Best Grammarly alternatives for Mac in 2026 [Tested by writers]

I write every day. Articles, blog posts, research notes, emails — text is pretty much my entire job. And like most writers, I ended up on Grammarly because everyone else was on Grammarly. It works, it's familiar, and it's everywhere.

But I'm also the kind of writer who can't help experimenting. Every few months I find myself wondering whether the tool I'm paying for is actually the best one for the job or just the most familiar one. When Grammarly's premium renewal landed in my inbox at $30/month, that question felt a lot more pressing than usual.

So I spent several weeks testing Grammarly alternatives. Not as a reviewer ticking feature boxes, but as a writer who actually needed to get work done. I used each tool in my real workflow — drafting articles, editing research-heavy pieces, proofreading on deadline and paid attention to what genuinely helped versus what just looked good in a comparison table.

Here's my honest take.

Best Grammarly alternatives for Mac: Quick comparison

Before diving into the details, here's a quick overview of all seven tools. I've focused on the features that actually matter for Mac writers: how well each app integrates with your workflow, what it does best, and what it costs.

App	Best for	Key strenghts	Price
LanguageTool	Like-for-like Grammarly swap	30+ languages	Free, or from $24.90/month
ProWritingAid	Long-form writers & bloggers	Deep style analysis	Free, or from $30/month
Hemingway Editor	Clarity & readability focus	Readability scoring	Free, or from $10/month
Elephas	AI writing + proofreading on Mac	Custom tone of voice	Included in Setapp
Ulysses	Mac-first bloggers & writers	Integrated style checking	Included in Setapp
TypingMind	AI-assisted writing & editing	Multi-model AI (GPT-4, Claude)	Included in Setapp
TextSoap	Editors & high-volume text work	100+ automated text cleaners	Included in Setapp

LanguageTool: Best like-for-like Grammarly alternative for Mac

LanguageTool is the alternative that comes up most consistently when writers discuss leaving Grammarly — and for good reason. It covers the same core ground (grammar, spelling, punctuation, style suggestions) while adding support for over 30 languages, which Grammarly doesn't match.

One meaningful difference from Grammarly: LanguageTool lets you set the language per document rather than globally, which matters if you switch between English variants (US, UK, Australian) or write in multiple languages.

Best features

• Grammar, spelling, and style checking across 30+ languages
• Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari
• Custom dictionary and personal rule sets to match your style guide
• Privacy-focused option: self-hosted version available for sensitive documents

Pros

• Even a free tier is very useful
• Great multilingual support 
• Less expensive than Grammarly 

Cons

• Style suggestions are less nuanced than Grammarly 
• Desktop app integration can be inconsistent across some Mac apps
• No Mac-native app with full offline support

Price: Free or from $24.90/month. 

ProWritingAid: Best Grammarly alternative for long-form writers

Bloggers, authors, and content professionals consistently rank ProWritingAid as the strongest alternative for long-form work. Where Grammarly gives you a flag and a quick fix, ProWritingAid explains why a sentence isn't working and gives you options to improve it. That difference matters when you're writing 2,000-word articles or longer.

“No tool will ever replace a human editor, of course, but for the price point, authors on a budget will serve themselves well to use PWA or similar rather than simply trying to do it themselves and hope for the best. I can call it the Budget Editor. It's thorough enough to gloss up your work so that it looks like care was taken in writing it”, says a Reddit user.

Best features

• 20+ in-depth writing reports covering style, readability, pacing, and structure
• Genre-specific suggestions — fiction, business, academic, and blog writing all get different guidance
• Integrations with Google Docs, Microsoft Word (Windows), Scrivener, and most major browsers

Pros

• Deepest style analysis of any tool on this list
• Great for long-form writing 
• Less expensive than Grammarly annually

Cons

• Interface takes time to learn; more complex than Grammarly

Price: Free or from $30/month. 

Hemingway Editor: Best Grammarly alternative for clarity and readability

Hemingway Editor takes a completely different approach to writing feedback. Rather than flagging grammar errors, it focuses on readability, identifying complex sentences, passive voice, adverbs, and dense phrasing that make your writing harder to follow.

The highlight system is immediately intuitive: yellow for long sentences, red for very long ones, blue for passive voice, green for adverbs, and purple for complex words with simpler alternatives. There's no login, no subscription for the desktop version, and no cloud sync — your text stays on your machine.

Best features

• Readability grade scoring — targets your writing to a specific reading level
• Color-coded highlight system for different types of clarity issues
• Passive voice detection and adverb flagging
• Word count, reading time, and writing statistics

Pros

• Solves a problem Grammarly largely ignores: clarity and concision
• Offline Mac app with no data leaving your machine
• Immediately usable with no learning curve

Cons

• Not a grammar checker — needs to be used alongside another tool
• No real-time checking within other apps
• AI features are limited compared to more recent tools

Price: Free, or from $10/month. $19.99 one-time purchase for the desktop app (doesn’t include new AI features).

Elephas: Best AI-powered writing assistant for Mac

Elephas is an AI writing assistant that works across your entire Mac, not just in a browser or a single supported app. Through its Super Command shortcut, it's accessible in Safari, Mail, Slack, Notes, and virtually any other Mac application.

