Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. The largest vendors in data labeling software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category,
wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
The 12 tools, reviewed
#1 Supervisely
Annotation platform with published euro pricing and a free plan · Estonia · supervisely.com
published prices self-hosted option Estonia
Supervisely earns the top place on openness. The pricing page shows a free plan with 2 members, 5 GB of storage and 10,000 files, then Pro from EUR 199 a month with three members, 50 GB and 50,000 files.
- Pricing: Per member / month. Free plan, Pro from EUR 199 per month with 3 members, EUR 85 per extra member, labeling members at EUR 35 and labeling hours at EUR 0.65. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Small teams that want prices before a sales call
- Strengths: Free plan with 2 members; Pro plan with 3 members included; Labeling members and hourly labeling.
Where it falls short
The free plan archives inactive projects after 30 days, which makes it a trial rather than a place to park work.
Wrong for
A team that wants a vendor to supply and manage the annotators end to end.
Visit Supervisely →
#2 CVAT
Annotation editor with a free plan and per-user team pricing · United States · cvat.ai
free plan team plans on-premises
CVAT gets second place because the free plan is a real working tool and the paid steps are cheap and itemized. The free tier includes the annotation editor, manual review, ground truth and honeypot quality checks, API access and annotation export, with no card required.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Free plan at $0. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Image and video teams on a tight budget
- Strengths: Core annotation editor; Manual review; Ground truth and honeypot QA.
Where it falls short
Full dataset export and analytics sit behind the paid Solo plan, so the free plan suits experiments more than production pipelines. Team is capped at 50 users, and anything beyond that is a sales conversation.
Wrong for
A company that wants someone else to staff and manage the labeling work, or one that needs text and document labeling features the pages do not describe.
Visit CVAT →
#3 Kili Technology
French labeling platform with seat limits and optional annotators · France · kili-technology.com
French company managed workforce on-premise option
Kili earns third place because the limits are published and the vendor sits inside the EU. The free trial gives 2 to 5 seats, 100 assets for text, documents and images, and 5 for video and satellite imagery, with no card needed. Grow raises that to 20 seats and 50,000 assets with API and Python SDK access.
- Pricing: Subscription by seats. Free trial at $0 with 2 to 5 seats; Grow subscription up to 20 seats and 50,000 assets; Enterprise custom. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: European teams needing managed labelers and on-premises
- Strengths: Free trial with 2 to 5 seats; Grow plan up to 50,000 assets; API and Python SDK.
Where it falls short
The free trial is small, five video assets will not test anything real, and the page shows no exact Grow price. On-premise deployment exists only on Enterprise, so a mid-sized team that needs it faces a custom quote.
Wrong for
A hobbyist or student who needs a permanent free tool, since the free tier is a trial.
Visit Kili Technology →
#4 Labelbox
Annotation platform billed by Labelbox units · United States · labelbox.com
usage-based free plan cloud storage
Labelbox lands fourth: a major platform with a clear free entry and a quirk in how it bills. The free plan gives 500 Labelbox units a month, up to 30 users and 50 projects. Starter charges a fixed $0.10 per unit, with no cap on users or projects, and Enterprise removes the unit limit.
- Pricing: Usage-based (units). Free plan with 500 units a month; Starter at $0.10 per unit; Enterprise priced on request. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Teams comfortable forecasting usage-based units
- Strengths: Free plan with 500 units a month; Starter at $0.10 per unit; No user or project limit on Starter.
Where it falls short
Billing in units means the monthly bill depends on how the platform counts activity, and the pages we read do not convert units into a price per image.
Wrong for
A buyer who wants a fixed per-seat price or an outside workforce supplied.
Visit Labelbox →
#5 Prodigy
Scriptable annotation tool licensed once and run on your servers · Germany · prodi.gy
lifetime license self-hosted Berlin
Prodigy takes fifth place because it solves a narrow problem cleanly and costs nothing after the purchase. A personal lifetime license is $390 excluding tax, with 12 months of upgrades included, and the homepage states that no data leaves your servers. It arrives as an installer, a web application and plugins, built for people who already write Python.
- Pricing: One-time license. Personal lifetime license $390 excluding tax, with 12 months of upgrades; company, team and enterprise licenses on request. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Python developers labeling text for their own models
- Strengths: Lifetime license; Runs on your own machines; Python library.
