Top 10 Best Online Proofreading Software & Tools in 2023

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Best Online Proofreading Tools and software Free
Best Online Proofreading Software, Tools & Websites for 2023 (free & paid)

Proofreading tools & software are one of the most sought-after writing tools for a reason.

One missed mistake can ruin the impression of the whole copy

“Pubic relations is quite different from public relations.” 

A perfect example of a typo that can ruin your copy, right?

Well, we all are guilty of making common grammar goofs that make us look dumb.

Sometimes, faulty writing can cost us grades and even get that business proposal dumped!

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But doesn’t proofreading and polishing your writing seem like extra work?

Hell yeah, me too!

In this article, I’ll share a list of my top 10 best proofreading software and tools that will check your writing for grammar and spelling errors, suggest you any missing punctuation, and polish your copy for free!


Top 10 Best Online Proofreading Software & Tools for 2023


1 Grammarly’s Online Proofreading Software

Grammarly online proofreader tool

Grammarly is one of the world’s best proofreading tools you can find.

It comes with a sleek online editing interface (where you can write directly or upload a document to proofread it), an add-in for MS Word (proofreading tool in MS Word), and a free browser extension (your personal proofreader on social media, emails, and WordPress)

Grammarly is an online proofreader tool, so you can use it across all any platform you write, may that be a blog post, social media updates, or a business email, Grammarly proofreads all. Check out my hands-on Grammarly review here.

You can also use Grammarly’s writing editor online for free (click here to get a free Grammarly account) and then directly write on their inbuilt editor right from your browser.

It detects over 400+ types of grammatical errors, and contextual spelling mistakes (ones that your favorite word processor often skips), and helps you with the correct punctuation.

If you have already written a paper or article, you can simply copy-paste or upload the document and let Grammarly do the proofreading for you.

What I liked about Grammarly is that it detects and proofreads complex language mistakes like subject-verb agreement, active and passive voice checker, or writing style.

For example, here’s a sample document that I threw at Grammarly to test its proofreading capacity.

proofreading online with Grammarly
Did you see how it suggests corrections in your writing and also has an educational twist to help you improve it?

You can also set Grammarly to proofread your document based on your language preference (American English, British English, Canadian English & Australian English) to get customized suggestions further.

Not only that,

You can also use the Goals feature to check your copy based on your audiences like their potential (expert, knowledgeable, etc.), tone (formal, informal, neutral, etc.), and domains like academic, general, creative, business copy, etc.).

This goals feature comes in handy because unlike other proofreader tools out there, Grammarly helps you detect mistakes and offer better word suggestions based on your audience and writing style.

Grammarly Performance report

No proofreading service is complete if it doesn’t offer you a performance report. These reports not only help you measure your writing skills (and improve them over time with a spirit of competence) but also helps you rate the work of freelance writers and students).

Pro Tip: If you have an online proofreading job or offer proofreading services, you can generate these PDF performance reports for clients to make your work more professional.

The premium version of Grammarly comes with added benefits like better word choice, checking your content for more grammatical errors, and a plagiarism checker.

Grammarly’s online proofreader tool also provides one of the best plagiarism checker software you can even find. It checks your content against a database of over 8 billion web pages that detects any traces of copied content (I’ve tried it, and it works wonders!). Apart from that, Grammarly’s citation generator helps you generate citations in APA, MLA, and Chicago.

Grammarly is also available with business plans for teams (trusted by Cisco, Dell, etc.) and as Grammarly EDU (trusted by The University of Phoenix, Illinois, and leading libraries, to name a few).

Grammarly also offers a free chrome extension that proofreads, corrects, and makes sure everything you write on chrome (emails, social media, blog posts) error-free.  (Add to Chrome for free)

On a side note, if you’re looking for free proofreading apps on mobile, Grammarly’s Android and iOS apps have got you covered.

Get Grammarly Now ››


Recommended:

2 ProWritingAid‘s Editor and Proofreading Tool

If you’re looking for the best proofreading software for writers, it is this!

I’ve covered ProWritingAid before in this blog. It’s one of the best grammar and spell-checker tools you can find online.

Unlike other writing tools, ProWritingAid offers more proofreading services or features:

  1. Editing your content: (includes grammar and spell corrections, proofreading, punctuation checking, style suggestions, and other advanced editing tools like tense shifter).
  2. Style checker, clichés, sentence structure, readability measures, repeated words, dialogue checker, pacing, checking your transition words, acronym, and homonym checker are few of the features offered by ProWritingAid that make it a perfect writing & editing tool for authors and editors.
  3. Checking for plagiarized content: Even though you don’t copy, there might be traces of unintentional plagiarism (errors in a proper citation, some content influenced by something you read some time ago, etc.) that could ruin the game for your paper. 

