Grammar checkers are incredibly useful tools. Today, we compare grammar checkers in terms of price, features, and usability, then reveal the best option to help you communicate effectively.
Which is the best grammar checker? We say ProWritingAid – it’s absolutely jam-packed with features which can benefit professional, business, and educational settings and help you become a better writer.
Before you scoff and wonder how bad a grammar mistake can be, think of the prosecutor who mistypes “prosecuted” as “prostituted.” – before sending that email off to a court judge. Would you like to be in his place when sending that email to your boss?
To help you avoid horrible gaffes like that, we’ve listed some of the best grammar checkers on the market. Not all are commercial, some are even free!
Read on to find out how they work and which one is right for you.
Note
All prices shown are based on a 12-month subscription rate.
Excellent
$6.58 /mo
ProWritingAid comes with so many bells and whistles that to spell them out seems quite stunning. Going beyond traditional suggestions, it comes fully equipped as a complete dictionary of recommendations as well.
To round everything off, this grammar checker can also produce reports that help you evaluate your writing. For example – how readable it is, sentence variation efficiency, length of sentences, and more.
The very visual way that ProWritingAid offers reporting on your standards is impressive in many ways. It adds a dimension of simplicity for data which may shock some users – allowing them to adjust in a more eased manner.
From an end-user standpoint, this may seem like an awful lot of bang for your buck. However, it may be a little overkill for some people who want a quick and generic grammar checker. We’d recommend it for users looking for a thoughtful grammar checker + editor package, and who are curious to deep-dive into their writing. They also offer a wealth of articles, videos and quizzes to help you strengthen your writing skills.
ProWritingAid also remains user-friendly and packages everything into a very sleek and modern interface.
Thanks to its many features, ProWritingAid can help out a huge variety of writing tasks. Some features may be overkill for users who just want a generic grammar checker – but it goes further in helping you become a better writer in the long-term. It’s especially well-suited for business and professional use – including writing long form fiction and non-fiction.
If you intend to sign up for ProWritingAid’s monthly plan, be prepared to fork out $20/mo. For annual subscriptions, the price goes down to $6.58/mo. There is also a lifetime subscription for a one-time fee of $399.
Very Good
$11.66 /mo
Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, and Dmytro Lider founded Grammarly in 2009. With over a decade in the market, Grammarly has introduced an increasing number of features. Starting from a basic grammar editor, the brand today integrates well with other applications.
Lest you mistake it for your average run-of-the-mill grammar checker, Grammarly comes feature-packed. Grammar checking is comprehensive and includes not just punctuation and spelling but goes as far as to guide the tone of your writing.
It also has a plagiarism checker built in for those who want to ensure that their writing is 100% unique. Because of the many features, there are many ways you can work with Grammarly depending on your needs.
Despite many exciting features, the core of Grammarly remains its error checking and corrective features. The service is impressively accurate in most technical areas. You can even opt to have it autocorrect your mistakes.
The service is also available on multiple platforms. If you primarily use desktop applications, there are dedicated apps for both Windows and Mac. This app offers a word processor-like environment into which you can directly enter text.
Aside from that, Grammarly is also available as an add-on for other applications. For example, if you rely on Microsoft Word for your writing, there is a plugin for it. You can also use Grammarly as an extension with most major browsers.
As long as you’ve got the related plugin or add-on, Grammarly blends in very seamlessly almost everywhere you need to type.
Grammarly’s broad range of features makes it very versatile.
Small businesses can use it to ramp up professionalism. Larger companies can use it to unify standards across teams. Students can make use of Grammarly as a learning aid – and the list goes on.
Grammarly is available in a freemium model. The free version is usable as a general spell checker and will give you some hints as to what other areas (such as use of passive voice) may be incorrect. However, it won’t actually tell you what went wrong.
For that you will need a premium plan to unlock everything – seemingly pretty expensive at first glance with a display tag of $29.95/mo. Sign on for that on an annual basis and the price drops to a mere $11.66/mo.
