Grammarly Review: Is This Grammar Checker Worth Your Hard-Earned Money?

As someone who’s been writing and editing content for many years now, I fully understand what a human editor can bring to the table. Any writer worth their salt would agree that regardless of how good their grasp of grammar and English is, typos and minor mistakes inevitably creep into their writings.

So, what exactly is Grammarly, what does it help you with, and is it really worth your money? These are some of the questions that I’ll be answering in this Grammarly review. Also, this blog has been run through Grammarly to weed out any typos or grammatical errors. Shhhhhhhhhhh!

So, What’s Grammarly All About?

Grammarly checks any piece of content for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. While the free version offers basic services like punctuation, spelling, and grammar checks, the premium version comes with the best writing-practice suggestions.

Features

Grammarly comes with an entire array of features and offers various services, which are listed below.

1. Grammar and Punctuation

Grammarly identifies grammatical and punctuation mistakes of all kinds. Also, it offers real-time suggestions to rectify those mistakes. These include misplaced commas and apostrophes, incorrect grammar, and other punctuation mistakes.

However, at times, you might find the suggestions irrelevant with respect to the context in which the content has been written.

2. Spell Check

Not only does Grammarly come with an effective spell-check tool but also allows you to add words to a custom dictionary. You can also use the business version to create a dedicated style guide.

3. Readability

Grammarly employs AI technology to detect unusually lengthy sentences and paragraphs and determines the right age group for the checked content sample. It also proposes alternatives to make the content more concise and crisp. This can sometimes be annoying though as it would require you to do away with almost all the passive sentences used in your content, thereby, robbing it of its original flavor.

4. Choice of Words

Grammarly flags archaic or misused words in a piece of content and offers suggestions according to the tone of the content and the audience that it has been written for.

5. Writing Assistant

Grammarly’s A-backed writing assistant offers fixes and suggestions that you can accept or reject with a simple click.

6. Editing Reports

If you have to give someone feedback on their writing, you can download the writing report and send it to them. The report provides the necessary metrics and information that can help them enhance their content.

7. Plagiarism Check

To be honest, I found this feature quite pointless and ineffective. This is because Grammarly tends to pick phrases and words from your content and attributes them to pieces of content that have nothing to do with your content. If you’re concerned about plagiarism, my advice would be to invest in a full-time plagiarism checker tool.

How to Get Started with Grammarly

To start using Grammarly, you’d first have to create an account using your Google or Facebook account. You can go to language settings to adjust your language to Canadian English, American English, British English, or Australian English.

You can begin with a free version and use Grammarly in the following ways.

1. Grammarly Web Tool

The first option, which is mostly preferred by users, is to simply copy and paste the entire content on the Grammarly web tool. For this, you’ll need to click on “New” in the dashboard, which will present you with a blank page. Copy the content on this blank page and give it a few seconds to work its magic.

Grammarly would soon read, analyze, and correct your piece of content. In case, you have a full document to be edited, you can upload it directly on the software by clicking on “Upload”, The software would analyze it exactly the same way. Also, you can type directly into the Grammarly software.

2. Desktop App

If you’re using Windows or macOS, you can check your writing via the desktop app. All that you have to do is download the app for your system, follow the installation instructions, and you can use the software just like the online version.

3. MS Word

If you are using Windows, you can also use a Grammarly add-in directly within MS Word. you just have to visit the add-in page and then follow the instructions to add to Word. however, this will require you to be connected to the internet while you’re using it.

4. Browser Extension

You can use Grammarly through a browser extension. All you have to do is to add the extension to Chrome. The software will then check your writing as you write, including Gmail and Google Docs.

5. On Your Phone

Yes! You read that right! You can use Grammarly on your phone too as Grammarly has its own keyboard that you can use on your smartphone. This is available for both iOS and Android devices.

How Much Does Grammarly Cost?

One of the best things about Grammarly is that you can use it indefinitely without paying anything. You can use the free version of this software without any limit or trial period. However, to unlock Grammarly’s full potential, you will have to upgrade to Grammarly Premium, which comes with the following price plans.

• $12.00 a month when you pay annually ($144.00 in total)

• $20.00 a month when you pay quarterly

• $30.00 a month when you pay monthly.

There is also a Grammarly Business option that costs $12.50 per user per month when billed annually. With this, you get everything that one gets with Grammarly Premium along with the admin panel, statistics for your team, etc.

Now, you must be wondering whether or not you should upgrade to Grammarly’s premium version. Well, here’s a detailed comparison of everything that you get with its free and premium versions.

What Do You Get with a Free Version?

Unlike some tools whose free versions or trials are hugely limited versions of the original software, Grammarly’s free version is awesome.

It provides the basics that you need to focus on to come up with a compelling piece of content. It offers a powerful spelling, grammar, and punctuation check, which is more effective than most word processors.

While it will notify you about all the spelling- grammar, and punctuation-related errors, you will be able to see the issues that Grammarly Premium has identified in your writing too. However, to view these, you will have to upgrade to the Grammarly Premium version.

What Do You Get with Grammarly Premium?

Grammarly Premium includes a far greater number of checks and looks into various aspects like sentence structure, alignment, and context. Along with the checks that you get in the free version, the premium version identifies writing inconsistencies, unclear structure, wordiness, overuse of words, insensitive language, and inappropriate tone.

However, this doesn’t mean that Grammarly Premium can guarantee your writing is clear and engaging. No grammar checker can turn a sloppy piece of writing into a masterpiece. However, Grammarly Premium always makes a few suggestions that I incorporate into my writing. Also, it gives a detailed report of my grammatical mistakes in a pop-up box, which can help me avoid those the next time I am writing a blog.

So, Is Grammarly Premium Worth Yur Money?

Grammarly’s plagiarism checker is quite unreliable. Its suggestions on sentence structure often don’t make any sense and its recommendations on the choice of words are sometimes out of context. However, there isn’t much that I can say to make this amazing tool look bad.

So, yeah Grammarly Premium is absolutely worth it.

If you’re a writer on a budget, you can get started with Grammarly’s free version. However, like most other things in life, things that cost you money are usually better than their free alternatives.