I highly recommend you to check out my ProWritingAid review because the range of proofreading that this tool does is insane! I’ve listed over 20 different types of tests you can do with it (and honestly, I left it at 20 because I simply couldn’t include everything it does!).

ProWritingAid is the only proofreader software in this list that supports Google docs (along with other options like using it online, with MS Word, as a standalone app, etc.), which is an added bonus if you do a lot of writing on Google docs (like me!).

UPDATE: Grammarly now supports Google docs!

If you’re looking for proofreading software for Scrivener, PWA has got your back covered. 

ProWritingAid works for everyone looking for an easy-to-use yet accurate proofreading tool but works as the best editing, and proofreading tool for authors, storytellers, and potential writers.

ProWritingAid’s style checker detects such errors that are next to impossible for the human eye to check, may that be a passive voice, use of adverbs, or any other readability element like sticky sentences or maintaining a safe glue index.

Having said that…

ProWritingAid, like Grammarly, can be used to preset a style based on what type of content you write. You can set it to check your copy based on business, web, creative, or any other purpose. This feature gives a better scope for proofreading your document based on the industry you’re writing.

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My Verdict: ProWritingAid is truly a writers’ tool. And apart from creative writers, ProWritingAid as a writing assistant or proofreader for anyone in general, is a tough competition to Grammarly. So, technically it is not #2 on this list; both Grammarly and ProWritingAid are #1 for me.

Get ProWritingAid Now ››


3 WhiteSmoke’s Proofreading Software

While Whitesmoke doesn’t stand a chance in front of Grammarly or ProWritingAid for that matter, it is the best you can get if you don’t want Grammarly or ProWritingAid for some reason.

Hence position #3 on our list.

WhiteSmoke offers all the essay correction, and writing suggestions based on natural language processing or NLP and according to context. It’s a great proofreading software for dyslexia.

It checks for your grammar mistakes, and style errors and offers features like thesis checker to tense shift checker that make your proofreading with WhiteSmoke buttery.

With its plagiarism-checking feature, WhiteSmoke can be your best CopyScape alternative if need be. Furthermore, it offers integrations with MS word and Outlook, so if you’re looking for proofreading tools in MS Word, WhiteSmoke is for you.

If you’re looking for the best website proofreading software, WhiteSmoke’s one-click instant proofreading feature has got you covered.

While Grammarly and ProWritingAid have full-fledged free versions of their software, the free version of WhiteSmoke is very limited and gives you the ability to proofread 250 words of content at a time.

Quick note: Whitesmoke or any of the top 3 proofreading software mentioned above cannot (as of yet) detect content generated by AI writing tools. So, in case you need something similar, Originality.AI could fit your bill.

Special Offer: WhiteSmoke currently offers a 50% Discount OFF the regular pricing for their Spring Sale. So, make sure you grab it while you still can. Claim your WhiteSmoke discount here.

Get WhiteSmoke Now ››


4 Ginger’s Proofreading Software

Ginger software is another popular free proofreading tool that checks your content for its correctness and coherence.

Ginger’s online proofreading service does a great job checking the mistakes in the document you submit. It checks for a variety of errors (like misused word correction, consecutive nouns, phonetic spelling mistakes, etc.) and makes sure your content (may that be an essay, a research assignment, or a CV for a job application) is 100% error-free and flawless.

You can also download Ginger’s free proofreading software to your computer if you prefer a proofreader that reads out your document loud so that you can hear it and spot minute grammar mistakes to fix. 

Like Grammarly, Ginger also helps you learn throughout your correction process with tips about each mistake and how to avoid it the next time you write something.

All these features make Ginger a popular Whitesmoke alternative.

Get Ginger Now ››


5 Paper Rater

Paper Rater is another incredible online proofreading tool that uses a Linux-based OS with artificial intelligence to provide you with the best results to eliminate all the punctuation and grammatical mistakes from your content.

You can also use it as a plagiarism checker tool along with grammar and spelling checks to hone your writing.

There are two ways to use this tool for proofreading your content online:

  • either upload the file that contains your essays, articles, etc.
  • or, copy-paste the content that you want to proofread online

Then you’ll have to select an option where it says, “Select the education level of this paper’s author,” and click on the “Get Report button,” and it will proofread your content online and show you all the grammatical mistakes in your content.

Other notable features of Paper Rater as a free proofreading tool:

  • Can be used for plagiarism checking
  • Automated essay scoring
  • Grammar and spelling checker
  • Access to their vocabulary builder
  • Feedback and writing instructions to hone your writing skills

Although Paper Rater is a free online paper editor, it gives you a ton of other useful features like advanced plagiarism check, ad-free, faster processing text, etc. with its premium version that costs you $7.48/mo or $47.70/yr.

