Side by side
| PICK | PRICE OR LIMIT | VERDICT | NEED |
|---|---|---|---|
| LanguageTool | Premium EUR 59.89 a year; free plan 2,000 characters per text field | Start here | Closest replacement for Grammarly across apps |
| ProWritingAid | Premium USD 10 a month billed yearly (USD 120), or USD 30 monthly | Best for book-length work | Fiction and long-form editing in English |
| ProWritingAid | Lifetime Premium USD 399 | The only lifetime license here | A one-time payment instead of a subscription |
| DeepL Write | Write Pro add-on EUR 6.99 a user a month, billed annually | Best for register | Polishing tone in European or Asian languages |
| Microsoft Editor | Basic spelling and grammar free with a Microsoft account | Good enough for short everyday text | Free checking inside Word and Edge |
Our picks in detail
LanguageTool
Best overall switch; cheapest annual Premium here and 30+ languages
- Best for: people who write in the browser, email and office apps in two or more languages.
- Main limitation: the free Basic plan stops at 2,000 characters per text field, with 3 AI rephrasings a day and a limited Picky Mode.
LanguageTool lists Premium at EUR 59.89 a year, about EUR 4.90 a month, according to its help center on 23 October 2026.
ProWritingAid
Deepest style reports; English only
- Best for: novelists, editors and long-form writers who want reports on style, pacing, overused words and readability, not only error fixes.
- Main limitation: the ProWritingAid pricing page says it works only in English (US, UK, Australian and Canadian). Free accounts get suggestions on 500 words at a time and 2 runs of each report a day. Monthly plans are not refundable.
ProWritingAid's free plan checks 500 words at a time, according to ProWritingAid's pricing page on 23 October 2026.
DeepL Write
Strongest for polishing business and academic prose
- Best for: polishing business letters, academic prose and client messages where tone and register matter.
- Main limitation: the About DeepL Write article caps texts at 1,500 characters at a time without an account, and 2,000 for DeepL Pro users who lack Write Pro. Rewriting into another variety of a language works only between British and American English.
DeepL Write supports 11 language options, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean, according to DeepL's help center on 23 October 2026.
Microsoft Editor
Free basics with a Microsoft account; no separate app to install
- Best for: people who already write in Word, Outlook or the Edge browser and want basic checks without another subscription.
- Main limitation: the Editor browser extensions for Edge and Chrome were retired on 31 October 2025; writing help now lives in Edge's built-in proofing, so Chrome users lose it.
Microsoft Editor's browser extensions for Edge and Chrome were retired on 31 October 2025, according to Microsoft Support.
Reviewed 23 October 2026 against LanguageTool, ProWritingAid, DeepL, Microsoft and Grammarly pricing, plan and help pages.
Our pick
LanguageTool wins because it covers what most people use Grammarly for, in far more languages, at a lower annual price. LanguageTool's subscription article lists Premium at EUR 19.90 monthly, EUR 39.90 a quarter, EUR 59.89 a year or EUR 99.90 for two years, and team plans at EUR 56.90 a user a year. The Premium page raises the text limit from 2,000 to 150,000 characters per field and adds unlimited AI sentence rephrasing. The trade-off: prices are listed in euros, and the free plan's 2,000-character limit is tight for long documents.
Switching from Grammarly: what it does well and why people leave
Grammarly remains a strong default for English. Grammarly's plans page lists a Free plan with 100 AI prompts a month and tone detection, and a Pro plan at USD 12 with 2,000 prompts per member a month, full-sentence rewrites and plagiarism and AI text detection. If that covers your work, our Grammarly review explains which plan fits.
People switch for four documented reasons:
- Training defaults. Grammarly's product improvement and training article says the setting is on by default for individual users. You can turn it off at any time.
- Language coverage. Pro lists help to "write fluently in English". Writers who work in German, French or Spanish need a checker built for those languages.
- Price clarity. On 23 October 2026 the Pro card showed USD 12 without a billing period beside the price.
- Prompt caps. AI text generation is metered at 100 prompts a month on Free and 2,000 on Pro.
Grammarly Free includes 100 AI prompts a month, according to Grammarly's plans page checked on 23 October 2026.
Where Grammarly alternatives fall short
None of these is a full Grammarly clone. LanguageTool is closest, but its free tier is built for short texts. ProWritingAid is the stronger editor for fiction and reports, yet it does nothing outside English. DeepL Write is a polishing tool you paste text into, not a checker that underlines errors as you type in every app. Microsoft Editor covers basics well inside Microsoft's own apps and little beyond them.
