Grammarly vs LanguageTool — Which Grammar Checker is Better?
Grammarly Premium costs $12-30/month. LanguageTool is free for most features. Full comparison.
| Feature | Grammarly Premium | LanguageTool |
|---|---|---|
| Free grammar check | ⚠️ Basic only | ✅ Full grammar check |
| Languages | ⚠️ Mainly English | ✅ 25+ languages |
| Style suggestions | ✅ Advanced (Premium) | ⚠️ Limited on free |
| Plagiarism check | ✅ Premium only | ❌ Not available |
| Tone detector | ✅ Premium | ❌ No |
| Browser extension | ✅ Excellent | ✅ Good |
| Word/Docs integration | ✅ Excellent | ✅ Good |
| Price | $12-30/month | Free / $5/month |
Our verdict
For English writers, Grammarly has a better UI and more advanced style suggestions — but the free plan is very limited. LanguageTool gives you a full grammar check for free across 25+ languages. For multilingual writers or anyone on a budget, LanguageTool is the clear winner. Grammarly Premium is only worth it if you also need the plagiarism checker.
Which one is right for you
Choose Grammarly Premium if
You write in English, all day, and the interface is part of the value. Its browser extension and style suggestions are the most polished in this category, and the plagiarism checker is the one feature here that genuinely has no free equivalent.
Choose LanguageTool if
You write in more than one language, or you want a real grammar check without paying. It covers 25+ languages on the free plan — not a teaser version, the actual check — which is more than Grammarly gives away in English alone.
What the free plans actually give you
The free tiers here are not comparable, and that is the whole story. Grammarly's free plan is basic grammar only, deliberately held back to make Premium look necessary. LanguageTool gives a full grammar check away across 25+ languages. Grammarly is the better product for polished English style; LanguageTool is the better deal by a wide margin, and for anyone writing in Spanish, German or French it is not close.
Paste any text and ask Claude to proofread, improve style, or rewrite — free, unlimited, and better than both for full rewrites.
Try free →Frequently asked questions
Is Grammarly Premium worth $12–30/month?
Only if you need the plagiarism checker, which is the one thing here you cannot replicate free. If you are paying for grammar and style alone, LanguageTool's free plan covers most of it and Claude covers the rest.
Which is better if English is not my first language?
LanguageTool, clearly. Grammarly is mostly English-focused, while LanguageTool was built multilingual from the start and gives you all 25+ languages without paying. That is the exact scenario it wins.
Can an AI chatbot replace a grammar checker?
For rewriting, yes — paste text into Claude and ask it to proofread or improve the style and it will outperform both on full rewrites, free and without limits. What it will not do is catch errors inline as you type in a browser, which is what the extensions are for.
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