In recent years, the increasing influence of evidence-based research and the rapid development of artificial intelligence have enabled the launch of many new reference screening software tools. Due to a dearth of research comparing different screening tools in educational research, researchers often choose the most convenient rather than the most suitable screening tool. This review aims to provide assistance for screening tool selection through a systematic narrative review and feature analysis of these tools’ functions and privacy policies. The current adoption rate of transparent tool reporting is low: by screening 191 studies published in the Review of Educational Research since 2015, we found that only eight (4.19%) studies reported screening tools. To locate available screening tools in the market, we consulted various sources and found 24 tools. Through citation search, we identified eight screening tools used by educational reviewers and ranked them in descending order of feature score: EPPI-Reviewer (tie), DistillerSR (tie), Covidence, Rayyan, Abstrackr, ASReview, RevMan, and Excel. For practitioners’ convenience, we concluded the paper with a decision tree to assist educational systematic reviewers in identifying suitable tools. This paper represents the first effort to provide educational researchers with guidance on how to navigate screening tools. Our results encourage researchers to report their tool usage in publications and select tools based on suitability instead of convenience.