Buhos vs Elicit

Buhos is web-based software for conducting systematic literature reviews, with tools for reference screening, full-text management, collaboration, analysis and reporting. Reviews can be individual or group-based, with internal messaging for personal and review-related communication. The workflow has defined stages, but stages can be changed at any point. Buhos imports bibliographic records in formats including BibTeX, RIS, PubMed/NBIB, JSON and CSV, from sources such as WoS, Scopus, EBSCOhost, SciELO, PubMed, Lilacs and ProQuest. Crossref supports deduplication and reference information retrieval; Scopus and PubMed can supply missing abstracts and metadata when API credentials are available. A repository provides online viewing of PDF and ODF files. Other tools include customized forms, data analysis, reports and exports. English and Spanish are listed as available languages. Buhos runs on Linux, Windows and macOS; the project links to deployment guidance and API documentation. Its documentation says it fully supports the conducting phase of a review, partly supports report formatting, and omits some planning and reporting activities. Buhos is free.

Elicit is an AI research assistant for researchers gathering and assessing evidence. Its Research Agent draws on scientific databases, academic journals, public data sources, uploaded documents, a corpus of 138 million academic papers, and the wider web. A session can use up to 20 uploaded resources, including PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, and JPG files. Elicit offers Research Agent sessions, Research Reports, and Systematic Reviews, and supports AI-generated claims with sentence-level citations to underlying sources. It can find up to 1,000 relevant papers and analyze up to 20,000 data points at once. Research Reports export as PDF or Word, tables as CSV or Excel, and references as RIS or BIB. Elicit runs on the web and provides an API, but API access requires Pro or above. Its MCP server connects to Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and other compatible clients using OAuth 2.0. Basic is free with limited usage for Research Agent and Research Reports; Plus costs $11 a month. Pro is $39 a month and Scale is $89 a month. Elicit states that it has achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance.