Grammarly review: Set your writing on the right track

Grammarly is probably familiar to anyone who writes online. This is the internet's most popular spelling and grammar checker, with over 10 million daily active users.

In my professional capacity as an editor, blogger, and copywriter, I am aware of the benefits provided by the presence of a human editor. However, I use Grammarly to proofread whatever I post to this blog. Even though I have a reasonably good grasp of grammar and English rules, it is surprising how mistakes and minor errors can creep into anyone's writing.

What is the purpose of Grammarly? Is it worth the investment? Is it a suitable substitute for a human proofreader or editor?

In this Grammarly review, I address these and other questions. As this is a comprehensive review, I wanted to be as thorough as possible, so this will take a while. 

What does Grammarly do?

Grammarly is a tool that analyzes a piece of text you've written in real-time or a priori and checks for errors. While the free version covers the basics (grammar, punctuation, and spelling), the premium version takes it further, providing stylistic and best-writing-practice suggestions.

It can make a huge difference whether you write something clear and compelling or unprofessional and sloppy.

Grammarly can enhance your emails, social media posts, blogs, and formal papers, no matter what kind of writing you do, be it professional, casual, or hobby.

In my opinion, using Grammarly will benefit the following groups of people most:

1. Bloggers (i.e., the ones that write their content).
2. Students.
3. Writers and professionals who need to draft accurate reports, presentations, or emails.
4. Content marketers and copywriters

Do you even need a grammar checker?

Let me explain: I am not the type who will go around correcting other people's work (uninvited, of course).

However, as an editor, I know how important it is to write clearly and accurately. Grammar is often viewed as an old-fashioned convention in today's world of “chat speak,” emojis, and short-form content. However, the difference between good grammar and bad grammar is significant.

Here are a few reasons:

• It is vital to convey your message as clearly as possible. No matter what type of writing you do, from a blog post to a tweet, your readers will struggle to understand the point you are trying to make if your message is unclear.
• What you write speaks volumes about you. If your writing gives your readers a taste of who you are, why risk coming across negatively because of grammar mistakes when you can easily avoid
• There's no downside to avoiding grammar mistakes. You can improve the quality of your writing by using a grammar checker. It takes very little time, helps you improve your writing, and ensures that you reach your audience with the correct style and tone.

So, a powerful online grammar checker is an excellent way for writers to ensure that their work is precise and error-free. However, although Grammarly is excellent, it's not perfect.

As part of this Grammarly review, I'll explain its pros and cons and how to use it effectively. However, please note that you should never view Grammarly as a glorified grammar checker.

Grammarly is not limited to just fixing spelling mistakes. It is a tool that will help add clarity to your texts while keeping reader engagement high and your delivery on point while maintaining a consistent style.

At the same time, while Grammarly can be viewed as an AI content writing tool, it does not generate text. On the other hand, its content rewriting capabilities are powerful, as they do not revolve around content spinning.

Instead, they revolve around context and optimizing tone and delivery. Grammarly's goal is to make you a better and more efficient copywriter, not a more productive one, at least not in sheer text volume.

Tools like Jasper, INK Editor, Word AI, and Wordtune focus much more on that direction. 

Grammarly should be a tool you apply on top of your organic or AI-driven copywriting efforts to deliver high-quality text consistently. To be clear, that does not make Grammarly the icing on the cake.

Whether you use AI tools or a creative human brain, Grammarly Premium is mandatory to ensure a top-quality level of delivery. 

Grammarly Features

Feature	Description	The “extra” Grammarly touch
Grammar and Punctuation	It detects basic and advanced grammar and punctuation errors.	While not always 100% accurate, Grammarly will detect any errors related to grammar, sentence fragments, improve language use, and more.
Spell Check	It checks every word in your writing for spelling errors and typos.	Arguably the most advanced and accurate spell checker available.
Plagiarism	It scans your entire document for any cases of plagiarism, intentional or unintentional. A must-have feature, especially when you publish content online.	Not every case of plagiarism was done on purpose, which is why a tool like Grammarly is essential to give your documents the full plagiarism rundown before you publish anything online.
Writing Style	It makes your text and delivery much more human. A must-have feature for any copywriter, even more so for those in the content-spinning industry, as AI (re)writing tools tend to lose context. Grammarly will get your delivery back on track.	The best Grammarly feature, at least in my book. Grammarly's writing style guidelines will make you a better writer. Writing style guidelines advise sentence length, overall readability, and other actionable insights on improving your writing.

