TLDR: Our Findings
The best Grammarly Alternative All-Around: — ProWritingAid has to take the cake here. It’s the best all-around option if you don’t want to get Grammarly.
Best Grammar Checker For Multiple Languages — Ginger And WhiteSmoke are both viable options. Read our comparison to find out more.
Best Alternative For Readability Improvements — While plenty of tools do a great job improving readability, The Hemingway Editor remains the best choice out there.
Grammarly is a fantastic tool.
It guarantees helpful content suggestions for grammar, spelling, tone, style, and even engagement.
And you get all of these in tons of apps and interfaces, all of them convenient and easy to use.
So is there a reason to talk about the best Grammarly alternatives?
Why Would I Need A Grammarly Alternative?
Grammarly is our go-to grammar checker. And it’s the one we’ll always recommend if you want some help editing your spelling, vocabulary choices, sentence structure, and plenty more.
However, it’s not the cheapest option on the market.
Even if their free version is extremely helpful, some people want more. So the first reason you might need a Grammarly alternative is if you want something cheaper.
Grammarly’s browser extension can also get pretty buggy, especially on Microsoft Edge. And there are alternatives out there that don’t run into this kind of bug so often:
A Grammarly alternative is also helpful if you need other functionalities than what Grammarly has to offer.
Don’t get me wrong, Grammarly’s toolset is stacked.
But it doesn’t have much support for people that are learning English, for example.
Lastly, Grammarly only supports English. If you need help with grammar, spelling, and delivery suggestions in other languages, you’ll need a different tool.
Pro Tip: There are very few tools out there that are truly universal. No matter what you need — a grammar checker, a CRM, or video editing software — always keep your particular needs in mind, and pick something that suits your organization.Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the best Grammarly alternatives.
The Best Grammarly Alternatives
Besides ProWritingAid, there’s no tool (in my opinion) that comes close to what Grammarly can do.
So the only overall reliable alternative is PWA.
Beyond that, it all depends on what you need. For example, if you write in multiple languages, Ginger and Whitesmoke are the best alternatives. If you just want help with readability, the Hemingway Editor is the smartest choice.
But it’s easier to mention these things along the way, so let’s get started.
1 ProWritingAid
ProWritingAid is hands-down the best Grammarly alternative. It’s got the looks, the high-quality suggestions, and advanced delivery tips and tricks to rival Grammarly.
ProWritingAid has tons of features. More so even than what you get in Grammarly. At times, some of its recommendations are even better than those of Grammarly.
So how come we still recommend Grammarly?
Let’s dig deeper.
At their core, Grammarly and ProWritingAid don’t differ too much.
Just like using Grammarly, ProWritingAid will recommend grammar and spelling suggestions while you’re writing:
ProWritingAid separates their suggestions though, based on different reports:
There are over 20 reports, each of them with a different goal — to improve some part of your content:
So ProWritingAid brings a lot to the table.
But it’s important to remain comparative. Grammarly doesn’t split its recommendations into dozens of reports, but it still helps with most of what ProWritingAid does.
What Grammarly doesn’t do is offer a reliable score to gauge how good your content is.
So ProWritingAid takes the cake here as well:
Grammarly has some as well:
But I think that PWA’s reports are a bit more accurate and reliable.
That’s about it with the pros though.
Because while ProWritingAid can be extremely helpful, it can drop the ball just as easily.
Here’s a snippet with quite a few grammar mistakes in Grammarly:
And here’s the same snippet in ProWritingAid:
As you can see, PWA missed some opportunities for improvement.
And that’s not all.
The biggest drawback, of ProWritingAid, in my opinion, is its cluttered interface:
Not to mention, it’s hard to switch between reports and hone in on individual aspects of your content. Well, at least harder than it is to just go through Grammarly’s suggestions:
So all in all, Grammarly is still the best option in our book.
But ProWritingAid is very good.
And considering that it’s half the price of Grammarly when you pay for a full year, it’s definitely the best Grammarly alternative.
2 WhiteSmoke
White Smoke is a very good grammar and spelling checker. If you want a Grammarly alternative with support for multiple languages, you can give it try.
WhiteSmoke is a veteran grammar checker, and it puts up quite the fight with Grammarly.
However, its features differ slightly:
The first thing you’ll likely notice is that WhiteSmoke also works in 50 other languages than English.
Right of the bat, that makes it a better choice for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style checks if you don’t write in English.
