- Closest like-for-like alternatives are other vendors that create data with expert workforces: Surge AI and Mercor.
- If you want to run labeling yourself, a platform such as Labelbox gives you tools and on-demand experts.
- If you need real-world data rather than created data, use a marketplace or a broker.
The alternatives
| Alternative | What it is | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| Surge AI | RLHF, RL environments and language annotation vendor | You need preference data or agent environments |
| Mercor | Expert network charging by the hour | You want experts working inside your own process |
| Appen | Collection and annotation with about 1 million contributors in 500+ languages | You need multilingual or speech collection |
| Labelbox | Labeling software plus Alignerr experts | You want to manage labeling in-house |
| Prolific | Vetted participant panels for evaluation | You need human evaluation from defined groups |
| Defined.ai | Ready-made dataset marketplace | You want off-the-shelf datasets |
| Protege | Governed marketplace for real-world and health data | You need clinical or imaging data |
| AI Data For Sale (us) | Broker for private data licensed from its holders | You need real data that is not on any marketplace |
Sources are on each profile.
Why teams look for alternatives
Common reasons include cost, wanting control of the process, needing real-world data rather than created data, and independence: Meta made a large investment in Scale AI in June 2025 (SiliconANGLE).
Read next
Questions
What is the closest alternative to Scale AI?
Surge AI is the most similar in model, creating expert data for frontier labs. Mercor is similar in workforce but sells expert time rather than finished data.
Sources
- SiliconANGLE: Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang departs to join Meta, securing multibillion-dollar investment (June 2025)
- Wikipedia: Surge AI
- TechCrunch: Mercor quintuples valuation to $10B with $350M Series C (October 2025)
- Staffing Industry Analysts: Appen H1 operating revenue falls with Google contract termination (August 2024)