Reasons why I recommend Grammarly – To everyone

Let me start with the pros and why I always recommend Grammarly to my friends and family.

Grammarly does not require special expertise

Most of us would instead stick to what we already know than integrate something new into our routines. It makes sense to me.

Grammarly isn't like most other software. Grammarly has a straightforward user interface and user experience, no matter how complex and advanced it can be in terms of content delivery.

The following are a few ways you can use Grammarly (which we explore more below):

• Extensions for browsers.
• The Grammarly web application.
• The downloadable desktop app.
• The Microsoft Word add-in.
• The mobile app.

You can use Grammarly however you like by simply clicking a few buttons. You may paste your text into the online tool or desktop application, or you can see Grammarly pop-ups and corrections as you write in your browser or Microsoft Word.

I've tried other online grammar checkers, including ProWritingAid and Ginger, but I find Grammarly to be the easiest to use.

I love recommending people install an intuitive and easy tool that will make their lives (and mine) easier as an editor.

Grammarly brings results

Since you're reading my Grammarly review, you probably want to know one thing: does Grammarly work?

Grammarly is effective. It picks up spelling and grammar mistakes better than any other checker.

That's its most significant selling point. The software has never been 100% correct. Almost all software and apps have most of the usual mistakes and errors, but anything more advanced and you're on your own.

Grammarly always goes the extra mile, no matter the mistake or suggestion.

I wanted to know why. What is the difference between Grammarly and other products I've tried, and why is it more effective?

Grammarly's ability to achieve such nuance is perhaps its best quality.

Some Grammarly suggestions are incorrect, so you should focus on them and filter them out. Grammarly is not perfect (as I explain below).

Grammarly makes you a better writer

Grammarly Premium is superior to other grammar checkers in that it highlights your mistakes and explains why they are incorrect.

See, for instance, their explanation of sentence fragments:

As a result, you not only ensure that your documents, emails, and posts contain correct English grammar but also improve your writing slowly and proactively through Grammarly's micro-lessons.

Here are a few of the standard grammar and stylistic suggestions I've encountered with Grammarly:

• The best comma placement (avoid comma splices!)
• Redundancy in phrases (words like “really,” “just,” “own” and “actually” add little to no meaning, in most cases, and should only be used scarcely for emphasis or clarity)
• Phrases and sentences
• Excessive use of adverbs
• Ambiguous and dangling modifiers
• Confusing terms lie and lay.
• Improper or ambiguous pronouns
• Wordiness or long sentences
• Tautologies

You can't go wrong with Grammarly if English is your second language or if you want an excellent daily lesson in grammar.

The 5 different flavors or Grammarly

Perhaps you are wondering: “must I copy and paste everything I write into the text box for it to check?”

Quite annoying, wouldn't it be?

Thankfully, this is not always the case, and there are more convenient ways of entering text into Grammarly's ecosystem.

Grammarly's infrastructure is online-based, so you need to have an internet connection to use it.

Checking your work can be done in a variety of ways, including:

• The Grammarly web-based SaaS platform.
• Grammarly's Desktop App.
• Grammarly's Microsoft Word add-in.
• Browser extension.
• Phone apps.

An important note is that Grammarly's full power is only unleashed on its online platform and desktop app. For instance, you won't have access to Grammarly's Plagiarism Checker through the other three apps.

Grammarly as a web app

You can copy and paste your writing directly into Grammarly's web tool. To do this, click on ‘New,' the top-left element in your dashboard. A blank page will appear. You can click “Upload” just below the “New” option if you already have a document available for upload.

Ensure that you give the site a few seconds to process your writing. The software reads and analyzes in just a few minutes and produces correction recommendations for your writing.

You can upload a complete document directly to the website if you have one. Select ‘Upload‘ instead of ‘New,' choose a document from your computer, and Grammarly will analyze the content similarly.

You can also type directly into Grammarly's online editor; the tool will check your writing as you type.

Grammarly Desktop app

Windows or macOS users can use Grammarly's desktop app to check their writing. A desktop app is an excellent option if you want to avoid the RAM-eating monster Google Chrome is, and you don't need the full features a text editor like Word offers. Personally, it is my go-to solution for writing.

Download the app for your system, follow the installation instructions, and start using the tool like the online version.

Grammarly's Microsoft Word Add-in

Additionally, you can use a Grammarly add-in directly within Microsoft Word. However, at the time of writing, this feature is only available to users of Windows.

