This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.
Grammarly and ProWritingAid are the two most popular writing assistant tools that focus on editing rather than generation. Both catch errors, suggest improvements, and help you write more clearly. But they’re built for different priorities, and the right choice depends heavily on what kind of writer you are.
The Core Difference
Grammarly is built for speed and integration — it works everywhere (Google Docs, email, social media, browser), gives you fast, actionable suggestions, and has a minimal learning curve. It’s designed for writers who want editing assistance seamlessly woven into their existing workflow without interruption.
ProWritingAid is built for depth — it provides detailed reports on writing style, pacing, repetition, readability, dialogue, and more. It’s designed for writers who want to understand and improve their craft, not just fix surface-level errors.
Pricing
Grammarly: Free tier (basic grammar and spelling). Premium at $12/month (billed annually) — full grammar, style, tone, and clarity suggestions. Business plans from $15/user/month.
ProWritingAid: Free tier (500-word limit per check). Premium at $10/month (billed annually) — unlimited checking, all reports, and integrations. Lifetime license available for $399 — a strong option for writers who plan to use it long-term.
ProWritingAid is slightly cheaper annually and has a compelling lifetime option. Grammarly’s free tier is more functional than ProWritingAid’s.
Grammar and Error Detection
Grammarly is more reliable for catching grammar errors in real time. Its suggestions appear inline as you type, which makes it more useful for catching errors before you publish rather than after. The free tier alone catches most common mistakes.
ProWritingAid’s grammar checking is solid but better suited to a document review workflow — paste your draft, run the check, work through suggestions. Less useful for real-time editing in a browser or email client.
Winner: Grammarly for real-time grammar checking and integration breadth.
Style and Craft Feedback
This is where ProWritingAid pulls ahead significantly. Its style reports cover things Grammarly doesn’t touch: overused words, sentence length variation, pacing, sticky sentences (phrases with too many glue words), clichés, and pronoun usage patterns. For a writer trying to improve the quality of their prose — not just correct it — ProWritingAid provides genuinely useful diagnostic feedback.
Grammarly’s style feedback is more surface-level: passive voice flags, wordiness suggestions, formality checks. Useful, but not the deep craft analysis ProWritingAid provides.
Winner: ProWritingAid — by a significant margin for craft development.
Integrations
Grammarly integrates with virtually everything: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Outlook, Gmail, Slack, LinkedIn, and more. If you write across multiple platforms, Grammarly’s omnipresence is a genuine advantage.
ProWritingAid integrates with Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Scrivener, and a browser extension — solid coverage, but narrower than Grammarly.
Winner: Grammarly.
Which Writer Should Choose Which Tool
Choose Grammarly if: You write across many platforms and want seamless real-time assistance, you primarily need grammar and clarity checking rather than style analysis, or you want the best free tier available.
Choose ProWritingAid if: You write primarily in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you want detailed feedback on your writing style and craft, you’re working on longer projects (novels, long-form journalism, guides) where pacing and repetition analysis is valuable, or you want a lifetime license to avoid ongoing subscription costs.
Many serious writers use both — Grammarly for real-time error catching as they type, ProWritingAid for a deeper style pass on completed drafts. At their price points, running both costs around $22/month, which is reasonable for writers whose income depends on the quality of their editing.