In the world of grammar checkers, two big players stand out: ProWritingAid and Grammarly. If you're struggling to decide which one to choose, we've got you covered. In this article, we'll compare the features, pros, and cons of both tools to help you make an informed decision. Whether you're a non-fiction writer or a fiction writer, we'll explore which grammar checker is better suited for your needs. So let's dive in and find out which one comes out on top!
What is Grammarly?
Grammarly is a tool that checks for grammatical errors, spelling, and punctuation. It gives you comprehensive feedback on your writing. You can use this tool to proofread and edit articles, blog posts, emails, etc.
Grammarly also detects all types of mistakes, including sentence structure issues and misused words. It also gives you suggestions on style changes, punctuation, spelling, and grammar in real-time. The free version covers the basics like identifying grammar and spelling mistakes, while the Premium version offers a lot more functionality. It can detect plagiarism in your content, suggest word choice, and add fluency to it.
Features of Grammarly
- Spelling and Word Suggestion: Grammarly detects basic to advanced grammatical errors and also helps you understand why it's an error and suggests how you can improve it.
- Create a Personal Dictionary: The Grammarly app allows you to add words to your personal dictionary so that the same mistake isn't highlighted every time you run Grammarly.
- Different English Style: Check spelling for American, British, Canadian, and Australian English.
- Plagiarism: This feature helps you detect if a text has been plagiarized by comparing it with over eight billion web pages.
- Wordiness: This tool helps you check your writing for long and hard-to-read sentences. It also shows you how to shorten sentences so that they are more concise.
- Passive Voice: The program notifies users when passive voice is used too frequently in a document.
- Punctuation: This feature flags all incorrect and missing punctuation.
- Repetition: The tool provides recommendations for replacing repeated words.
- Proposition: Grammarly identifies misplaced and confused prepositions.
- Plugins: Grammarly offers Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, and Google Chrome plugins.
What is ProWritingAid?
ProWritingAid is a style and grammar checker for content creators and writers. It helps optimize word choice, punctuation errors, and common grammar mistakes, providing detailed reports to help you improve your writing. ProWritingAid can be used as an add-on to WordPress, Gmail, and Google Docs. The software also offers helpful articles, videos, quizzes, and explanations to help improve your writing.
Features of ProWritingAid
Here are some key features of ProWritingAid:
- Grammar checker and spell checker: This tool helps you find all grammatical and spelling errors.
- Find repeated words: The tool allows you to search for repeated words and phrases in your content.
- Context-sensitive style suggestions: You can find the exact writing style you intend and suggest if it flows well in your writing.
- Check the readability of your content: ProWritingAid helps you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your article by pointing out difficult sentences and paragraphs.
- Sentence Length: It also indicates the length of your sentences.
- Check Grammatical error: It also checks your work for any grammatical errors or typos.
- Overused words: As a writer, you might find yourself using the same word repeatedly. ProWritingAid's overused words checker helps you avoid this lazy writing mistake.
- Consistency: Check your work for inconsistent usage of open and closed quotation marks.
- Echoes: Check your writing for uniformly repetitive words and phrases.
Difference between Grammarly and Pro-Writing Aid
Grammarly and ProWritingAid are well-known grammar-checking software. However, if you're like most people who can't decide which to use, here are some different points that may be helpful in your decision.
- Grammarly is a writing enhancement tool that offers suggestions for grammar, vocabulary, and syntax, whereas ProWritingAid offers world-class grammar and style checking, as well as advanced reports to help you strengthen your writing.
- Grammarly provides Android and iOS apps, whereas ProWritingAid doesn't have a mobile or iOS app.
- Grammarly offers important suggestions about mistakes you've made, whereas ProWritingAid shows more suggestions than Grammarly, but not all recommendations are accurate.
- Grammarly has a more friendly UI/UX, whereas the ProWritingAid interface is not as friendly as Grammarly.
