9 Best Grammarly Alternatives (Free & Paid) To Improve Your Writing

Tomas Laurinavicius
Updated on August 14, 2024
9 Best Grammarly Alternatives (Free & Paid) To Improve Your Writing

Imagine Facebook Messenger, Skype, Twitter, or any app or platform without a built-in spell checker.

What do you think will happen if you send an email without knowing you’re making a writing error? While spelling errors may not seem like a big deal to you, they can have a significant impact on how others see you.

In fact, grammar and spelling errors can make you seem lazy and unprofessional.

That’s why it’s so important to use an online grammar checker tool like Grammarly. It is, without a doubt, one of the best online grammar checkers available.

However, as each writer has different goals and styles, it’s only natural some don’t find Grammarly that useful. Fortunately, there are numerous Grammarly alternatives and editing tools writers can choose from.

If you’re also in the market for the best Grammarly alternatives to check your grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, this article will help you narrow down your options.

Keep reading to find 9 Grammarly alternatives, their pros and cons, pricing, and available features among free and paid writing tools.

What Does a Great Grammarly Alternative Look Like?

It doesn’t matter what your text is. It can be anything from social media posts to personal blog posts. With the help of a proper writing tool, you can make your writing perfect.

With the exception of its costly subscriptions, Grammarly is an excellent proofreading tool. Free or less expensive Grammarly alternatives are becoming increasingly popular exactly for this reason.

A good Grammarly alternative can spot minor grammar and spelling errors. These errors could be anything, from hyphen or comma placement to complex sentences and style errors.

Additionally, most good tools have an AI-powered writing assistant utilizing natural language processing technologies to improve writing.

Top 9 Grammarly Alternatives

As writer Jeff Duntemann once said, “A good tool helps you work better. But, an excellent tool helps you think better.”

Therefore, whether you’re still using an old version of Microsoft Word to edit projects or you’re looking for a writing tool for your browser, now’s your chance.

We’ve compiled a list of the best Grammarly alternatives, along with reasons to choose them. We’ve tried each one to see how well they check plagiarism and what algorithms they use to prove the validity of their verification.

In plain English, what’s in them for you to believe they scan the text originality completely and verify authorship correctly?

We’ve also thoroughly described each tool’s features and benefits, along with their pricing and compatibility.

As a consequence, you’ll be in a position to clearly examine each writing tool and likely find what works best for you.

Wordtune

Wordtune is an AI assistant that dramatically improves your writing level by offering many different suggestions pre-vetted using top-of-the-line AI technology.

Writers love its ability to paraphrase a sentence or a complete paragraph, instantly improving their fluency and clarity of expression.

It also works for translations, giving you multiple options to translate from your native language to English. Wordtune paraphrases your texts in seconds and gives you creative suggestions on making your writing sound more fluent, polished or eloquent, which is especially helpful for non-native speakers.

It not only makes your writing workflow faster but also improves the quality.

Pros

  • With Wordtune, you can create original content while adding vocabulary suggestions and improving the overall flow.
  • Wordtune is available on all browsers and platforms, including Windows, Chrome, Safari, iOS, Mac, and Android.
  • Wordtune is very user-friendly and seamlessly integrates with your regular writing workflow.
  • Wordtune is available as a Chrome extension or as a standalone editor.
  • Wordtune supports Microsoft Word, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Chrome, Twitter, Linkedin and other applications.
  • It offers contextual synonyms as well as translation.

Cons

  • Offline use isn’t possible with this software.
  • There isn’t a Firefox or Safari extension available.
  • No plagiarism checker.

Pricing: Wordtune provides its users with a free plan as well as a premium plan:

  • Monthly: $9.99

Compatible With: Windows, Android, Mac, iOS & web-Based Documents.

Ginger

Great for: Everyone.

Ginger software is an Israeli start-up that helps improve sentence structure, strengthens English-speaking skills, and increases writing efficiency utilizing advanced natural language programming. It doesn’t just fix basic grammar errors. It considers entire paragraphs and then recommends context-based adjustments. This dramatically reduces the time it takes to write a lengthy email or paper.

The software’s grammar checker and punctuation tools automatically find and fix grammatical mistakes, allowing you to write faster and better. It also works on various platforms, including mobile apps, desktop apps, and web browsers.