The core difference from Grammarly is intent. Where Grammarly focuses on correcting what you've written, Elephas helps you write better from the start. It can proofread, rewrite, summarize, and generate content.  But the most useful feature for writers is the custom tone of voice, which you train by pasting examples of your own writing. Once configured, its suggestions sound like you, not like generic AI output.

Here’s what Lokesh Kapoor, digital content creator and founder of the DroidCrunch blog, says about Elephas: 

“Real-time suggestions have noticeably improved both my writing quality and speed. I spend less time editing and second-guessing every word. It feels like having an editor by my side, but without the interruptions.”

Best features

• System-wide AI writing assistance via Super Command — works in any Mac app
• Custom tone of voice trained on your own writing samples
• Proofread, rewrite, summarize, and generate content from a single interface
• Knowledge base mode: chat with your documents, PDFs, and research notes

Pros

• Personal tone training makes AI suggestions sound authentic
• Replaces multiple tools: grammar checker, AI assistant, research tool
• Grammar correction and style improvement across all your applications

Cons

• Requires some initial setup to get the most from tone training and knowledge bases

Price: Available on Setapp alongside 250+ other Mac apps. 

Tip: Grammarly checks what you wrote. Elephas helps you write better — across every Mac app. Works in Safari, Mail, Slack, and Notes via one shortcut. Try Elephas Free

Ulysses: Best Grammarly alternative for Mac-first bloggers

For Mac bloggers and long-form writers, the workflow Ulysses enables is often more valuable than a grammar checker. It includes a built-in proofreader, goal tracking (word count, reading time, character count), and seamless export to WordPress, Medium, Ghost, and other publishing platforms.

It won't replace a dedicated grammar checker for deep error detection, but for writers who find themselves constantly switching between writing apps, note apps, and Grammarly, Ulysses consolidates a lot of that into one clean native Mac environment.

“I tried Ulysses to make the writing less distractive, and it became a game-changer for me. Now, when I need to focus on my assignments, the interface transforms into a clean, distraction-free canvas. No more notification pop-ups or cluttered toolbars — just my thoughts flowing onto the page”, Stefan-Radu Gogolan, video editor, digital marketing specialist. 

Best features

• Built-in proofreader with grammar and style suggestions
• Distraction-free writing mode with configurable themes
• Writing goals and statistics: word count, character count, reading time
• Direct publishing to WordPress, Medium, and other platforms
• Unified library: all drafts, notes, and finished pieces in one place
• Export to PDF, ePub, Word, HTML, and more

Pros

• Fast, reliable, no browser dependency
• Replaces both a writing app and a basic grammar checker for many workflows
• Best publishing workflow integration of any app on this list

Cons

• Grammar checking is basic compared to dedicated tools

Price: Available on Setapp alongside 250+ other Mac apps. 

TypingMind: Best Grammarly alternative for AI-assisted editing

TypingMind is a Mac app that wraps multiple large language models — GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity — in a single clean interface. For writers, this means access to AI-powered editing that outpaces what Grammarly's AI layer offers, without being locked into a single model's strengths and limitations.

The practical use case for Grammarly users is straightforward: paste your draft into TypingMind, apply a pre-built proofreading or rewriting prompt, and get suggestions from your preferred model. Unlike Grammarly, it doesn't integrate into other apps in real time. 

Best features

• Access to multiple AI models in one app: GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and more
• 160+ ready-made prompt templates including proofreading, rewriting, and style improvement
• Document chat: upload a draft and ask the AI specific questions about it
• Prompt library for reusable editing and writing workflows

Pros

• Access to multiple AI models 
• Far more capable than Grammarly for complex rewrites
• Custom AI characters for specific tasks (e.g., a dedicated blog editor persona)

Cons

• Requires manual copy-paste workflow for editing existing documents

Price: Available on Setapp alongside 250+ other Mac apps.

TextSoap: Best Grammarly alternative for editors and high-volume text work

With over 100 built-in text cleaners, TextSoap automates tasks like removing extra spaces, fixing improper capitalization, stripping hidden characters, normalizing quotation marks, and dozens of other formatting and consistency issues that appear constantly in edited documents.

Best features

• 100+ built-in text cleaners for formatting, capitalization, whitespace, and character issues
• Custom cleaner editor — script your own solutions for recurring document problems
• Global menu integration: works directly inside Word, Pages, Mail, and other Mac apps
• Batch processing for applying cleanup across multiple documents at once
• Regular expression support for power users needing precise pattern matching

Pros

• Solves text cleanup problems that no grammar checker addresses
• Exceptional for editors, legal teams, and anyone managing large document volumes
• Works system-wide via the global menu

Cons

• Less useful for casual writers who don't process high volumes of text

Price: Available on Setapp alongside 250+ other Mac apps.

Choosing the right Grammarly alternative for your Mac workflow

After testing all seven, my honest answer is: most writers don't need just one tool, but rather the right combination. 

LanguageTool or ProWritingAid for grammar and style, Hemingway for a clarity pass, and something like Elephas or Ulysses to tie it all together inside a native Mac workflow. 

The good news is you don't have to pay for each separately. Elephas, Ulysses, TypingMind, and TextSoap are all included in Setapp — one subscription, 250+ apps, free for 7 days, cancel anytime.