Grammarly Review: Features, Pricing, & Alternatives

Published by Ciara Antolini on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 in Marketing Agencies, Tool Review, Tools, Tools Reviews.

Autocorrect and built-in spell-checkers have saved many professionals from accidental typos and misspelled words in emails, articles, and other online writing. But it wasn’t until the introduction of Grammarly, with its grammar, tone, and clarity checks, that autocorrect and spell check got an update.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your content includes properly structured sentences, the best word choices, and inclusive language, Grammarly can help.

What Is Grammarly?

Grammarly, launched in 2009, is a grammar-tightening tool built to go beyond basic spell-checking. With their goal of helping individuals, particularly professionals and students, many people have been communicating more effectively through their writing. 

Overview of Grammarly Benefits

Grammarly's three original components are:

• Grammar Checker: The Grammar Checker highlights spelling errors, misused words, incorrect punctuation, sentence structure, and other issues in your writing. Hovering over a highlighted error will bring up a tooltip featuring suggestions.

• Tone Checker: Written communication sometimes lacks the right “voice” or intonation, which can make a friendly or neutral message sound different than intended. With Grammarly, you can improve the clarity of your message using the tone detector. It helps you say things the way you mean them, eliminating the ambiguity that comes with written communication.

• Plagiarism Checker: Powered by the ProQuest databases and content from more than 16 billion pages across the internet, Grammarly's plagiarism detector isn’t 100% accurate. However, it's a good first step to detecting similar content if you're writing an article or a research project. While you may receive some false positives, it gets better every day.

Today's Grammarly also offers AI writing tools for general writing, resumes, and more, plus a free paraphrasing tool.

How to Use Grammarly

Grammarly is user-friendly and intuitive and acknowledges that modern professionals write in many ways on multiple platforms. That’s why it’s available for a variety of uses:

• Browser extension

• Desktop application

• Cloud-based web tool

• Microsoft Word add-on

• Mobile phone app (for Android and iOS)

You can use one, all, or a combination to ensure your writing always has a second set of "eyes."

Once you’re set up, Grammarly’s intuitive interface does the rest, automatically highlighting potential errors in real time. You can use it in popular apps and websites like:

• Gmail

• Reddit

• X (formerly Twitter)

• Facebook

• WordPress (backend)

• Other text editors

Grammarly’s inline design is convenient and color-coded according to the type of error. Simply hover over an underlined area, and a correction suggestion appears. From alternative spellings, clarity options, and tone improvements to better word choices, Grammarly can help improve your writing. However, Grammarly's suggestions aren’t always right or appropriate for your purpose, so users shouldn’t blindly accept every suggestion.

Grammarly Price and Subscription Options

Grammarly is a subscription-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) program. Users sign up for a free account to gain access. The free version has no word count or usage limit, but it doesn’t have the same functionality as paid versions. For example, Grammarly Free provides a limited number of free Premium suggestions per day — but be careful. Hovering over Premium suggestions reduces the remaining free suggestions, even if you don’t use them.

Grammarly plans* include:

• Free: $0/mo

• Premium: $12/mo

• Business: $15/mo

*All pricing options reflect annual subscriber payments.

Grammarly also offers multi-user software designed for educational institutions, but they don’t publish pricing for these customized plans.

Grammarly Free vs. Premium Version vs. Business Version

 As mentioned, Grammarly features a free and premium version. Both are feature-rich and helpful.

Free Version

Unlike many free trials and free versions, Grammarly Free is remarkably useful. While it doesn't check as many aspects as the premium version, if you're just looking for a free tool that offers a little more than standard spell checkers, it may be all you need.

The free version of Grammarly checks:

• Spelling mistakes

• Punctuation mistakes

• Convention mistakes (e.g., you're writing in Australian English but specified American English)

The free version also shows how many additional errors the Premium check has found for that piece of writing, which can be valuable when determining whether it's worth upgrading. Of course, Grammarly's free version places no limitations on word count or usage, so you can take all the time you need to decide.

Premium Version

Grammarly's premium version offers everything in the free version, plus 400+ additional features. It checks for issues, such as:

• Inconsistent writing

• Unclear structure

• Redundant word choice

• Lengthy sentences

• Insensitive language

• Inappropriate tone

In addition, Grammarly Premium’s tooltips appear when you hover over any highlighted text. Tooltips provide information about why that particular portion of the text is highlighted, giving you the opportunity to learn correct grammar and improve your writing over time. 

Grammarly Premium offers more granular suggestions than the free version because you can tailor your feedback according to your goal, the intended audience, brand voice, and more. 

To make the most of this feature, simply specify:

• Intent: Choose from inform, convince, describe, or "tell a story."

• Audience: Improve words and phrasing for a general, knowledgeable, or expert audience.

• Style: Choose between formal, neutral, or informal.

• Tone: This is especially valuable for objective overviews, opinion pieces, client emails, team communication, and other writing purposes when tone matters.

• Domain: Select from academic, business, general, email, casual, and creative.

Making these selections can help Grammarly tailor its feedback to your specific project. 

Business Version

Grammarly Business includes all the same features as Grammarly Premium. The only difference between these versions is that Grammarly Premium is designed for individual users, and Grammarly Business is for teams.

What People Are Saying About Grammarly

What do Grammarly users think of the tool? Overall, Grammarly gets excellent feedback from users who understand its purpose. 

Edward Mendelson from PC Mag shared this statement in his review: 

“[Grammarly’s] especially good at finding minor spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors, and it's fairly good at suggesting ways to improve your style," 

He noted that users shouldn’t overly rely on Grammarly (or any editing tool) because not all of its suggestions are reliable.

