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We know the feeling. You finish a draft you are proud of, but the AI suggests changes that make your writing sound robotic and dry. While Grammarly is famous, it is not the only option anymore. Whether you want a cheaper plan, better editing features, or a tool that truly understands creative writing, there are many great choices today. We tested the top tools to help you find the best Grammarly alternatives that improve your writing without changing your personal style.
10 Best Grammarly Alternatives: Features & Pricing
Quillbot
Quillbot is best for rewriting messy sentences.
If you often get stuck trying to rewrite a messy sentence, Quillbot is your best friend. While Grammarly focuses mostly on fixing errors, Quillbot is famous for its ability to rewrite text. It is one of the most popular apps like Grammarly free for students, because it helps you rephrase content to avoid plagiarism while keeping the original meaning clear and natural.
Key Features
- Smart Paraphrasing: Rewrites your sentences instantly. The Free version gives you Standard and Fluency modes, while Premium unlocks all styles (like Creative, Formal, or Simple) to match your needs.
- Grammar Checker: Fixes basic grammar and spelling errors for free. The Premium plan adds “advanced grammar recommendations” to help your writing flow better.
- AI Detector & Humanizer: A newer feature that scans your text to see if it looks like AI-generated content. It also has a “Humanize” mode to make robotic text sound more natural.
- Summarizer: Turns long articles or papers into short, easy-to-read bullet points or paragraphs.
- Plagiarism Checker: Scans your work against billions of sources to ensure your text is original and prevents accidental copying (Premium only).
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
| ✅ Excellent free plan for rewriting (125-word limit)
✅ “Freeze words” feature protects specific terms
✅ Multilingual translation support
✅ Includes AI detection and text humanizing |
❌ Plagiarism checker is only for Premium users
❌ Can sometimes change the meaning of technical text
❌ Grammar checking is good, but not as deep as Grammarly |
Pricing Plan
- Free: Includes 125 words for paraphrasing, 2 modes (Standard & Fluency).
- Premium: $2.50/month (billed annually). Includes unlimited words, all paraphrasing modes, advanced grammar checks, full AI detector access, and plagiarism prevention.
- Team Plan: Available for organizations (custom management dashboard and centralized billing).
Quillbot Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: Quillbot is the best choice for students and content creators who need a strong “writing assistant” to rewrite and improve clarity, rather than just a simple proofreader.
ProWritingAid
ProWritingAid analyzes style for long-form writers
For novelists and long-form writers, ProWritingAid is arguably the strongest contender among Grammarly alternatives. It does not just look for typos; it analyzes your writing style like a strict editor. We found it incredibly useful for spotting repetitive sentence structures and “sticky” sentences that make your writing hard to read.
Key Features
- 25+ Writing Reports: Goes deep into your text to find issues like overused words, slow pacing, and passive voice.
- AI Sparks: A new feature that helps you rephrase sentences, continue your writing, or improve clarity instantly (similar to ChatGPT but built-in).
- Chapter Critiques: The AI analyzes a full chapter of your story and gives feedback on plot, characters, and setting (available in Premium Pro).
- Smart Integrations: Works directly inside Scrivener, Google Docs, and Microsoft Word, which is a huge plus for book authors.
- Style Explorer: Visually maps out your writing habits so you can see where you need to improve.
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
| ✅ Incredibly detailed style analysis for authors
✅ Offers a “Lifetime” payment option (pay once, use forever)
✅ Direct integration with Scrivener |
❌ Interface can feel complex for beginners
❌ No mobile keyboard app for phone editing
❌ Slower processing speed on very large documents |
Pricing Plan
- Free: Limited to 500 words editing and 10 “Sparks” (AI rephrases) per day.
- Premium: $30/month (paid monthly) or $60/year (paid annually). Includes unlimited words, unlimited reports, and more AI Sparks.
- Premium Pro: $36/month (paid monthly) or $72/year (paid annually). Adds 50 AI Sparks per day and deeper feedback like Chapter Critiques.
- Lifetime: One-time payment of $199.50 (Premium) or $349.50 (Premium Pro).
ProWritingAid Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: If you are writing a book, a novel, or long essays, ProWritingAid offers a depth of feedback that standard grammar checkers simply cannot match.
Wordtune
Wordtune spices up writing to overcome block
Wordtune feels less like a strict schoolteacher and more like a witty co-author. Instead of just fixing your mistakes, it focuses on “spicing up” your writing. We love using it when we have the main idea, but the words just won’t come out right. It is perfect if you struggle with writer’s block or want to sound more confident and fluid.
Key Features
- Smart Rewriting: Highlight any sentence, and Wordtune offers multiple ways to say it better—whether you need it to be Casual, Formal, Shortened, or Expanded.
