BRAT vs Dataloop

brat is a free, open-source tool for structured text annotation, with annotations represented in forms computers can process. It supports text spans, binary relations, n-ary associations, attributes, normalization annotations, and freeform notes. Teams can configure categories, types, and constraints for their tasks, and multiple annotators can work on the same document or collection while seeing one another’s edits nearly as they happen. Normalization can link annotations to external resources, and brat can incorporate output from automatic annotation services available as web services. Its server and client support Unicode across nearly 100 scripts. The tool checks edits against configured constraints and searches documents or collections, including keyword-in-context concordancing. Annotations export in brat stand-off format; visualizations can be saved as SVG, PNG, PDF, or EPS. The free v1.3 release is self-hosted under the MIT License. New server installations assume a UNIX-like environment; Windows users can run brat in a UNIX-like virtual machine. The experimental standalone server is not security-hardened and is not recommended for sensitive data or systems accessible from the internet.

Dataloop is a paid, enterprise-first AI development platform for building AI applications. It supports unstructured workflows for images, video, text, JSON, LiDAR, audio, PDF, GIS, and multimodal data. Users can work with off-the-shelf or custom models, then version, experiment, compare, and fine-tune them. Drag-and-drop pipelines or the Python SDK can coordinate data, models, and human feedback, including RLHF and other human-centric tasks. A marketplace provides models, datasets, workflow templates, and reusable components. Integrations include Google Cloud Platform, Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure Blob, AWS ECR, Google Artifact Registry, and Azure Container Registry. Dataloop lists GDPR compliance, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, and SOC 2 Type II compliance, with AES-256 and TLS v1.2 encryption. Access controls include role-based permissions, SSO, two-factor authentication, and activity logging. Deployment can be on-premises or in private storage. Pricing is available through a specialist demo.