- Grammarly is an accurate grammar checker for non-fiction writing, whereas ProWritingAid is an accurate grammar checker for fiction writers.
- Grammarly finds grammar and punctuation mistakes, whereas ProWritingAid identifies run-on sentences and fragments.
- Grammarly provides 24/7 support via submitting a ticket and sending emails. ProWritingAid's support team is available via email, though the response time is approximately 48 hours.
- Grammarly offers many features in its free plan, whereas ProWritingAid offers some basic features in the free plan.
- Grammarly does not offer much feedback on big picture writing; ProWritingAid offers complete feedback on big picture writing.
- Grammarly is a better option for accuracy, whereas ProWritingAid is better for handling fragmented sentences and dialogue. It can be quite useful for fiction writers.
ProWritingAid vs Grammarly: Pricing Difference
ProWritingAid comes with three pricing structures. The full-year cost of ProWritingAid is $79, while its lifetime plans cost $339. You can also opt for a monthly plan of $20.
Grammarly offers a Premium subscription for $30/month for a monthly plan, $20/month for quarterly, and $12/month for an annual subscription. The Business plan costs $12.50 per month for each member of your company.
ProWritingAid vs Grammarly – Pros and Cons
Grammarly Pros
- It allows you to fix common mistakes like grammar and spelling.
- Offers most features in the free plan.
- Allows you to edit a document without affecting the formatting.
- Active and passive voice checker.
- Personal dictionary.
- Plagiarism checker (paid version).
- Proofread your writing and correct all punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors.
- Allows you to make changes to a document without altering its formatting.
- Helps users improve vocabulary.
- User-friendly interface.
- Browser extensions and MS Word add-ons.
- Available on all major devices and platforms.
- Grammarly will also offer suggestions to improve your style.
- Enhance the readability of your sentences.
- Free mobile apps.
- Offers a free version.
Grammarly Cons
- Supports only English.
- Customer support only via email.
- Limits to 150,000 words.
- Subscription plans can be a bit pricey.
- Plagiarism checker is only available in a premium plan.
- Doesn't offer a free trial.
- No refund policy.
- The free version is ideal for basic spelling and grammatical mistakes but does not correct advanced writing issues.
- Some features are not available for Mac.
ProWritingAid Pros
- It offers more than 20 different reports to help you improve your writing.
- Less expensive than other grammar checkers.
- This tool helps you strengthen your writing style as it offers big-picture feedback.
- ProWritingAid has a lifetime plan with no further payments required.
- Compatible with Google Docs.
- ProWritingAid works on both Windows and Mac.
- They offer more integrations than most tools.
ProWritingAid Cons
- Editing can be a little more time-consuming when you add larger passages of text.
- ProWritingAid currently offers no mobile app for Android or iOS devices.
- Plagiarism checker is only available in premium plans.
- Not all recommendations are accurate.
Summarizing the ProWritingAid vs Grammarly: My Recommendation
As both writing assistants are great in their own way, you need to choose the one that suits you best.
- For example, go for Grammarly if you are a non-fiction writer.
- Go for ProWritingAid if you are a fiction writer.
- ProWritingAid is better at catching errors found in long-form content. However, Grammarly is more suited to short blog posts and similar tasks.
- ProWritingAid helps you clean up your writing by checking for style, structure, and content, while Grammarly focuses on grammar and punctuation.
- Grammarly has a more friendly UI/UX, whereas ProWritingAid offers complete feedback on big picture writing.
Both ProWritingAid and Grammarly are awesome writing tools, without a doubt. But as per my experience, Grammarly is the winner here because it helps you review and edit your content. Grammarly highlights all the mistakes in your writing within seconds of copying and pasting the content into Grammarly's editor or using the software's native feature in other text editors.
Not only does it identify tiny grammatical and spelling errors, it tells you when you overlook punctuations where they are needed. And beyond its plagiarism-checking capabilities, Grammarly helps you proofread your content. Even better, the software offers a free plan that gives you access to some of its features.