If you need an integrated account for larger companies, there is a separate Business Plan. Pricing for this plan starts at $12.50/mo per user. That price drops as more users get added to the subscription.
Good
$7.49 /mo
The Ginger grammar checker offers users a quick and easy way of correcting their language. It’s easy to install and very convenient to use. Ginger also has a built-in language translator which makes it more usable in some context. However, that’s only for those who pay for the premium version.
It helps users make rapid corrections through auto-detecting as they type. You can benefit from an auto-rephrase utility, allowing you to be more agile in your writing. DO note though that the auto-rephrase pop-up won’t always appear.
Aside from grammar correction suggestions, Ginger goes a step further by offering links to external sources for extended learning resources. While the concept is interesting, it seems tedious unless you plan to use it in an educational context.
Ginger is also a cloud-based service. This seems very much to be the way that many services are heading in the new generation. That said, having a centralized service you can use across multiple platforms is convenient indeed.
Ginger’s flexibility makes it suitable for a broad range of use. However, it seems less effective at catching mistakes than the other brands on our top 3 list. Because of this, it would be better to use Ginger in a non-educational context, such as for simple personal or small business use.
Ginger has a free version for general use – including a browser extension. However, to fully unlock it requires a premium plan which starts at $29.96/mo without a subscription plan. For those willing to sign on for more extended periods, prices drop significantly to a low of $6.66/mo on a two-year contract.
Aside from Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Ginger, there are many other very usable grammar checkers on the market. Some are even entirely free, but these are generally more limited in both integration and utility.
Other highly recommended grammar checkers (in no particular order) include:
Writer.com is more for business than personal use, but either way, it serves the same purpose. If you want to use it on a personal basis, nothing is standing in your way. This service is one that keeps its focus on the task at hand.
In professional use, Writer has dedicated areas giving it a competitive advantage. For example, you can define a style guide for an entire team of writers. For businesses that need to manage lots of content, this is an excellent way to ensure consistency.
PaperRater is relatively straightforward at what it does. Aside from the key mandate of grammar checking and correction, the only extra feature seems to be plagiarism detection. So far, this utility seems relatively well-received by many users.
Perhaps because of singularity in purpose, PaperRater is highly competent at what it does. It comes with extremely stringent error-catching algorithms, making it a good choice for those seeking ultimate effectiveness.
While many grammar checkers offer an excellent range of integrations, Hemingway is a fully standalone online service. Think of it as being similar to Google Docs, but in a much more limited sense.
To use it, you will have to visit the Hemingway App website and use the interface they offer. It works as a web-based word processor with similar features. The difference is the integrated grammar correction, of course. The best part of Hemingway is that it is entirely free.
LanguageTool is slightly different from others on this list. It was developed as open-source but remained a freemium product. This development hasn’t seemed to restrict its growth, and today LanguageTool comes with many available add-ons to support various platforms.
It’s easy to use and, more importantly, has a Java-based desktop app that allows for offline usage. That makes it much more robust than many other commercial Cloud-based services. That said, LanguageTool does get limited updates, so the future for them is a little unknown.
From initial tests, WhiteSmoke is quite accurate and can match up to Grammarly standards. If you need a handy tool to nudge you in the right direction as you go, this is a good choice. Besides, there are some features here not included in many others.
Some examples of harder-to-find inclusions are the video tutorials and style checker that comes with WhiteSmoke. There is a price to pay for this, though – the lack of a free version. The interface is also slightly clumsy and not as sleek as you would expect.
Despite being placed this far down the list (it was unintentional), Reverso does come highly recommended. Be aware, though, that the brand name covers a range of products, not just a grammar checker. For example, it covers translation as well. The most significant plus point of Reverso is that it’s free to use.
While the various areas of Reverso do come integrated into their “Spell Checker,” they are also navigable via separate links. That may lead to a bit of confusion among potential users. Still, the web-based service is very usable and quite fast too.