Where it falls short
The buy page assumes basic Python familiarity, so a non-technical project manager cannot set it up unaided. Upgrades beyond the first 12 months are not included in the license price as stated.
Wrong for
A team of non-programmers, or one that needs hosted annotation with outside labelers.
Visit Prodigy →
#6 Roboflow
Computer vision platform with annotation, training and inference credits · United States · roboflow.com
computer vision credit pricing self-hosted inference
Roboflow places sixth because it covers labeling, training and deployment in one account. The Free Tier gives 10 credits a month, which the page says is enough for about 30 models or 80,000 inferences. Core costs $39 monthly with 20 credits, and credit packs scale to $1,399 a month for 500 credits.
- Pricing: Credits / month. Free Tier at $0 with 10 monthly credits. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Small teams building computer vision models
- Strengths: Free Tier with 10 credits; Core at $39 per month; Inference for 50+ models.
Where it falls short
Credits pay for training and inference as well as other platform actions, so labeling spend blends into model spend and is harder to isolate. The pages describe image-based work, and say nothing about text or audio labeling.
Wrong for
A team labeling text, audio or documents, or one that wants labeling kept separate from model hosting.
Visit Roboflow →
#7 Encord
Multimodal annotation and data curation platform with VPC options · United Kingdom · encord.com
VPC deployment data curation plans without prices
Encord takes seventh place for its deployment options and curation tooling, offset by pricing a buyer cannot see. The pricing page names Starter, Team and Enterprise, with cloud deployment included and VPC and on-prem sold as add-ons. Team adds data agents, performance analytics, model evaluation and onboarding support. Enterprise adds multiple workspaces, SSO and an enterprise SLA.
- Pricing: Quote only. Starter, Team and Enterprise plans with no prices shown; VPC and on-prem are paid add-ons; Index tiers by item count. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Teams needing VPC or on-prem and data curation
- Strengths: Starter, Team and Enterprise plans; Cloud deployment included; VPC add-on.
Where it falls short
No prices appear for any plan, so even Starter needs a demo conversation. The vendor's pages do not state a head office, only two legal entities on two continents.
Wrong for
A buyer who wants to compare list prices before any call, or a team that wants only a simple annotation editor.
Visit Encord →
#8 V7
Darwin annotation suite for images, video and medical imaging · United Kingdom · v7labs.com
video tracking medical imaging private cloud
V7 comes eighth for Darwin, an annotation suite with video auto-tracking tools and medical imaging annotation by radiologists. Customers can run it in a private cloud on AWS, Google Cloud or Azure, and the page names TensorFlow and PyTorch as supported frameworks. The pricing page says there are no feature tiers, volume follows pages processed and users are role-based.
- Pricing: Quote only. No public price list; custom quote after a sales call, priced by pages processed, role-based users, no feature tiers; 30-minute demo. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Teams labeling video or medical imaging
- Strengths: Darwin annotation suite; Video auto-tracking; Medical imaging annotation.
Where it falls short
There is no public price list and no free plan, so evaluation starts with a sales call.
Wrong for
A team that wants self-serve signup and a visible price, or a general text labeling tool.
Visit V7 →
#9 Dataloop
Data operations platform that includes annotation and GenAI validation · Israel · dataloop.ai
DataOps GenAI validation Israel
Dataloop sits ninth because labeling is one of several jobs on its homepage. The listed use cases include a DataOps platform, active learning workflows, validating GenAI with RLHF and RLAIF, building RAG workflows, building AI agents, LiDAR and multi-cloud AI compute.
- Pricing: Quote only. No plan prices published; trial or demo arranged by talking to an AI expert. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Teams that want labeling inside a wider data pipeline
- Strengths: DataOps Platform; Active Learning Workflows; Validating GenAI (RLHF/RLAIF).
Where it falls short
The pricing page shows no plan prices, and no free plan or trial is named, so the cost of a small pilot is unknown until you talk to the vendor.
Wrong for
A small team that needs only an annotation editor and a price list. Look at CVAT or Supervisely.
Visit Dataloop →
#10 Scale AI
Training data and evaluation vendor with managed labeling · United States · scale.com
managed data enterprise FedRAMP
Scale AI takes tenth place on fit: it is a large vendor of training data and evaluations, and a small team rarely needs the contract it sells. The homepage names the Scale data engine for sourcing and delivering training data, a GenAI Portfolio, Scale Donovan, and private model leaderboards and evaluations.