Pros

  • Ginger assists in creating original material while enriching it with vocabulary suggestions.
  • Ginger has symbols for expressing yourself, word prediction for typing efficiency, and configurable themes for your keyboard.
  • It has a personal dictionary ensuring you never miss a word, a translation tool ensuring you never get stuck, and a personal trainer assisting in developing your English skills.
  • Ginger is available on all browsers, including Windows, Chrome, Safari, iOS, Mac, and Android.
  • It has a proofreading tool for finding errors with a single click.
  • Ginger uses grammar rules to ensure the document is free of any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Cons

  • It’s not as user-friendly as some of its rivals.
  • Offline use isn’t possible with this software.
  • It’s exclusively programmed to offer English corrections.
  • It detects grammatical mistakes; however, it may not find all of them.
  • There isn’t a Firefox extension available.
  • It doesn’t support Google Docs.

Pricing: Ginger provides its users with a free plan as well as three premium plans:

  • Monthly: $19.99
  • Yearly: $12.48/month
  • Two Years: $9.99/month

Compatible With: Windows, Android, Mac, iOS & web-Based Documents.

PaperRater

Great for: High school & college students.

PaperRater is an online editor and a popular free Grammarly alternative available on the market. It is a web-based online grammar and spelling checker explicitly designed for students to utilize when reviewing their academic papers. It has a robust grammar checker helping detect nasty mistakes, and its proofreading tool offers creative ideas to improve writing.

In addition, this software uses Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, offering intuitive insights in about 5-15 seconds.

Pros

  • Users can examine their submissions in real-time using both the free version and the premium plan.
  • PaperRater’s results show up 5-15 seconds after students submit their academic papers, helping save considerable time.
  • Its cloud-based program analyzes the text’s grammar and structure without forcing you to sign up, log in, or download anything.
  • It includes a plagiarism checker, automated proofreading, grammar checking, and scoring.
  • While writing, the word builder provides vocabulary suggestions, sentences, explanations, and examples to help enhance your knowledge of English.

Cons

  • According to users, PaperRater has below-average accuracy.
  • There’s a word count restriction. PaperRater’s free users can execute up to 10 plagiarism checks every month, each no more than 1,500 words long.
  • You can’t save your plagiarism report as a PDF with PaperRater.
  • There’s no mobile support, nor is there a chrome extension.
  • PaperRater is only available in English.

Pricing: PaperRater has a free version, as well as two premium & priced plans:

  • Monthly: $11.21
  • Yearly: $71.55

Compatible With: Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS.

Writefull

Writefull offers a set of tools and widgets that help you with your academic writing.

Made by and for researchers, Writefull uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to give you language feedback and support, all tailored to the needs of students and researchers.

You can download Writefull for free for Word and Overleaf. It’s free to use, but for unlimited language feedback and widget usage you need a Premium subscription. Writefull’s prices are lower than those of most language tools.

Great for: Any form of academic or scientific writing, specifically aimed for students and researchers.

Pros

  1. Comes with a host of additional features, including language search, a sentence palette, title generator and paraphraser.
  2. Works with LaTeX when working on Overleaf.
  3. Easy to use user experience.
  4. More advanced language feedback on top of grammar and spelling feedback.
  5. Supports American and traditional English.

Cons

  1. Doesn’t support mobile devices.
  2. No plagiarism checker.
  3. No Safari extension.
  4. Currently only compatible with MS Word & Overleaf.

Pricing: $15.37 monthly, $11.81 quarterly and $5.46 yearly.

Compatible with: Mac & Windows. Microsoft Word, Overleaf (Mozilla Firefox, Chrome).

👉 Try Writefull (get 10% off – enter the code: bestwriting)

ProWritingAid

Great for: Beginners, blog post writers, multi-taskers, and students.

ProWritingAid is the only platform that combines top-notch grammar and style checker with detailed reports to improve your writing. In addition, their pricing is quite reasonable. Hence, if you’re looking for a balance between price and quality, ProWritingAid is probably the best Grammarly alternative you can find.

It allows you to check if your various writing elements have grammatical, readability, and plagiarism flaws. This feature-rich tool is accessible to users in both free and premium versions. The best part is it works across all platforms, including Google Docs, making it a decent Grammarly alternative.