There is also a cost to switching that no price table shows. Grammarly's personal dictionary, style guide and brand tones do not export to these tools, so budget an hour to rebuild custom words and rules. Our AI tool privacy checklist covers the settings to check before you paste client text into any new checker.
No grammar checker should accept rewrites on your behalf; review every suggestion that changes a claim, a number or a hedge.
Grammar, style and translation are different jobs
The four picks solve different problems, which is why the ranking puts breadth first:
- Grammar and spelling across apps: LanguageTool and Microsoft Editor underline errors where you type.
- Style and structure: ProWritingAid's reports flag sticky sentences, pacing, repeats and readability across a whole manuscript.
- Register and tone: DeepL Write proposes alternative words and whole sentences and lets you choose a writing style and tone for your audience.
- Translation: DeepL Pro bundles translation with Write Pro; see our AI translation tools ranking if that is your main job.
If you write fiction, a combination often works better than one tool: a fast checker while drafting, and ProWritingAid's reports on the full draft.
How we picked
- We compared each checker's documented plans, monthly, annual and lifetime prices, free limits, supported languages, platform coverage and data handling, using vendor pricing and help pages read on 23 October 2026. LanguageTool and DeepL list euro prices; we report them in euros rather than converting. Picks weigh how fully each tool replaces Grammarly for everyday writing against price and data terms. We left out tools built mainly for paraphrasing. Our full method is on the HumanRank ranking methodology page.
How to choose
How to choose
- Collect three real pieces of your writing: an email, a long document and something in your second language if you have one.
- Run all three through the free tiers of LanguageTool, ProWritingAid and DeepL Write.
- Count suggestions that were wrong or changed your meaning, not total suggestions.
- Check each tool's character or word limit against your longest typical document.
- Price a year: LanguageTool at EUR 59.89, ProWritingAid at USD 120, or DeepL Pro plus Write Pro.
- Turn off training or confirm storage settings before pasting anything confidential, then cancel Grammarly after a full week.
For the full field, see our AI grammar checker rankings, the DeepL Write review and our AI writing tools guide. Writers comparing workflows can start with our guide for writers.
Questions people ask
What is the best free Grammarly alternative?
LanguageTool's free plan is the closest match for everyday checking, up to 2,000 characters per text field. Microsoft Editor's free basics suit people who already write in Word.
Is there a Grammarly alternative for languages other than English?
Yes. LanguageTool lists more than 30 languages, DeepL Write lists 11 and Microsoft Editor more than 20. ProWritingAid supports English only.
Which Grammarly alternative is cheapest?
LanguageTool's two-year Premium plan works out to EUR 4.16 a month. ProWritingAid Premium is USD 10 a month billed yearly.
Can I buy a lifetime Grammarly alternative?
Yes. ProWritingAid sells lifetime Premium for USD 399 and lifetime Premium Pro for USD 699, with a 3-day money-back guarantee.
Is ProWritingAid better than Grammarly for fiction?
For long fiction, ProWritingAid is our pick: more than 25 writing reports on Premium, plus chapter critiques. Grammarly is stronger for quick corrections across many apps.
Does DeepL Write check grammar?
Yes. DeepL says Write corrects grammar, spelling and punctuation and suggests alternative words and phrasing in 11 language options.
Does Microsoft Editor still work in Chrome?
No. Microsoft retired the Editor extensions for Chrome and Edge on 31 October 2025. Editor features continue in Word, Outlook and Edge's built-in proofing.
Which Grammarly alternative does not store my text?
ProWritingAid says it never keeps text entered into its editor, and DeepL says Write Pro texts are not stored while you are logged in.
Sources
- [1]LanguageTool's subscription article help.languagetool.org · 23 Oct 2026
- [2]Premium page languagetool.org · 23 Oct 2026
- [3]Grammarly's plans page grammarly.com · 23 Oct 2026
- [4]product improvement and training article support.grammarly.com · 23 Oct 2026
- [5]ProWritingAid pricing page prowritingaid.com · 23 Oct 2026
- [6]About DeepL Write article support.deepl.com · 23 Oct 2026
- [7]DeepL's pricing page deepl.com · 23 Oct 2026
- [8]were retired on 31 October 2025 support.microsoft.com · 23 Oct 2026
- [9]Microsoft's Editor help article support.microsoft.com · 23 Oct 2026