Is Grammarly worth it – To ones into writing online posts, there is a good chance you’ve come across this app – Grammarly. I started using Grammarly (The free version) over two years ago, and I’ve been using it ever since. We’ll see about it in this Grammarly premium review.
In this review, I have elaborated on all parts of the premium subscription with pictures. By the end of this post, you’ll find out everything you need to know – whether Grammarly Premium is worth it for you.
This is going to be a long read. Say you’re in for quick answers, help yourself with this table of content.
Note: All the screenshots provided in this post can differ from Grammarly you install. The app is constantly updated.
Grammarly Premium Review: What is Grammarly used for?
Grammarly is an application that makes your writing easy to read, engaging, and, most importantly, mistake-free. When you type your document, it detects grammar and punctuation mistakes, spelling mistakes, and word choice errors.
All in all, it’s a proofreader. While it doesn’t completely replace a proofreader in person, it’s the best proofreading application for online writers. Considering you’re a student, freelance writer, content marketer, blogger, or writer at a reputed professional company, this helps you with loads of work. Or even for these purposes:
- Say you want to make a good impression with your resume. You use it to write an official letter so that the other person takes an interest in it.
What is Grammarly used for?
I’m serious when it comes to errors in writing. Because in the end, no matter how informative and engaging your content is, grammar plays a vital role. There’s always a large gap between a high-quality article and an equally informative article with bad grammar.
As a blogger, writing clearly with engaging content and making it error-free, no doubt, plays a vital role. Some people I know come to me to get their works to get it checked. But I’ve to say, even with all that, I make mistakes when I write posts on this blog.
Just small mistakes, but they count. When one usually types over 70 words per minute, they’re bound to make a couple of errors here and there. It does seem funny to me when I look at those errors, but it’s my writing. To take care of these teeny-tiny mistakes, I recommend using Grammarly.
At least the free version of Grammarly they offer.
Why not use Grammarly?
Whatever you are writing on, it has a message. It is all about delivering that message to your audience and nothing. The clearer your message is, the better writer you are. When people have trouble understanding what you tried conveying, it is a nuisance for people to take time and follow you.
Speaking of which, a message – be it on Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium, or even a blog post (even this Grammarly premium review!) – define one on the Internet. Like it or not, though being smart and a professional, you’ll be considered negative and turned down only because of a lack of effort on the editing part of your works.
It’s a simple tool to help you overcome these small yet essential details of your writing. Why not make use of it?
After all, you’ve nothing to lose. What’s a loss for improving your writing with a little bit of help from Grammarly? When you have the opportunity to convey, then convey it the right way and increase the impact of everything.
The real question is “Is Grammarly worth it?” While you can already use its free version for however long you want, consider Grammarly Premium for pushing your writing even further. Though it doesn’t replace a proofreader in person, let’s talk about why it’s worth considering it.
Here’s why I recommend using Grammarly
Is Grammarly worth it? The best reason why I recommend using Grammarly – is because I use it myself. I’ve been using it since the time I first began writing blogs. I wrote my travel blogs for Travelista Club back then, and that’s where I learned about Grammarly.
Being reasonably good with my grammar already, Grammarly helped with the smaller things. The little things like where I should use my commas and where not to. And also to stick with a particular English writing. With the majority of my readers from the US, I set my option to ‘American- English’. Where I first wrote ‘labour,’ it turned it to ‘labor’ and turned ‘centre’ to ‘center’.
I wouldn’t necessarily say this part helped improve my writing, but it assisted in focusing on my specific audience – and in my line of work (blogging), that’s what I wanted!
Some of the other reasons why I’d recommend it are:
It works!
The way Grammarly seamlessly fits into your text editor box and functions is the best feature. While there are many sites and apps that help you with this, Grammarly is by far more reliable and user-friendly.
