10+ Image Data Collection Services in 2023

As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-powered solutions grow, the demand for comprehensive image datasets has never been higher. The foundation of a successful AI model, especially in computer vision (CV) projects, is reliant upon high-quality data. Image data collection services play an instrumental role in gathering this crucial data. Whether it’s for image classification datasets, object recognition, or dynamic project management, finding the right data collection service can make or break a project.

This article compares the top 11 image data service providers on the market and offers criteria to help business leaders select the right data partner for their AI needs.

Top image data collection services

This section offers a comparison table for the top image data collection or generation services on the market.

Table 1. Comparison based on market presence

Companies	User Ratings Out of 5 (Avg)*	Number of Reviews*	Founding year	Data Collection Focus**
Clickworker	4.1	68	2005	✅
Appen	4.2	54	1996	✅
Prolific	4.7	48	2014	✅
Amazon Mechanical Turk	4	28	2005	✅
Telus International	4.3	10	2005	✖
TaskUs	4.3	6	2008	✖
Summa Linguae Technologies	N/A	N/A	2011	✅
LXT	N/A	N/A	2014	✅
Toloka AI	N/A	N/A	2014	✅
Innodata Inc	N/A	N/A	1988	✅
DataForce by Transperfect	N/A	N/A	1992	✅

Table 2. Comparison based on capabilities

Companies	Data Annotation As A Service	Image Data Types***	Mobile application	API availability	ISO 27001 Certification	Code of Conduct
Clickworker	✅	– 360 degree rotations – Serial shots – Gestural and facial images – Images for sentiment analysis	✅	✅	✅	✅
Appen	✅	N/A	✅	✅	✅	✅
Prolific	✖	N/A	✖	✅	✖	✅
Amazon Mechanical Turk	✅	N/A	✖	✅	N/A	✖
Telus International	✅	N/A	✖	✅	✖	✖
TaskUs	✅	– Gestural and facial images – Images for sentiment analysis	✖	✅	✅	✅
Summa Linguae Technologies	✅	– Gestural and facial images – Images for sentiment analysis	✅	✅	✅	✖
LXT	✅	– Gestural and facial images	✖	✖	✅	✖
Toloka AI	✅	N/A	✅	✅	✅	✅
Innodata Inc	✅	– Gestural and facial images – Images for sentiment analysis	✖	✅	✅	✖
DataForce by Transperfect	✅	N/A	✅	✖	✅	✖

* Only from B2B platforms like G2, Trustradius and Capterra.

** We consider a company to be data collection-focused if it offers data collection as its key offering on its website.

*** Data gathered from the ‘image data collection service’ pages of all vendors’ websites. If the data was not available, it was assumed that the vendor did not offer it.

Notes for the Tables:

• The companies are sorted according to the number of reviews in both the tables.
• The comparison table is created through publicly available and verifiable data.
• The companies selected in this comparison were based on the relevance of their services. This means they offered image data collection or generation services as a main or side service.
• All vendors chosen in this comparison have more than 50 employees.
• Apart from image data, all companies cover a wide array of data types for their data collection & annotation services (Video, Audio, Text, etc.).
• We will not be updating these tables as frequently as our product page, so you can access the most up-to-date vendor data from our data-driven list of data collection/harvesting services.
• In Table 2, a company is assumed to follow a code of conduct if it has a code of conduct page on its website.

Figure 1. Visual representation of the crowd size comparison criterion

Notes for Figure 1:

• In Figure 1, Innodata Inc. and TaskUS were not included since their crowd size was less than 100K.
• For Figure 1, some vendors were also not included since their crowd size data was not found.

Criteria for selecting the right services

We divided the criteria into 2 categories: market presence and capabilities.

Market presence

1. User ratings 

A company’s reputation speaks volumes. A high average user rating score from B2B review platforms indicates a higher level of customer satisfaction. 

2. Number of reviews

Before committing, ensure the company has positive reviews, showcasing its ability to cater to specific AI program needs. A larger number of reviews on B2B review platforms indicates the company has a large user/customer base, and you can get a better understanding of the customer’s perspective of the company’s offerings. 

3. Founded in

The age of the company helps buyers understand the experience the service provider has in a specific field. In our experience, an older company usually has a more refined service.

4. Crowd size

The larger the network of workers, the better. A global crowd allows for diverse and scalable solutions, helping companies quickly deliver large volumes of labeled images.

Platform capabilities

5. Data annotation as a service

Visual data is useless without data annotation. Therefore, it can be efficient if the company also offers image data annotation as a complementary or as a side service so the data you receive is ready to train AI models.

6. Image Data Types

Different types of projects require different types and formats of visual data. Check if the company offers the image types and formats you require. 

7. Mobile application availability

A mobile app enables dynamic project management on-the-go and allows for unique scenario setups like traffic shots or vehicle images.

