Grammarly Review 2023: Is the Premium Version Worth It?
Whether a blogger, tech person, or researcher, you must have good writing skills to write great articles, documentation, research papers, etc.
But not everyone is good at writing or understanding the grammar.
That’s where Grammarly comes in.
Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that checks for grammar and spelling mistakes and offers suggestions for improving the overall readability and clarity of your writing. It is used by more than 30 Million people and 50,000 teams worldwide.
Being in the tech industry, My writing skills were always not good, so I have been using Grammarly since my college days (more than five years), and recently I upgraded to the premium version, and I must say, “It is worth the price.”
In this Grammarly review, I’ll share my experience with this popular grammar checker and help you decide whether it’s worth using or upgrading to the premium version in 2023.
Why Use Grammarly?
There are several reasons why I recommend using Grammarly as your go-to writing tool:
Catch grammar and spelling mistakes.
No matter how meticulous you are, it’s easy to overlook typos and grammar errors when writing. Grammarly helps you catch these mistakes before you hit “send” or “publish,” saving you from potential embarrassment.
Improve writing style and clarity.
Grammarly goes beyond basic grammar and spelling checks. It also offers suggestions to improve sentence structure, eliminate wordiness, and make your writing more concise and engaging.
Customize writing suggestions
Grammarly allows you to set specific goals for your writing, such as the target audience, formality level, and desired writing style. This helps tailor the suggestions you receive to fit your unique needs.
Plagiarism checker
The premium version of Grammarly includes a powerful plagiarism checker, which is essential for students, academics, and content creators who must ensure their work is original and properly cited.
Easy to use
Grammarly offers browser extensions, a desktop app, and mobile apps, making it easy to integrate into your writing process, no matter where or how you write.
Let me explain how useful these features are with an example. So I have asked ChatGPT to write a paragraph on “Generative AI” with grammar and spelling mistakes. I pasted that paragraph into the Grammarly editor, which immediately provided suggestions.
After applying all the suggestions, I asked ChatGPT to evaluate both paragraphs and guess which one was better – “Of course, the paragraph after applying Grammarly suggestions.”
It took me only a couple of clicks to apply these suggestions. Think about how much time you would have spent without using Grammarly.
In the next sections, we’ll dive deeper into the features and benefits of both the free and premium versions of Grammarly, so you can decide which is right for you.
Grammarly Free vs. Grammarly Premium
Before we get into the details of Grammarly Premium, here is the difference between Grammarly Free and Premium.
Grammarly Free:
- Basic grammar and spelling checks
- Limited punctuation and context-related suggestions
- Personal dictionary to customize your experience
Grammarly Premium:
- Comprehensive grammar, spelling, and punctuation checks
- Advanced suggestions for clarity, engagement, and writing style
- Vocabulary enhancement and synonym suggestions
- Plagiarism checker with citation suggestions
- Genre-specific writing style checks
- Access to Grammarly’s premium support
- GrammarlyGO is a new Generative AI feature.
As you can see, the free version of Grammarly provides basic grammar checks, while the premium plan offers a more in-depth analysis of your writing and additional features to help improve your writing.
Let’s understand this with an example as well. Again, I have asked ChatGPT to write a 200-word essay on “How AI will impact SEO” without any grammatical or spelling mistakes. Since there were no spelling / grammatical mistakes, only the premium version of Grammarly provided suggestions.
Here is one sentence that needed improvement
Here is what Grammarly Premium provided as part of the suggestion for the sentence
Grammarly Premium Review
Now, let’s dive into the features and benefits of Grammarly Premium to see if it’s worth the upgrade.
Advanced Writing Suggestions
Grammarly Premium goes beyond basic grammar and spelling checks. It offers advanced suggestions to improve your writing style, clarity, and engagement. For instance, it helps you identify passive voice, wordiness, and overused words, making your writing more concise and engaging.
Vocabulary Enhancement and Synonym Suggestions
One of my favorite features of Grammarly Premium is the vocabulary enhancement tool. It identifies words that could be replaced with more precise or impactful alternatives, helping you convey your message more effectively. This feature is particularly useful for non-native English speakers or those looking to expand their vocabulary.
For example. Grammarly suggested using the word exciting instead of interesting based on the context to improve the content.
Plagiarism Checker
The plagiarism checker in Grammarly Premium is invaluable for students, academics, and content creators. It scans your text against billions of web pages and academic databases, ensuring your work is original and properly cited. This feature helps you avoid accidental plagiarism and maintain your credibility.
For example. I ran the plagiarism Checker on the essay generated from ChatGPT, and it detected 10% of the content plagiarised.
Grammarly Go
Grammarly Go is the new Generative AI feature introduced by Grammarly for writing content based on the prompt. This allows us to write the content in addition to revising the content. It is currently in BETA. You can specify the Tone, Formality along with the English Language.
Genre-specific Writing Style Checks
Grammarly Premium allows you to choose the type of document you’re working on, such as an academic paper, a blog post, or a business document. This helps tailor the suggestions you receive to fit your genre’s specific writing style and requirements, making your work more effective and polished. You can specify the Intent, Audience Formality, etc.
In conclusion, while the free version of Grammarly is a helpful tool for basic grammar and spelling checks, upgrading to Grammarly Premium provides you with a comprehensive writing assistant that can significantly improve the quality of your writing. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or a content creator, Grammarly Premium is worth the investment to ensure your writing is clear, engaging, and plagiarism-free.
