I write for a living, so I can’t afford spelling mistakes or grammatical errors in my work. I’ve relied on Grammarly to keep my writing error-free, but it’s on the more expensive side of grammar and plagiarism checkers. Plus, I find the free version to be quite intrusive and distracting. There are plenty of Grammarly alternatives on the market that can compete with—and sometimes outperform—it in direct comparisons. I’ve spent the last few months trying writing assistants like Wordtune, Linguix, and Ginger, but decided to settle on Microsoft Editor. My experience so far has been decent, with only a few bumps here and there.

The issue with Grammarly

I’ve been using Grammarly’s free plan for ages and recently decided to give the premium version a try. I know I’m late to the party, but I never really felt the need to pay for it before. After upgrading, I quickly realized I was right—I don’t need the premium plan. Don’t get me wrong, Grammarly’s free version is great for catching typos, flagging words I’ve typed in the wrong order, and reminding me to add commas where they’re needed. The premium version, though, tries to do a lot more, and not always in a helpful way.

I often found its advice unhelpful, especially when it failed to understand the nuance of what I was trying to say. If your writing is more advanced than high school level prose, Grammarly’s premium features can feel like more of a hindrance than a help. It frequently suggests changes that alter the tone or meaning of a sentence or push you toward something generic, bland, and robotic.

That said, the free version isn’t without its annoyances. The premium suggestions—highlighted in blue and yellow—are ever-present and frustratingly impossible to disable. They’re distracting and seem more like constant reminders to upgrade rather than genuine attempts to improve your writing.

Microsoft Editor is cheaper

The main reason I stopped using Grammarly was the price. It costs $30 a month if you do not want to commit to an annual plan, which works out to $12 per month. This might make sense for academics who frequently need plagiarism checks, but for me, and I imagine most people, the price is just too high. Worse, the features it offers do not feel like they justify the cost.

On the other hand, Microsoft Editor’s premium features come included with a Microsoft 365 subscription. The cheapest Personal plan is just $6.99 a month and includes access to Office tools, 1TB of cloud storage, and more. Since I already pay for Microsoft 365, switching to Editor was an easy and cost-effective choice.

Microsoft Editor is perfect if you stick to Office apps

Microsoft Editor has most of the same features as Grammarly, like tools to check spelling and grammar issues. It suggests ways to improve clarity, formality, punctuation, and vocabulary. Spelling mistakes are marked with a red underline, and clarity tips show up with a purple one.

It also has a Text Predictions feature that guesses what you’re going to type next and suggests words or phrases to speed things up. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty handy. You can set your document style to formal, casual, or professional to get better suggestions, but it doesn’t have the same deep customization options that Grammarly does.

Microsoft Editor’s feature set is smaller than Grammarly, which I actually appreciate. It has all the tools I need and none that I do not. Plus, it integrates perfectly into Office. You do not need a third-party app or any additional setup to get it working. All you have to do is click Home and then Editor in Word or another Office app that supports it to access the feature.

Another thing I appreciate about Microsoft Editor is that it is less aggressive with its recommendations. I can review the suggestions it makes to correct and refine my work, but they are usually fewer in number and often better than the ones Grammarly provides.

However, things are not perfect with Microsoft Editor, especially if you are not an Office user. For one thing, it's more limited in availability. Currently, it is supported in Google Docs, Gmail, Outlook, Word for the web, the Word desktop app, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Outlook, among other platforms via the browser extension. You do not get a mobile app, and the free version does not work with Google Docs.

Get the writing assistant of your choice

I switched to Microsoft Editor because it comes free with a Microsoft 365 subscription. If you are already paying for Microsoft 365, I would recommend doing the same. Grammarly’s $30 price tag feels way too high, especially in 2024 when so many AI tools are available for free.

If you need to rewrite text, adjust the tone, or make other edits to your writing, you can use tools like Copilot, ChatGPT, or any of the other AI models out there. You might also want to check out other writing assistants that serve as great alternatives to Grammarly. While you’re at it, explore more productivity apps for your PC.