Rayyan

Rayyan is a systematic evidence-review platform for research teams, with a workflow that spans reference management, screening, extraction, and reporting. It is best suited to groups coordinating auditable reviews, especially when AI assistance is useful but researchers must retain decision authority. Its breadth comes with a file-based import step and meaningful differences between plans.

Overview

Rayyan combines reference import, collaboration, deduplication, title-and-abstract and full-text screening, data extraction, risk-of-bias assessment, and reporting. Keeping these stages in one workspace can simplify coordination across a review; teams that need only to organize citations may find the scope more than they need.

References arrive as exported files from databases or reference managers, not through a direct database connection. That means teams must account for export and import in their routine. Rayyan says its Systematic Auto-Resolver can deduplicate up to 200,000 references using the review protocol, a notable capacity for large collections.

Key features

ResearchPilot AI Reviewer screens against user-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria and supplies decisions with reasoning notes. AI Analyzer recommends include-or-exclude decisions with justifications based on the review criteria, while leaving the final call to the researcher. This makes the AI assistance useful as support for a human-led process, rather than a substitute for researcher judgment.

ResearchPilot can also extract answers to custom questions from PDFs and metadata, highlight relevant passages, and let users review the extracted answers. That can support structured extraction, though the review step remains important. For teams automating adjacent workflows, the API provides programmatic access to reviews, references, decisions, and metadata, plus an official Python SDK and options for automation and external integrations.

Rayyan accepts RIS, BibTeX, EndNote, and CSV exports. Its enterprise security offering states HIPAA and GDPR compliance, SOC 2 controls, encryption in transit and at rest, and SAML 2.0, OAuth, and MFA support. These are relevant provisions for organizations with formal security requirements.

Pricing

The Free plan costs nothing, remains free forever, and allows 3 active reviews, 2 free reviewers, and 1 sample. Mobile app access is limited. It is a practical way to begin a small review, but the caps and restricted mobile use may constrain ongoing team work.

Essential costs $4.99 a month per seat, billed annually. It includes 5 free reviewers, PRISMA flow diagrams, duplicate auto-resolution, and unlimited mobile app access, with Standard support. It suits teams needing those core workflow additions, but it does not include the Advanced plan's stated 9 active reviews, 10 free reviewers, unlimited samples, AI PICO extraction, or priority support.

Advanced costs $8.33 a month per seat, billed annually. It adds 9 active reviews, 10 free reviewers, unlimited samples, AI PICO extraction, and priority support. This is the stronger fit for researchers who need greater review capacity and those features; the annual per-seat billing is a consideration for teams scaling their seats.

Business / Academic costs $41.67 a month per license, billed annually, starting with 5 licenses. It includes 250 free reviewers, 50 organization-wide reviews, a team dashboard, workspace roles, and priority support. The minimum makes it more appropriate for institutions and larger coordinated groups than a small project.

Enterprise uses custom pricing, billed per license annually. It offers unlimited reviews and viewers, SSO / SAML, API access, a management console, and dedicated support. Organizations needing those controls and support can consider it; smaller teams may prefer the lower plans. The pricing page lists Standard support for Free and Essential, priority support for Advanced and Business / Academic, and dedicated support for Enterprise.

Platforms

Rayyan is available on web, Android, and iOS, with API access for integrations and automation. Its mobile app supports work on the go or offline, but Free users have limited access; unlimited mobile access begins with Essential.

Who it's for

Rayyan is aimed at evidence-review teams in pharma, medical devices, contract research organizations, universities, healthcare, government, and health technology assessment. Its shared workflow, protocol-based screening, and organization-level options make it a strong candidate for collaborative systematic reviews. A lone researcher or a group that needs direct database connectivity should weigh those workflow requirements before choosing it.

Pros and cons

• Pros: One workflow covers screening through extraction, risk-of-bias assessment, and reporting, reducing the need to divide review stages across tools.
• Pros: AI recommendations include reasoning or justification, and researchers retain final decision authority.
• Pros: Protocol-based deduplication supports collections of up to 200,000 references.
• Cons: Database references must be exported and imported because there is no direct database connection.
• Cons: Free access is capped at 3 active reviews, 2 free reviewers, and 1 sample, with limited mobile access.
• Cons: The Business / Academic plan starts at 5 licenses, which may be more commitment than a small team needs.

Alternatives

For a wider comparison, browse Literature Review Software, Systematic Review Software, and AI Literature Review Software.

Buhos is a free option for readers looking for software available on Linux, macOS, Windows, or self-hosted setups. ASReview is free and open source, with no licensing fees or subscriptions; running it on your own hardware or server may incur costs.

Elicit is a freemium web and API option, with unlimited search across more than 138 million papers, summaries, and chat with papers on its Basic plan, alongside limited Research Agent and Research Reports usage. CADIMA is a free web option with no topic restrictions and no stated reviewer limit.

Synthesis is a paid option with a free trial for readers who want to compare another tool. PICO Portal offers a freemium web plan with 1 project, unlimited citations, and unlimited collaborators, as well as a two-week ScholarIQ trial.

RevMan is a freemium alternative with a free trial and support for Linux, macOS, Windows, and web. INRA is another freemium web option; its Teams & Institutions plan is $7.50 per year, billed at $7.50/seat/month yearly, with a minimum of three seats, centralized user management and billing, and dedicated onboarding.

Verdict

Choose Rayyan if your team needs a shared, auditable systematic-review workflow with AI support that keeps final decisions with researchers. Its strongest case is the breadth from screening through extraction and reporting, backed by protocol-based deduplication. Look elsewhere if direct database connections are essential, or if the Free plan's review, reviewer, sample, or mobile limits would obstruct your work.