board with branched timelines //
    2026-07-28
  • Roadmark Every branch carries a written decision
    Every branch carries a written decision //
    2026-07-28
  • Roadmark Import and sync from Linear, Jira, Notion and 7 more
    Import and sync from Linear, Jira, Notion and 7 more //
    2026-07-28
  • Roadmark A public decision feed for stakeholders
    A public decision feed for stakeholders //
    2026-07-28

Roadmark is a roadmap tool for teams whose plans keep changing.

Most roadmaps die the same way: a date moves, someone overwrites it, and the reason is lost. Six weeks later, nobody trusts the board, and the link you shared with a customer or an investor is quietly wrong.

Roadmark makes a change of plan a first-class object. Instead of overwriting a timeline, you branch it: the original plan and the new one both stay on the board, side by side, and every branch carries a written decision explaining why the direction changed.

It keeps itself current. Boards sync from Linear, Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Asana, Notion, monday.com, Shortcut, Azure DevOps and YouTrack โ€” or from CSV. Sync runs daily, so a link you shared months ago still shows the real plan.

Built for sharing outward. Public read-only links, password-protected or expiring links, an embeddable widget for your own site, plus comments, reactions and email follow-ups from viewers โ€” so the roadmap becomes the page stakeholders check, not another internal tool.

Also included: milestone confidence and slip history, board snapshots and diffs, PNG/SVG/PDF/PPTX export, an investor digest, a template gallery, real-time collaboration, and an audit log on Team.

Optional AI drafts milestones, writes decision notes, and runs a pre-mortem stress test of the plan โ€” with your own API key, or from an included monthly quota.

Free for up to 3 boards. Pro $15/month, Team $49/month.

PureRef

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Roadmark

$ Details
freemium $15 / Monthly (Pro โ€” flat rate, unlimited boards, 4 members)
Platforms
Web SaaS
Release Date
2026 July
Startup details
Country
United Kingdom
State
England
City
London
Founder(s)
Aleksandr Tretiakov
Employees
1 - 9

PureRef features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    PureRef offers a simple and intuitive interface that makes it easy to organize and manage reference images. The minimalistic design allows users to focus on their work without unnecessary distractions.
  • Lightweight and Portable
    The software is lightweight and does not require installation, making it highly portable. Users can run PureRef from a USB drive or any location on their computer.
  • Flexible Canvas
    PureRef provides a flexible canvas that can be easily resized and adjusted to fit usersโ€™ needs. This allows for seamless scaling of images without quality loss and the ability to organize the workspace freely.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    PureRef is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, allowing users to maintain a consistent workflow across different operating systems.
  • Customizable Shortcuts
    Users can customize keyboard shortcuts to fit their workflow, which increases efficiency and speeds up navigation within the software.
  • Multiple Image Formats
    PureRef supports a wide range of image formats, ensuring compatibility with most reference images beyond basic formats like JPG and PNG.

Possible disadvantages of PureRef

  • Limited Editing Tools
    While PureRef excels in organizing and displaying reference images, it lacks advanced editing tools, which means users need to rely on other software for image adjustments or annotations.
  • No Cloud Integration
    PureRef does not offer built-in cloud storage or syncing options, which could be inconvenient for users who work across multiple devices and want seamless access to their reference boards.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic functionalities are easy to grasp, some advanced features and keyboard shortcuts may require time to learn and master, particularly for users new to PureRef.
  • Not Free for All Users
    Although PureRef offers a pay-what-you-want pricing model, users may face ethical dilemmas or budget constraints when deciding what to pay, especially if they plan to use it for professional purposes.
  • Occasional Performance Issues
    Some users report occasional lag or performance issues when handling extremely large collections of high-resolution images, which can disrupt workflow.

Roadmark features and specs

  • Branching timelines
    Change a plan by branching it, not overwriting it โ€” the original and the new timeline both stay on the board, side by side.
  • Decision log
    Every branch requires a written decision, so the reason a date moved survives the move itself.
  • Sync sources
    Linear, Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Asana, Notion, monday.com, Shortcut, Azure DevOps, YouTrack and CSV.
  • Automatic sync
    Boards re-sync daily, so a link shared months ago still shows the current plan. Any single milestone can be force-synced.
  • Public sharing
    Read-only public links, password-protected and expiring links, and an embeddable widget for your own site.
  • Viewer feedback
    Comments, reactions and email follow on public boards โ€” no account needed to react or follow.
  • Milestone confidence
    Confidence level per milestone plus an append-only slip history showing every date change.
  • Snapshots and diffs
    Point-in-time board snapshots with a visual diff of what changed between them.
  • Export
    PNG, SVG, PDF and PPTX export, plus an investor digest you can send by email.
  • Optional AI
    Drafts milestones, writes decision notes and runs a pre-mortem stress test โ€” with your own API key or an included monthly quota.
  • Seat model
    Flat per-workspace pricing. Unlimited members on Team, and read-only viewers never consume a seat.