- Pricing: Quote only. No plans or prices published; a 1:1 intro call is the entry point. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Large enterprises buying data as a service
- Strengths: Scale data engine; GenAI Portfolio; Scale Donovan.
Where it falls short
No prices are published and the only entry is a booked intro call, with no free plan or trial named.
Wrong for
A team of a few people with its own annotators and a budget under a managed contract.
Visit Scale AI →
#11 Sama
Managed annotation, validation and evaluation service · United States · sama.com
managed service validation evaluation
Sama is eleventh because it sells labor rather than a tool a team operates. The homepage describes human-verified annotation, validation and evaluation at scale, and says initial project timelines, scope and pricing come after a conversation. For a company with a large backlog and no annotators, that is a defensible choice, because the vendor owns the workforce question.
- Pricing: Quote only. No plan prices; scope, timelines and pricing set after a conversation with the team. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Teams outsourcing the labeling work
- Strengths: Human-verified annotation; Validation; Evaluation at scale.
Where it falls short
Pages we read show no plan prices, no self-serve signup and no description of an annotation editor you could use in house. A buyer cannot compare cost until a project is scoped.
Wrong for
A team with its own annotators that needs an editor and review queues.
Visit Sama →
#12 Snorkel AI
AI data development services with expert-curated datasets · United States · snorkel.ai
data services expert datasets agents
Snorkel AI is placed last because it is the weakest fit for a team looking for a labeling tool. Its pricing page asks how you want to work with Snorkel and describes AI data development, in which expert-curated datasets and a Data-as-a-Service offer help teams label, refine and evaluate data.
- Pricing: Quote only. No plan prices or trial; the pricing page offers AI data development services and Specialized agents. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Enterprises buying curated data as a service
- Strengths: AI data development; Expert-curated datasets; Data-as-a-Service.
Where it falls short
The pages we read show no prices, no free plan and no annotation editor description. The offering reads as a service engagement, so a small team gets little to evaluate on its own.
Wrong for
A team that wants to open an editor, label its own files and see a price today.
Visit Snorkel AI →
Questions and answers
What is the best data labeling software in 2026?
Supervisely ranks first of 12, best for small teams that want prices before a sales call. CVAT is second (image and video teams on a tight budget) and Kili Technology third (european teams needing managed labelers and on-premises). Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands, wherever the category has them.
Do I need a managed workforce or only software?
It depends on who has the domain knowledge and the time. If your own staff can label, a software-only tool with review queues costs less and keeps you in control.
How much does data labeling software cost?
The published figures here range from free to a few hundred dollars per month for a small team.
Is there free data labeling software?
Yes, four tools on this list have a free plan: Supervisely, CVAT, Roboflow and Labelbox.
Can the files stay in my own cloud storage?
Labelbox documents connecting your own AWS, GCP or Azure storage by a read-only role or signed URLs, and advises against uploading files directly. Prodigy runs on your machines, and its homepage says no data leaves your servers.
Which tools can run on-premises?
CVAT Enterprise can run on-premises or in a private cloud. Kili lists on-premise deployment as Enterprise only, Supervisely Enterprise offers self-hosted, private cloud, on-premise or fully offline use, and Encord sells VPC and on-prem as add-ons.
Which data labeling vendors are based in Europe?
Three vendors in this ranking are headquartered in the EU: Kili Technology, a Paris SAS, ExplosionAI, the Berlin GmbH behind Prodigy, and Supervisely OÜ in Tallinn, Estonia.
What file size limits should I check?
Labelbox's documentation states 1 GB per asset for cloud storage on all tiers and 256 MB per asset for local imports, which matters for long video or large medical images.
Which tools suit LLM evaluation and GenAI validation work?
Dataloop lists validating GenAI with RLHF and RLAIF among its use cases. Sama describes human-verified annotation, validation and evaluation at scale, and Snorkel AI offers expert-curated datasets to label, refine and evaluate data.
Is a lifetime license like Prodigy's a good idea?
It can be, when the work is mostly text and a developer will run it. Prodigy costs $390 once for a personal license, excluding tax, with 12 months of upgrades, and it keeps data on your servers.
What should I ask a vendor that publishes no price?
Ask for a written price per labeled item or per hour on a sample of your own data, the minimum contract term, how many reviewers and review rounds are included, which export formats the labels arrive in, where files are stored, and which legal entity signs the contract.
