Three operating models
| Model | You supply | Vendor supplies | Quality owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted open-source tool | Workforce, hosting, QA design | Software only | You |
| Commercial platform | Workforce or vendor marketplace, QA design | Hosted software, workflow features | Mostly you |
| Managed service | Guidelines, acceptance criteria | Workforce, tooling, QA layers | Shared, by contract |
How to tell which model a provider actually runs
Provider marketing often blurs these categories. Ask three things in writing: who employs the people doing the labelling, whose infrastructure the data sits on during work, and who signs off quality before delivery. The answers place a provider in one model regardless of how it describes itself, and they tell you where contractual responsibility for errors and rights will sit.
Decision questions
- Can your data leave your environment? If not, self-hosted tooling may be the only option.
- Do you have someone who can write and maintain labelling guidelines? Managed services still need them.
- Is the task stable for months, or changing weekly? Rapidly changing tasks favour in-house loops.
- Do you need a contractual quality guarantee, or is internal measurement enough?
Compare the full cost of delivery
Compare a scoped quote rather than a headline rate. Structurally, platforms tend to charge for seats or usage, while managed services price per item, per hour or per project. Ask any vendor to show the total cost including rework of rejected batches.
Have an annotated dataset or specialist expertise?
Tell us what you own, how the labels were reviewed and which rights you can license. A short overview of your dataset or annotation business is a useful place to start.
Prefer to write directly? hello@callwavemedia.com