Follow the instructions on the add-in page to add it to Word. The add-in will automatically check your writing as you type once it is installed.

It was seamless to install, and it was effortless to use. While you can use it in Word, you must be connected to the internet.

Browser extension

You can use Grammarly through a browser extension, making it easy to use.

You can find this extension on the homepage or search for it in the Chrome Web Store if you are Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge user.

Grammarly is also available for Firefox.

When you add the extension to Chrome, Edge, or Firefox as any other extension, the extension will automatically check your writing on multiple text editing websites. Some of these include:

• WordPress
• Google Docs
• WordTune
• Jasper AI
• Word AI
• Facebook
• Gmail
• Reddit

Needless to Grammarly's browser extensions are a no-brainer, even if you just want to perform basic spell checking. However, note that you will miss some of Grammarly's more advanced features, like the Plagiarism Checker.

Grammarly smartphone app

You can also use Grammarly's mobile keyboard on your smartphone to check your writing as you compose an email or text message. 

The app is helpful if you want to catch those minor mistakes you usually make on the phone, and it also has smart predictions that speed up your typing.

You can download the app from the Play Store or the App Store.

How much does Grammarly cost?

Grammarly can be used for free.

You can use Grammarly for free, which is one of my favorite things about it. Grammarly's free version has no restrictions, so you can use it for as long as possible without any time limits.

As I explain below, Grammarly's free version is pretty good.

To unlock all Grammarly's features, you will need to upgrade to Grammarly Premium.

Grammarly Premium is currently priced at:

• When you pay annually, you will pay $12.00 a month ($144.00 in total)
• If you pay quarterly, you will pay $20.00 a month
• Or $30.00 a month if you pay monthly.

The Grammarly Business option costs $12.50 per user per month when billed annually and includes all of the features of Grammarly Premium plus an admin panel, statistics for your team, etc.

Now that you know Grammarly's price, you may wonder whether the free version is sufficient. Should you upgrade to Grammarly Premium?

Here is my verdict on this, including my comprehensive review of Grammarly Premium.

Free version: What you get

Grammarly's free version is excellent, unlike other products whose free version is a terrible and severely limited version of themselves.

A comprehensive spelling, grammar, and punctuation checker make it more potent than the regular spell check you get in most word processors.

The tool highlights potential mistakes in red when it finds them. The web interface lets you progress through each issue by clicking on the sections on the right (grammar, punctuation, spelling, and more). Alternatively, you can click on individual highlighted errors for more information.

The free version will detect most of the primary mistakes in your writing and suggest words that you may have meant to use. For instance, it highlights spelling mistakes:

Misspelled words and phrases:

Furthermore, it allows you to choose your version of English based on your readers' location:

Additionally, it will highlight convention errors. If you write in Australian English, it will highlight ‘color'.

Grammarly Premium will also show you how many errors it has detected in your writing. However, you won't be able to inspect the errors in the free version, and you will have to upgrade to explore the full benefits.

Benefits of Using Grammarly

You will notice a difference in the quality of your writing as soon as you start using Grammarly. The free version offers the following benefits:

• This tool can be used in real-time, highlighting mistakes as you write or at the end to ensure no missed errors.
• Explains how to improve or restructure sentences.
• Verifies spelling in American, British, Canadian, and Australian English.
• Works on a variety of devices, formats, and online editors.

The free Grammarly option offers all these benefits to deliver sound text to the audience.

However, let's now see the differences between the free and premium versions. Would it be worth paying for Grammarly Premium?

Grammarly Premium review

There is no doubt Grammarly Premium is the best online grammar checker available. I wish Grammarly's competition could rise to the challenge, but recommending any other tool would be ill-advised.

First, everything you get in the free version, you also get in the premium version. After that, you get everything else.

Grammarly Premium includes more grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and context checks. Additionally to the checks in the free version, it will check for:

• Inconsistencies in the writing
• A lack of clarity in the text structure
• Overuse of words and wordiness
• Inappropriate tone
• Insensitive language.

Here's a brief comparison of Grammarly's free and premium models:

According to Grammarly, its premium version assures that your writing is engaging and clear. While “guarantee” is a strong word, you will notice that your writing will turn up a notch or two once you start getting familiar with Grammarly Premium.

Grammarly Premium will not guarantee that your writing is clear and engaging by itself, as it is not a substitute for the human brain's creativity. A grammar checker cannot turn rushed and sloppy writing into a masterpiece.

