8 Best Grammarly Alternatives 2026: Free & Paid Grammar Tools

Grammarly is the best known grammar checker on the web. It has 30 million daily users. But the price went up. New rivals ship smarter AI. Some are free. Some run on your own server. This guide ranks the 8 best Grammarly alternatives for 2026.

You will see real prices for each Grammarly alternative. You also get a clean chart and the best fit for each writer. Each pick links to a full review on our site or to the vendor.

Why people leave Grammarly in 2026

The best Grammarly alternatives 2026 are here. AI writing has grown fast. People search Grammarly vs ProWritingAid and Grammarly vs LanguageTool each day. They want a free Grammarly alternative or a smart AI writing assistant. They also check Grammarly cost and want a top grammar checker.

Grammarly still works well. But three things pushed many teams to switch.

• Price. Pro went from $12 to $30 a month for new users on month plans.
• Privacy. Grammarly reads your draft on its own cloud. Some firms ban this.
• AI limits. GPT-5 and Claude write better drafts in one shot.

Want lower cost or more privacy? The best Grammarly alternatives below will fit. You can also check our leaderboard for more tools.

What to look for in a Grammarly alternative

Pick by what you write. Use what you write most. These five points matter most for any grammar checker.

• Grammar depth. A real grammar checker flags style, not just typos.
• Privacy mode. Look for on-device checks or a self-host option.
• Rewriting. A good AI writing assistant rewrites a full line, not one word.
• Price. A real free plan covers 10,000 words a month or more.
• Apps. A browser plug-in, a Word add-in, and a Mac app are key.

Quick price chart

The chart below sums up the headline price for each Grammarly alternative.

The short story on these Grammarly alternatives: Hemingway wins on price. LanguageTool wins on privacy. ProWritingAid wins on depth. Grammarly still has the slickest UI. But the gap is small now. It is closing fast.

Top 8 Grammarly alternatives

Each Grammarly alternative below is live in 2026. Prices are per user per month, billed yearly.

1. ProWritingAid — best for deep style reports

ProWritingAid is the most loved Grammarly alternative for fiction and long-form writers. Its Premium plan starts at $10 a month. It ships with 25 style reports.

• Best for: novelists, bloggers, and editors.
• Cost: Free, Premium $10, Premium Pro $12.
• Why it beats Grammarly: more style reports and a one-time lifetime plan. Visit prowritingaid.com for current plans.

2. LanguageTool — best for privacy

LanguageTool is open source. You can self-host it on your own box. The free tier is strong. The Premium plan is just $5 a month if you pay yearly.

• Best for: firms with strict privacy rules and EU teams.
• Cost: Free, Premium $5, Team $11.
• Why it beats Grammarly: open source, EU host, and a self-host build. See languagetool.org.

3. Hemingway — best free desktop app

Hemingway is a one-time desktop app for $19.99. It flags long lines and weak verbs. It is the cleanest free Grammarly alternative on the web.

• Best for: bloggers and writers who want short, punchy prose.
• Cost: Web app free, Desktop $19.99 one time.
• Why it beats Grammarly: one flat fee and a clean, fast UI.

4. QuillBot — best paraphraser

QuillBot is the top AI rewriter on the web. It rewrites a full line in one click. The Premium plan is $8 a month, billed yearly.

• Best for: students and writers who rewrite a lot.
• Cost: Free, Premium $8, Team $14.
• Why it beats Grammarly: a faster and smarter paraphrase mode. See quillbot.com.

5. Wordtune — best for tone shifts

Wordtune rewrites a line in five tones in one click. The Plus plan is $10 a month. It adds smart prompts and a long-form mode.

• Best for: marketers and ESL writers.
• Cost: Free, Plus $10, Unlimited $14.
• Why it beats Grammarly: the best tone shift tool in the field. See wordtune.com.

6. Sapling — best for support teams

Sapling is a grammar checker built for chat and email teams. It plugs into Zendesk, Salesforce, and Gmail. The Pro plan is $12 a month.