8. API integration

An API facilitates seamless data transfer, ensuring that large volumes of data, including visual data and raw data, can be efficiently processed.

9. ISO certification

This signifies adherence to global standards, ensuring data security and quality. Since images can be biometrics data, it is important the company follows data protection practices.

10. Code of Conduct

A company’s ethical compass is vital. Their code of conduct should reflect their commitment to data security, privacy, and fair practices. If an AI project is built on data gathered through unethical practices, it can harm the reputation of the developers.

Company details & evaluation

This section offers a brief introduction and some customer reviews of the companies compared in this article. Only relevant reviews were added for selective companies.

1. Clickworker

Renowned for its global crowd, Clickworker specializes in multiple data types, including image data, video data, and audio data.

Offerings:

• Diverse image datasets
• Video data collection services
• Audio data collection
• New data generation
• Data annotation services

Clickworker’s pros and cons

• Customers consider the company’s crowd reliable, and the platform to be user-friendly.¹

2. Appen

Appen works with a crowdsourcing platform focusing on deep learning, image data, and machine-learning models.

Offerings:

• Image and video datasets
• Audio and text data collection services
• Annotation services for visual and audio data
• Scalable solutions for diverse AI needs

Appen’s pros and cons:

• Recent news has identified that Appen is losing clients and is going through some financial losses.²
• Customers find its platform, easy to use.³

3. Prolific

Prolific also offers human-generated datasets through a crowdsourcing platform.

Offerings:

• Data collection
• Image annotation
• Handwriting analysis
• Research data for academia

Prolific’s pros and cons:

• Customers say the quality of data and customer services if good at Prolific.⁴

4. Innodata Inc

Specializing in creating AI training data, Innodata Inc. offers image, text, and audio data solutions to train computer vision models.

Offerings:

• Scalable image and video data collection service
• Machine learning project consultancy
• Data security solutions

5. Telus International

Telus International offers AI solutions that span across machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing (NLP).

Offerings:

• Scalable image datasets
• Object recognition solutions
• Other data services for AI development

6. DataForce by Transperfect

DataForce caters to specific AI development needs, offering a blend of image, video, and audio data.

Offerings:

• Image classification datasets
• Audio and video data collection services
• Experienced project managers for AI needs

7. Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk, offers crowd-sourced data collection and diverse data solutions ranging from images to text.

Offerings:

• Large-volume data collection
• Annotation services for various data types
• Integration with the vast Amazon ecosystem

MTurk’s pros and cons:

• A customer found its data collection service to be quick, efficient, and user-friendly.⁵.
• Some customers found the quality of work to be low.⁶.

8. Summa Linguae Technologies

With a focus on providing custom solutions, Summa Linguae offers tools and services that cater to unique AI project requirements.

Offerings:

• Custom and segmented data collection
• Machine learning model training data
• Data security and quality assurance

9. Toloka AI

Working with a crowdsourcing platform, Toloka AI specializes in collecting data for AI models, especially computer vision and natural language processing.

Offerings:

• Scalable image and video data solutions
• Annotation services for various data types
• Tools for specific AI program needs

10. LXT

LXT is an emerging player in the data collection domain, specializing in curating datasets tailored for AI and machine learning models.

Offerings:

• Image and video data collection for machine learning models
• Audio data collection for natural language processing
• Annotation services with emphasis on accuracy
• Custom dataset creation for unique AI project

11. TaskUS

TaskUS offers data types, including image, audio, and video, for AI and machine learning models. However, their key offering is in the customer experience domain.

Offerings:

• Scalable image and video data solutions
• Annotation services for various data types
• Tools for specific AI program needs

Final recommendations

Pay attention to these aspects while choosing your vendor and working with them:

• Diversity: It is important to work with a vendor with a large and diverse workforce
• Adherence to schedule: This can be assessed from reviews and customer references. 
• Clarity and comprehensiveness of instructions: Clarify edge cases so the workforce can work efficiently without needing to pause and ask for clarification during edge cases that they encounter.

Further reading

If you need help finding a vendor or have any questions, feel free to contact us:

Find the Right Vendors

External resources

1. Clickworker customer review on reliability and easy-to-use platform. G2. Accessed: 20/October/2023.
2. Hayden Field, (2023). Inside the turmoil at Appen, the former AI darling that’s reeling from executive exits, big losses. CNBC. Accessed: 06/September/2023.
3. Appen’s positive review on easy to use platform. G2. Accessed: 16/Oct/2023.
4. Prolific’s positive review of data and customer service. G2. Accessed: 16/Oct.2023
5. Mturk customer review data collection. G2. Accessed: 20/September/2023
6. negative review regarding data collection service. G2. Accessed: 20/September/2023.