Paper Rater vs Grammarly

There is no comparison between Paper rater with Grammarly. In fact, they are the ones who promote Grammarly right on their website. 

Apart from that, Paper Rater doesn’t offer as many features as Grammarly does, nor is it efficient to catch as many grammar mistakes.

I’ll write a detailed review and my analysis on Paper rater vs Grammarly soon. From the first look, it just feels just another mistake-free grammar & proofreading service.


So these were our top 5 picks for the best online proofreading tools.

Apart from these tools above, here is a list of free online proofreading tools that are worth a try!

6 PerfectIt by Intelligent Editing

PerfectIt by Intelligent Editing is a full-fledged and one of the best proofreading software for professionals. It is designed to be used by businesses, corporate clients, authors, and writers.

PerfectIt offers a plethora of proofreading services that save you a lot of money hiring a professional proofreader.

One of the best features I like about Intelligent Editing is that it learns your preferences over time. This feature saves you time and keeps your style consistent across the document.

List of proofreading tests you can run with Intelligent Editing
List of proofreading tests you can run with Intelligent Editing

You can download Intelligent Editing’s proofreading software to integrate it with MS Word.

It then runs a series of tests over your written document to check every single grammar or writing error (you can, however, skip to any particular test mode to proofread your document for that specific grammar rule).

 It does offer a free trial mode, but you’ll have to buy it to use it to its full potential.

7 Autocrit Online Editing

Autocrit is one of the best online proofreading tools for book authors and editors that can save you from those grammar nazis and create an impression of error-free English.

If you’re an author or editor who wants to improve your writing or manuscript, AutoCrit online editing software is made especially for you. It simplifies the revision process and helps you quickly become a prolific writer.

You can simply consider AutoCrit as an online book editor or proofreading tool for manuscripts, which helps you with editing and revision of your writing (especially helpful for authors who want to write high-quality and flawless content).

It checks your content for too many adverb usages, cliches, sameness in sentences, and a lot more.

To use Autocrit, either use their drag-and-drop text editor to copy-paste all the content you want to proofread and improve (OR) you can also upload a file that contains the text you want to improve. 

Once you click on the “Analyse the Text for Me” button, it will immediately start showing suggestions to improve your content along with the typos, grammatical mistakes in content, etc.

It will ask you for your email address to send you a free summary report of your content once you are done uploading.

Autocrit offers you the following features:

  • Helps you compare your manuscript with other famous writers
  • Autocrit helps you learn about your bad writing habits so you can avoid it
  • Proofreads your novel/book based on your genre (and data it has collected from over seven different genres)
  • Custom summary score based on your writing

UPDATE: Autocrit now offers a free trial, and the paid version with full access to its manuscript editor costs you $29.97 per month.

8 Slick Write

Slick Write earns its position in this best proofreading software & tools designed to help you revise and edit your content easily

If you can’t afford to hire a prolific English writer who can proofread your content, essays, or articles for grammar-free writing, Slick Writer is a handy free online proofreading tool for you.

It’s designed to eliminate all the common grammar mistakes made by most people while creating content which includes;

  • Incorrect usage of adverbs
  • Free sentence rephraser tool
  • Excessive prepositional phrases
  • Incorrect usage of passive voice etc

Check the image below to see Slick Write’s free online proofreader in action.

Slick write best free online proofreading software
Slick Write’s free proofreader in action

9 Correct English

Correct English is an AI-powered free online proofreading tool that doesn’t require you to download the software. If you want a minimal proofreader that does a decent job, Correct English is one of the best proofreading sites I’d recommend to you.

As the name says, Correct English helps you correct English within your content by checking all the grammar, spelling, punctuation mistakes, etc. to improve your context.

What does it offer?

  • Free grammar and punctuation checker tool
  • Subject/verb agreement checker
  • Helps you give pizzazz to your content
  • checks for communication clarity in your content.

10 Polish My Writing (After The Deadline)

Polish my writing is one of the best proofreading websites you can find for free. It just has an editor that lets you write or copy-paste your prewritten document to proofread.

It is an essay proofreader free for use and lets you correct simple grammar mistakes and providers style suggestions.

If you’re looking for a free online paper editor, Polish my writing, aka after the deadline is something you might want to try.

Wrapping Up: Best Online Proofreading Software & Tools in 2023 (Free & Paid)

I hope you liked our list of the top 10 best free online proofreading tools and software for 2023.

If you want to stop spending countless hours editing, proofreading, and correcting grammar within your content, start using the online proofreading tools mentioned in this post.

All of them are free to use and easy to access so you can quickly improve your essays, content, and articles.

However, with over 10+ million other people using Grammarly as their proofreading tool of choice, you can never go wrong with it.