On the other hand, Grammarly Premium offers several valuable features I find myself using almost every day. 

The Grammarly Premium program provides a few more valuable suggestions when I run it over something I write. 

The premium version improved my writing. It also provides comprehensive information about each grammar point.

Writing Styles & Feedback Customization

My favorite feature of Grammarly Premium is customizing the kind of suggestions and criticism I receive. As a writer, feedback is always helpful.

For feedback to be effective, it must consider the text's purpose or why it was written in the first place. Different industries or distinct marketing approaches require varying writing styles, tones, and formality levels.

Grammarly appears to be making a conscious effort to make its AI editor as human as possible with these personalized goals.

• Intent (inform, describe, convince, tell a story)
• Audience (general or expert)
• Style (formal or informal)
• Emotion (mild or strong)
• Domain (academic, business, or technical).

Grammarly uses these settings to determine which issues it should flag or ignore. It will also provide some remarkable insights based on these settings.

I want to discuss some of these settings and why I think they are so important.

• Audience: How your material is delivered depends on your target audience. Using technical jargon and specialized words when speaking with industry experts can prove beneficial. However, if you're writing for a broad audience, it might be off-putting.
• Formality: The difference between formal and informal language can make or break your work,
• Tone: Would you prefer to be friendly, confident, analytical, witty, or cocky? You can use this function to decide how your work will be viewed.
• Intent: you can choose from the following options: “inform,” “describe,” “convince,” or “tell a story”.

Though their personalized feedback algorithms aren't perfect, it's intriguing to see that they're attempting to turn a simple grammar check and proofreading program into a full-featured text analyst that makes the life of human editors and writers easier.

As you go over your writing, it is the closest you can get to having a writing coach discuss the nuances of language.

Is Grammarly Premium worth it?

For me, Grammarly Premium is not just worth it. It is a must-have for professional writers and bloggers. A free edition is an essential tool that surpasses not having a second pair of eyes look over your writing. It will find far more spelling and grammatical errors than most free checkers. If you're on a budget as a writer, give Grammarly a try. 

I choose to pay for the Premium version because of the extra features.

When creating a blog about editing, proofreading, and writing, I don't want typos or minor errors to creep in. In a nutshell: Grammarly Premium is well worth the additional cost if you take your writing seriously.

How can it be improved?

Grammarly has many great features, but it has some drawbacks. This is what I believe Grammarly could improve in the following areas:

1. Part-time writers are charged a premium rate. If you're a casual writer who only uses Grammarly occasionally but still wants all the premium features, $30 per month may not be worth it. Although Grammarly's free version performs well, you may miss out on improving text structure, tone, and other advanced features.
2. A free trial to experience premium. That, in turn, leads me to the next point: offering a free trial for premium members may be an excellent method to introduce additional tools and show how they impact work. At present, Grammarly does not provide this option. I get why people who aren't professional writers might not want to spend monthly or commit annually.

• Grammarly is only available in English. If you're writing in a language other than English, Grammarly isn't the solution. Compared to certain rivals, it would be beneficial to implement this in the future.
• Grammarly's suggestions have a high accuracy rate. Grammarly does an excellent job detecting errors and typos in the text, but it can't replace a human eye in terms of accuracy (and maybe ever will). As a result, I always go through Grammarly's recommendations manually (more about this below).

Grammarly vs. the competition

Grammarly isn't the only online grammar checker available. On the other hand, Grammarly is one of the most popular online grammar checkers with over 10 million users. They're complete-on-grammar, punctuation, and spelling checkers, much like Grammarly. ProWritingAid, Ginger, and WhiteSmoke.

ProWritingAid

Pros

• This is probably the best Grammarly alternative out there.
• While it corrects spelling and grammar mistakes and strengthens your writing skills. This is accomplished by checking for issues such as sentence structure, cliches, overused words, repeated phrases, and not enough variation in sentence length.
• Analyzes your writing in detail, focusing on the ‘bigger picture issues. A tool like this could be helpful for longer writing pieces, such as books or essays.
• The emphasis on establishing a writing style is very appealing. ProWritingAid provides style suggestions that can improve any type of convoluted writing. ProWritingAid gives Grammarly a run for its money in the writing style department.
• Great value for money. It costs $60 per year for the Premium version and $70 for the Premium+ version (which includes a plagiarism checker). Grammarly is considerably more expensive at $139.95 per year.