Reviews: TrustPilot and G2 Ratings

TrustPilot Rating: 4.5 (9,600+ reviews)

G2 Rating: 4.7 (8,500+ reviews)

Critical reviews point out that Grammarly can be slow when using the Word add-on for longer documents. One business user states, "It simply slows everything down, makes your Office experience and typing incredibly laggy."

The main problem reviewers have is due to misuse. Accepting all Grammarly's suggestions automatically, as Mendelsohn points out in his review (linked above), hinders great writing at best and introduces errors at its worst.

Ultimately, those who use Grammarly in place of built-in options in their native applications tend to be satisfied. However, those who try to replace a human editor or proofreader with Grammarly may be disappointed.

Grammarly Pros and Cons

Using Grammarly can help tighten your writing. The pros of using Grammarly include:

• Comprehensive grammar and spelling check: Grammarly excels in finding grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and punctuation issues, helping users produce polished, error-free content.

• Style and tone suggestions: Beyond basic grammar checks, Grammarly offers suggestions to improve writing style, tone, and clarity, making your writing more engaging and professional.

• User-friendly interface: Grammarly’s interface is intuitive and easy to use, with features like real-time editing, detailed explanations for suggested corrections, and a clean design.

• Multiple platform support: Grammarly is available as a browser extension, desktop app, and mobile keyboard, allowing users to write quality content across various platforms and devices.

• Plagiarism checker: The premium version includes a plagiarism checker that scans for potential plagiarism against billions of web pages to ensure content originality.

But like any tool, there are some drawbacks, too. Disadvantages of Grammarly include:

• Cost: Grammarly premium plans can be pricey, which might deter budget-conscious users.

• Limited free version: Grammarly Free offers basic grammar and spelling checks but lacks advanced features like style and clarity suggestions, tone detection, and the plagiarism checker.

• Over-reliance on AI: While Grammarly’s AI is powerful, it can make suggestions that are not always contextually appropriate.

• Privacy concerns: Users may be wary of inputting sensitive content on Grammarly’s servers, even though the company maintains they protect and do not share user data.

If these drawbacks outweigh the benefits for you, there are alternatives to Grammarly for writers and other professionals.

Grammarly Alternatives

If you’re not sold on Grammarly, consider these Grammarly alternatives:

ProWritingAid

Ideal for writers looking for detailed feedback on their writing style, structure, and readability. ProWritingAid’s in-depth reports and analysis make it a powerful tool for serious writers and editors.

Hemingway Editor

Best for writers focused on improving readability and simplicity. Hemingway Editor highlights complex sentences and unnecessary words, making your writing clearer and more concise.

Ginger

A great choice for non-native English speakers, Ginger offers grammar and spell-check, sentence rephrasing, and translation features, helping users write more effectively in English.

WhiteSmoke

A comprehensive tool that offers grammar and style checking, translation, and a plagiarism checker. WhiteSmoke is suitable for users looking for an all-in-one solution similar to Grammarly.

Honorable Mention: Microsoft Editor

Integrated with Microsoft Office, this tool provides grammar and style suggestions directly within Word and Outlook. While not as feature-rich as Grammarly, it’s a convenient option for Microsoft Office users.

Grammarly vs. Competitors

How does Grammarly compare with these alternative tools side-by-side?

Grammarly vs. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is known for its in-depth analysis and extensive reports. It offers more detailed feedback on writing style, structure, and readability. While Grammarly focuses on ease of use and real-time corrections, ProWritingAid provides a more comprehensive writing improvement tool for those looking to dive deep into their writing habits.

Grammarly vs. Hemingway

Hemingway Editor emphasizes readability and simplicity by highlighting overly complicated sentences and excessive adverbs to make writing clear and concise. Unlike Grammarly, Hemingway does not focus on grammar and spelling, but it’s an excellent tool for improving your text’s readability.

Grammarly vs. Ginger

Ginger offers similar grammar and spell-check features as Grammarly but includes a unique translation feature, making it a good choice for non-native English speakers. However, Grammarly’s interface and user experience are generally more polished and user-friendly.

Grammarly vs. WhiteSmoke

WhiteSmoke provides grammar and style checking, translation, and a plagiarism checker, similar to Grammarly’s offerings. However, Grammarly’s real-time checking and more modern interface give it an edge in terms of usability and convenience.

Using Grammarly? Partner with Scripted

Grammarly is a powerful spelling, grammar, and writing tool that can help you catch grammar and punctuation mistakes. It also points out more advanced issues, like insensitive language and potentially inappropriate tones. Grammarly can help writers build confidence in their craft and assure any user their writing is error-free.

However, Grammarly can’t transform poor writing. That's why businesses trust the experienced writers and editors at Scripted. 

Gone are the days of searching for separate platforms to meet different content demands. Scripted streamlines the content creation process and saves our customers valuable time and effort. You no longer have to choose between AI-generated content, human expertise, or multiple disparate programs — you can have it all in a single platform.

By using Scripted, you maximize the potential of your content creation. You can enhance your workflow, maintain consistency in content across channels, and ensure exceptional impact. Whether it's content strategy, ideation, creation, publishing, promotion, or optimization, Scripted covers every aspect of the content production process.

Streamline your content workflow and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing you have access to both AI efficiency and human creativity. With Scripted, you no longer need to compromise on quality or speed.

If you're looking for professionals who can help you with blog posts, e-books, white papers, press releases, webpages, and other web content, look no further than our Talent Network. Gain access to a curated pool of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who possess industry-specific knowledge, ensuring your content resonates with your target audience. Teams and Enterprise plans include a dedicated Account Manager.

Ready to learn how we can help you elevate your content? Get started with Scripted.