Most apps and sites make blunt mistakes while detecting errors, or trying to correct them – sending irrelevant suggestions. While Grammarly does make mistakes occasionally, it’s rare. I write at least 200 to 500-word pieces every day with the help of Grammarly, and I don’t see it making a mistake anywhere that often.
All you have to do is visit its site, add their free extension plugin for your browser to try it out. And with no further setup, it begins to work! As long as you have an internet connection, you’re good to go. The best part of it’s that you don’t need to fill in those payment details when you begin using your free version.
Grammarly Free vs. Premium
Grammarly is one hell of a generous company. Most companies that offer the trial version of their products have minimal features available. Though Grammarly did restrict many of its advanced features, it’s sufficient to help with the necessary spelling and grammar.
So what’re these advanced features that they charge for?
While Grammarly’s free version assists you with spelling and grammar, Grammarly Premium has several features along with it, including a plagiarism checker, engagement score, delivery score, and synonyms for a given word when you double click it.
I use Grammarly Premium because it’s useful to me.
Can I get Grammarly Premium for free?
I see a lot of people searching for this. You can use the free version of Grammarly. But Grammarly Premium is not free.
As said earlier, I used the free version of Grammarly for two years, and now I upgraded to the premium version. While the free version is helpful enough, Grammarly Premium helps you out as you go further into your writing career. Or improve your writing further considering you have the time and money for it.
With Grammarly Premium
How to use Grammarly?
There are various ways to use Grammarly. You don’t need to copy your document to Grammarly’s web tool to get results.
Here are the options:
Grammarly browser extension
I’d put this first as this is what I make the most use of. Also, this is the easiest way to use it. All you have to do is get the browser extension from Grammarly’s homepage to start using it right away.
It functions in most of the sites a person typically uses. When you’re writing a Facebook post or sending a mail to someone on Gmail, the Grammarly plugin guides you through it. Not long ago, Grammarly became available even on Google docs with its Beta version, which looks something like this now: It is pretty cool actually.
Downloadable for Microsoft Word and Outlook
For Word and Outlook, download the Grammarly add-in particularly meant for Microsoft. It should be around 13.9 to 14 MB when you download it from their site.
After installing it on your PC, open Word or Outlook and click that Grammarly icon on the top toolbar to connect with your account, and you’re good to go.
Once in, you should be able to see it:
Download for Desktop
Currently, Grammarly’s available only on Windows and Mac. About the size, while the add-in for Microsoft Word is less than 14 MB, Grammarly for desktop is around 45 MB.
Follow the instructions as per their installation and start using it as the online version.
Grammarly’s Web Tool
When you don’t want to use any of the downloadable versions or the browser extension, another way to use it’s with the web tool that Grammarly provides. Here you copy and paste your document to their textbox, and Grammarly shall take care of the rest.
It takes a couple of seconds to analyze your page, depending on your internet speed, but it’s another reliable way for sure. Or to make the whole editing process faster, type in their web tool right away where your writing is checked as you type.
Since I am a regular user, I prefer to have the extension ready at anytime I open the lid of my laptop. It’s left to you to use any of these ways to make use of Grammarly – free or premium – on your PC.
For Mobile Devices
I don’t use this, but I’ve tested it. Grammarly does have its keyboard for Android and Ios users – also very responsive. Get Grammarly’s app from the Playstore or Appstore to use it.
Like the smart prediction usually built-in with most of the smartphone keyboards these days, Grammarly’s keyboard has this feature as well. It also helps in finding out the tiny mistakes you make while texting someone or writing an email to someone.
Now it all comes back to this:
Is Grammarly Worth it?
Yes, Grammarly premium is worth it, especially when you’re someone who spends a lot of time writing emails, blogs, articles, and other such works regularly online.
Without a person to proofread your works every time, you should be able to manage fine with the help of Grammarly Premium.
It helps you maintain the quality of your writing all by yourself. When the pricing’s over your budget, then it’s best to start with the free version and upgrade later on. Grammarly Premium detects far more grammatical issues than the free version.