- Spices (AI Enrichment): This is the standout feature. It doesn’t just rewrite; it adds to your writing. You can ask it to “Give an analogy,” “Make a joke,” or even “Add a statistical fact” to strengthen your argument.
- Translation: You can write a rough sentence in a foreign language (like Spanish, Mandarin, or French), and it will rewrite it into fluent, natural-sounding English instantly.
- AI Summarizer: Quickly condenses long articles, PDFs, or even YouTube videos into bite-sized summaries so you can grasp key points fast.
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
| ✅ “Spices” feature adds genuine creativity (jokes, facts)
✅ Incredibly intuitive browser extension
✅ Helps you sound fluent (great for non-native speakers) |
❌ Free plan is very restrictive (only 10 rewrites/day)
❌ Formatting can sometimes get messy in certain editors
❌ Not a dedicated “grammar police” tool |
Pricing Plan
- Basic: $0.00. Includes 10 rewrites & AI suggestions per day, and 3 AI summaries per month.
- Advanced: $13.99/month. Includes 30 rewrites & AI suggestions per day, and 15 AI summaries per month.
- Unlimited: $19.99/month. Removes all limits. You get unlimited rewrites, summaries, and AI corrections, plus premium support.
Wordtune Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: Wordtune is the best tool for professionals and non-native speakers who want to sound stylish and fluent without agonizing over every single word.
Writesonic
Writesonic generates and polishes SEO content
Writesonic is primarily an AI content generator, but its editing capabilities make it a unique option in this list of Grammarly alternatives. While Grammarly fixes what you wrote, Writesonic helps you write it from scratch and polish it for Google rankings. It is designed for marketers and business owners who need to create SEO-optimized content that actually ranks, not just grammatically correct text.
Key Features
- AI Article Writer: Generates high-quality, full-length articles based on your keywords and references.
- Chatsonic: An AI chat assistant (like ChatGPT) that searches the web in real-time to give you up-to-date facts and data.
- SEO Checker & Optimizer: specific tools to help your content rank higher on Google.
- AI Search Tracking (GEO): A new feature that tracks how your brand appears on AI platforms (like ChatGPT or Gemini), helping you optimize your visibility in the AI era.
- Brand Voice: You can upload your previous content, and the AI learns to write exactly like you or your company.
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
|
✅ Generates and optimizes content in one workflow
✅ Includes advanced SEO and AI tracking tools
✅ High-quality output (uses GPT-4)
|
❌ Pricing is higher than simple grammar checkers
❌ Overkill if you just need to fix typos
❌ Interface can feel complex with so many features |
Pricing Plan
- Free Trial: Start for free with SEO and AI content tools (no credit card needed).
- Lite: $39/month (billed annually). Best for freelancers who need professional SEO & content.
- Standard: $79/month (billed annually). Designed for small marketing teams.
- Professional: $199/month (billed annually). For growing brands needing full SEO & AI visibility.
- Advanced: $399/month (billed annually). For scaling teams improving AI search visibility.
Writesonic Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: Writesonic is the go-to tool for digital marketers and SEO specialists who need to produce high-ranking content quickly, rather than just simple proofreading.
CopyLeaks
CopyLeaks verifies content integrity and detects AI
In the age of AI writing, knowing if text is original is crucial. CopyLeaks focuses heavily on security—specifically plagiarism and AI detection. While it does offer basic grammar checking, we view it primarily as a “content integrity” tool for educators, businesses, and editors who need to verify that a piece of work was actually written by a human.
Key Features
- Advanced AI Detection: Identifies text written by ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other models with high accuracy.
- AI Logic: A unique feature that doesn’t just say “AI Detected,” but explains why by highlighting specific AI-like patterns in the text.
- Cross-Language Plagiarism: Can scan a document in one language (e.g., Spanish) and find if it was plagiarized from a source in another language (e.g., English).
- Code Leaks: Scans source code to detect if developers have copied proprietary code or used AI-generated code without attribution.
- Scheduled Scans: Automatically protects your website by scanning it periodically to see if anyone has stolen your content.
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
| ✅ Industry-leading accuracy for detecting AI text
✅Supports AI detection in 30+ languages
✅”AI Logic” provides proof, not just a score |
❌ Not a creative writing assistant (no style suggestions)
❌ Interface is strictly functional/utilitarian
❌No “forever free” plan (only a trial) |
Pricing Plan
- Personal: $13.99/month (billed annually). Includes 100 credits (approx. 25,000 words) per month.
- Pro: $74.99/month (billed annually). Includes 1,000 credits (approx. 250,000 words) per month.
CopyLeaks Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: CopyLeaks is essential for teachers and editors who prioritize originality and need to screen content for AI generation.
Sapling
Sapling assists customer support agents quickly
Sapling is built for the fast-paced world of customer support. If you work in a team responding to tickets or live chats all day, this tool is a game-changer. It integrates smoothly with platforms like Zendesk, Salesforce, and Slack to help agents type faster and sound more professional. Think of it as a “smart assistant” that sits on your shoulder, suggesting the right answers so you don’t have to type them out manually.
