Grammar Wars: A Software Showdown




Most sporting events award first, second and third place. There may be hundreds of competitors, but only the first three get recognized. Also, when it comes to writing software; (specifically editing software), I’m going to cover the first three. These three programs will blow a normal word processor when it comes to basic grammar and spelling. The three big contenders are Grammatically, ProWritingAid, and the Hemingway Editor. Yes, I have used all three, but will drop one of them shortly.

The biggest ad budget goes to Grammarly, hands down. You can see it advertised on YouTube, Facebook, blogs and websites all over the world.

Many writers, especially those who use Scrivener, prefer ProWritingAid.

The underdog, and less known to most, is Hemingway’s editor.

A lot of people like to support the homeless, so that’s where I’ll start. The Hemingway Editor is the least expensive of the three programs with a one-time purchase price of $ 19.99. Note that all three have free versions available. One of the beautiful things about this program is that you do NOT need internet access to use it. It focuses on five main areas to improve your writing. These areas include readability, adverbs, passive voice, word choice, and sentence structure. You can export to a variety of formats, including HTML, PDF, text, and Word. Add this to your existing word processing program, and Will raise the quality of your work.

As mentioned, Grammarly is VERY popular and with good reason. In addition to being able to use it in your novel or short story, it can be used in email and in the Chrome browser. That means you don’t have to be embarrassed when you post to your writers group on Facebook and use the wrong version of the effect (for example). It has a Word add-in that works great on Windows, but not so well on Mac. It has good suggestions for improving vocabulary and supports more than 30 file types. It has a plagiarism checker, and according to the website, the paid version has more than 400 controls and functions. Note that I HAVE the paid version and have no idea what those features include. Some will argue, you get what you pay for, but be careful. The cost of this program is $ 139.95 for year.

ProWritingAid has the widest compatibility with Windows and Mac operating systems. Works great with top word processing programs like Word, Scrivener, Open Office, Google Docs, and more. It has a Word Explorer feature that contains a thesaurus, dictionary, reverse dictionary, collocation dictionary, alliteration dictionary, cliche dictionary, rhyme, and usage examples for poetry, prose, and songs. It has over 25 reports examining different areas of your writing, including checking spelling, grammar, and contextual punctuation. This means that it offers recommendations based on what you actually write, not an outdated rulebook. Pricing for this software starts at $ 40.00 per year, but you also have a $ 140.00 option for a lifetime license.

So who won the gold? To answer that, I decided to test all three. I did this on Thanksgiving 2017. I selected a 1200 word scene from one of my work in progress. Since Grammarly seemed to be the big favorite, I started there. I used the add-in for Word 2016 and received 15 critical errors. Then just for fun I posted it online where it said it had 9 critical bugs AND 24 advanced problems (because I had the paid edition). Fifteen verses thirty-three, weird. I thought it was the same show, but apparently not.

Hemingway’s editor was much more consistent, submitting 36 errors both online and independently. Yes, the cheapest of the three found twice as much as the most expensive program of the group. Makes me wonder.

Now the moment of truth, ProWritingAid found 222 errors in 22 separate detailed reports using the same 1200 word document. They offered easy-to-understand explanations for everything they marked. I’m not saying I would use all 222 recommendations, but even if I only accepted 50%, that’s a lot more than the other two.

So in short, ProWritingAid took the gold, Hemingway’s editor took the silver, and in a distant third place, Grammarly took the bronze. Remember when I said I’d drop one of these shortly? Guess which one I no longer use. If you don’t like these results, run your own tests. (There are free online versions of each.) Play with all three and decide who won the Grammar War for you.

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