Nothing makes you or your business sound unprofessional quite like typos and grammatical errors. Yet, not everyone is an editor or has the budget to hire a proofreader.
That’s where using the best grammar checker can help you avoid errors and look professional. Not only that, but many checkers also help improve the readability of your content, which is beneficial for SEO, and helps add clarity to your writing.
We’ll review what makes for a great grammar checker and the benefits of using one.
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What are the Benefits of a Grammar Checker?
Using an online grammar checker either for personal or business use has many benefits. Here’s a look at some of the reasons you should consider using one.
Time-saving
While you shouldn’t solely rely on a grammar checker to proofread your work, it creates a great starting point. This reduces the time you spend proofreading your work. Instead of worrying about the correctness of the content, you can focus more on making your writing sound great during proofreading.
Learn Grammar Rules
You probably don’t realize that you make the same grammar mistakes over and over again unless someone points it out to you. Using a checker can help you learn your writing weaknesses to improve your skills and avoid making common mistakes.
Improve the Professionalism of Your Writing
Grammar checkers catch spelling errors, misused words and sentences that lack clarity. All these functions will improve the professionalism of your writing so that you always present yourself well. This is great for students, working professionals and even professional writers.
Better Readability for SEO
If you’re writing online content, SEO is probably a huge consideration for you. Keywords are certainly an important part of optimization, but so is readability. The best online grammar checker helps improve readability with less complex vocabulary, simpler sentence structures and removing jargon from your writing.
What Factors Make a Good Grammar Checker?
If you’re wondering what is the best grammar checker, you’ll need to evaluate your needs first. The type of writing you do and how you want the grammar checker to integrate with your various software programs will be huge factors in finding the right service for you.
But regardless of how you’ll be using the service, several factors will be important. Here’s a look at the 5 crucial things to consider as you shop around.
Availability of Different Types of Language
Some grammar checkers are multilingual, meaning you can write in many languages and check your content for accuracy. This can be helpful for global companies or people who regularly write in different languages.
Fast results
Some services add an extension to your computer or phone to show you results in real-time. That means you don’t have to add a step to your writing process. While drafting emails, messages through your web browser, PowerPoint presentations and more, you’ll see fast results to correct your grammar as you go.
Security
Anytime you download software or use an online service, you need peace of mind knowing that it doesn’t open you up to hacks or malware. Plus, your writing is your intellectual property so you need to protect it. Review how the checker encrypts data to check the security the service offers.
Ease of use
No matter how great the benefits of a service are, you probably won’t use it if it isn’t simple. You don’t need another step to do when writing so the more integrated the software is the better. Look for a grammar tool that integrates with the programs you use regularly.
Good UI/UX
The user interface is important to make the service enjoyable to use. Grouping similar grammar issues to show you areas you need to improve can help you learn while improving your writing. Some people want popups to alert about grammar issues while others want to run a check so that they aren’t interrupted while writing. Look for a user experience that matches how you write and proofread your content.
The Best Grammar Checker
Ready to make your writing better? We’ve put together a list of the top services, including a look at the best free grammar checker.
1. Best for Students: Grammarly
Grammarly is an outstanding service that you can add to your web browser and a wide variety of apps from email to social media. Its entry-level service is free for users for an unlimited time, you’ll just be missing out on some of the more advanced features, such as marking conciseness and checking for plagiarism. The service is not multilingual though so it’s only good for individuals that write in English.
Pricing: The free tier offers spelling, grammar and punctuation checking. Upgrade to Premium for added improvements like clarity, tone, word choice, formality and more. Premium starts at $11.66 per month.
2. Best for Academimc Writing: ProWritingAid
If you’re on a budget but still want premium tools for checking your writing, consider ProWritingAid. You can get started with a free plan but then upgrading only costs $63 per year. The service supports checking three different content styles, including creative writing, business writing and academic writing.
Pricing: Get limited access to check up to 500 words at a time for free. Upgrading to avoid word limits costs $63 per year or you can spend $71 per year to add plagiarism checking to your software.
3. Best for Multilingual Use: WhiteSmoke
Writers that use more than one language can benefit from WhiteSmoke, a multilingual grammar checker that supports more than 50 languages. As far as grammar checkers go, it’s not the most robust or most accurate tool on the market. So its niche is certainly in multilingual writers.
Pricing: There is no free or trial option for WhiteSmoke, but the entry-level price is only $5 per month if you subscribe for the year (a total of $59.95 per year). It comes with a plagiarism checker and translator.
4. Best Budget Grammar Checker: LanguageTool
LanguageTool offers an outstanding service that color-codes your mistakes so you can learn from them. Plus, it’s an extremely affordable tool even when paying for Premium services. You can get started with the free program, but you’ll be limited in your composition lengths.
Pricing: Annual plans start at $4.92 per month or $59 per year. This upgraded service allows you to check 60,000 characters per composition and to download addons for Microsoft Word and Google Docs.
5. Best for Enforcing Style Guides: Writer
Writer is a grammar checker, but it also allows you to create your own style guide rules. That’s why it’s a great service for corporations looking to create consistent content based on their guidelines. You’ll also get clear notifications about content clarity and complexity to make your information easy for customers to understand. Check for plagiarism using the free checker and set a tone for your writing to match your brand voice.
Pricing: Writer offers many free services, but to get access to create a corporate style guide, you’ll need to schedule a demo and talk to sales to get accurate service pricing.
6. Best for Mobile App Integration: Ginger
Add grammar checking to your Apple or Android device with the Ginger Page writing mobile apps. For people who interact a great deal on their mobile devices, such as salespeople, this is a helpful service. Ginger is strictly a grammar checker, so don’t expect it to catch plagiarism or do much for creating concise, easy-to-read content.
Pricing: The free plan includes 14 grammar checks per month. A Premium plan offers translation for more than 40 languages and unlimited grammar checks. Prices start at $9.99 per month for the service, but you can save by committing to an annual or 2-year plan.
Make Documents Sparkle
If you’re looking for the best all-around grammar checker, look no further than Grammarly. If your needs are specialized, consider ProWritingAid for academics or Writer for corporations.
To start learning more about your common grammar mistakes, test out some free services. This will show the value and benefits these services offer to reduce errors in your writing. Then, you’ll know if you should upgrade your plan to get even more in-depth feedback.