All these proofreading tools mentioned here do their job well, but when it comes to choosing a winner, none beats Grammarly. 

Try Grammarly For Free ››

Pro tip: You can earn money online by doing various online proofreading jobs. All you need is a tool like Grammarly that you can use to proofread your clients’ documents (and if something is more complex, you can use Grammarly’s manual proofreading service without letting anyone know) and charge them a fee for that. You can provide your services on sites like Fiverr or Upwork too.

You can try Grammarly free of cost using the button below, or gift yourself the paid version by availing of a 20% discount on Grammarly. If you’re a student, click here to get a Grammarly student discount.

Try Grammarly For Free ››

So what are your thoughts? 

Do you have any more free online proofreading tool recommendations? Comment below with your favorite proofreading software!

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FAQs on Online Proofreading Tools, Software & Websites

What is the best proofreading software?

Based on my experience, Grammarly is hands down the best proofreading software. Apart from correcting over 500 grammatical errors, it has options to check your copy based on tone and language. You can also generate PDF reports for clients or to gauge your writing skills.

What software do professional proofreaders use?

Most professional proofreaders I know use Grammarly. Other than that ProWritingAid is also an excellent choice for professional proofreaders and authors.

Is there a better software better than Grammarly?

Not really, but ProWritingAid gives Grammarly tough competition based on what it has to offer and the value for money.

Which is better Grammarly or ProWritingAid?

Grammarly and ProWritingAid are solid competitors, but if you ask me which is better, I would say it depends on how you intend to use them. Grammarly is intended towards academic writing, business writing, and other forms of casual writing. On the other hand, ProWritingAid is more geared towards creative writing, novels, manuscript, and a favorite amongst authors.

Is there a proofreading app?

Yes, Grammarly offers proofreading apps for both Android and iOS. You can download them here.

What is the best proofreading website?

Here is a list of the top 10 proofreading websites. If you ask me, Grammarly has to be the best proofreading website. The editor, the writing assistant, and the overall user experience make it the best proofreading website you can get.

What is the primary purpose of proofreading an article?

The primary purpose of proofreading an article is to make sure there are no grammatical or spelling mistakes in it. You also need to make sure that the content of the article is jargon-free, conveys the right tone, and has a consistent style of writing throughout.

Why is it important to proofread your content?

It’s important to proofread your content because error-free and flawless content is a must if you want to have clarity in your communication.
No matter how good a writer you are, there are always missed punctuations, inconsistencies in writing style, and words that can be replaced by better versions. Proofreading helps you comb out all these grammar goofs and polishes your writing and boosts the credibility of your content.

What software do professional proofreaders use?

While choosing a proofreader depends on many factors like budget, personal choice, and company allowance but in general, Grammarly is what most professional proofreaders use. Other than that, ProWritingAid, PerfectIt, etc are also used by many.

What are some of the best proofreading websites?

Grammarly and ProWritingAid are some of the best proofreading websites that also offer a generous free plan. You could literally proofread your writing using these websites (they also offer browser add-ons, MS Word add-ins, and native apps) against the most common grammar and punctuation errors. If you need to advanced options they offer premium plans that can scan your content for almost all possible errors and make your writing readable.

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Hi, I'm Swadhin Agrawal, founder, and editor-in-chief of DigitalGYD. DigitalGYD is a multiple-times award-winning blog where we aim at helping bloggers how to start a blog and grow it into a profitable online business.

I'm a professional blogger for a decade now and am the founder of Value Intent Media Pvt. Ltd., a media company that creates content for a multi-million-sized audience across various verticals.

Our research & content on DigitalGYD is often referred to by brands like The Telegraph, Forbes, Times of India, Yahoo! Finance, HuffPost, Bluehost, Neil Patel, The Next Web, etc.

4 thoughts on “Top 10 Best Online Proofreading Software & Tools in 2023”

  1. Ali Haider

    Hi, Can you please let me know of the TOP #1 Proofreading software which contains top-notch information about everything?

    Like some softwares don’t contain names of rivers, lakes, cities, and towns of the world, etc. and auto-correct them wrong into something else.

    It should be an all-rounder, please help!

    Thanks,
    Ali

    • Swadhin Agrawal

      That’s where a human assistance might come to help. As of now, no software is as perfect as you are expecting. I’d suggest hiring a human proofreader instead. :)

  2. Donna Merrill

    Hi Swadhin,

    Wow, I didn’t know there were so many free tools out there for proofreading. I know many people use Grammarly and it never lets them down.

    My business partner is my proofreader and editor so I have a built in human to help me, otherwise I would be using Grammarly myself.

    I’ll pass this on.

    -Donna

    • Swadhin Agrawal

      Hello ma’am,

      Nothing beats an human eye! You’ve the best proofreader in the world!

      -Swadhin

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