Free systematic review tools

Three parts of a review that usually mean a paid tool, a spreadsheet or an afternoon in R. Each one runs in your browser, needs no account, and exports figures a journal will take. Nothing you type leaves your machine.

PRISMA 2020 flow diagram Every box from the official template, with screened, sought and assessed calculated so your numbers cannot contradict each other. Itemise your full-text exclusion reasons. Open the generator Risk of bias figures Traffic light and summary plots for RoB 2, ROBINS-I, Newcastle-Ottawa, QUADAS-2 and AXIS, with the overall judgement applied the way RoB 2 defines it. Open the generator GRADE and Summary of Findings Certainty per outcome across the five downgrade and three upgrade domains, with the Summary of Findings table ready to export. Open the generator

Why these three

They are the parts of a review that end up as figures in the manuscript, and the parts most often rebuilt by hand at the end. A flow diagram drawn in a drawing program has to be redrawn every time a number changes; a traffic light table in a spreadsheet does not export at print resolution; GRADE done from memory tends to lose the reason for each judgement.

Each tool here does one of those jobs properly, and keeps the figure consistent with the numbers you entered.

What the free tools do not do

They take numbers you have already worked out. They do not search databases, store your screening decisions, hold your PDFs or run a meta-analysis, because all of that needs a project behind it. That is what the platform is for, and there is a free trial if you want to see it.

Questions

Are these really free?

Yes, with no sign-up and no limit on use. Each one runs entirely in your browser, so nothing you type is uploaded or stored.

Do I need an account to download the figures?

No. Every tool exports SVG for a manuscript and PNG at 300 DPI for slides.

Can I use the figures in a published paper?

Yes, they are yours. A citation to the software paper is appreciated and is the only thing asked in return.

Cite these tools

If this tool helped with a published review, a citation is the only payment we ask for.

View on Google Scholar
Rehman, N. U., Saif Ullah, K., & Tufail, U. (2026). Verflux: A browser-based platform for end-to-end systematic reviews and meta-analysis (Version 1.0) [Software]. https://verflux.com
@software{verflux2026, author = {Rehman, Naeem Ur and Saif Ullah, Khuram and Tufail, Usman}, title = {Verflux: A browser-based platform for end-to-end systematic reviews and meta-analysis}, year = {2026}, version = {1.0}, url = {https://verflux.com} }

The same figures, filled in from your own data

In a Verflux project the PRISMA counts come from your screening decisions, the risk of bias figures from your saved judgements, and GRADE from the statistics already computed.

Start a free project See what else it does