Free Grammarly alternatives: we gave three tools the same 7 mistakes
We typed the same paragraph with 7 mistakes into QuillBot, LanguageTool and ProWritingAid, then tried their free AI rewrites. Two caught everything without an account.
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QuillBot and ProWritingAid both caught all 7 mistakes for free, without an account, as Grammarly did. LanguageTool showed 6 and kept the 7th for Premium. For free AI rewriting, none of them is generous: QuillBot gave us one rewrite before asking us to sign up, and most of LanguageTool's paraphrases got the facts or the grammar wrong.
Most people looking for a Grammarly alternative want one thing: a grammar checker that is free. So we tested the free versions of the three best-known alternatives with the same paragraph we gave Grammarly in our Grammarly review, then tried each one’s free AI rewriting.
The short answer
- Best free checker: QuillBot. It caught all 7 mistakes with no account, and fixed them all with one click.
- Best for long-form writers: ProWritingAid. It also caught all 7 with no account; its rewriting tools need a free sign-up.
- Most languages: LanguageTool. It found 6 of 7 for free and kept the last one for Premium, but it checks over 30 languages.
- Stay with Grammarly if you want AI help drafting: its free plan gives you 100 AI prompts a month, far more than these tools give without paying.
How we tested
On 14 November 2026 we used each tool’s free web checker in a desktop browser, with no account, no browser extension and no app. We declined optional cookies where we were asked.
We typed this paragraph into each one. It has 7 mistakes:
Their are three record’s you need to add, and its easy to get one wrong. When we tested Kit, the domain were verified in about 20 second, which is alot faster then most tools we have tried.
The mistakes are their, record’s, its, were, second, alot and then. Grammarly’s free plan caught all 7 in our review. Then we asked each tool’s free AI to rewrite the corrected text, where it let us.
Results side by side
| Grammarly | QuillBot | LanguageTool | ProWritingAid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mistakes caught for free | 7 of 7 | 7 of 7 | 6 of 7 (1 Premium) | 7 of 7 |
| Account needed to check | Yes | No | No | No |
| Free AI rewriting we got | 100 prompts a month | 1 rewrite, then sign-up | 3 paraphrases | Needs an account |
| Accuracy of the AI rewrites | Accurate | Accurate | 1 of 5 fully right | Not tested |
| Cheapest paid plan | $12 a month, yearly | $8.33 a month, yearly | €59.89 a year | $10 a month, yearly |
| Affiliate programme | Impact | PartnerStack | Awin | Awin |
Prices from each tool’s own pricing or help pages on 14 November 2026. LanguageTool lists its prices in euros.
1. QuillBot: best free grammar checker
QuillBot’s free grammar checker needs no account. We pasted the paragraph and clicked Check grammar.
At first it only underlined “Their”. After we accepted that fix, the other six appeared at once, with an Accept all button that fixed everything in one click: all 7 mistakes, each with the right correction.
Two oddities. Its Grammar score went down from 94 to 64 after our first fix, because it scored the text before it had finished checking. And after we accepted everything, it suggested replacing “tried.” with “tried.”, which changes nothing.
Free AI rewriting: we selected the corrected paragraph and chose Rewrite, then Standard. The result was accurate: “You must add three records, and it’s simple to make a mistake. The domain was verified in roughly 20 seconds when we tested Kit…”. Below it, QuillBot said: “No free writing commands left today”. One rewrite was all we got without an account.
The free plan, once you sign up, includes paraphrasing up to 125 words in 2 modes. Premium costs $8.33 a month billed yearly.
2. ProWritingAid: also 7 of 7
ProWritingAid’s free grammar checker also needs no account. It found 7 suggestions, one for each mistake, and offered the right fix for each one, such as “There” for “Their”. You step through them one at a time with arrows; there is no fix-all button.
Free AI rewriting: the free checker page has none. ProWritingAid’s free account includes 10 Rephrases a day and 2 runs a day of each editing report, but we did not create an account for this test, so we have not rated its AI.
ProWritingAid is built for long writing such as novels and reports, with style and structure reports most people will not need for an email. Premium costs $10 a month billed yearly ($120).
3. LanguageTool: 6 of 7, the 7th behind Premium
LanguageTool checks as you type, with no account, up to 2,000 characters. It underlined 6 of our 7 mistakes. The panel then showed “1 more grammar issue, Premium”. The one mistake it did not underline was “20 second”.
Free AI rewriting: LanguageTool gives 3 free paraphrases without an account. We clicked our second sentence, which still had its mistakes in it, and it offered five AI rewrites. Only one was fully right. The others:
- Two were not grammatical: “Kit verified the domain were verified in approximately 20 seconds…”.
- Two changed the facts: “Kit verified the domains” (we verified one domain), and “checked in just over 20 seconds” (we said about 20).
Its word suggestions were also off: for “second” it offered “cycles” and “microseconds”.
LanguageTool’s strength is languages: it checks over 30, which none of the others match. Its help centre lists Premium at €59.89 a year or €19.90 month to month.
Which free Grammarly alternative should you use?
For a free grammar check with no sign-up, use QuillBot. It caught everything, and “Accept all” fixes a whole document in one click.
For books, reports and long articles, try ProWritingAid. It caught everything too, and its free account adds daily editing reports and 10 AI rephrases a day.
If you write in more than one language, use LanguageTool, and double-check its AI paraphrases before you use them.
If you want an AI to help you draft, stay with Grammarly. Its free plan gives 100 AI prompts a month, and its outline for our technical guide was accurate. Read the full Grammarly review.
None of the four needs a card for the free version. Whichever you choose, read the AI’s rewrites before you accept them: in our test, four of LanguageTool’s five rewrites added a new mistake.