• Best for: customer support and sales teams.
• Cost: Free, Pro $12, Enterprise custom.
• Why it beats Grammarly: native chat and CRM plug-ins. See sapling.ai.

7. Ginger — best mobile keyboard

Ginger ships a smart phone keyboard. It checks grammar in apps. The Premium plan is $14 a month, billed yearly.

• Best for: mobile-first writers and ESL learners.
• Cost: Free, Premium $14, Team $30.
• Why it beats Grammarly: a true mobile-first build. See gingersoftware.com.

8. Writer.com — best for brand teams

Writer is built for big teams that need one brand voice. It checks tone, terms, and rules across all docs. Plans start at $18 a month per user.

• Best for: brand and content ops teams at firms with 50+ writers.
• Cost: Team $18, Enterprise custom.
• Why it beats Grammarly: real brand voice rules and a SOC 2 cloud. See writer.com.

Cost and tool matrix

The table below shows the head numbers side by side for each Grammarly alternative.

Tool	Free plan	Paid from	Privacy mode	Best for
Grammarly	Yes	$12	Cloud only	All-round
ProWritingAid	Yes	$10	Cloud + offline	Style depth
LanguageTool	Yes	$5	Self-host	Privacy
Hemingway	Yes	$19.99 once	Local app	Short prose
QuillBot	Yes	$8	Cloud only	Paraphrase
Wordtune	Yes	$10	Cloud only	Tone shifts
Sapling	Yes	$12	Cloud + on-prem	Support teams
Ginger	Yes	$14	Cloud only	Mobile
Writer.com	Trial	$18	Cloud, SOC 2	Brand voice

Pick the right Grammarly alternative

Use the flow below to map your need to a tool. It maps the top three jobs of a grammar checker to the top three picks in our list.

What this means for you: most teams pick one of three. LanguageTool for privacy. QuillBot for rewriting. Hemingway for free, simple use. The rest fit smaller niches.

Free Grammarly alternatives in 2026

A free Grammarly alternative is real in 2026. The free tier on each tool below is strong. You can write all day on a free plan.

• LanguageTool free: 20,000 chars per check, no daily cap.
• Hemingway web app: all checks free, no sign in.
• QuillBot free: 125 words per paraphrase, no daily cap.
• Wordtune free: 10 rewrites per day on the free plan.
• Sapling free: unlimited grammar checks, full plug-ins.

For more on free AI tools, see our AI writing tools guide and our Grammarly profile.

Privacy: cloud vs self-host

Grammarly sends your text to its cloud. For most users this is fine. For some firms it is a hard no. Law firms, banks, and health teams often need a tool that runs in their own cloud or on their own box. The same goes for any team that handles PII. The US NIST Privacy Framework and the EU GDPR rules push firms to log where text goes.

Two Grammarly alternatives meet this need.

• LanguageTool ships an open source build. You can self-host it on a Docker box. Your text never leaves your net.
• Sapling ships an on-prem plan. It runs in your own cloud. It signs the same SOC 2 reports.

How to switch from Grammarly in 4 steps

Swap to a new Grammarly alternative is fast. Here is the clean path.

1. Cancel Grammarly. Open billing. Pause the auto-renew. You keep Pro until the end of the term.
2. Pick your new tool. Use the chart above to match your top need. Most teams pick QuillBot or LanguageTool.
3. Install the new plug-in. All eight Grammarly alternatives in this list ship a Chrome plug-in and a Word add-in. Install both.
4. Re-train your team. Share a 10-minute Loom on the new tool flow. Most writers adapt in a week or less.

For more, see QuillBot alternatives and Wordtune alternatives on our site.

Final pick

Want one help? Start with ProWritingAid or LanguageTool. Both are top Grammarly alternatives. ProWritingAid wins on depth. LanguageTool wins on price and privacy. Both ship new tools each month. Both are safe bets. Both are top Grammarly alts in 2026.