Another difference is the template system of WhiteSmoke. You can choose to edit content based on different templates, like a letter template, or a blog post template.
And what template you use will dictate the suggestions you get.
I think it’s an interesting system to deliver personalized grammar suggestions.
But I like Grammarly’s document goals much better:
So here’s the bottom line: If you like their template system, and you need help editing content in other languages, give WhiteSmoke a shot.
Other than that, Grammarly and ProWritingAid do a much better job.
Oh and — don’t forget to compare WhiteSmoke with Ginger, its main competitor.
3 Ginger
Ginger is another grammar checker with pretty decent suggestions and proofreading capabilities.
Like WhiteSmoke, it can check your spelling and grammar in multiple languages (Over 60 for Ginger).
And honestly, you could switch Ginger and Whitesmoke with each other on this list, because they’re really close quality-wise.
So if you need a multi-lingual grammar checker, how do you choose?
Let’s recount Ginger’s pros.
First, it has slightly more languages. So if your language is only supported by Ginger, it’s a no-brainer.
Second, it has NLP features to help emulate human editors, as well as a lot of convenient apps and extensions to use it anywhere.
In our experience though, WhiteSmoke had slightly better recommendations.
And there’s also pricing to take into account.
Ginger’s cost is nearly identical to that of Grammarly:
And while the same is true for WhiteSmoke’s most expensive plan, their cheapest option is much more affordable.
And that’s why Ginger is slightly lower on our list.
But honestly, both options are just as good if you’re looking for Grammarly alternatives in other languages.
4 Writer.com
Writer.com is a great Grammarly alternative for your up-and-coming editorial team.
And that’s mostly thanks to its complex support for internal style guides.
When you work in Writer.com, you can add terms to your internal dictionary:
That’s possible in Grammarly too, but not to this extent.
Writer.com is the best option if you want to formulate your own unique writing style and integrate it into your writers’ workflow.
Its basic suggestions are not always on-par with Grammarly. But its paid plans offer a lot of tone, style, and word choice recommendations.
And you can always give the free version a try to see if it’s right for your needs.
Just know that the advanced style guide features are only available in paid subscriptions.
5 Virtual Writing Tutor
Virtual Writing Tutor is a quick fix for when you need some help writing essays, checking vocabulary, or fixing spelling mistakes.
It’s not as comprehensive as Grammarly.
However, Virtual Writing Tutor has something else up its sleeve.
A lot of educational features:
Virtual Writing Tutor is a great grammar checker if you need help learning how to write in English.
At least, to a semi-professional level.
And it’s more than just sample essays. They have all the support you’d need, whether you’re writing your first few blog posts, an important work email, or overdue college essays.
And the best part?
It’s all completely free.
So if you’re just breaking into English writing, give it a shot.
6 1Checker
1Checker, like Virtual Writing Tutor, was developed especially to help non-English speakers learn how to write better.
Not to mention, 1Checker is also free, just like VWT.
And it has great recommendations for the usual mistakes new speakers make, like big grammar and spelling errors, as well as finer details like incorrect use of words, syntax, and the like.
It’s a very good choice for students or beginner writers that aren’t too proficient in English.
7 Antidote
Antidote is pretty “underground”. Not a lot of people have heard of it.
But it actually has a longstanding history in the medium.
And it’s pretty underestimated.
Antidote has good grammar, spelling, and vocabulary recommendations. On top of that, it also features some guides to teach you better English writing:
The only downside is that it only has a paid version.
If you want to give it a try, you’ll have to whip out your credit card.
8 Hemingway Editor
If you need to improve your article’s readability, and you don’t want to break the bank, the Hemingway Editor is the way to go.
Granted, it’s very rudimentary.
And it has no fancy extensions or apps.
But it’s completely free, and it’s a very reliable way to assess your content’s readability and get valuable suggestions for improvement:
Hemingway Editor is completely free online, and if you want, you can pay $20 for the desktop version.
Overall, a very good Grammarly alternative.
9 Paper Rater
If you don’t mind an outdated interface, Paper Rater is a perfect choice for students that need help with their papers (What a shocker, right?).
Here’s why:
It has a plagiarism checker, which means you won’t have to worry about re-writing sections after you submit an essay.
Moreover, it has a lot of tone, style, and delivery suggestions that help you craft amazing content.
And to top it off, it’s supposedly a really fast tool: AI and data science help Paper Rater deliver text improvement recommendations in 15-20 seconds.
