Moara
What it is
Moara is a web-based research platform for literature reviews, covering discovery through evidence synthesis in one workspace. Researchers can search, organize, screen, extract, and synthesize evidence. Its Agent can summarize papers, identify themes and gaps, compare findings, and answer research requests. Moara supports narrative and systematic reviews, including workflows aligned with PRISMA and Cochrane guidelines. It says its database contains more than 200 million scholarly papers across disciplines. Users can import PDF, RIS, NBIB, TXT, or ZIP files and connect Zotero and LibKey. Teams can assign papers, share annotations, and track review progress in real time. The Free plan allows up to 50 papers per review library and includes Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar search, Zotero and LibKey, and Viewer or Editor collaboration. Core costs $15/mo billed annually; Pro costs $40/mo billed annually. Moara says it protects stored data with AES-256 encryption and data in transit with TLS 1.2 or higher, and uses internal access controls and role-based permissions. It also says it does not sell personal data or use personal information for advertising. A free trial is available.
For and against
For
- Supports narrative and systematic literature reviews.
- Searches across a stated database of over 200 million papers.
- Imports several file formats and connects Zotero and LibKey.
- Free plan allows up to 50 papers per review library.
- Includes team assignments and shared annotations.
Against
- Core costs $15/mo billed annually.
- Pro costs $40/mo billed annually.
- Free plan limits each review library to 50 papers.
The verdict
Moara brings literature-review workflows, paper search, and team collaboration into a web workspace, with a free plan and a free trial. Core and Pro add capabilities at annual-billed prices, and the free tier has a 50-paper limit per review library.
Who it suits
Moara suits academics, graduate students, librarians, research administrators, individual researchers, and library teams working on literature reviews. Its team tools and systematic-review workflows may be useful for collaborative evidence synthesis.
Plans and prices
Free
Up to 50 papers per review library · Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar search · Zotero and LibKey connections · Viewer or Editor collaboration
Read 14 Oct 2026 · moara.io
Core
Unlimited libraries · Unlimited papers per review library · Agent · AI Search
Read 14 Oct 2026 · moara.io
Pro
Enrichments Directory · Quick and bulk actions · PDF annotation · Screen and Read views
Read 14 Oct 2026 · moara.io
Teams & Institutions
Dedicated account manager · Custom integrations and APIs · Advanced analytics and reporting · SSO and enterprise security
Read 14 Oct 2026 · moara.io
On the record
- AI agent
- Its Agent can summarize papers, identify themes, find gaps, compare findings, and answer research requests.moara.io · read 1 Oct 2026
- AI search strategy
- The Agent proposes keywords, databases, related topics and citation-trail approaches instead of automatically replacing the researcher’s search decisions.katinamagazine.org · read 14 Oct 2026
- API and extensibility
- The Teams & Institutions plan advertises custom integrations and APIs, but no public API reference or SDK is identified on the cited pages.moara.io · read 14 Oct 2026
- Audience
- Moara says it serves academics, graduate students, librarians, research administrators, individual researchers, and library teams.moara.io · read 1 Oct 2026
- Collaboration
- Teams can invite collaborators as Editors or Viewers, share annotations and work in real time in the web application.katinamagazine.org · read 14 Oct 2026
- Company headquarters
- The privacy policy gives Moara Inc.’s address as 2300 Wilson Blvd, Suite 700, Arlington, Virginia 22201, United States.moara.io · read 14 Oct 2026
- Company legal name
- The privacy policy identifies the provider as Moara Inc.moara.io · read 14 Oct 2026
- Company size
- LinkedIn lists moara.io as privately held with 2–10 employees and headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.linkedin.com · read 14 Oct 2026
- Enrichments
- Pro and institutional accounts can add fields from Crossref, Semantic Scholar and AI extraction, and users can define custom enrichments.katinamagazine.org · read 14 Oct 2026
- Exports
- The product exports formatted bibliographies and supports CSV, BibTeX and RIS exports; cited styles include APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, IEEE and Harvard.katinamagazine.org · read 14 Oct 2026
- Founders
- Moara’s About page names John Frechette as co-founder and CEO, Seth Watson as co-founder and CTO, and Dr. Yifei Xu as co-founder and researcher.moara.io · read 14 Oct 2026
- Full-text reading
- The Read workflow provides an in-platform PDF viewer with highlights, comments, tags and searchable annotation tracking.moara.io · read 14 Oct 2026
- Imports
- Users can import PDFs, RIS, NBIB, TXT, or ZIP files and connect Zotero and LibKey.moara.io · read 1 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Named integrations include Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Zotero, LibKey and Crossref.moara.io · read 14 Oct 2026
- LibKey capability
- LibKey integration supplies library-linked full-text access and can expose retraction-related fields such as Expression of Concern and Retraction Notice.katinamagazine.org · read 14 Oct 2026
- Limit: accessibility
- The independent review said accessibility compliance was incomplete and still being improved.katinamagazine.org · read 14 Oct 2026
- Limit: AI extraction variability
- The reviewer found that AI-generated enrichment quality changes with prompt wording, how explicit the paper is and the amount of interpretation required.katinamagazine.org · read 14 Oct 2026
- Limit: citation provenance
- The reviewer found that Moara does not automatically record whether a citation came from a particular database import, a user or AI search.katinamagazine.org · read 14 Oct 2026