Fiction and non-fiction authors, blog post and content writers, students, business writers, and others utilize ProWritingAid software to improve their writing style.

Pros

  • ProWritingAid provides a full report on all grammar mistakes.
  • ProWritingAid detects substituted and repeated words and recommends sentence lengths that differ from one another.
  • It runs a readability analysis to see how easy your manuscript is to read and comprehend.
  • It has a thesaurus for vocabulary suggestions, helping improve writing style.
  • It supports both Mac and Windows devices.
  • ProWritingAid has a free trial.
  • It offers a 20 percent discount on a premium version for students
  • ProWriting Aid allows users to integrate with Microsoft Word, Gmail, Open Office, Google Docs, Google Chrome, and other applications.

Cons

  • This online editor doesn’t support cell/mobile phone (IOS or Android)
  • The web browser extension is not available for Safari or Firefox.
  • Its premium version is quite expensive.

Pricing: ProWritingAid provides its users with a free plan as well as three other priced plans:

  • Monthly: $36
  • Yearly: $144
  • Lifetime: $699

Compatible With: Windows desktop (like Microsoft Word), Web-based documents, and Google Docs.

LanguageTool

Great for: Beginners, social media post writers, non-English speakers.

LanguageTool writing app is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest desktop-based Grammarly alternatives accessible.

It comes with a wide range of tools to regulate your writing style and is compatible with Windows, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Mac. It can not only be utilized as a proofreading tool, but you can also use it to replace your phone’s autocorrect, which LanguageTool is far superior to.

The user interface is straightforward; mistakes are marked, and moving your cursor over them shows a variety of solutions. This style editor can also serve as an English tutor because it explains why grammatical mistakes are made and includes a text reader to aid in learning pronunciation.

Pros

  • LanguageTool lets you choose from American English, British English, and Canadian English.
  • It has a simple user interface.
  • It includes a translation tool for more than 40 languages, including French, German, Spanish, Urdu, Hindi, and Arabic.
  • It has a desktop app.
  • It comes with a Firefox and Chrome extension.
  • It provides a free plan.
  • It has Google Docs, LibreOffice, and Microsoft Word add-ons.
  • Suggested corrections, keyboard shortcuts, rule-based, and privacy are some of the features available.

Cons

  • It doesn’t have a plagiarism checker.
  • It doesn’t support all devices and platforms.

Pricing: Aside from its free plan, Language Tool offers two different premium plans for teams and individuals.

  • Individuals: starting from $4.99/month
  • Teams: starting from $8.99/month

Compatible With: Windows Desktop, IOS, Android, Mac, various web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera.)

Hemingway App

Great for: Blog writers, writers who only want a free tool to check their writing style.

Hemingway Editor softens your writing by highlighting wordy sentences in yellow and more egregious ones in red, reducing deadweight from the text. It helps keep your writing style simple by emphasizing adverbs, passive voice sentences, and convoluted phrases. You may also find it interesting to know that Hemingway is a free Grammarly alternative designed for writers of all types.

You can start writing with Hemingway editor right away to analyze your text’s sentence structure and find where you need to improve. Another point that makes Hemingway a suitable Grammarly alternative is its easy-to-use desktop app, released only recently.

Note that Hemingway is not a spelling and grammar checker.

Pros

  • Hemingway lets you publish your articles on WordPress and Medium using its one-click tool.
  • Hemingway automatically applies HTML heading formatting and inserts links when you’re writing a blog post.
  • It can be accessed remotely from any location without the need for an Internet connection.
  • It allows the exporting of content to other editors, such as Microsoft Word Editor.

Cons

  • Hemingway doesn’t check your grammatical errors or spelling mistakes.
  • It doesn’t have a Chrome extension.

Pricing: You can use Hemingway’s online version free, but the Desktop app costs $19.99.

Compatible With: Mac OS, Windows

Readable

Great for: Professional writers, business writers.

Readable is a spelling and grammar checker that analyzes readability and sentence length and gives smart suggestions. You can increase the quality of your content by using this Grammarly alternative quite effectively. This software will recommend a new sentence structure for lines that don’t read well.

It provides different readability scores based on several readability evaluation methods. One is the Flesch Reading Ease score, which many organizations use (government agencies, online website owners, etc.). Your score can range from 0-100. The higher the score, and the closer it is to 100, the better.

