Alternatives
Appen alternatives for licensing your business data
Quick answer
Businesses looking at Appen usually fall into a few groups: other data marketplaces, direct outreach to AI labs, and services built specifically around licensing everyday business records. Below are real alternatives, including what each one focuses on, plus how SourceX approaches the same problem for U.S. businesses.
What to know#
- Founded in 1996 in Sydney and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ticker APX).
- Provides human-labeled data for speech, image, video and text, plus RLHF and reasoning data for large language models.
- Says 80% of the world's leading LLM builders are customers, according to its own site.
- Expanded through the 2018 acquisition of Figure Eight to build out its annotation platform, ADAP.
About Appen#
See the facts and sources below for a grounded summary of what this company does today.
Other paths businesses consider#
Some businesses go straight to an AI lab's partnerships team, which can work if you already have a relationship but usually takes longer and requires in-house legal review.
Others use general-purpose data marketplaces or directory sites to get in front of more buyers, trading some control over approvals for wider reach.
SourceX's approach#
SourceX works only with U.S. supplier businesses and sells to buyers worldwide from its Los Angeles base. The company approves every release, removes and checks personal details, and has counsel review rights deal by deal.
Large datasets can stay in the seller's own storage or ship on encrypted drives, and deals can be exclusive or non-exclusive depending on the business. SourceX typically replies within 2 business days.
Related comparisons
Sources
Public sources, checked 2026-10-09. SourceX is not affiliated with the organizations named.
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