BRAT vs SuperAnnotate

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.

SuperAnnotate is infrastructure for AI teams building, evaluating, and improving datasets until they are ready for training. It handles RL environments, RLHF, image, video, audio, LiDAR, and custom modalities. Model-assisted workflows can pre-label data, judge rubrics, score pass rates, and route items between models and human experts. Teams can configure workflows, roles, quality gates, dashboards, and project or contributor analytics. Annotation types include classification, key points, bounding boxes, polygons, polylines, tiled imagery, cuboids, and skeletons. The platform offers a Python SDK and API, team collaboration, and integrations with AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Snowflake, Databricks, and custom storage. External storage connections are read-only and do not automatically import new files. It runs through web, macOS, Windows, and API access. SuperAnnotate was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Silicon Valley. Pricing is paid and available on request.