Rayyan

Rayyan is a systematic-review platform for research teams coordinating evidence work. It suits groups that need screening, extraction and reporting in one auditable workflow, with AI suggestions that leave decisions to researchers. Its breadth is compelling, but file-based reference imports and Free-plan limits narrow the fit.

Overview

Rayyan carries reviews from reference import through collaboration, deduplication, title-and-abstract and full-text screening, data extraction, risk-of-bias assessment and reporting. Keeping these stages together can reduce handoffs for teams managing a formal review; it is more than a citation manager, and likely more workflow than a researcher needs for occasional reading lists.

References must be imported as exported files from databases or reference managers; there is no direct database connection. That adds a recurring step for teams gathering literature from external sources. Rayyan says its Systematic Auto-Resolver can deduplicate up to 200,000 references using the review protocol, which gives large collections a substantial stated ceiling.

Key features

ResearchPilot AI Reviewer screens against user-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria and returns decisions with reasoning notes. AI Analyzer recommends inclusion or exclusion with justification based on those criteria, while leaving the final call to the researcher. This is a useful division of labor for teams seeking decision support without delegating accountability.

ResearchPilot can also extract answers to custom questions from PDFs and metadata, highlight relevant passages and let users review the answers. That combination can speed structured extraction while keeping a human check in the workflow. The platform also supports risk-of-bias assessment and reporting, rounding out the core stages rather than stopping at screening.

API access covers reviews, references, decisions and metadata, with an official Python SDK for automation and external integrations. For organizations with technical capacity, this opens a path to connect review work to other systems. Enterprise security features include HIPAA and GDPR compliance, SOC 2 controls, encryption in transit and at rest, and SAML 2.0, OAuth and MFA.

Pricing

Rayyan is freemium. Free is free, billed Free forever, and allows 3 active reviews, 2 free reviewers and 1 sample, with limited mobile access. It is a sensible starting point for a small review, but the active-review and reviewer caps make it restrictive for parallel 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. It is the lower-cost paid option for teams that need those workflow additions, though the stated feature set does not include Advanced's AI PICO extraction or priority support.

Advanced is $8.33 a month per seat, billed annually, and includes 9 active reviews, 10 free reviewers, unlimited samples, AI PICO extraction and priority support. It is the stronger fit for researchers running several concurrent reviews or needing extraction assistance. Business / Academic costs $41.67 a month per license, billed annually, starting with 5 licenses; it adds 250 free reviewers, 50 organization-wide reviews, a team dashboard, workspace roles and priority support. That structure is aimed at institutions coordinating many reviewers rather than a small project team.

Enterprise has custom pricing, billed per license annually, and includes unlimited reviews and viewers, SSO / SAML, API access, a management console and dedicated support. It is the clear tier for organizations requiring centralized administration or single sign-on. Standard support comes with Free and Essential; Advanced and Business / Academic receive priority support.

Platforms

Rayyan is available on web, Android and iOS, and offers API access. Its mobile app supports on-the-go or offline work, but Free users have limited access; unlimited mobile access begins with Essential. The API is useful for programmatic workflows, while file imports remain necessary for references from external databases.

Who it's for

Rayyan is aimed at systematic-review teams, including pharma, medical-device, CRO, university, healthcare, government and health technology assessment organizations. Its collaboration, audit-friendly workflow and administrative options make it strongest where review work is shared and structured. Solo researchers with a simple screening need may find the breadth and paid seat structure unnecessary.

Pros and cons

Broad review workflow: Import, screening, extraction, bias assessment and reporting sit in one platform, reducing stage-to-stage tool changes.

AI with researcher oversight: Screening and extraction suggestions include rationale or supporting text, while researchers retain review of the outputs.

Large-scale deduplication: The stated capacity of up to 200,000 references can accommodate substantial collections.

No direct database connection: Teams need an export-and-import step to bring in references.

Free is tightly capped: Three active reviews and two free reviewers constrain parallel or larger projects, and mobile access is limited.

Annual billing on paid tiers: The monthly prices are billed annually, and Business / Academic starts at five licenses, which may not suit smaller groups.

Alternatives

ASReview is worth choosing when free, open-source software that can run on Linux, macOS, Windows, web or self-hosted setups matters more than Rayyan's integrated paid-plan structure; running it on your own hardware or server may cost money.

Universal SLR Assistant is another free, open-source option, available on Linux, macOS, Windows and web; cloud AI provider API fees may apply.

Moara may suit a smaller library: its free plan covers up to 50 papers per review library and includes Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar search, Zotero and LibKey, and Viewer or Editor collaboration.

For other tools to compare, browse Systematic Review Software, AI Literature Review Software or Literature Review Software.

Verdict

Choose Rayyan if your team needs a connected, auditable systematic-review process and wants AI assistance across screening and extraction without surrendering researcher judgment. The main reason to look elsewhere is the combination of file-only reference imports and annual, seat-based paid plans, especially for small teams or researchers who need only a narrower tool.