Asides from the suggestions you get for grammar and vocabulary, you can also use this tool for plagiarism checks. It has versions for the web app and chrome extensions to help you edit text across Google Docs, WordPress, and other software. It’s also compatible with every OS and devices like Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS. While Grammarly is a widely used tool, it has some defects. For one, its Google Docs support is still in beta mode. We’ve had reports about the slow load time, failure to identify poorly constructed sentences, and showing red lines even when there are no mistakes to correct. The free version is also very limited and their aggressive marketing model is targeted at ensuring that you have to upgrade at some point. So if you’ve ever considered opting for something more efficient, we’ll share seven of the best Grammarly alternatives for your writing in this article. Keep reading to see the list.
1. Language Tool
Similar to Grammarly, you can choose to use the web-based software or better still install the chrome extension for easier review. There are also extensions for Firefox, Microsoft Word, and LibreOffice. This writing assistant can check for grammatical errors in American, British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and South African English. In addition to this, it can review spellings and errors in 28 foreign languages including Asian scripts like Chinese and Japanese. Language tool underlines the errors in different colors depending on the severity. For example, Red connotes very important corrections while Orange is for alternatives or less important corrections. Blue checks the text readability and offers suggestions for improvements. And if you like, you can choose to turn on suggestions for upper and lowercase mistakes. This software is free to use. Plus, if you’d prefer to use the web-based checker, there’s a dark mode available.
2. Pro Writing Aid
Looking for something outside simple grammatical mistakes? Pro Writing Aid not only makes your text more readable but helps improve your writing style through a scoring method. So, it checks for hidden verbs, passive voice, subordinate clauses, emotion tells and so much more. After scoring your text, it’ll then offer suggestions for making it better. In these suggestions, you might get synonyms when a word is overused. It’ll also show you how to better reconstruct sentences like length, transition words, and cliches. This tool has an inbuilt plagiarism checker. What we love most about this assistant is that there’s a variety of writing styles to choose from. For example, you have business, casual, creative, technical, academic, and more. At the moment, you can set your checker for US, Canada, UK, and Australian English versions. While the Chrome Extension gives you basic access, the Google Docs Add-on offers you the full features of the tool.
3. Hemingway App
While Grammarly focuses more on spelling mistakes, this writing assistant is geared towards improving readability and plagiarism. This makes it one of the best tools if you’re an academic writer. Hemingway App checks your text and also gives your writing a readability score. From this score, you’d see recommendations for making your work better. For example, it can tell you to break up long sentences or to change your passive voice. It also uses colors to show you what type of errors you have. Red is for very hard-to-read sentences, Green for passive voice, purple for complex words, and Blue for adverbs. Although it doesn’t have a chrome extension or add-on, you can use the web-based editor or download the desktop app to check your text. The web version is free to use. However, you’d have to pay a one-time fee of $19.99 to download the desktop app.
4. Wordtune
Get real-time spelling and grammatical corrections with this writing assistant. While it highlights basic errors, Wordtune is ideal for writers who’d prefer to rewrite paragraphs with a tool. Not only does it rewrite paragraphs for better efficiency, but it also rephrases sentences for tone match. So you can choose to make your writing more casual or formal by simply accepting context-appropriate suggestions. This tool has a standalone text editor you can use or if you’d prefer, you can download the Google Chrome extension. It has integrations with popular writing apps like Gmail, Google Docs, Outlook, Word, Linkedin and so much more. The basic plan covers your needs and if you’d want to upgrade, pricing starts from $9.99 a month.
5. Ginger
Ginger is an excellent writing assistant ideal for emails and social media copy. This is because it focuses solely on checking grammar mistakes, spelling, and misused words. It’s similar to Grammarly as it highlights the subject, verb, and agreement errors. You can also rephrase sentences for more clarity. What we love the most is its translation tool. You can translate text between 60 different languages. For example, English to Spanish. Another cool feature is that you can double-click on a word to immediately see the meaning. It’s like having an in-built thesaurus. Although Ginger doesn’t have a lot of language variety, you can switch between UK and US English. It also offers a web-based checker and a chrome extension. Unfortunately, this extension isn’t compatible with Google Docs yet. However, they make up for this by offering an MS Word add-on and a Safari browser extension making it the right fit for your iOS devices.
6. Writer.com
Competing with Grammarly Business is Writer.com. In addition to correcting grammar, this writing assistant focuses on creating on-brand writing for businesses. It primarily helps you to achieve consistency in brand voice, writing style, and terminology through brand-specific feedback. You’d start by building a custom brand voice and writing style guide. Here you can manage terms and ban certain words so your content can be consistent across all teams. There are also preset styles like AP Stylebook and Chicago Manual of Style. You can also turn/off different types of writing suggestions. For example, you can turn on gender-neutral pronouns for a broader audience. This tool easily integrates with Google Chrome, Google Docs, and MS Word. There’s a free plan suitable for basic suggestions and if you’d prefer to upgrade, a paid plan starts from $11 monthly.
7. Linguix
Looking for another tool to help you figure out grammar and punctuation marks? Then Linguix is a grammar checker tool you can use to check for these errors. It allows you to paste your existing text into the web tool to see suggested phrases and corrections. You can also use the chrome extension when writing on Google Docs, Gmail, Outlook, Linkedin, and other sites. This writing assistant also offers performance statistics so you can track improvements over time and improve your style. Since it’s targeted at mostly marketers, you might want to opt for this if your goal is towards increasing conversions.
The bottom line
While there are a ton of Grammarly alternatives you can explore, we recommend opting for one that’s closely tied to your specific needs. So if you do a lot of academic writing, Hemingway App or Pro Writing Aid will be the right fit. On the other hand, if you’re just looking for something for your business team, consider using Writer.com. Writers with an extensive audience reach might want to use Language Tool. Do let us know which one of these writing assistants you’ll be using in the comments below
