Bad grammar is everywhere. But it doesn’t have to be. True, emulating the greats you see on MasterClass is never easy. But you don’t have to have a Doctorate in English to make sure your grammar is on par, either. So which tools can you use to check your and your ? Below are the top 11 picks that we like best (and still use in our daily work as a top-tier content marketing agency). We compare both free and premium versions, apps or desktop versions. This guide will walk you through how to fix your sentence structure and your writing overall
The Best Grammar Checker 2021 (Hands-On Review)
How Can I Check My Grammar? Here’s How We Decide on the Best Tool…
1. Usability Is the tool easy to use/does it have a solid user interface? Are similar issues grouped together to help the writer learn how they can avoid common mistakes and improve their writing?
2. Accuracy Does the tool consistently uncover the same issues, such as commas, punctuation, misspellings, etc?
3. Sophistication How well does it check for comma use, parts of speech, hyphens, or words that are used incorrectly although spelled correctly?
4. Concision Can the tool measure conciseness and/or give the writer suggestions to write with more clarity?
5. Plagiarism Does it offer a feature that checks for instances of plagiarism? If yes, how well does it work?
6. Limitations Are there daily, weekly, or monthly word or page limits and/or file/page upload limitations?
7. Grammar Rule Source Does the tool offer up any information about how they check content? What type of grammar rules are used and from which source (e.g., APA, MLA)? This will help you catch all those pesky grammar punctuation issues that usually slip through the cracks.
8. Reporting Does the tool offer a feature that allows users to export reports? If so, how useful are they, what’s on them, and what formats are available?
9. Device Compatibility What devices does the tool work with? Does the tool offer a mobile app, a browser extension, or some kind of Google doc/Microsoft Word compatibility?
10. Human Reviews Does the tool offer the ability for human review? If so, how does this feature work and how much does it typically cost?
11. Multilingual Can you check for grammatical errors in different languages? If so, how many and which ones?
12. Customer Service How well is the customer service provided by the grammar checker, if any is offered? Are multiple options available like live chat, email, or a knowledge base?
13. Plans and Pricing Does the value of the tool justify the cost?[/su_spoiler]
What is the Best Free Grammar Checker? Which is the Correct Sentence? All That and More in This Review
We’ve used all of these tools ourselves, signing up, paying, and running them each through a hands-on test.
We’ve also used the same control documents to compare these grammar checkers to create an unbiased, transparent benchmark to compare them.
Now, let’s check out each one in detail so you can see how these grammar checkers were rated.
1. Grammarly: The Best All-Around Grammar Checker Software
Grammarly offers AI-powered solutions to “help people communicate more effectively,” according to the About Us section of their website.
The cloud-based app is loaded with algorithms that flag potential text problems, while also suggesting corrections for users.
The tool can check for a large range of issues, like grammatical errors, spelling, run-on sentences, style, punctuation, and plagiarism.
I have analyzed pretty much everything about Grammarly: from testing the Grammarly Chrome plugin or Grammarly chrome extension, from web Grammarly to free Grammarly, and so forth.
Here’s what makes Grammarly great, along with the major drawbacks of the service.
Grammarly Pros
#1. Grammarly is extremely easy to use to improve your writing style and sentence structure. Simply copy, paste, and you’ll immediately start getting results.
You’ll even start to get a brief breakdown about (a) what’s wrong and (2) why it’s wrong. So you’re less likely to keep making the same mistake!
#2. Grammarly’s grammar checker is also among the most sophisticated I tested. It catches a lot of the tiny details that often slip through the cracks, like passive voice.
#3. Online writing should be crisp and concise. Welp, Grammarly has you covered here, too. Their Conciseness feature will help simplify sentences and reduce redundancies.
This can be especially useful in formal writing situations, short emails, or blog posts and articles where writers need to get to the point quickly and efficiently without tons of extra fluff.
