Everyone makes mistakes. It doesn’t matter how good our language skills are, we are bound to make mistakes. Thankfully, there are programs that make our lives easier. I have experience of working with Grammarly and ProWritingAid, so I’ve decided to share my thoughts on both of them. Then you can decide for yourself which one suits you best.
Let us begin.
Grammarly
Pros:
- Checks for plagiarism
- 86% grammatical accuracy
- 150K word limit
- $11.66 per month for full access
Cons:
- The free version only checks for grammatical and spelling errors
- The Chrome extension doesn’t work on some websites
- Microsoft Office is not supported on Apple devices.
With Grammarly, you can either upload your document by clicking/tapping the upload button or you can simply copy and paste the text into the program. You can either use the desktop version or the online one, which is available on their website. Both Android and iOS devices are compatible. The typos and mistakes will be divided into different categories and you can correct them by clicking on them one by one.
Grammarly also offers a Google Chrome extension which allows you to check your spelling and grammar anytime and anywhere you like. The 150K word limit is a nice feature too – It makes working on a novel much easier.
Obviously, even with accuracy as high as 86%, no grammar checker is perfect. Authors always need to proofread their work, as the program sometimes messes up the sentence so bad it completely loses its meaning.
Their free plan can be good enough for occasional writers, but if you want to get things done in a professional way, you must purchase the premium plan to access all of the features. They also offer a so-called “business plan,” but the premium one is sufficient for the needs of fiction authors. The prices are $11.66 per month for premium and $12.50 per month for business. The prices vary depending on whether you choose the monthly or yearly subscription.
Grammarly suggests fewer corrections than ProWritingAid but also makes fewer mistakes.
In the terms of support, Grammarly provides it 24/7 via email and support tickets. There is “Help center” on their website as well.
ProWritingAid
Pros:
- 73% accuracy
- Compatible with Scrivener
- Supports more integration tools than other grammar checkers
Cons:
- Only corrects 30 000 words at a time
- No mobile versions
- Plagiarism checker is only available in the premium plan
This program is, unfortunately, less user friendly than Grammarly. You can only see the suggestions once you hover over the text.
ProWritingAid provides dialogue checks, homonyms or contextual thesaurus report – these are some of the features that are missing in Grammarly. In terms of accuracy, however, Grammarly is a clear winner.
ProWritingAid offers a monthly plan for 20€, yearly plan for 79€, or a lifetime subscription for 399€.
Customer support is available from Monday to Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. You can also use the “Contact us” page or their contact email. If you want, you can also check their FAQ page.
Verdict
Although Grammarly is a more user friendly program, ProWritingAid is a clear winner when it comes to features. At the same time, Grammarly has better accuracy but ProWritingAid is better at handling dialogues and fragmented sentences, which is one of the main reasons why it’s more suitable for fiction writers.
ProWritingAid is cheaper. The yearly subscription costs $79 but if you decide on Grammarly, the yearly subscriptions will set you back $139.95.
You cannot go wrong with either of these programs. I wrote “The Tales From Portville” with the help of Grammarly and “The Moment Before Dying” with ProWritingAid. Both programs are good in its own way. No program can replace a human editor, of course, but it’s good to have one at hand.
If I really had to pick one, I’d go with ProWritingAid – only because I write fiction and I find it more suitable. Grammarly is a wonderful program as well and there is a chance you might like it even more.
After all, you can always check out the programs’ free versions, test them and make a decision yourselves.
Click on the pictures bellow to try both programs. By clicking on my link, you can get 20% off your ProWritingAid subscription!
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