Mobbin and Refero do the same job. Both are design reference libraries you can search yourself, and both plug into your AI tools over MCP. Refero curates a library of 400+ products, with structured metadata for agents. Mobbin keeps the largest record of shipped product design, collected since 2018: 620,000+ screens and 153,400+ flows across web and iOS, searchable by you or your AI agents. On individual annual plans, they cost the same.

Whose screens are better-looking is a taste question, and taste debates don't end, so we'll skip it. What Mobbin offers is the fullest record of what shipped: screens that survived any combination of a design crit, a legal pass, an A/B test or three, and an App Store review.

What they have in common

Both are libraries of real product screens, built on the same belief: the most useful design reference is something that shipped and survived real-world use. Designers were using both well before either had an MCP.

The AI era added a second audience: the tools themselves. Far more people build software now, and most of them build with AI in the loop. But AI tools without references produce the same generic interface over and over, and the two companies describe that problem in almost the same words: Refero's MCP page says ”you can spot an AI-generated page instantly.” Mobbin's says that AI agents are “guessing at what works”. The actual queries back this up.

Both are hand-curated and updated weekly. Both cover web and iOS. Both have Figma plugins. Both ship an MCP server, so Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT can search their libraries mid-task.

Comparison table

How pricing works

Both Mobbin and Refero publish pricing, and on individual annual plans they cost the same: $120 a year. The difference left is Refero’s lifetime option.

Where Refero is better

Structure. Refero screens carry metadata your agent reads before it looks at the image.

Refero Skill. It installs style rules for typography, color, and spacing into your agent. Mobbin’s design skills are live (install in Claude; more apps soon).

Where Mobbin is better

Coverage. As of October 2026, Mobbin's library runs about 4x the screens and 12x the flows: 620,000+ screens to their 145,000+, and 153,400+ flows to their 12,000+. It's trusted by 3M+ designers, and it includes apps you can't research yourself. And when one vertical needs real depth, there's a dedicated library for it: Finance+ goes deeper inside US finance apps that sit behind KYC checks and funded accounts.

Search. Type what you mean, like “onboarding screens that feel like a warm welcome”, and Mobbin’s Deep Search reads the intent instead of matching keywords. It also finds text inside screenshots, so searching “invite” surfaces every screen with an invite button.

Motion and app history. Animations and transitions are captured with the flows so you can see how a screen behaves, and every app's past versions stay in the library so you can see what changed between redesigns. We've been collecting since 2018, so that history runs almost eight years deep. This includes apps that are no longer around. Products get sunset; the great design work in them shouldn't vanish with them.

We'll be honest

Refero shipped their MCP before we did. We lost users over it, and some told us we were late to the game. They were right, and the pressure did us good.

Two things we're aware of and working on: search relevance when a query names a specific app, and MCP sessions that sign you out more often than anyone would like. And there's no free MCP trial yet; you need a paid plan to try it. We hear about this one a lot, so free MCP credits are on the way.

Which should you pick?

You're a designer or team shipping products. Mobbin. If “how do the top apps handle this?” is a daily question, answering it well takes a larger sample size: 620,000+ screens across web and iOS, full flows, app history, and apps you can't sign up for yourself. And your AI agents search the same library over MCP, in Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT.

You work primarily on web. Check both libraries for the specific products you benchmark against. Mobbin’s is ~4x larger overall.

You're a student. Mobbin Student Pro starts at $5 a month while you're in school, with a two-minute verification.

FAQ

What's the difference between Mobbin MCP and Refero MCP?
Refero's searches their curated set of 145,000+ screens and has design styles. Mobbin's searches 620,000+ screens and 153,400+ flows, and pairs with a REST API on Team and Enterprise plans, plus design skills (install in Claude).

Which has better search, Mobbin or Refero?
Both search well. Refero offers plain-language, tag, and image search. Mobbin searches in plain words too, with filters, and can find text inside screenshots: searching "invite" surfaces every screen with an invite button. And when you'd rather describe what you're looking for, Deep Search uses AI to find it.

Is Mobbin only for mobile apps?
No. The library covers web and iOS: 620,000+ screens across web apps, dashboards, and marketing sites, with flows on both platforms.

Which is better for AI product design references?
Both libraries cover AI interfaces. On Mobbin, AI and LLM interfaces are the second most-searched category over MCP, with designers pulling ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity side by side to compare conversation UI, thinking indicators, and tool-use displays. Check both libraries for the specific apps you benchmark against.

How much do they cost?
The same, on individual annual plans: $10 a month, billed yearly, either way. Both pricing pages (theirs, ours) are public and current, which is not the case for most third-party comparisons.

Does Mobbin MCP have a free trial?
No, it does not.

Try them side by side

Mobbin MCP takes about a minute to set up: mobbin.com/mcp. Refero's free tier makes their side easy too. Run the same prompts through both for a week and pick whichever your team keeps reaching for.