Key Features
- Autocomplete Everywhere: This is the standout feature. It uses deep learning to predict what you are going to type next (like “Smart Compose” in Gmail but for every app), helping you finish sentences instantly.
- Snippets: You can save common responses (like “How to reset password”) and insert them with a quick keyboard shortcut. It saves hours of typing repetitive answers.
- Chat Assist: Provides real-time suggestions to agents during live chats, ensuring they answer customers correctly and consistently.
- Team Analytics: Managers can see data on how the team is writing, including error rates and which snippets are used most often.
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
| ✅ Specialized for customer support & sales teams
✅ Enterprise-grade security (SOC2 compliant)
✅ Learns your specific industry jargon |
❌ Not designed for creative or academic writing
❌ Expensive for individual users ($25/mo)
❌Setup takes time for whole teams |
Pricing Plan
- Free: $0/month. Includes basic suggestions, usage on free domains, and 20 snippets.
- Pro: $25/month (or $12/month if billed annually). Includes unlimited snippets, Autocomplete Everywhere, and advanced premium suggestions.
- Enterprise: Contact. Custom pricing for teams (starting at 10 seats) includes SSO and advanced security.
- API: Metered. Pay-as-you-go pricing for developers integrating Sapling into their own apps.
Sapling Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: Sapling is the best business-focused alternative, specifically for customer support and sales teams handling high volumes of text.
WhiteSmoke
WhiteSmoke offers robust grammar and translation
WhiteSmoke is one of the veterans in the industry. While its interface looks a bit dated compared to modern tools like Grammarly or Wordtune, it provides robust grammar checking and translation features. We see it as a solid, no-nonsense option for users who want accurate corrections and a built-in translator without paying for extra “AI hype.”
Key Features
- Grammar & Punctuation: Detects complex errors like sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and tense mismatches effectively.
- Full-Text Translator: unlike most other tools, WhiteSmoke can translate full texts into over 50 languages—a huge plus for non-native English speakers.
- Plagiarism Checker: Included in all plans, it helps you ensure your content is original.
- Writing Templates: Comes with a library of over 100 templates for letters, resumes, and reports, helping you start writing faster.
- One-Click Proofreading: The Premium version integrates directly with Windows or Mac, allowing you to proofread instantly inside MS Office and Gmail.
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
| ✅ Very affordable annual plans
✅ Strong translation capabilities included
✅ Works well inside MS Word and Outlook |
❌ User interface feels old and clunky
❌ No free version (paid only)
❌ Slower feature updates than competitors |
Pricing Plan
- Web: $5.00/month (billed as one payment of $59.95). Online solution for all browsers. Includes grammar, plagiarism, and translation tools.
- Premium: $6.66/month (billed as one payment of $79.95). Adds full integration for Windows or Mac, MS Office, and Gmail, plus one-click proofreading.
- Business: $11.50/month (billed as one payment of $137.95). Includes everything in Premium, plus a 3-Computer License and customer support.
WhiteSmoke Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: WhiteSmoke is a budget-friendly choice for users who need reliable grammar checking and translation without paying for extra AI bells and whistles.
Paperpal
Paperpal understands complex academic language
Paperpal is essentially Grammarly for scientists. While standard tools might mark technical terms as mistakes, Paperpal is trained on millions of academic manuscripts, so it actually understands complex research language. We found it indispensable for PhD students and researchers who want to increase their chances of getting published in top journals.
Key Features
- Academic Language Editing: Corrects grammar, spelling, and punctuation while ensuring your tone sounds formal and professional (like a real academic editor).
- AI Rewrite & Trim: Helps you paraphrase clunky sentences or shorten abstract sections to meet word count limits without losing meaning.
- Chat with PDF (New): You can upload research papers and “chat” with them to extract summaries, key findings, or methods instantly.
- AI Review: A new feature that scans your final draft to spot logic gaps or missing information before you submit it.
- Plagiarism & Journal Checks: Scans your text against billions of web pages and checks if your manuscript meets the specific formatting rules of your target journal.
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
| ✅ Tailored specifically for academic and technical writing
✅ “Chat PDF” helps speed up research reading
✅ Excellent Microsoft Word integration |
❌ Niche use case (not good for casual emails or blogs)
❌ Free plan is quite restrictive (limited suggestions)
❌ AI generation limits on the free version |
Pricing Plan
- Free: $0/month. Includes 200 language suggestions per month
- Prime: $20/month (often discounted). Includes unlimited language suggestions,
Paperpal Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: Paperpal is the gold standard for researchers, PhD students, and academics who need their writing to meet strict publication standards.
