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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.
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 |
AI writing + proofreading on Mac | Custom tone of voice | Included in Setapp | |
Mac-first bloggers & writers | Integrated style checking | Included in Setapp | |
AI-assisted writing & editing | Multi-model AI (GPT-4, Claude) | Included in Setapp | |
Editors & high-volume text work | 100+ automated text cleaners | Included in Setapp |
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
Pros
Cons
Price: Free or from $24.90/month.
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
Pros
Cons
Interface takes time to learn; more complex than Grammarly
Price: Free or from $30/month.
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
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Price: Free, or from $10/month. $19.99 one-time purchase for the desktop app (doesn’t include new AI features).
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
Pros
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
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
Pros
Cons
Grammar checking is basic compared to dedicated tools
Price: Available on Setapp alongside 250+ other Mac apps.
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
Pros
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Requires manual copy-paste workflow for editing existing documents
Price: Available on Setapp alongside 250+ other Mac apps.
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
Pros
Cons
Less useful for casual writers who don't process high volumes of text
Price: Available on Setapp alongside 250+ other Mac apps.
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.
LanguageTool offers the strongest free tier of any Grammarly alternative. It covers grammar, spelling, and basic style checking across more than 30 languages, works in Safari and Chrome, and doesn't require a credit card to use. The free version has limits on advanced suggestions, but it's useful as a daily writing tool without any cost.
LanguageTool works across most Mac apps through its browser extensions and has broader application support than most alternatives. Elephas, available on Setapp, provides system-wide AI writing assistance through a keyboard shortcut that works in any Mac application — including Safari, Mail, Slack, and Notes — making it the strongest option for writers who want help beyond the browser.
Yes. Setapp includes Elephas, Ulysses, TypingMind, and TextSoap alongside 250+ other Mac and iOS apps for one price. Rather than maintaining separate subscriptions to a grammar checker, an AI writing tool, and a writing environment, Setapp covers all of them — with a 7-day free trial to test everything before committing.
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