Pixano vs VGG Image Annotator
Pixano
pixano.cea.frVGG Image Annotator
robots.ox.ac.ukSide by side
| Figure | Pixano | VGG Image Annotator |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 2 |
| Spec score · AI Image Annotation Tools | 7.6 (#15) | 8.2 (#7) |
| Spec score · Image Annotation Software | 7.6 (#18) | 8.2 (#8) |
| Import and export | Pixano supports importing and exporting dataset formats such as COCO. | VIA imports and exports annotation data in CSV and JSON formats. |
| Intended users | CEA-List describes Pixano as supporting AI developers and applications in areas including manufacturing, security, robotics, and transportation. | The page describes the software as suitable for academic projects and commercial applications, and includes tools for researchers annotating images, audio and video. |
| License | Pixano is licensed under CeCILL-C. | VIA is released under the permissive two-clause BSD license for academic and commercial use. |
| Maker | The product pages identify CEA List as Pixano's maker; its About page describes the LIST Institute as one of the three institutes of CEA Tech. | VIA is developed by the Visual Geometry Group in Oxford University's Department of Engineering Science. |
| Support | The project README directs users to its Getting Started guide and contributing guide for usage and contribution information. | The makers direct users to an in-app basic guide, a FAQ and email contacts for queries or feedback. |
Plans
In their own words
Pixano
Pixano is a free, open-source tool for exploring and annotating computer-vision datasets, including collections of text, images, and video. Its annotation tools cover boxes, polygons, pixel masks, keypoints, cuboids, classification, and tracking; video labels can be propagated across time. Smart features include semantic search using models such as CLIP and segmentation using models such as SAM. Dataset formats such as COCO can be imported and exported, and Pixano uses Lance storage for dataset navigation. Its reusable Web Components can be assembled into custom apps. Pixano documents REST and Python APIs, along with Pixano Inference, a Ray Serve-based inference server with a Python client and REST API. Installation options documented by the project are pip in a Python virtual environment or an official Docker image. The supported Python range is 3.10 or later and earlier than 3.14. Pixano is licensed under CeCILL-C and is under active development, so its API may change. Three-dimensional point-cloud support is described as planned.
VGG Image Annotator
VGG Image Annotator (VIA) is a suite of lightweight browser tools for manually annotating images, audio, and video. The applications are distributed as single HTML files, allowing offline use without installation or setup. VIA3 handles images, video, audio, and shared or collaborative projects. VIA2 works with image files, does not support shared projects, and remains maintained. Annotation shapes include rectangles, circles, ellipses, points, polygons, and polylines. Projects can import or export annotations as CSV or JSON, while scripts support COCO and Web Annotation formats; a Python package converts VIA projects to COCO. Shared work can use a free public Version File Store maintained by the Visual Geometry Group, or a user-run VFS. VIA is built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript without external libraries and released under the two-clause BSD license for academic and commercial use. Downloads include ZIP archives and standalone HTML files for versions 2 and 3. The makers provide a guide, FAQ, and email contacts.