I’ve been experimenting with different grammar checkers for a while now, and after a decade of use, I’ve decided to ditch Grammarly – it felt a bit of a reset. Honestly, it was a weird break-up with a roommate I’d grown attached to. But, I’ve found that LanguageTool is just as effective, and in some ways, better.
The UI transition wasn’t the smoothest; I was used to Grammarly’s intuitive way of doing things. However, once I got over that initial hurdle, it became clear that LanguageTool could handle a significant amount of work. It’s more than just catching typos; the biggest advantage is its ability to handle languages. Grammarly focuses primarily on English, while LanguageTool supports around 30 languages, including French, Spanish, and Russian – a significant leap!
Need to include a French phrase? LanguageTool effortlessly handles it. Grammarly, on the other hand, doesn’t handle multiple languages as well. It’s not just about having languages; it’s about Dialects, too. Grammarly sticks to the usual suspects – American, British, and Canadian – while LanguageTool throws in New Zealand, South Africa, and even British Standard English. Seriously, it’s more nuanced.
The best part? LanguageTool is completely open source! The code is publicly available on GitHub, meaning you can even self-host it if you’re tech-savvy (though this comes with some limitations regarding premium features). This is a huge deal for data privacy – LanguageTool doesn’t store your text for review, and they don’t share it with third parties unless you use the paraphrasing tool, which sends it to OpenAI.
Grammarly, however, collects a substantial amount of data. Speaking of paraphrase, LanguageTool’s AI-powered functionality is actually quite useful. It gives you options to rephrase sentences to improve flow or conciseness. It offers free users three sentences a day, with premium unlocking unlimited. It’s not auto-suggesting; you manually generate suggestions when needed. Price-wise, it’s a steal: $5.53 a month or $66.40 a year for the premium plan.
Grammarly wants $30 a month or $144 annually – that’s a significant difference! While it’s not perfect, no plagiarism checker is included. And while both offer writing goal selection (formal, informal, etc.), LanguageTool’s implementation feels a bit less polished than Grammarly’s.
Overall, LanguageTool is a solid writing assistant, especially if you work with multiple languages, prioritize data privacy, or simply want to save some money. It’s a winner in my book – a great alternative to both!
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