Best Image Annotation Software in 2026
Updated
In short: Label Studio is ranked #1 of 28 as of 5 October 2026, ahead of Roboflow and CVAT. The best-ranked option with a free plan is Roboflow. The lowest first paid tier on this page is CVAT at $1.92/mo.
Preparing image datasets often involves labeling objects, regions, or other visual details. Image annotation software provides tools for that work, with options to compare by annotation types and supported image formats. Consider whether model-assisted labeling, dataset export, and API access suit your workflow, and whether team collaboration is important when several people are involved. A free plan and the listed starting price can help you assess cost. Label Studio, Roboflow, and CVAT are among the options shown. Match their listed capabilities to the kinds of images you need to label and the outputs your project requires.
28 image annotation software ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
6 of the 25 here have a free tier you can use, 0 have open-source code on record, and 0 have full bars: free, open, on most of your devices and documented.
| # | App | Signal | Free tier | Open code | Devices | From | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Label StudioWeb · Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted · API | Three bars | — | 4 of 6 | $99/mo | 6.6 | |
| 2 | RoboflowWeb · Android · iPhone · Self-hosted · API | Three bars | — | 3 of 6 | $39/mo | 6.6 | |
| 3 | CVATWeb · Self-hosted · API | Two bars | — | 1 of 6 | $1.92/mo | 6.4 | |
| 4 | LabellerrWeb · Self-hosted · API | Two bars | — | 1 of 6 | $833.25/mo | 6.4 | |
| 5 | SuperviselyWeb · Self-hosted · API | Two bars | — | 1 of 6 | €199/mo | 6.4 | |
| 6 | Ultralytics PlatformWeb · Self-hosted · API | Two bars | — | 1 of 6 | $29/mo | 6.4 | |
| 7 | PixanoWeb · Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted · API | Two bars | — | — | 4 of 6 | — | 5.7 |
| 8 | FiftyOneWeb · Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted · API | Two bars | — | — | 4 of 6 | — | 5.6 |
| 9 | LabelboxWeb · API | One bar | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.5 |
| 10 | BasicAIWeb · Self-hosted · API | One bar | — | — | 1 of 6 | $550/mo | 5.4 |
| 11 | MakeSense.aiWeb · Windows · Mac · Linux | One bar | — | — | 4 of 6 | — | 5.4 |
| 12 | V7 DarwinWeb · API | One bar | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.4 |
| 13 | Xtreme1Web · Windows · Mac · Linux | One bar | — | — | 4 of 6 | — | 5.4 |
| 14 | segmenteverygrainWindows · Mac · Linux | One bar | — | — | 3 of 6 | — | 5.3 |
| 15 | Vailabel StudioWindows · Mac · Linux | One bar | — | — | 3 of 6 | — | 5.3 |
| 16 | Annota AIWeb | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 17 | Annotate-LabWeb | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 18 | DataloopWeb | One bar | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 19 | LabelmeWindows · Mac · Linux | Two bars | — | — | 3 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 20 | SuperAnnotateWeb | One bar | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 21 | VGG Image AnnotatorWeb | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 22 | Draw AttentionWeb | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.1 |
| 23 | PixLab AnnotateWeb | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.1 |
| 24 | EncordWeb | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 4.8 |
| 25 | KeylabsWeb | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 4.8 |
Compare all 25 in a table
| # | App | Score | Free plan | From | Free plan | Paid from | Annotation types | Image formats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Label Studio | 6.6 | Free plan | $99/mo | Yes | — | rectangles, ellipses, keypoints, polygons, brush masks, image classification | — |
| 2 | Roboflow | 6.6 | Free plan | $39/mo | Yes | — | bounding boxes, polygons, segmentation masks, classification labels, keypoints | JPG, PNG, WEBP, AVIF, BMP |
| 3 | CVAT | 6.4 | Free plan | $1.92/mo | Yes | 23 /user/mo | Rectangle/bounding box, polygon, polyline, points, ellipse, cuboid, skeleton, tag, brush/mask | JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, PPM, TIFF |
| 4 | Labellerr | 6.4 | Free plan | $833.25/mo | Yes | — | Bounding box, polygon, polyline, keypoint, dot, classification, segmentation, object detection | JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF |
| 5 | Supervisely | 6.4 | Free plan | €199/mo | Yes | — | rectangle, line/polyline, polygon, multipolygon, point, bitmap mask, graph/keypoints, alpha mask, 2D cuboid | .jpg, .jpeg, .mpo, .bmp, .png, .webp, .tiff, .tif, .jfif, .avif, .heic, .heif |
| 6 | Ultralytics Platform | 6.4 | Free plan | $29/mo | Yes | 29 /user/mo | detection; instance segmentation; semantic segmentation; classification; pose estimation; oriented bounding boxes | JPEG; PNG; WebP; TIFF; HEIC; AVIF; BMP; JP2; DNG; MPO |
| 7 | Pixano | 5.7 | No | — | Yes | — | bounding boxes, polygons, pixel masks, keypoints, cuboids, classification, tracking | JPEG, PNG |
| 8 | FiftyOne | 5.6 | No | — | — | — | bounding boxes; polygons; segmentation masks; classifications; polylines; SAM2 click-to-segment instance segmentation | JPEG; PNG; BMP |
| 9 | Labelbox | 5.5 | No | — | Yes | — | bounding boxes, segmentation masks, image classification, radio classification | JPEG |
| 10 | BasicAI | 5.4 | No | $550/mo | Yes | 9 /user/mo | object detection, object tracking, bounding boxes, polygons, polylines, keypoints, classification, semantic segmentation, instance segmentation, panorama segmentation | JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, WebP |
| 11 | MakeSense.ai | 5.4 | No | — | Yes | — | point, line, rectangle, polygon, label | — |
| 12 | V7 Darwin | 5.4 | No | — | Yes | — | Polygon; bounding box; tag; skeleton; keypoint; line; ellipse; mask; attributes; text; directional vector; instance ID | .jpg, .jpeg, .webp, .png, .bmp, .svs, .tif, .tiff, .qtiff, .dcm, .rvg, .nii, .nii.gz, .ndpi |
| 13 | Xtreme1 | 5.4 | No | — | — | — | bounding box, polygon, polyline, classification | JPG, PNG |
| 14 | segmenteverygrain | 5.3 | No | — | — | — | instance segmentation masks; polygon editing; foreground/background point prompts; grain classification labels | JPEG; PNG |
| 15 | Vailabel Studio | 5.3 | No | — | Yes | — | bounding boxes, polygons, points, lines, circles, free-draw, SAM smart-segment | — |
| 16 | Annota AI | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | bounding boxes; polygons; segmentation masks | PNG; JPEG |
| 17 | Annotate-Lab | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | Configured region annotations, including polygon and bounding-box regions; circle tool shown in example | — |
| 18 | Dataloop | 5.2 | No | — | — | — | bounding boxes, polygons, key points, cuboids, polylines, semantic segmentation, classification, tagging, hierarchical annotation | JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF |
| 19 | Labelme | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | polygons, rectangles, oriented rectangles, circles, lines, points, masks, rich attributes | PNG, JPEG, BMP, TIFF |
| 20 | SuperAnnotate | 5.2 | No | — | — | — | classification, key-point, bounding box, polygon, polyline, tiled imagery, cuboid, skeleton | .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .webp, .svg |
| 21 | VGG Image Annotator | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | rectangle, circle, ellipse, point, polygon, polyline | — |
| 22 | Draw Attention | 5.1 | No | — | Yes | — | polygon, rectangle, circle, hotspot | PNG, JPG, GIF |
| 23 | PixLab Annotate | 5.1 | No | — | Yes | — | bounding boxes, polygons | — |
| 24 | Encord | 4.8 | No | — | No | — | bounding boxes, rotatable bounding boxes, polygons, bitmasks, polylines, keypoints, primitives, classifications | — |
| 25 | Keylabs | 4.8 | No | — | No | — | Bounding box, polygon, polylines, keypoints, semantic segmentation, instance segmentation, rotating bounding box, skeletal, cuboid, mesh, 3D point cloud, bitmask, custom annotation | — |
Is your app on this list?
Numbered spots on this list can be sponsored, and a sponsored row is labelled as paid.
Questions about this list
Which image annotation software is ranked first on Freedom251?
Label Studio is ranked #1 of 28 with a score of 6.6. Roboflow is second and CVAT third.
How many of these have a free plan?
6 of the 25 on this page publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
Which is the cheapest paid option?
On this page, CVAT has the lowest first paid tier we found: $1.92/mo.
How is this list ranked?
Ranked free-and-open first: a usable free tier and open-source code, then the platforms it runs on and its documentation.