An annotation platform is the software teams use to do data labeling work. It provides the interface for drawing boxes, tagging text, or marking audio, plus the system for managing tasks, tracking progress, and routing work between annotators and reviewers.

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‍Why it matters

Labeling at any real scale takes more than a place to draw a box on an image. It needs a system that tracks who's working on what, how finished work gets reviewed, and how corrections get back to the right person. A platform handles all of that in one place, so teams aren't coordinating through spreadsheets and file transfers.

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‍How to choose one

Examples include open source tools like CVAT and Label Studio and commercial platforms like Labelbox. The right choice depends less on how many features a platform lists and more on whether it supports the annotation types a project needs, such as polygons, keypoints, or transcription, and fits how the team already reviews work. Export formats deserve more attention than they usually get, since a platform that labels well but exports badly creates rework later.