Although After the Deadline is available for zero cost, it goes where a lot of commercial products do. Aside from as a downloadable application, it is available in some exciting formats as well- for example, as a WordPress plugin.
This price and widespread availability make it very accessible to a broad market. You can even get support for it via a ticketing system – not bad for something free, huh? The only caveat is the need for an active internet connection for use.
The list of best grammar checkers we’ve rounded up for 2022 is packed with strong contenders. Beyond this list, hundreds of some form or other of these are available floating around the web.
The question that immediately springs to mind is, “How do I choose the best one?” Although each of us has unique needs and usage models, you can look towards a few areas for the answer.
To be honest, this question isn’t restricted to grammar checkers alone. There are many apps and services today that follow the freemium model. However, some services come at what seems to be entirely zero cost.
The question here is whether these free grammar checkers are safe to use. Unfortunately, since there are so many of them around, it’s also challenging to answer. One thing that bears reminding is that offering these services costs money – so where does that come from?
Most free services earn through either advertising or by selling collected data. While this may not always have a significant impact on you personally, it is something you should at the very least consider.
This risk is especially true if you plan to use a free grammar checker in a business context.
A common misperception is that only writers or editors would need something like a grammar checker. While admittedly, we can make extensive use of them, the reality is that grammar checkers are meant for a broad audience.
There are simply dozens of use cases where grammar checkers would be very useful. From students to professionals, all of us communicate in words across so many places. Using a grammar checker is, in reality, for more than just correcting your text.
They can also help you;
And more.
Because of how they blend in with other applications, you also don’t have to worry about firing up a dedicated app just to use them. Simply integrate them into the places you typically type in, and they just work.
Grammar checkers can be an invaluable aid for students to improve their language skills with. Instead of an English teacher hovering over shoulders in class, the grammar checker can follow students anywhere they type.
Do note though that not all educational institutions will permit their use.
Not all designers have impeccable language skills. Yet, in a commercial design context, having a typo in your design can be a disaster.
By running a short copy through grammar checkers, you can at least be sure you don’t end up with a sign that says “Illegally Parked Cars Will be Fine”.
Creating a lasting impression on clients can mean the difference between a lost deal and a lucrative extended contract. Impress potential customers with accurate and robust language skills, proving to them that you’re the right man for their business.
If you can’t get even an email right, why would they trust you to produce products for them?
To recap, here are our top 3 grammar checkers:
In terms of features and utility, the best grammar checker we’ve found so far is ProWritingAid. Not only is it an excellent AI-driven grammar and style-checking tool, but you also get in-depth reports and informative resources to help you become a better writer overall. The option of a lifetime plan is also great if you’re tired of paying monthly subscriptions!
However, depending on your use case, some of the other options on this list may prove better. Your choice needs to factor in personal considerations as well.
As long as you pad that with our general guidelines, finding the best grammar checker should be a piece of cake.
Aside from the obvious error-correction features, grammar checkers have other benefits as well. Chief among these is the ability to help you improve your language skills over time. Some may also come with value-added features like language translation.
At the most basic level, apps like Microsoft Word or Google Docs have some error-checking included. Aside from that, there are also free and freemium grammar checkers available – albeit with more limited features than paid versions.
Anyone can benefit from using a grammar checker. Of course, this largely depends on whether or not you’re willing to not only use them but also learn during the process.
We highly recommend ProWritingAid as the best grammar checker. It is feature-packed and offers in-depth reporting and learning resources to ensure your spelling, punctuation, tone of writing, and more are constantly improving.
In terms of features and value, we prefer ProWritingAid over Grammarly. As well as being an excellent grammar checker, ProWritingAid offers superior reporting and learning resources to help you improve your writing skills in the long-term. It also comes cheaper.
Aside from being much more convenient to use, Grammarly also detects plagiarism while Ginger doesn’t – making Grammarly a preferred option for education and business purposes. Grammarly has also proven to show much better development in terms of features introduced over time.
