The PureRef Alternative That Syncs Across Your Devices

PureRef is a small miracle. An infinite canvas, drag-drop-scale-rotate, and that killer always-on-top mode so your references float over Photoshop or Blender while you work. It handles reference walls of 500+ images without breaking a sweat, and it costs whatever you want to pay. If you’re at the easel arranging a pose sheet, nothing beats it.

So let’s be clear up front: this isn’t a “PureRef is bad” article. It’s about the one thing PureRef was never designed to do — be your reference library across every device — and what to use for that half of the job.

What PureRef doesn’t do (by design)

PureRef is a board, not a library. That distinction is the whole story:

• It lives on one desktop. There’s no built-in cloud sync. The common workaround — putting your .pur files on Dropbox or Google Drive — is fragile and prone to conflicts.
• There’s no mobile or iPad app. Half your inspiration gets captured on your phone, and PureRef can’t see any of it.
• No tags, no search. On a 30-image board, you scan. On a library of thousands of references collected over years, scanning doesn’t scale — and PureRef gives you no way to query your collection.

None of this is a flaw in PureRef. A canvas tool shouldn’t have to be a cloud-synced database. But it means most artists end up running two systems: a big messy reference collection somewhere, and PureRef boards they assemble for a specific piece. The collection half is where everything falls apart — and it’s exactly what a synced, tagged library fixes.

The recurring artist workflow is “Eagle (or a folder pile) for the database, PureRef for the canvas.” The weak link is always the database half: local, unsynced, unsearchable, invisible from your phone.

What to look for in a PureRef alternative

If your pain is the library, not the canvas, the features that actually matter are:

1. Cross-device sync — the same references on your Mac, iPhone, and the web, always current. This is the headline gap.
2. Capture from your phone — share a screenshot or photo straight into your library the moment you see it, no “email it to myself” detour.
3. Tags and search — so a library of thousands stays findable. (Folders don’t cut it for references; here’s why tags beat folders.)
4. You own your library — not locked into a feed or a proprietary canvas file you can only open on one machine.

Where Kelu fits

Kelu is built for that library half. It’s a cloud-native visual library for screenshots, references, and inspiration — tagged (not foldered), searchable, and synced across iPhone, Mac, and the web. Snap a reference on your phone at a museum or mid-commute and it’s on your Mac before you sit down. Think “that armor study with the warm rim light” and pull it up by tag in seconds, from any device. And the first 2,500 items are free.

Honest comparison:

	PureRef	Kelu
Infinite canvas / always-on-top	✅ Its whole point	❌ Not a canvas tool
Cross-device sync	❌ Local files only	✅ Built in
Mobile capture (iPhone)	❌ No app	✅ Share-sheet straight in
Tags & search at scale	❌ Visual scan only	✅ Core model
Cost	Pay-what-you-want	Free to 2,500 items

So which do you need?

Be honest about the job:

• If you need a reference board to paint alongside — floating over your art app while you work — keep PureRef. Kelu doesn’t replace that, and it’s great at it.
• If your problem is that your references are trapped on one computer, invisible from your phone, and impossible to search — that’s the gap Kelu fills. Many artists run both: Kelu as the synced, searchable home for everything they collect; PureRef for assembling a board when it’s time to make the thing.

The reference wall and the reference library are different tools for different moments. PureRef nailed the wall years ago. The library — synced, tagged, on every device — is the part worth fixing.

Starting from a folder pile or a chaotic camera roll? Begin with how to organize reference images.