What is Grammarly?

Grammarly is in the spotlight for those who need better, faster and accurate proofreading. It is tool which check and suggestion fix on spelling mistakes, grammar errors and punctuation in flash of seconds. Its features provide suggestions on enhancing vocabulary, improving readability, clarity and style. 

Compared to other grammar checkers, Grammarly has most to offer both in free and premium versions. Started in 2009, It has helped millions of students, authors, bloggers, and professionals in writing error-free and easy to write content.

Who Use Grammarly?

Grammarly proofreading service is for everyone who wants error-free English writing. It's available in free and premium both versions so you can use it without paying or go along premium.

It is most used by:

1. Bloggers
2. Online publishers
3. Freelancers
4. Businessmen
5. Teachers 
6. Students
7. +more

How much Grammarly Free vs Premium vs Business plan Cost?

The premium plan is for a single user. However, the Business plan offers a multiple-member account per plan.

So the price is quite high, and it cost 15$/mo per member account, and 3 member is a minimum limit. To make a business account, you need to pay $45 per month on annual billing.

Grammarly Premium Features

Grammarly offers one of the best and advanced features, but most are only available in the premium plan. As shown in the table above, the free plan only provides the most basic grammar, spelling and punctuation checking.

To get full advantage of Grammarly advanced features, you must buy a premium plan.

But what is so good about Premium plan? Let's have a look at Grammarly premium features which are not available in the free plan.

1. Spelling Checking

Spelling checking is a basic feature which is available in both free vs premium plan. This feature scans the entire document/content and suggests any misspellings and typos in the content.

Well, this is not really necessary for most professional typer. But for some lazy people( like me ;p ) and people with Dyslexia issues, it can be a blessing.

Some people think it's embarrassing to make spelling mistakes while chatting or writing an email. Using a browser plugin or mobile keyboard app, you can take full advantage of this feature while typing in flash of seconds.

2. Grammar Checking

This feature is the leading cause of why Grammarly is being used a lot. Learning and remember grammar rules have been a pain me(being not-native). Though I can't say for sure if it's hard for native English speaker.

So, I can relate to why Grammarly for grammar checking. This feature is designed to check over 400+ types of grammatical errors and provide their fix.

It provides the best suggestion on improving sentence understand and readability. Most basic grammar issues it checks are part of speech, helping verbs, determiner, article, etc.

Quick grammar fix is a good thing, but Grammarly also provides possible reasons for the grammar mistake. So that user can learn the reason and improve his writing skills without making the same error next time.

3. Punctuation Checker

A simple punctuation mark holds power to change the meaning of the whole sentence, am I right?

Punctuation, as we all know, are symbols which are used to improve sentence readability, separate series, add sense and clarity, and stress/impressions.

It is simple, but remembering its correct use in a sentence takes time. Unfortunately, most non-native English speaker makes a lot of mistakes and missing punctuation marks.

Most basic mistakes in punctuation are a misuse of a comma, semi-colon, colon, exclamation, a hyphen and quotation. I am sure; you aren't misusing full stop and question mark, do you? 🙂

Grammarly algorithm is capable of understand sentence, providing possible suggestions on punctuation use.

4. Conciseness Suggestions

This feature is beneficial for writing simple English and improve content readability.

What it does is, it suggest alternative solutions for long phrases or sentences which could be replaced with same-meaning words.

Since some short words can give the same meaning as a long phrase, they are pretty useful for clarity as well.

5. Plagiarism Checker

This is another nice feature which made Grammarly an advanced proofreading tool over others. It might not be that useful for other fields. But for bloggers and online publishers, its a great deal for writing unique content.

Plagiarism  can be both intentional or unintentional. Since the internet is full of millions of website, so chances of writing already published content are little but not zero. Having clean and plagiarism checked content, ensure website safety.

With Plagiarism checker, your content is scanned and compared with over 16 million web pages stored in the Grammarly database. You will be alerted even if a single sentences match with any saved web page.