#4. Grammarly also boasts a built-in plagiarism checker that scans up to “16 billion web pages and ProQuest’s databases” for any issues.
Unlike other insights within the tool, plagiarism isn’t checked automatically. Users have to click the “Plagiarism” button on the bottom right hand of the screen.
Then, a percentage score out of 100 is given for how closely your text matches other sources.
The only catch? This feature is only available with a paid Grammarly plan.
#5. You can have Grammarly check any of the following five style guides:
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- APA 6th edition
- MLA for citation style guides
- Swan’s Practical English Usage
- The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language for grammar guides
#6. All free grammar check options are limited in some way, shape, or form. With some, you’ll hit that cap pretty soon. But you might not with Grammarly.
In a 30-day period, users can check up to 300 documents or up to 150,000 words. In a 24 hour period, users can check up to 100 documents or 50,000 words.
You can check up to 60 pages (or 100,000 characters with spaces included) at once. There are also no limitations with Grammarly for Microsoft Word and Outlook.
Documents cannot be larger than 4MB, but Grammarly supports Microsoft Word docs and Open Office docs, in addition to .txt and .rtf files.
These are much larger limit ceilings than most grammar checkers on the market offer.
#7. The whole point of a grammar checker isn’t just to fix one document or email. It’s to become a better writer.
Grammarly’s detailed reports can do just that:
And the reports include every insight given for your text, including your overall score, number of writing issues, and more. Spelling errors are well spotted.
The report even lists out the exact descriptions of each issue in your document.
#8. Grammarly doesn’t seem to have many device limitations.
There are Android and iOS apps for mobile. A plethora of web and browser-based extensions, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge browsers.
The Grammarly desktop app is also available for Mac or PC, and it’s compatible with:
- Windows 7, Windows, 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10
- macOS 10.9 and higher
With a Grammarly membership, users can access the tool on up to five different devices simultaneously.
#9. Grammarly also offers a simple, built-in way to get human proofreading. But they come at a small cost, depending on how fast you need your document returned.
It costs $0.03 per word to receive your document back in 24 hours, $0.08 per word to get your document back in three hours, and $0.11 per word to complete a human review in 30 minutes.
#10. Grammarly offers a 24/7 helpdesk service that’s available for registered users. All users can access the knowledge base and ticketing system.
We sent in a customer support ticket to test Grammarly’s support quality and speed.
Sending in a request was simple: all the site needs is your email address and a brief description of your problem.
Zach with Grammarly Support responded with a comprehensive answer in about 12 hours.
Now that we’ve covered what’s great about Grammarly, let’s talk about the cons of the service.
Grammarly Cons
#1. No grammar checker will offer 100% accuracy. Grammarly is the most accurate one I’ve reviewed, but there are still a few issues from time to time. For example, in this case, the sentence should have read “your” instead of “you’re.
#2. Grammarly does not support multilingual documents, only supporting English.
Grammarly Cost
Grammarly offers both free and premium features. To access premium features, including the plagiarism checker, you need a paid subscription. The costs for Grammarly Premium are as follows:
- Monthly: $29.95 per month
- Quarterly: $19.98 per month, billed as one payment of $59.95 for three months
- Annual: $11.66 per month, billed as one payment of $139.95 for 12 months
Alternatively, you can purchase a lifetime subscription at a very affordable price from keyshop.in.
Do I Recommend Grammarly?
Yes, I recommend Grammarly.
Grammarly is packed full of more features than most grammar tools out there. (Read our full Grammarly review for details on everyone.)
Whether you need a grammar checker for academic, professional, or personal reasons, this one should have you covered.
If you’re a blog writer or you own a website, this tool is a great, comprehensive option that can help you take your content to the next level. You can dramatically improve your blog posts’ structure and length.
And the paid version is worth it, considering all of the sophisticated, advanced features that you’ll have access to.
(That being said, if you need to check grammatical errors in other languages, Grammarly won’t be much help. Check out WhiteSmoke below for that.