The feature that helps more than anything in Grammarly Premium is the ‘Set Goals’ feature.
‘Set Goals’ Feature
Grammarly does say that it’s Artificial Intelligence. And it’s no wonder used in this feature. It gives you customized suggestions for your writing.
As an aspiring writer, the most important thing when it comes to improving is feedback. When you want to know how your article is, you need feedback. That’s that. But more importantly, the feedback should be knowledgeable about what you are exactly trying to convey and how you’re trying to send your message.
For example, dig deep into a specific expertise content where there’s no option to simplify your work, then it’s obviously meant only for knowledgeable readers. Without the ‘Set Goals’ feature, Grammarly wouldn’t know the intent you’ve for your writing. But with this feature available, Grammarly understands it.
Similarly, with this AI, specify how you want your writing to sound to the reader. Be it Intent, Tone, Audience, or Formality – be specific about it.
If Grammarly’s doing anything to improvise, it’s this: They are working to make it more human with the AI editor. And it’s absolutely great!
Apart from this feature, starting from simple suggestions to convert passive to active sentences to rephrase a sentence, Grammarly Premium helps with it all.
With that, let’s talk about its pricing.
Grammarly Premium Pricing Details
Though Grammarly Premium is considered expensive compared to other writing tools, it can be used with great functionality in its free version as well.
But mainly talking about Grammarly Premium here, here’s the current pricing list:
- $11.66 per month for Annual Plan
- $19.98 per month for Quarterly Plan
- $29.95 per month for Monthly Plan
Quick note: I strongly recommend submitting your email to Grammarly (make a free Grammarly account). Sometimes they send you great deals to your inbox. In fact, not long ago there was an offer of $75 for the annual plan. That’s close to half of the usual annual plan price! So keep an eye out for it.
Grammarly Business Pricing
Grammarly premium review – This is another plan that you could go for you when you have a company where you want your staff to have Grammarly as well.
The Business version has all the features of Grammarly Premium for its members (minimum three). It also has an additional element of an Admin Panel and Statistics for your team members.
Previously, the price per member was $15 a month when billed annually. However, now the price of Grammarly Business is $12.50 a month when billed annually. As you opt for a plan with more members, the discount gets greater:
(All of these discount plans apply when billed annually)
- 3 to 9 members – $12.50 per member a month
- 10 to 49 members – $12.08 per member a month
- 50 to 149 members – $11.67 per member a month
However, there isn’t an option for a lesser number of members. The minimum starts with 3 members.
The Grammarly Business plan is $25 per member monthly.
Grammarly Vs Prowriting Aid
Not long ago, I decided to dig deeper into the AI proofreading competitors. While Grammarly has outstanding performance, ProwritingAid isn’t very far behind in competing. ProwritingAid is also very reliable. It comes down to your choice -ProwritingAid or this one.
Here are some great differences I found between the two:
1. Appearance
Grammarly boasts a clean look where a new user can easily grasp using it. It stresses more on providing a distraction-free environment. It doesn’t scare its users away at first sight.
ProwritingAid, when it comes to performance, it’s equally helpful. However, I needed some time to figure out what all the buttons on its top dashboard do. Grammarly avoided placing that dashboard on the editing snippet.
2. Performance
Back to its reliability, Grammarly and ProwritingAid are close when it comes to speed.
- My Experience: For testing, I installed Grammarly’s browser extension on Microsoft Edge and ProwritingAid’s plugin extension on Google Chrome. As soon as I popped open my WordPress text editor to edit an article, Grammarly and ProwritingAid began their scanning instantaneously almost at the same time.
I further tested it by switching the extensions on Edge and Chrome as speeds could differ due to the browser speed – only to find out they both have great speed.
Considering integrations, again both Grammarly and ProwritingAid are compatible with most platforms:
- Windows, Apple, Word, Google Docs, Medium
They differ when it comes to Grammarly’s app that’s available for mobile devices (Grammarly Keyboard). ProwritingAid mainly supports desktops.
