Ask HN: Grammarly Alternatives? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Grammarly Alternatives?

7 pointsneom17 comments

Grammarly has started injecting all sorts of upsell crap into their app to the point they've made it unusable for me. Does anyone have an alternative they like?

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I built one pre-Grammarly that functions as an add-in to Microsoft Word.

It's aimed at creative writers and never really took off, though it does have a cohort of die hard fans. Still sells a few copies a month after all these years - usually to romance writers.

https://smart-edit.com/Home/Creative/

Some screenshots: https://smart-edit.com/Gallery/

I would like a Grammarly alternative too. In addition to the annoying upsell stuff, their little widget blocks some text inputs and I have to disable it to make the site usable.

There's also Microsoft Editor to which I switched from Grammarly. I'd say it gets in the way a bit less than Grammarly but the suggestions popup/window sometimes gets buggy. It only works in Chromium browsers, so unfortunately no Firefox add-on :/

I use Grammarly Premium for the last few years but recently have shifted mostly to online tool for longer writings and edits. I do have the Safari Extension running. I have not seen any form or upsell or ads, and I unsubscribed from their marketing emails.

The closest alternative is https://languagetool.org

I use the free version, and occasionally they would prompt to upgrade to the premium, I didn't mind this. Now they highlight the text all number of colours and each colour means something but I can't use those features because I don't pay for it and I can't turn all the "you could have this but you don't" stuff. I get bugged at least 10 times a day by it to upgrade to some feature, and features I don't even want (otherwise I'd upgrade!) - anyway, thank you, I'll check our your recommendation.

https://quillbot.com/grammar-check ?

https://hemingwayapp.com/

For simple online checking, Language Tool is the closest thing, with add-on for FF and Chrome. If you want to check for longer texts, DeepL Write (AI from Germany) is the better choice. It also supports many languages.

Delete the spyware from your computer and don't look back.

I really like and support (paid) https://languagetool.org

You could ask ChatGPT for advice? It's one of the better writers I've seen.

This is for comments sections and webapps, like hackernews, YouTube etc. I have dyslexia and make very basic mistakes all the time and typically don't notice them (I can re-read something 10 times and not see the mistake, only if I read it backwards will I sometimes notice) - maybe I should just pay for Grammarly Pro given I need it, but it's *how* they are upselling me that drives me nuts and makes me want to run away from them.

Anyone have suggestions on a good free alternative as well?

Language Tool?

Language Tool

DEEPL Write.

sudowrite

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