No writer produces a perfect manuscript in the first draft. Grammarly and ProWritingAid are the two best editors for writing in the industry. William Zinsser has said that good writing is rewriting. Every writer needs a strong editor to come alongside him or her and take that first draft and make it shine like gold through rewrites.

I recently evaluated some of the top word processors writers can use to get their words on the electronic page called The Best Word Processors for Writers. I ended that review by telling you I believe there is a better word processor out there specifically for writers.

Disclaimer: At the time of this review, I’m using Pro writing aid premium and reviewing Grammarly in its free access online. I have used Grammarly premium before.

Throughout my writing, I have used both Grammarly and ProWritingAid to check my grammar and spelling. But they have so much more to offer. In this review, I want to compare the two best editors for writers and tell you their strengths and weaknesses for certain types of writing.

Availability

You can get Grammarly on their website with several purchasing options. It is a yearly subscription-based editor. You can get ProWritingAid on their website with several purchasing options as well. It is also a yearly subscription-based editor.

The pricing plans are almost the same for the premium products. Either one would be worth the cost to make sure your writing is as good as it can be. Grammar and other features in both of these editors will make you a better writer over time.

User Interface

I’m using the online user interfaces for both Grammarly and ProWritingAid. It should be noted that each of these editors has a downloadable editor you can use in writing programs like Microsoft Word and Scrivener.

Grammarly Online User Interface

ProWritingAid Online User Interface

You can see the editors in their online interfaces and how different they look from one another. Both editors will do basic grammar but they both offer premium features that are worth every penny. I have the same document in both screenshots to show you each tool in its unique aspects.

Grammarly focuses on AI assisted tools to help you in your writing process. It offers you rewrites on your sentences. On the right side of the screen, you can choose to accept or reject any corrections it points out. When you first put your document through its editor, it will ask you what kind of writing you are doing and grade its corrections based on that selection.

ProWritingAid offers grammar checks also. You can see in the ribbon across the top that it gives you reports for all types of writing styles and effects. You can choose any of these reports to drill down on your writing style and improve it.

Tools and Features

Grammarly begins its evaluation of your writing by setting goals. It asks about the audience, formality of writing, domain (email, research paper, etc.) and the intent (to inform, persuade, etc.). It offers review suggestions for corrections, clarity, engagement, and delivery.

It has a generative AI that will help you rewrite your material in your voice. I did not try this feature. I suppose the goal is to help you write faster and get more accomplished. One of the most helpful tools is one that checks for plagiarism. This is especially helpful if you are writing a school paper, but even if you’re only writing something for business, it is just as important.

ProWritingAid uses writing reports to improve your writing. The best place to start is the summary report. It shows you all the areas ProWritingAid will help you with your writing. It gives you a general grade and then goes into more details about where you can improve.

From there, you can use the other reports for your weakest grades to improve your writing. There is a realtime report that tells you the corrections it would make to your document. The other reports are critique, style, grammar, rephrase, thesaurus, overused words, combo, all repeats, echoes, structure, length, transition, readability, sticky sentences, clichés, dictation, pronouns, alliteration, homonym, consistency, acronym, dialogue, pacing, sensory, house, and plagiarism.

You can also choose the type of writing you are doing. It offers you a grade for meeting your goals in your writing, the improvements you can make, and grammar/spelling. What I like is that it not only gives you numbers and grades, but tells you how much you need to do to improve in each area.

I think ProWritingAid is a better investment for anyone who does fiction writing or creative nonfiction. There’s so much it has to offer in its reports that I don’t think you can get from Grammarly. This is why I personally keep paying for ProWritingAid’s premium features.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Grammarly markets more toward businesses and business teams working together to improve their writing through its software. What I like about Grammarly is that it is easy to work with and offers good suggestions. I do not use the AI features unless they are expressly part of the editor.

ProWritingAid has a whole lot of writing reports that can help you improve your writing in the places you are weak. It offers a grading scale so you know where your weaknesses are. It covers many aspects of writing and helps you see where you can improve.

Both Grammarly and ProWritingAid give you a plagiarism tool that keeps you from stealing other people’s work. I think this might be one of the best features for Grammarly. You can get lost in the weeds and spend a lot of time with ProWritingAid’s many aspects and reports. I know I could easily spend double or triple the amount of time on each of my writing projects if I used all these features. But it is nice to know they’re there.

Final Thoughts

I would use Grammarly as a basic editor to double check my work in a flash. But I recommend ProWritingAid for writers and authors because of the many reports that can make you a much better writer. I think ProWritingAid offers more for your money than Grammarly.

However, either one is useful as long as you are using one of them. You should always have one of these editors checking your writing. It is cheaper than paying a professional editor and can help you in your first draft of your work to make sure you are following grammar rules and getting the best writing piece out there..

What I do not recommend is not using an editor at all or trusting your own eyes and ears alone. We all have blind spots in our writing and these editors help us to see where we are weak and where we are strong in our writing ability.

Check Out My Other Book Writing Software Reviews

• The Best Word Processor for Writers (Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, WPS Office)
• Scrivener Is the Best Writer-Tailored Word Processor
• Organize and Write Your Best Book with the Amazing Papyrus Author
• Great Benefits of the Outlining Your Workbook Program for Fiction Writing