Overview

Rayyan brings reference import, collaboration, deduplication, title-and-abstract and full-text screening, data extraction, risk-of-bias assessment and reporting into one review workflow. Keeping these stages together can reduce handoffs for teams coordinating reproducible reviews; it is less compelling if the need is only to manage citations.

References must be exported from external databases or reference managers and then imported: there is no direct database connection. That adds a recurring step to review operations. Rayyan says its Systematic Auto-Resolver can deduplicate up to 200,000 references using the user's protocol, making it relevant 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 justification tied to review criteria, while leaving the final decision to the researcher. This is a useful division for teams seeking assistance without delegating accountability.

ResearchPilot can also extract answers to custom questions from PDFs and metadata, highlight relevant passages and let users review the results. That review step matters: extraction can accelerate structured work, but the workflow still expects researchers to check outputs.

The API provides programmatic access to reviews, references, decisions and metadata, alongside an official Python SDK for automation and external-system integrations. It is a meaningful fit for teams that need to connect review operations to their own stack. Enterprise security capabilities include stated HIPAA and GDPR compliance, SOC 2 controls, encryption in transit and at rest, and SAML 2.0, OAuth and MFA.

Pricing

Rayyan is freemium. The Free plan is 0.00 USD per 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 evaluation, but those caps make it a constrained base for sustained team work.

Essential costs 4.99 USD per month per seat, billed annually. It adds 5 free reviewers, PRISMA flow diagrams, duplicate auto-resolution and unlimited mobile app access. This suits teams that need the core workflow and mobile access, though it does not include the Advanced plan's stated AI PICO extraction or 9 active reviews.

Advanced costs 8.33 USD per month per seat, billed annually. It provides 9 active reviews, 10 free reviewers, unlimited samples, AI PICO extraction and priority support. For teams running multiple reviews or needing the listed extraction capability, this is the strongest individual-plan fit; its per-seat annual billing is an important commitment.

Business / Academic costs 41.67 USD per 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 starting license count makes it a group purchase rather than a low-cost step up for one or two users.

Enterprise has custom pricing, billed per license annually. It includes unlimited reviews and viewers, SSO / SAML, API, a management console and dedicated support. It is aimed at organizations requiring those administrative and access capabilities, rather than teams looking for a published per-seat rate.

Platforms

Rayyan supports web, Android and iOS, as well as API access. The mobile app supports on-the-go or offline work, but access is limited on Free and unlimited on Essential and higher. Teams relying on mobile use should factor that distinction into plan selection.

Who it's for

Rayyan is suited to evidence-review groups in pharma, medical devices, CROs, universities, healthcare, government and health technology assessment. Its workflow breadth, collaboration and programmatic access fit organizations coordinating review stages or integrating review data into other systems. Researchers seeking direct database connections should look elsewhere, since Rayyan relies on exported reference files.

Pros and cons

Pros: One workflow covers screening through extraction, risk-of-bias assessment and reporting, reducing the need to split review stages across tools.
Pros: ResearchPilot provides recommendations and extraction assistance while keeping final screening decisions with researchers.
Pros: API access and an official Python SDK support automation and connections to external systems.
Cons: Database references must be exported and imported manually; there is no direct database connection.
Cons: Free is capped at 3 active reviews, 2 free reviewers and 1 sample, while mobile access is limited.
Cons: Paid individual plans are billed annually per seat, and Business / Academic starts at 5 licenses.

Alternatives

For a broader comparison, see Systematic Review Software, Literature Review Software and AI Literature Review Software.

ASReview is free and open source with no licensing fees or subscriptions; choose it if running software on your own hardware or server fits your setup and budget.
Buhos is a free alternative with API, web and self-hosted platform options.
DistillerSR is a paid alternative with API and web access; its Student plan is 19.95 USD per month for 3 users and 1 project.
Covexe is a freemium web alternative with a free plan that includes an AI co-pilot allowance of 100 messages per day.
Parsifal is free, with an optional AI assistant that uses your own Anthropic or OpenAI API key.
Silvi offers a free Basic plan with unlimited reviews, screening and transparent data extraction; consider it if those capabilities are the priority.
Bango is free for any researcher with no subscription, paywall or limits, and supports Linux, macOS and Windows.
Catchii is a free web alternative with multiple-user support.

Verdict

Choose Rayyan if your team needs a shared, auditable evidence-review process that spans screening, extraction and reporting, with AI assistance and API access. Its chief trade-offs are file-based reference imports and plan-dependent reviewer, review and mobile limits. Teams that need direct database connections or cannot accommodate annual per-seat billing should look elsewhere.

	HAWC	Rayyan
Free plan	No	Yes
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	—	$4.99/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Web	Android, api, iOS, Web
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Data extraction	Yes	—
Review types	Human epidemiology, animal bioassay, and in vitro evidence assessment	—

HAWC vs Rayyan

HAWC

Rayyan