Small Details: ProwritingAid comes with amazing features, but I daresay Grammarly’s plagiarism checker is better. Also, Grammarly is better at detecting names. Period. I recently wrote a travel article on Bali where it could correct me in the popular place names that I spelled wrong. The same article, when scanned with ProwritingAid detected it as an error.
It took a little longer to detect that the word was capitalized and it was a name.
3. Free Version
Without a doubt as to why is Grammarly worth it as it’s generous in providing some of its services for free.ProwritingAid (the free version) only scans the first 500 words of your article. You’ll need to buy the premium version for the rest.
On the other hand, Grammarly’s free version is enough when you’re beginning your writing career on a tight budget – there’s no word limit to its proofreading. The premium version of Grammarly assists you further with phrasing, understanding your writing’s behavior, intent, and so on.
4. Pricing
Here comes the hitch, ProwritingAid is more affordable compared to Grammarly.
- Grammarly’s Premium plan- $139.92 yearly
- ProwritingAid’s premium plan – $59.3 yearly.
For a tighter budget, ProwritingAid is great to consider as an alternative. But say it’s affordable and you could use an editor, go for Grammarly.
I’m accustomed to the simple user interface of Grammarly and say you’ve already begun to use its free plugin extension, you are too. Grammarly’s cost adds to its disadvantages.
Grammarly Insights: Emails (Update)
I’d forgotten to mention in this Grammarly premium review; The cool analysis emails that I get from Grammarly. Sure, it’s business. Any online company website you deal with where you provide email id, they will send you emails.
But that’s not what fascinates me: it’s the emails – analysis about how you’ve been writing. Here are some screenshots:
I used to get them when I had the free version, and I still get them now – and I absolutely love it. It does sound exaggerated when it says ‘you were more productive than 98% of Grammarly users‘ and ‘more accurate than 95%‘. But the other details provide great value.
The insights help me plan on how much I write for the next week and manage time. Those who write SEO-based articles, they’ll know this.
Generally, for this blog, I write around 2500 words per week. a few thousand words for Medium, and another few thousand words when I write short stories or guest posts for other sites.
The point is, it does its part in helping me manage time – and sometimes even pushing me back to my work!
Other articles to check out for story writing tips:
- How To Edit a Short Story
- 7 Insane Plot Twist Ideas For Your Story
- How To End a Short Story the Right Way
- How To Outline a Short Story
Grammarly and Creative Writing
Grammarly Premium review: Apart from writing blog posts, I also write short stories and books (Novellas actually) from time to time. I gave it a try and used Grammarly for proofreading each chapter I had written of a book before handing it over to an editor.
It helped with all the basics – punctuation, spelling, and simple grammatical mistakes. When I passed it to my editor, he pointed out the loose ends of some descriptions, some character interpretation mistakes, and so on. If you’re looking forward to publishing something formally – say a professional document or even a book, you just can’t replace a human editor here.
Grammarly has come a long way into making a better world for writers, but a human editor for professional writing can’t be replaced. Is Grammarly worth it? Yes – but it’s best used for commercial and casual writing.
So it wouldn’t be ideal to use Grammarly for language mastery. You learn new words, improve your vocabulary, and correct your writing style. It isn’t intended for the next level of professional writing.
Anyway, Grammarly and a real reader can’t be compared. They are not meant to be. There’s no need to make a choice between them. They are both used for different purposes.
Another article to check out: Why Not To Use Grammarly?
TailPiece
Is Grammarly Worth it: To be sure you have everything covered in your writing, to give it your best, there’s nothing wrong with giving Grammarly a chance to help you? When you are deep into writing, then it’s completely worth it!
That concludes my Grammarly Premium review. Thank you :)
*This post contains affiliate links at no additional costs of the products to you. I receive a small commission when you click one of these links. I only recommend products that I trust and use.
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