Be Careful: That time estimate may sound pretty appealing, but it’s honestly on-par with other market competitors. And worse than Grammarly itself.So let’s take a step back — is it really that good?
Well, its suggestions are not as comprehensive as those from Grammarly, but it’s still a good alternative, and it can be somewhat helpful to students.
So if the price isn’t a drawback, you can give it a try.
10 Google Docs
I know you might be thinking: “What? Google docs?”.
And I’ll admit, Google doc’s suggestions aren’t extraordinary. It will only catch the BIGGEST grammar mistakes and offer basic grammar and spelling suggestions:
Not much else.
The reason it’s on this list is that I honestly think Google docs are extremely helpful. Besides, a lot of people already use it, so I just want to say:
It’s a reliable check.
As long as you’re writing something online, in Google docs, you’ll get decent suggestions so you don’t embarrass yourself with a huge mistake.
Not to mention, you also have predictive suggestions on phrasing:
Quite similar to how AI writing assistants work.
If Google figured out what you wanted to say, just press tab and it’ll automatically fill the text in for you.
11 Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word needs no introduction at this point. It’s a great document editor, and it’s much more complex than Google docs.
But let’s just focus on their grammar checker.
Short story — it’s slightly better than what you get in Google docs.
It’s still not a comprehensive document editor — you won’t get help switching from passive to active voice, or improving syntax and the like.
But you will get slightly better (and more) suggestions than you do in Google docs.
12 Microsoft Editor
The Microsoft Editor is an advanced grammar checker which comes with a Microsoft account subscription.
Unfortunately, you can’t purchase it separately, so you can only get it as a part of a Microsoft 365 Subscription:
But if you do get your hands on it, it can be a really helpful and convenient tool.
Especially since it supports multiple languages.
Oh and, if you want to give it a try, you can also add a lighter version on your browser.
13 Slick Write
Slick Write is a very complex writing assistant. It can help you proofread documents, but it’ll also give you a better understanding of your writing overall, and how to improve it. It could be slightly simplified though.
Slick White is your average grammar checker.
It offers content improvement suggestions on grammar, spelling, and even vocabulary.
And it also has a suite of great tools, like a feature to change passive voice to active voice.
There are a lot of other tools Slick Write has to offer. For example, you can access statistics about your writing.
But all of these can make the interface quite clunky.
So it’s really helpful that you get a guide to help you get started with the tool:
Still, we put it a bit lower on our list. It’s just not as convenient to use as other Grammarly alternatives.
If you need a 14-steps guide to explain how it works, the grammar checker you’re showing off could probably do with some UX improvements.
14 Readable
Readable is a paid alternative to the Hemingway Editor. It’s good at improving your content’s readability, and it has a few quirky tools, like its URL checker.
Readable has more or less the same suite of features as Grammarly Premium. Grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and even style improvements — you get all of them.
And plenty on top.
For example, Readable has a really useful URL checker. It lets you check grammar on published pages.
This can be really helpful if you have a big library of articles.
Unfortunately, Readable is pretty expensive:
If you want, you can give it a try for free for 7 days.
But if you like it, be ready to pay up.
15 Language Tool
Accurate and helpful grammar checker. And the free version has WAY more stuff than most entries on this list, which will help you proofread your content if you’re bootstrapping.
Language Tool seems like a Grammarly copy from the outside.
With the free version, you’ll get spelling, grammar, and some tone suggestions.
If you get the paid version, you’ll also have advanced tone, style, and vocabulary suggestions.
Just like Grammarly.
The good thing is that Language Tool is slightly cheaper than Grammarly:
And since the free version has a lot of helpful features — like a passive to active voice converter — it’s a nice alternative if you need more out of a free grammar checker.
16 Sentence Checkup
If you want a very basic grammar checkup of your text, Sentence Checkup might be what you’re looking for.
It’s a very lightweight web tool, that will only give you basic suggestions.
However, I don’t see any reason people would use Sentence Checkup. You have Google docs / Microsoft word for the biggest mistakes you need to avoid.
A free version of Grammarly.
And if you need help improving readability, there’s always Hemingway Editor.
So this one’s a bit redundant.
17 Linguix
A cheap but effective browser tool. I don’t know why you’d pick it over Grammarly, or any of the entries above in our list. But it’s still a solid grammar checker.
Linguix is a paid browser tool, and extension for grammar improvements.