Pros

  • It checks both spelling and grammar mistakes.
  • Readable can find lengthy sentences and amend them.
  • Readable highlights adverbs and overused phrases.
  • It calculates a Gunning Fox Index score, essential for professional and business writers.
  • It assigns a readability score to various texts, including papers, PDFs, and even bulk URLs.

Cons

  • For the ContentPro plan, there’s only a 7-day free trial available.
  • Some features, such as the keyword density check, can take some time to load.
  • It doesn’t have a plagiarism checker.

Pricing:

  • ContentPro: $4/month
  • CommercePro: $24/month
  • AgencyPro: $69/month

Compatible With: CSV, Email apps, Ebooks, Word Documents, Open Documents

Sapling

Perfect for: Business teams.

Sapling is a business-focused AI-powered Grammar Checker and Writing Assistant. It’s a platform that sits on top of CRMs and messaging platforms to assist sales, support, and marketing teams compose customized responses more quickly.

Sapling uses a machine learning system trained with millions of English sentences to detect 60% more language errors than other existing spelling and grammar checkers.

It has a web browser plugin for Gmail, Salesforce Lightning, and Zendesk, as well as other text-based web tools and business platforms. This tool’s snippets and autocomplete will help you increase your writing efficiency and productivity. Sapling offers valuable qualities that altogether add up to its popularity as a Grammarly alternative.

Pros

  • Sapling has a Chrome extension and online plugins for Outlook, Google Docs, and Google Slides.
  • It’s both a grammar and spelling checker.
  • Sapling learns from your actions over time.
  • It enables you to compose clear messages, emails, and papers.
  • Sapling encourages team members to respond more quickly and handle higher inbound volumes instead of delivering flimsy, decision tree-based chatbots.
  • Its quality scoring and error reports can help managers spot coaching opportunities and improve their team performance over time.

Cons

  • There are no extensions for iOS or Android.
  • There’s no Safari extension.

Pricing: Sapling has a free plan and a premium plan starting from $25/month.

Compatible With: Windows, Mac, and Web-Based Documents (LinkedIn, Salesforce, ServiceNow, etc.)

FAQ

Below are some of the most commonly asked questions regarding Grammarly alternatives.

1. Is There a Grammar Checker Better Than Grammarly?

Of course! Grammarly is popular, but its functions are limited. Even if you pay the hefty premium, there are still functions Grammarly can’t pull off. We recommend Ginger, ProWritingAid, and LanguageTool for those who want advanced editing and grammar tools. Each is an excellent alternative to Grammarly.

2. Is There Any Free Alternative to Grammarly?

Yes, there are numerous free Grammarly alternatives available, including ProWritingAid, Sapling, and Hemingway.

3. Which One’s Better, Ginger or Grammarly?

Grammarly is generally more practical when compared to Ginger. Mainly because Ginger doesn’t have a plagiarism checker tool, nor does it support Mac OS.

4. Is Grammarly Better Than Word?

Grammarly is generally better at spotting grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. It makes sense since Grammarly was technically designed to find spelling and grammar mistakes while equipped with its bespoke dictionary. Microsoft Word, on the other hand, was not.

5. Is There a Free Version of Grammarly?

Yes. Grammarly’s free version doesn’t let users access all its functions (like the plagiarism checker), but it’s still helpful in finding grammatical errors, passive voice, and lengthy sentences. You can also use Grammarly’s free version in Google Docs and as a Chrome extension.

Can You Spot the Best Grammarly Alternative?

There are many great Grammarly alternatives available offering accurate recommendations to fix grammatical errors that even Grammarly misses.

Some of these tools are equipped with functions that Grammarly doesn’t have at all (like Sapling’s business features or Readable’s excellent readability scoring methods.)

Any Grammarly alternative you select will still do the job since online editing tools are pretty similar to each other in general.

You can still scan your Google Docs text for passive voice and complex sentences using a Grammarly alternative. The most significant difference among these tools is usually just the accuracy of correction and not much more.

Tomas Laurinavicius

Hi! I'm Tomas, a writer and growth marketer from Lithuania, living in Spain. I'm always involved in multiple projects driven by my curiosity. Currently, I'm a partner at Craftled, building Best Writing, Marketful, Pynions, and UI Things. Let's connect on X and LinkedIn.