It is not really a crime on the internet to copy someone's content, but there are some disadvantages of doing so, especially for bloggers, online publisher and webmasters.

If you copy and publish someone else's content, then your website will be exempt from the Search Engine Result Page(SERPs). SERPs are the primary source of having organic traffic for every website.

Not only that, but your web might also lose reputation and ranking. Other websites won't backlink to you to to save their ranking. So, if your website got blacklisted by Google, then your site is pretty much doomed.

6. Vocabulary Enhancement Suggestions

Writing about something is no simple thing. Words have power in themselves, and their correct use can greatly affect peoples. That's why synonyms exist.

Let's say we want to write something about a product, and attract customer to buy it. Then our writing must be effective, which can convince the customer to buy that product, right?

This feature is my favorite, since my vocabulary is not significant. Grammarly vocabulary suggestions help me a lot in writing. It checks every sentence and suggests a possible replacement for words to improve readability and effectiveness.

7. Explanation & Assist 

Well, its good to have a grammar and spelling checker but don't be ignorant abort English. As I said before, Grammarly is a useful tool for lazy people like me, but don't forget to improve your English.

Explanation & Assist is the best feature of Grammarly. It is handy since it provides a full explanation with an example of why the error happened in the sentence. You can read these explanations and try to avoid them while writing.

8. Genre-specific Profiles(Setting up Goal)

Writing to a specific genre? It's easy; set up a goal for tone, purpose, formality, intent and style of the content.

Since there are different ways of writing in every field, Grammarly offers a feature to change suggestions. Let's say that you want to write something for business, it has to be formal, general, must have good tone and with positive intent, right?

So with Grammarly, you can set up a goal for business-related writing and boom. You will only get suggestions which are effective for business-related content.

There are many other options because writing is not just related to business. Have a look in the screenshot below.

9. Document in Cloud(Access from anywhere)

Grammarly offers an online editor which can be accessed through any device anywhere through a browser. You just need to have an internet connection. It works as a cloud editor where you can store your document files and edit them in real-time.

It is an excellent feature for writers who frequently move to different places. They can switch from desktop to laptop or tablet without transferring files and start writing where they stopped.

Is it Secure to use Online Editor?

Yes, Grammarly online editor is safe for working online. They claims to be using 256-bit AES for stored files and SSL/TLS encryption for data transfer.

To provide full privacy, they have equipped their program with GDPR and Privacy-Shield compliant. These security measures are free for all plans, including Grammarly free vs premium.

How can I get access to Grammarly service?

Currently, there are 5 ways to use Grammarly service. 

1. Online Dashboard and Editor

The first way to use Grammarly is their online dashboard and cloud document editor. You can either write your content by creating a new doc. Or you can unload existing text file to start using proofreading service.

By uploading your files their online cloud dashboard, you can easily access them from anywhere on any device. I will discuss how it works in "How to get started with Grammarly."

2. Software for OS

If you prefer direct access and want Grammarly installed on your operating system. Then you can use their native applications. They offer native apps for OS, like Windows and Mac.

You can install these apps, and instantly get access to Grammarly premium service. However, these apps still require internet access.

3. Browser Plugins

As for the browser, They offer plugins which can be installed on various browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Vivaldi. These plugins can assist you while chatting on any social media website, writing an email, WordPress editor(bloggers choice) or any text box.

Grammarly checks your errors in real-time while typing and highlights them. You can either hover on mistakes to get a quick fix or open their interface and get full access.

4. MS-Word Plugin

Prefer to use MS-Word? If so then using Grammarly MS-Word plugin would be a charm for you. By installing the MS-Word plugin, you can be to get full access to their proofreading service within 5 minutes.

5. Android Keyboard App

Grammarly keyboard application is another useful feature for many users. Now you can ensure that your text and chat is error-free with this keyboard app.

How to Get started With Grammarly Free or Premium?

