BRAT vs Roboflow

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.

Roboflow provides tools for building, deploying, and monitoring computer vision applications, from dataset preparation through model inference. Its dataset features include image annotation, video frame extraction, preprocessing, and augmentation; annotation types include boxes, polygons, segmentation masks, classification labels, and keypoints. Exports include JSON, XML, CSV, TXT, and more than 30 additional formats. A hosted inference API runs models on autoscaling infrastructure with load balancing and burst support. Deployment options include roboflow.js, NVIDIA Jetson, Luxonis OAK, iOS, self-hosting, VPC, and on-premise environments. The Free Tier costs nothing and includes 10 credits monthly, stated as enough for about 30 model trainings or 80,000 inferences. Core costs $39 a month, billed monthly, with 20 credits and a private workspace and models. The pricing comparison lists one model training at a time by default and 20 projects for Core. Roboflow states it encrypts data in transit and at rest and is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant; enterprise pricing is custom.