Grammarly Premium Pricing
The premium plan has 3 pricing models, as the image below specifies. Personally, I have purchased the annual plan, which costs $144 billed as a single payment.
The monthly pricing can be expensive if you are on a tight budget.
Grammarly Business
Overview
While the premium version is consumer-based, Grammarly Business is tailored for organizations looking to improve their team’s communication and writing skills.
It offers all the features of Grammarly Premium and additional benefits like centralized billing, team usage statistics, and priority support.
It also helps teams ensure their content is professional, clear, and error-free, which is crucial for maintaining a polished brand image.
Pricing
The business plan is charged on a per-member basis. There are 2 pricing models supported.
- Annual – $15 charge per member.
- Monthly – $25 charge per member.
Who is Grammarly made for?
Grammarly is an online writing assistant tool designed for anyone who wants to improve their writing skills. It is helpful for students, professionals, bloggers, writers, and anyone who writes in English, whether for academic purposes or everyday communication.
Students: Students can use Grammarly for writing essays, documentation, publishing research papers, etc.
Bloggers: Bloggers always need to stay on top of their content schedule. So having Grammarly in the arsenal is definitely helpful to fix spelling and grammatical errors within clicks.
Professionals: Grammarly can help professionals write error-free emails, job descriptions, documentation, etc.
Non-Native English Speakers: Grammarly can be especially helpful for non-native English speakers who want to enhance their writing and communication skills. The tool provides real-time feedback on grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, and conciseness, helping users to catch errors and improve their writing style.
Overall, Grammarly is made for anyone who wants to write better and communicate more effectively in English.
How to install Grammarly?
Desktop
The Grammarly Desktop app is available for Windows and macOS, allowing you to access Grammarly’s features without needing a browser. The desktop app integrates with popular applications like Microsoft Word, ensuring your writing is error-free across multiple platforms.
Mobile Apps
Grammarly also offers mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. The Grammarly Keyboard app provides real-time grammar, spelling, and punctuation checks as you type on your smartphone or tablet, making it easy to write high-quality content on the go. The Grammarly app also offers a document editor, allowing you to create, edit, and review your writing directly from your mobile device.
Browser Extension
The Grammarly browser extension is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. It integrates seamlessly with your browser, providing real-time writing suggestions as you type in web-based applications like Gmail, Google Docs, and social media platforms. The browser extension ensures that your writing is polished and professional, no matter where you compose content online.
Other Integrations
Using the Text Editor SDK, you can also integrate Grammarly into your own application.
In summary, Grammarly offers a range of tools and applications to cater to different writing needs and preferences. Whether working on a desktop computer, a mobile device, or within your web browser, Grammarly has you covered with its powerful grammar checker and writing assistant features. With Grammarly Business, even entire teams can benefit from improved communication and polished writing, making it a versatile and valuable tool for various users.
Pros and Cons of Grammarly
Pros
- Real-time grammar and spelling checks: Grammarly catches errors as you write, helping you create polished content with minimal effort.
- Easy to use: The interface is user-friendly and intuitive, making it simple for anyone to improve their writing.
- In-depth explanations: Grammarly provides clear explanations for suggested corrections, allowing you to learn and improve your writing skills.
- Supports multiple platforms: With desktop apps, mobile apps, and browser extensions, Grammarly works seamlessly across different devices and applications.
- Customization: Grammarly allows you to set your preferred writing style, tone, and audience, ensuring personalized and context-specific suggestions.
- Plagiarism checker: The premium version includes a powerful plagiarism checker, helping you ensure originality in your content.
Cons
- Limited features in the free version: The free version of Grammarly offers basic grammar and spelling checks, but many advanced features are only available in the premium version.
- Cost: The premium version can be expensive for individual users or small businesses.
- Occasional false positives: Grammarly may occasionally suggest incorrect changes or miss certain errors, though this is relatively rare.
- Limited offline functionality: Grammarly’s real-time suggestions are primarily available when connected to the internet.
FAQs
Can I use Grammarly for free?
Yes, you can use Grammarly for free.
Why is Grammarly so expensive?
Grammarly uses AI to provide improvements to the text with greater accuracy. Training the AI models requires huge data and resources. Due to this, Grammarly can be expensive, but it is definitely worth it if you consider the features that it provides.
Is Grammarly good for students?
Yes, students can use Grammarly to improve their writing. I used Grammarly extensively in college for writing documentation, research papers, etc.
Final Verdict: Is Grammarly Worth It?
In conclusion, Grammarly is a powerful writing tool that can significantly improve the quality of your content. Its real-time grammar and spelling checks, user-friendly interface, and compatibility with multiple platforms make it a versatile and valuable resource.
While the free version offers basic features, upgrading to Grammarly Premium unlocks advanced suggestions, plagiarism checks, and more in-depth writing insights. For individuals and businesses that rely on professional, error-free communication, the investment in Grammarly Premium can be well worth it.
Ultimately, your decision to use Grammarly and whether to upgrade to the premium version will depend on your specific writing needs and budget. However, with its comprehensive features and user-friendly experience, Grammarly is an excellent tool for anyone looking to elevate their writing skills and create polished, professional content.