PureRef videos

The Best Free Tool for Artists - PureRef

More videos:

  • Tutorial - PureRef tutorial: a free, cross-platform virtual board for artists!
  • Review - PureRef Review

Roadmark videos

Yellow and White Road Marking Lines Meaning #roadmarkings #driving

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PureRef and Roadmark)
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Project Management
0 0%
100% 100
Digital Asset Management
100 100%
0% 0
Product Roadmaps
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing PureRef and Roadmark.

What makes your product unique?

Roadmark's answer:

Roadmark treats a change of plan as something you record, not something you erase. Every roadmap tool lets you drag a milestone to a new date โ€” and the old date, along with the reason it moved, quietly disappears. In Roadmark you branch the timeline instead: the original plan and the new one both stay on the board, side by side, and the branch carries a written decision explaining the change. Six months later the board answers "why did this slip?" on its own, without anyone digging through Slack.

The other half is that the board keeps itself current. It syncs daily from Linear, Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Asana, Notion, monday.com, Shortcut, Azure DevOps and YouTrack, so a link you shared with a customer or an investor doesn't silently stop being true.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Roadmark's answer:

Three concrete reasons.

Branching with a decision log. Productboard, Aha! and Roadmunk all show you the plan as it stands today. Roadmark shows you how it got there โ€” every pivot kept, each with the reasoning attached.

Pricing that doesn't punish sharing. Pricing is flat per workspace, not per seat. Team includes unlimited members, and read-only viewers never consume a seat at all โ€” so putting the roadmap in front of customers and stakeholders costs nothing extra.

Built to be shared outward. Public read-only links, password-protected and expiring links, an embeddable widget, and comments, reactions, and email follow for viewers without an account.

Where Roadmark is not the answer: if what you need is a feedback and prioritisation suite โ€” collecting feature requests, scoring them, running customer boards โ€” Productboard and ProdPad do that, and Roadmark does not.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Roadmark's answer:

Small product and engineering teams, roughly 2โ€“20 people, where the plan changes often and someone outside the team keeps asking where things stand: founders reporting to investors, product managers at startups, agencies and consultancies reporting to clients, and indie makers running a public roadmap.

What's the story behind your product?

Roadmark's answer:

Roadmark was built in 2026 around one observation: roadmaps don't fail because teams plan badly; they fail because plans change and the tools only store the latest version. A date moves, the bar gets dragged, and the reason is gone. Six weeks later the board is no longer true, and nobody trusts it enough to look.

So the plan itself became the thing worth versioning. Keep the old timeline, branch to the new one, attach the decision to the branch. Sync, public links, and the decision feed all exist for the same purpose: to keep that history accurate without anyone maintaining it by hand.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Roadmark's answer:

Next.js 15 (App Router) and TypeScript on the front end, Tailwind CSS 4 for styling, Supabase (PostgreSQL, Realtime and Auth) as the backend, and Vercel for hosting. Tested with Vitest and Playwright.

User comments

Share your experience with using PureRef and Roadmark. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PureRef seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

PureRef mentions (4)

  • how do u guys organize your visual inspiration/refs digitally?
    I mainly use offline means: organising all my files in a hierarchy of folders and using pureref (which I highly recommend) to make moodboards, and ofc an external hard drive to save backups. The only online means I use is google drive for online backups. Source: about 4 years ago
  • HELP! So I want to trace this Image(704x702) into a Pixel art (32 x 32 or 40 x 40) but when I resize it, it gets like this (2nd picture) and if I don't, then the pixels are too small, What do i do?
    If you just want the image to be a transparent overlay while you draw 'through the image'(with it being unchanged) you can use something like Pureref(pureref.com) to set the image as always on top + turn opacity down a bit. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Hide user name in menu bar.
    If you canโ€™t get it to work inside of max, I thought of a free easy workaround you could try. I use the software pureref to manage and quickly access reference images. You could just resize an empty pureref window to cover your username. Change the color and opacity to whatever you want, lock the window and switch turn on the transparent to mouse option and you should be good to go! Source: over 4 years ago
  • Hello Reddit! this is my 1st time posting and i'm excited to share some of my sketches with you guys. I like drawing dynamic poses, it's a really fun exercise!. These 4 girls are from reference pics out of Pinterest. Suggestions are welcome :D. Have a great day!
    The high kicking girl on the right is in a PureRef board I keep to practice gesture. Source: almost 5 years ago

Roadmark mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Roadmark yet. Tracking of Roadmark recommendations started around Jul 2026.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PureRef and Roadmark, you can also consider the following products

Eagle App - Unify your creative inspiration in one place. Store anything โ€“ inspiring images, design mockups, illustrations, screenshots and more.

productboard - Beautiful and powerful product management.

BeeRef - A Simple Reference Image Viewer

Aha! - Aha! is the new way to create visual product roadmaps. Web-based product management tools and roadmapping software for agile product managers.

Milanote - Milanote is a note taking app for creative work.

Roadmunk - Create beautiful product roadmaps quickly. Drag & Drop functionality. Export your roadmaps into formats such as: PPT, PNG & URL. Start for free today.