Grammar Checkers Reviewed: Grammarly and Hemingway

How to choose a checker

Start from what you write and where you write it. These five questions narrow the field quickly.

1 What do you mostly write? Short emails need fast, accurate grammar fixes. Reports and long documents benefit from style reports on repetition, sentence length and readability.

2 Where do you write? Check that the tool works inside your browser, email client and word processor. A checker you have to paste into gets skipped.

3 How much do correct sentences get flagged? Every false alarm costs attention. In our tests we count both what a tool catches and how often it flags text that was already right.

4 Is your text confidential? Most checkers send text to their servers. For legal, medical or client material, read the privacy terms or choose an offline option.

5 Do you need the paid plan? Free plans usually cover spelling and core grammar. Paying adds style and tone suggestions and rewrites, which matter most for long or high-stakes writing.

Five kinds of checker

“Grammar checker” covers tools that work in quite different ways. Knowing which kind you need matters more than picking a brand.

Kind	How it works	Best for	Examples we review
Inline checker	Underlines issues as you type, in the browser, email and documents.	Everyday emails and messages	Grammarly, LanguageTool
Style-report editor	Runs whole-document reports: repetition, sentence length, pacing, overused words.	Long reports, books, theses	ProWritingAid
Readability editor	Highlights long sentences, adverbs and passive voice; gives a reading grade.	Plain, scannable web and business copy	Hemingway Editor
AI proofreader	Uses a language model to rewrite sentences for correctness and clarity.	Quick polishing of short drafts	Tools in our AI proofreader test
Paraphraser	Rewords whole sentences rather than correcting them.	Rephrasing, not proofreading	QuillBot

How to judge a suggestion

A checker suggests; you decide. Here are three suggestions of the kind every checker makes, and how to decide on each one.

Grammar suggestion The list of updates were sent on Monday. Tool says: Change “were” to “was”. AcceptThe subject is “list”, which is singular. Grammar suggestions like this have a right answer.

Style suggestion The samples were collected over six months. Tool says: Passive voice. Rewrite in the active. Keep your versionWho collected them doesn’t matter here, so the passive is the right choice. Style flags are advice, not rules.

Tone suggestion I just wanted to check whether you had a chance to look at this. Tool says: Sounds hesitant. Try “Could you review this by Friday?” Decide by the readerWith a senior client, the softer version may be right. With your own team, the direct one saves time.

What free plans cover, and what paying adds

The split is similar across most checkers. Exact features change often, so check the current plan page before you buy.

Usually free

✓Spelling and typos✓Core grammar: agreement, tense, articles✓Basic punctuation✓Browser extension for one or two apps

Usually paid

+Style suggestions: wordiness, repetition, passive voice+Tone and formality adjustments+Full-sentence rewrites, often AI-generated+Whole-document reports and goals+More apps, plus team features like style guides

A worked example: Grammarly Premium vs Free →

Setting it up properly

Most checkers work much better after five minutes of setup. Do this once, on every device you write on.

Choose your English: UK, US, Canadian or Australian
Add your name, company and product names to the dictionary
Set your goal or audience, if the tool asks
Turn off suggestion types you never accept
Install it where you actually write: browser, Word or Docs
Check its privacy setting before using it for work

Using a checker in a second language

Checkers are especially useful if English is not your first language, but treat them as a teacher, not a crutch. Tools that explain each correction help you learn the rule; see tools for non-native speakers.

Read the explanationBefore accepting a change, read why it was suggested.

Keep a listNote the corrections you get most often; they show what to study.

Write first, check secondTurn the checker off while drafting, so you learn to write without it.

How we test grammar checkers

Every review on this page follows the same method, so results can be compared across tools.

Step 1 One shared test set The same mix of emails, a report, an essay and fiction, around 3,000 words in total.
Step 2 Known issues Each text contains a recorded list of genuine problems for the tool to find.
Step 3 Count catches We record how many of those problems each tool flags and fixes correctly.
Step 4 Count false alarms We also count flags on sentences that were already correct.
Step 5 Real-world use A week of daily writing in each tool, plus privacy terms and pricing.