Cons

• As a pure spelling and grammar checker, it is not as advanced or user-friendly as Grammarly.
• ProWritingAid compromises simplicity to provide comprehensiveness. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information it provides on style. If you are writing a book or an essay, their suggestions may be helpful for everyday writing, such as emails, forms, and social media posts.
• Since it is only available as a Chrome extension, it is not seamless to use.

Ginger

Pros

• Grammarly offers a few additional features that it doesn't, such as a translator that lets you translate between 60 languages. Using Ginger, you could write in Spanish, translate it into English, and check for spelling and grammar errors. Multilingual writers can benefit from this configuration.
• An integrated dictionary is included. You can instruct Ginger not to flag certain words as mistakes. Use this if you use unusual character names or technical jargon in your story.
• Grammarly costs $139.95 per year versus $89.88 for Grammarly.

Cons

• Ginger has similar functionality to Grammarly, but it's not as easy to use, and its interface is unattractive.
• It is also necessary to hover over the grammar errors rather than see them immediately. However, this slows down the proofreading process a bit.
• Neither a Mac desktop app nor an MS Word integration is available yet.

WhiteSmoke

Pros

• As with all excellent grammar checkers, it integrates with all major platforms. Windows and macOS desktop apps and extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera are available.
• You can compose professional documents with it. There are templates for writing projects such as Thank You notes, condolences, and sorry notes.
• Compared to Grammarly, a yearly subscription costs $79.99 instead of $139.95.

Cons

• In terms of speed and user interface, it is less advanced than Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Ginger. It is more difficult to use.

Why Grammarly is the best writing assistant and grammar checker

On the surface, these grammar checkers provide a severe challenge to Grammarly. They also include some features that Grammarly does not have. ProWritingAid offers extensive feedback on your writing style, and Ginger has a built-in language translator. WhiteSmoke provides professional templates to assist you in writing high-quality documents.

They're also all less expensive than Grammarly.

However, I still rate Grammarly as the most OK online grammar checker. It's because it's the simplest and most user-friendly to use.

Grammarly's installation isn't complicated, either. It checks everything I write in my browser (I use Firefox). It just works flawlessly in the background. Consider this: if they have millions of dollars to spend on those sleek television commercials you've almost certainly seen, consider how much money and time they've put into R&D and design across

I'm all for boosting upstarts over larger competitors. But when it comes to utilizing a machine to check my writing, I want the most straightforward tool available. I produce this blog as a professional activity, and efficient workflow is critical to me.

Is Grammarly safe and secure?

People are concerned about whether their work is secure on Grammarly (and rightfully so). Grammarly will store your material on its servers for proofreading, but it will also remove it from the server once you delete the text from your account. Your writing remains yours throughout the process.

Grammarly had a few data protection and bug issues in 2018, but their team reportedly responded promptly and efficiently dealt with the problems. 

Here is a link to their privacy conditions for those who want to know more.

Keep this in mind

One thing I'd like to emphasize before finishing this Grammarly review is that you still have to check its recommendations manually. In other words, you can't simply trust Grammarly to get it correct all the time. 

While Grammarly isn't a technically flawless grammar checker, it does an excellent job spotting simple mistakes and tightening up your text.

This isn't surprising, given that the English language is rife with odd customs and irregular rules, and sometimes grammar regulations are intended to be broken. 

As a result, keep your wits about yourself when working with Grammarly, and pay attention. Consider its advice, if necessary, then Google it if you're still unsure.

My verdict: Is Grammarly worth it?

So should you use it? You've read my Grammarly review, so I know I like it and utilize it when I write on this blog. It's not flawless, and no software will ever be able to replace a competent human editor. Nonetheless, it does an excellent job for what it's intended to do. So should you use

I believe that Grammarly may be a fantastic tool for almost any writer. 

The free edition is helpful for anybody who produces shorter writing endeavors, including bloggers, students, and anyone who sends emails regularly. The Premium version can assist anybody in creating more professional or longer-form material.

I also recommend the premium version to anybody who speaks English as a second language. It's easy to make errors in English grammar, and Grammarly captures a lot (though not all) of them. 

It also highlights mistakes while offering suggestions for improvement and explanations, making it an essential tool for improving your written English.

Finally, I recommend combining Grammarly with other weapons in your toolchain. For instance, I use Wordtune and Jasper in tandem with Grammarly and my own creative skills.

Depending on your industry, combining an AI writing tool with a language enhancement tool like Grammarly can significantly improve your productivity or lead to better results, whether sales, leads, or just captivating your audience.