Hemingway Editor
Hemingway Editor forces clear, simple writing
“Is Grammarly free?” Yes, but it often overcomplicates things. Hemingway Editor goes in the opposite direction: it forces simplicity. It’s the “tough love” editor that highlights complex sentences in yellow and red, demanding you cut the fluff. With its new AI features, it doesn’t just point out the problems anymore—it now fixes them for you, helping you sound bold and clear instantly.
Key Features
- AI Sentence Rewrites: Instantly fixes wordy or confusing sentences. You can even adjust the tone (Professional, Friendly, Confident) or length (Shorten, Expand) to match your goal.
- Advanced Grammar Fixes: unlike the old version, the new “Plus” plan includes a powerful grammar checker to catch spelling and syntax errors.
- Target Reading Level: You can now set a specific goal (e.g., “Grade 5” for general audiences or “Grade 12” for academics) and the AI will guide you there.
- Import/Export Files: deeply integrated workflow that lets you import Word docs (.docx) and export them back with formatting intact.
- Color-Coded Readability: The classic feature that visualizes hard-to-read sentences, adverbs, and passive voice to make your writing “skimmable.”
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
|
✅ “Tough love” approach forces clear writing
✅ New AI features actually fix the “red” sentences
✅ Distraction-free interface is beautiful
|
❌ Free version doesn’t fix errors (only highlights)
❌ Desktop app is separate from the AI online subscription
❌ Pricing is per-sentence credit (5k/10k limits)
|
Pricing Plan
- Free: $0 forever. Basic online version.
- Individual 5k Plan: $25/month (Save ~$200/year if billed annually).
- Individual 10k Plan: $30/month (Best Value).
- Team 10k Plan: $30/user/month.
- Desktop App: One-time purchase of $19.99 (offline, no AI features).
Hemingway Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: Hemingway is perfect for bloggers and copywriters who want their writing to be bold, clear, and easy to read.
PaperRater
PaperRater is a quick, no-signup check
PaperRater is the “quick and dirty” solution. You don’t need to sign up, log in, or download anything. You just paste your text, and it checks it immediately. While it lacks the deep stylistic analysis of paid AI tools, it is a handy, zero-friction option for students who need a fast check on the fly.
Key Features
- Automated Scoring: The tool gives your essay a grade (like “B+” or “A”) based on algorithm standards, giving you a rough idea of how a teacher might rate it.
- Plagiarism Detection: Even the free version includes basic plagiarism checks (up to 10 per month) to ensure your work is original.
- Vocabulary Builder: Analyzes your word choice and suggests more academic vocabulary to improve your score.
- File Uploads (Premium): While the free version requires copy-pasting, the Premium plan lets you upload files directly (.doc, .docx, .pdf).
Pros & Cons
| Pros |
Cons |
| ✅ 100% Cloud-based (no installation needed)
✅ Gives an instant “Grade” estimate
✅ Good for quick student essays |
❌ Free version is full of ads
❌ Free plan limits you to 5 pages per submission
❌ File uploads are locked behind the paid plan |
Pricing Plan
- Basic: $0 (Free). Includes 5 pages per submission, 50 submissions per month, and 10 plagiarism checks.
- Premium: $7.95/month (billed annually at $95.40) or $14.95/month (billed monthly).
PaperRater Pricing Plan
Wrap-up: PaperRater is a great backup tool for students who need a last-minute check before hitting “submit” and don’t want to create an account.
What to Look for in Grammarly Alternatives?
Choosing the right Grammarly alternatives depends entirely on why you write. Don’t just pick the cheapest one; look for the features that solve your specific pain points.
- For Bloggers & SEOs: You need readability and keyword optimization. Tools like Writesonic or Hemingway are better than standard grammar checkers because they focus on engagement.
- For Students & Academics: Accuracy is everything. Quillbot (for paraphrasing) and Paperpal (for research) are far superior to general tools.
- For Fiction Writers: You need a tool that respects style. ProWritingAid is the only one that deeply understands narrative flow without trying to make you sound corporate.
- For Budgets: If you are asking, “is grammarly free enough?” remember that tools like Quillbot and Hemingway offer generous free versions that might be all you need.
Wrap it up: Our Final Recommendation
The landscape of AI writing has exploded, and you no longer have to settle for a single dominant tool. After testing these options, we believe Quillbot offers the best all-around value for most users due to its versatility in rewriting and checking. However, if you are a serious writer, the depth of ProWritingAid is unmatched.
Ultimately, the best tool is the one that gets out of your way and lets you write. We recommend trying the free versions of our top 3 picks to see which interface “clicks” with your brain.
Ready to upgrade your writing workflow? Check the latest pricing on Quillbot or ProWritingAid today.
FAQs
1. Is Grammarly free for students?
Grammarly offers a free version with basic spelling and grammar checks, but the advanced features (plagiarism, style, and tone) are locked behind a paywall.
