Seats, Licenses & Roles

Rayyan uses roles, seats, and licenses to control how users participate in reviews and how access to paid features is applied.

This article explains the logic behind each concept, how they work together, and how access is managed in both individual and institutional subscriptions.

Roles in Rayyan

Roles define what a user can do within a review, independent of the subscription type.

Rayyan supports the following roles:

• Collaborator – full collaboration with access to paid features

• Free Reviewer – limited access for screening and labeling

• Free Viewer – read-only access to review content and progress

Key Points to Know

• Free Reviewer and Viewer roles are limited based on your subscription

• Free roles are managed at the account level, not per review

• Once the free role limit is reached, you will need to:

  • Purchase additional paid seats, or

  • Upgrade to an institutional subscription

Roles allow teams to collaborate efficiently while controlling access and cost.

Seats: Paid Access in Individual Subscriptions

Individual subscriptions use seats to grant access to paid features.

A seat represents one user with full access to the paid features included in the subscriber’s plan.

Key Concepts

• Seats apply only to reviews owned by the individual subscriber

• Seats are managed at the Workspace level

• Seats can be reassigned if team members change

• Not every collaborator requires a seat

Seats control access to features, not participation itself.

How Seats Are Assigned in Individual Subscriptions

Individual subscriptions do not use a separate seat assignment page.
Seats are assigned through review-level collaboration, giving you control over which reviews a collaborator can access.

How It Works

• The subscription owner invites a member to a review they own

• The invited member is added as a Collaborator

• The collaborator automatically occupies a seat

• The collaborator receives full paid access only within the reviews they are invited to

Controlling Review Access

Access is granted per review, not globally.

This means:

• If a collaborator needs access to multiple active reviews, they must be invited to each review individually

• Inviting a collaborator to one review does not grant access to other reviews you own

• This allows you to limit which reviews each collaborator can access

Scope of Paid Access

For invited reviews only, the collaborator receives:

• Full access to paid features included in your subscription

• Access to mobile app features for those reviews

The collaborator’s own personal reviews and any reviews they are not invited to are not affected.

Licenses in Institutional Subscriptions

Institutional subscriptions use licenses to grant paid access.

A license provides a user with paid access across a broader scope than individual seats.

Key Concepts

• Licenses are assigned at the institutional Workspace level

• Licensed users receive paid access across all reviews

• Licenses are centrally managed and can be reassigned as team membership changes

This model is designed for users who work across multiple reviews and shared ownership structures.

Licensed and Free Users in Institutional Workspaces

Institutional Workspaces support two types of participants:

• Licensed users

  • Full access to paid features

  • Broad collaboration across all reviews

• Free users

  • Needs to be invited to each review

  • Limited or read-only access

  • No access to paid features

This structure allows institutions to scale participation while maintaining centralized control over access and costs.

Seats vs. Licenses: At a Glance

Related Help Center Articles

• How to Purchase a Rayyan Subscription

• I purchased a seat but can’t invite a collaborator — why?

• Can I move or reassign a seat to another user?