Text Checkers That Are Worth It
Plus, they’re yours forever!
I went on a Chrome extension install spree recently. I was looking for a good dictionary extension so that I don’t have to do a Google search every time I encounter an unfamiliar word while reading.
Thanks to Chrome Web Store for recommending dozens of text checkers and writing assistants, I became interested in diversifying my boring arsenal that had only two.
Grammarly and ProWritingAid.
I downloaded all of them which were either featured or had lots of reviews. I tried them and deleted a few, as they were acting like jerks a little too much.
I have settled with these 5 grammar checkers, and I think you should also try them out.
First of all, we will start will the well-known ones and from there we will move to the lesser-known ones.
1. Grammarly
All of us should be knowing about this wonderful friend of a writer by now. But did you know this company is valued at over $13B? That came as a surprise. Grammarly is the undisputed king of the text-checking market.
Coming back to the writing part, I do think it is fabulous.
Grammarly is the first to spot any errors almost all the time. Other extensions follow the lead.
But, it misses some of the most basic errors, like capitalizations and commas. Sometimes.
One of the biggest pros is its autocorrect feature. It is better than any other tool in the market. It gives you the feel of typing on a mobile phone where Google Keyboard takes care of it all.
The free version is enough as I didn’t feel a lot of difference in improvement or suggestions while I was on a free trial for the premium version. Hence, I never upgraded.
Add Grammarly to your browser here.
2. ProWritingAid
I was surfing the web and found out ProWritingAid is broadly pitched as a Grammarly alternative. I don’t agree with that.
This extension catches the finer details of articles better than Grammarly. Take, for example, redundancy, capitalization, and style improvements.
[A lot of commas above is all because of ProWritingAid only haha]
Its dedicated writing interface is also very helpful, though it appears archaic and needs improvement.
The thing I love the most about ProWritingAid is its Snippets feature.
Snippets are short pieces of text that you use frequently throughout your day. You can create a shortcut and use it every time you write.
For example \bio will pull out your profile description. You need not write the same thing all over again.
You can create or add snippets directly to your ProWritingAid dashboard and use them all over the web. It’s handy and I love it.
Add ProWritingAid to your browser here.
The novel ones — you might not know about them
Before proceeding any further, let’s answer this question once and for all: Why should we have over one text checker?
The straightforward answer to this is that one text checker, however good it is, can’t spot every error. At least not now.
Having 3–4 checkers’ extension added to your browser puts you in a safe zone.
I have also observed that some extensions don’t work on specific sites. Having a backup in the form of multiple checkers is a boon in situations like this.
Now let’s proceed further and see what I have in store for you.
3. Sapling AI
I am beyond excited to discover this tool, as it has proved immensely helpful in catching styling errors. It’s not that helpful alone, but when it is used to complement other tools, it amazes you.
I have also discovered it works almost everywhere. Like, I have noticed more than once that ProWritingAid doesn’t work when I am writing in Gmail and Grammarly is GDocs.
But never once have I spotted Sapling AI missing anywhere. It catches the basic mistakes, but using it standalone is not a good choice.
It also has the Snippets-like feature we discussed earlier, but I don’t use it. ProWritingAid does the job well enough for me.
Add Sapling AI to your browser here.
4. Microsoft Editor
I didn’t know about it for a long time as I am not a big fan of the Microsoft ecosystem. I also don’t use MS Word for my writing.
It is professional in its suggestion and I like that about it. Most of the other tools have incorporated popular internet slang, but not this one.
It even puts a red line under haha and suggests writing ha-ha. I find that useful sometimes.
Add Microsoft Editor to your browser here.
5. Language Tool
I have a feeling you might already know about this one as it has a lot of downloads and reviews compared to the ones above.
Its strength is its editor: modern and minimalistic.
It is also good at catching close to almost all the errors, but it lags behind Grammarly when it comes to the speed of processing and showing the errors.
Its interface is modern and it also shows the explanation of why the underlined words need to be changed.
The technology is open sourced and that is also good. It supports 20+ languages so you don’t have to separately look if you wrote that Spanish phrase wrong.
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