To start using Grammarly service, you need to create an account and confirm email.

If you are logged into your account, the first sight will be like this.

This is your dashboard, where you can manage your document files and account online. The user interface is straightforward, so it's not hard to quickly get used to it.

To get into online editor, you can either upload your doc file or start by creating a new doc file.

1. Real-time Proofreading Editor

Here this is the interface where you will be doing all typing and correcting mistakes. Left side for text where words are underlined if there is any mistake.

In the right sidebar, there is Grammarly AI assistant which provide status on all alerts(errors), suggestions, an overall score of written content, and effectiveness of the text.

In the image above:

1: The underlined words either have spelling mistakes, grammar, punctuation, or other types of syntax error in them. Different colors mean different types of error and their effect on content.

By hovering on underlined words, you can quickly make a correction or access other extra options like "Add to Dictionary."

2: This here shows correction for the selected underline mistake. Explanation on why this error has occurred and how can it be avoided.

3: Based on the underlined word, Grammarly AI fetch and show some examples related to it. You can see 3 correct and incorrect use of sentences.

4: If the given correction is wrong, then you can click on the flag icon.

5: This here works like a progress bar; it shows correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery status.

By selecting each of them, you can filter out mistakes which affect any of them. Having tick on all 4 of them means the content is error-free, readable
and professionally written.

6: For setting up specific-genre related content, you can set up a goal. By using this, all suggestions and correction will be related to this option.

7: By selecting this feature, you can run a plagiarism check on your content. It will take a few seconds to compare the sentences with 16 Million saved web pages.

After completion, plagiarised sentence will be shown in the sidebar with its original source website.

8: If you are still unsatisfied with your content and want a human proofreader, then you can select this option. However, they cost money per word.

2. Using Grammarly on Browser

After installing a browser plugin, you can use their service in text box pretty much everywhere.

In this screenshot, you can see it is working in real-time in the Facebook text box.

1: Shows the error which can be quickly corrected.

2: You can switch to Grammarly interface like the one in cloud online editor and access to advanced features.

3: It indicates that Grammarly service is being used on Facebook, and click on the arrow will return it into the Facebook text box.

3. Grammarly on Outlook & MS-Word

By installing the Outlook and MS-word, you can start using Grammarly on both applications.

Features are the same as online editor but its MS-Word interface integrated with Grammarly.

As you can see, you can activate and deactivate checking and proofreading features with one click.

The online editor had more features in setting up a specific genre, but it was replaced with a goal setup option. However, MS-Word interface still shows old genre setting options, which is excellent in a way.

4. Keyboard App

Grammarly keyboard application is also handy for many users. You will get instant correction while writing text, important email, chat on Facebook, or any texting application.

This application works with all text application where you can type. Doing
correction is easy and straightforward with a beautiful keyboard interface.

Fortunately, this is available for Free vs premium both users.

Note: I didn't explain about the native application for OS like Windows and Mac since they work same as online editor.

Grammarly Free vs Premium Review - Bottom Line

 I think Grammarly premium is worth trying. It's nice that they offer a free plan, but most useful features are included in the premium plan.

I am using Grammarly premium for 3+ years, and their service is most satisfying. I have used many proofreading tools and service, but most of them are not accurate and rich-featured like Grammarly.

Proofreading features are already excellent, but on top of all that, they offer plagiarism checker. This feature is like a charm to me. Since I pay other writers to get content or guest post; it becomes easy to check if the article is unique and plagiarism free.

I know its costly for many of you but its best proofreading service over the internet. It's worth buying for professional work. They claim that their software is for students, but I am sure it's not affordable for them. Students can use free versions - no credit card required.

Well, they do offer their service for education purpose to institutes, schools, and university. If you are a student from Grammarly affiliated institutes, then you can try to request it.

I hope you like my review on Grammarly free vs premium. Are you using Grammarly premium already? Then I would be happy to hear your personal experience with Grammarly in the comment section below