Bowtie or risk assessment, do I need both?

Usually yes. A risk assessment often states that risk is controlled. A bowtie shows what is doing the controlling. They work together, and the bowtie is the picture underneath the paperwork.

Building is free and does not require an account. Paid plans cover saving to the cloud, export, review dates and sharing with colleagues. Its entry in the bowtie and barrier management list goes to the current pricing, because this page will not pretend to be a price list.

Why list your own product at all?

Because hiding it would be less honest than labelling it. The Built by us badge, the daily shuffle and the no affiliate rule are how the conflict stays visible. If that still bothers you, skip that entry and use the others.

Enterprise bowtie tools or lightweight boards?

Enterprise tools win when you need barrier health, ownership at scale, and links into incident or audit systems. Lightweight boards win when you need clarity fast and adoption by people who will not open another heavy platform. Many organisations need both at different stages.

Guides

Bowtie and barrier management resources

A bowtie is one picture of one dangerous activity. Causes on the left, the moment you lose control in the middle, outcomes on the right, and every control you are relying on drawn where it actually sits. The shape is where the name comes from.

Organisations often have plenty of controls documented and still cannot answer three questions cleanly: what are our top risks, which barriers prevent serious injury or fatality, and how strong are those barriers in reality? Bowties force the answers onto one page that a supervisor, a director and a new starter can all read.

When a bowtie helps, and when it does not

Bowties earn their keep on activities that could kill or seriously injure someone: working at height, confined space, excavations, hot work, lifting, energy isolation, vehicle and pedestrian interaction. Most organisations find they have somewhere between eight and fifteen of those. Start with one. You will know within an hour whether the picture tells you something the risk assessment paperwork was hiding.

They are less useful as wallpaper. A bowtie that is never reviewed, never challenged by the people who do the job, and never linked to assurance of the barriers it shows, is just a prettier filing cabinet. Software will not fix that. It can make the picture easier to build, share, version and revisit.

Barrier management goes one step further than diagramming: owners, health, assurance tasks, and feedback when something fails in the field. Enterprise suites do that at scale. Browser boards do the thinking part first. Pick for the problem you have, not the brochure you were sent.

How to read this shortlist

The bowtie and barrier management list holds tools that cleared the same test as everything else on Safety Shortlist: a working safety person would be glad to be sent it. Full rules: How we list.

Position below any labelled Ad slot reshuffles daily. It means nothing. There are no stars and no review scores.

Used by us means I have run the tool in a real scenario and would vouch for it. Built by us means something different, and that is below. Those badges never appear together, because vouching for your own work is not the same claim.

Conflict disclosure: Bowtie One

Bowtie One is listed on this shortlist. I built it and I own it. Its entry in Bowtie and barrier management carries a Built by us badge. Read that entry knowing I wrote it.

It is listed because it earns its place on the same test as everything else: build, share and review bowtie risk assessments in the browser, no install, no per seat licence for building. It gets no better position for being mine. I take no affiliate commission and no payment for a listing. Bowtie One is the only thing on this site I have any financial interest in.

If you need enterprise barrier health monitoring, assurance workflows and integration into a wider risk suite, look at the enterprise options on the list, including tools marked Used by us where I have actually used them. If you need a board this afternoon that the people who do the job can help build, Bowtie One is aimed at that. Different jobs.

What this list is not

It is not a “best bowtie software 2026” roundup written for search engines. Those pages are exactly the kind of thing this site refuses to be. It is not a substitute for learning the method, or for facilitation that brings operations into the room. And it is not connected to any employer: this site is personal work, done in my own time.

Suggest something missing via add your tool or contact. High hazard bias acknowledged. Tell me what construction, rail, or manufacturing still needs and I will look.

Questions

Bowtie or risk assessment, do I need both?: Usually yes. A risk assessment often states that risk is controlled. A bowtie shows what is doing the controlling. They work together, and the bowtie is the picture underneath the paperwork.
Is Bowtie One free?: Building is free and does not require an account. Paid plans cover saving to the cloud, export, review dates and sharing with colleagues. Its entry in the bowtie and barrier management list goes to the current pricing, because this page will not pretend to be a price list.
Why list your own product at all?: Because hiding it would be less honest than labelling it. The Built by us badge, the daily shuffle and the no affiliate rule are how the conflict stays visible. If that still bothers you, skip that entry and use the others.
Enterprise bowtie tools or lightweight boards?: Enterprise tools win when you need barrier health, ownership at scale, and links into incident or audit systems. Lightweight boards win when you need clarity fast and adoption by people who will not open another heavy platform. Many organisations need both at different stages.