And while browser extensions are convenient, Linguix is ONLY available in your browser.
You can’t use it in Microsoft Word, Slack, or any other desktop application. Not to mention, while the suggestions it offers are decent, they’re not as comprehensive as you might expect for the money you’re paying for it.
So it’s not my first choice.
18 Online Correction
If you want a more complex Hemingway Editor, try Online Correction. It’s a lightweight readability tool, but it has more features than Hemingway, and support for more English dialects.
Online Correction is very similar to the Hemingway Editor. At least visually:
But I’d argue Online Correction offers more features. It can help catch possible typos, poor verb choice, and even misused prepositions.
It even has support for multiple English dialects.
However, while Online Correction can catch more TYPES of mistakes, Hemingway is still superior.
There are little tools out there that will improve readability as easily as the Hemingway Editor.
19 Outwrite
Outwrite is a pretty affordable choice if you want an upgrade from the free Hemingway Editor.
It’s not too good at catching the basic stuff, like grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes.
But it’s really good at catching tone, delivery, and engagement mistakes.
Not to mention, it has a plagiarism checker.
So it can be useful in a few scenarios.
First, if you use it to improve your college essays.
Second, if you’re hiring new writers and you have them use the free version of Grammarly for the basic mistakes, and then you use Outwrite to really bump the quality.
20 Wordtune
If you used Grammarly you’ll know it can rephrase your sentences to make them easier to read.
It’s a common feature for grammar checkers, and it’s a huge time-saver.
And that’s exactly what Wordtune does. It analyzes your text, finds snippets that are hard to read, and suggests alternative phrasing.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much else.
And from our experience, it’s also not as effective as Grammarly.
All of this for a pretty hefty price tag.
So unless other tools on our list REALLY disappointed you, we don’t recommend Wordtune.
21 Stylewriter
Of course, I’ll start with the obvious: Style Writer is VERY ugly, with an extremely outdated interface.
But if you don’t judge it by its cover, you’ll find a pretty strong suite of tools to help writers improve their text.
It has basic grammar and spelling suggestions, phrasing and style suggestions, as well as some metrics to help you gauge your progress.
But it’s not the best learning tool on the market. And the UX really holds it back.
22 EasyBib
If you need help editing your academic writing, EasyBib is probably one of the best tools out there.
It has some, limited grammar checking features.
But its main selling point is how it can automate citations.
You probably know how annoying these can get.
So if you’re a student or even a researcher, EasyBib can really help you speed up the writing process.
However, it’s pretty expensive for what it does.
So you might want to consider sharing a subscription with your colleagues.
23 Reverso
Reverso is lower on our list because it’s not a grammar checker per se.
It can catch some mistakes, especially basic grammar and spelling errors.
But it’s mostly focused on translating content.
This makes it a good choice if you want help translating articles, and checking for grammar errors in multiple languages at the same time.
But it’s not our go-to Grammarly alternative.
24 Sapling AI
Sapling is a pretty expensive tool. It has tons of features to improve your articles, from simple grammar checks to advanced style suggestions.
However, it’s probably not what you need.
Most of you reading this article are either writers, freelancers or have started your own site: all cases where you need some help self-editing your posts.
That’s not the target audience of Sapling.
Sapling helps big sales or marketing teams improve their communication. That’s why their tool integrates with support helpdesks, sales tools, and even CRMs.
Still, it can be more helpful than Grammarly if you want to improve your team’s outreach and external comms. And you can give it a try for free, if you’re curious to see how it works.
25 Copyscape
Copyscape has been the gold standard for plagiarism checkers for a while now. I know, it’s not a grammar checker. But it’s the best option if you want to check the originality of any snippet of content.
Copyscape is the quintessential plagiarism checker. It’s used by most people online as the standard for plagiarism detection, and it’s very reliable when you want to output original content no matter what.
And since a lot of grammar checkers also have plagiarism detection features, I figured it’s good for you to know that this is a reliable alternative for everything plagiarism related.
Conclusion: What Is The Best Grammarly Alternative For Me?
If you’re in a rush, just get Pro Writing Aid. It’s the best Grammarly alternative overall.
If you need to check your grammar in other languages, Ginger or WhiteSmoke are both good Grammarly alternatives.
And if you just need some help improving your content’s readability, the free version of the Hemingway Editor is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Beyond that, it’s all about your preference, budget, and needs.
So which one are you picking?
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