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Ranked: Best AI tools to help you write better
Writing has been something that I have always enjoyed doing ever since I was young. I fondly remember my attempt at writing a fantasy story as a 9-year-old, and my reaction to it years after. Looking back, if young me was given an AI writing assistant, he would’ve gone on to create the greatest fantasy novel to rival Harry Potter.
Nowadays, as both a computer science student and content writer, I use AI to complement my studies and to sharpen my professional writing skills. These AI writing assistants helped me gain more confidence in writing content that is both distinct and compelling. I’m also excited to see how these can help me whenever I want to write something more creative.
From the first time we scribbled the walls with crayon up until the last time we will write a birthday letter to a grandchild, writing will remain that one constant throughout our lives. It doesn't matter whether you're a student wanting flawless essays, an author seeking for creative input, or a professional wrestling with report outlines. As long as you're writing something, these AI text editors could potentially help you improve your spelling, style, and grammar while retaining your original and unique voice.
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What I looked for
The best AI writing assistants
1. QuillBot
Best for all-around writing
Quillbot refines your text and elevates it with their paraphrasing, summarizing, and grammar-checking features. With 64.7 million users each month, it has become a tool choice for many writers looking to enhance and streamline their writing process.
No matter what course they teach, my professors love giving out essays. But sometimes, I'm so tired that I can't write anything coherent. This is when I know I can rely on QuillBot's Paraphraser and its unrivaled ability to transform my loose thoughts and gibberish into something readable.
QuillBot’s most impressive feature is their Paraphraser, which allows you to reword your text in a variety of ways. One of the two modes that I ended up using a lot were, Fluency mode which improves the clarity and readability of the text, and Creative mode which adds that little bit of flair to my writing. You don’t even have to restrict yourself with their predetermined modes. With Custom, you can simply provide instructions and let it rephrase the sentences to fit your voice. This is perfect if you want the text to match your writing style, or if your company has a certain branding.
Don't like the results? The synonym slider grants you control on how many changes will be made, which also impacts the accuracy of the rephrased paragraph to your original text. Even if you’re fussier than a cat, with their built-in thesaurus, you can simply click a word and QuillBot will suggest synonyms for it. Furthermore, they even allow you to change how it is rephrased or even revert it back to its original form.
The best part is you can get QuillBot's feedback anywhere, thanks to their web extension and mobile app. For those familiar with Grammarly’s extension, it works similarly by providing you with suggestions on how to improve your writing wherever you’re working. What genuinely surprised me is their QuillBot keyboard, which takes everything they have to offer to your phone. Simply highlight a phrase, click the feather icon, and it will give you a list of suggestions to choose from. And just like the web extension, it also works wherever you’re writing.
Their Grammar Checker is also a particularly helpful feature for students. For one, it looks over your text for things that you might have missed, like a comma or two. The Summarizer, Citation Generator, and AI Detector are especially good for work that requires you to go over a lot of written material, like when you’re making your thesis.
Here’s the kicker: you gain access to all of these with just the free plan! Although some features like the Paraphraser and Summarizer limit how many words you can put in, it’s still enough for those who are on a tight budget. If you’re considering upgrading to their Premium plan, aside from the unlimited access that you get to all these features, you also get to unlock the Plagiarism Checker that ensures your sources are properly cited.
You can try QuillBot by visiting their website.
2. Grammarly
Best for more impactful communication
Grammarly changes the way you write and communicate in text. Its real-time feedback and suggestions ensures that your messages always come across as polished and professional. Thanks to its extension, you can expect excellent writing wherever you work, whatever you’re working on.
Perhaps my first introduction to Grammarly was with their heavy advertisements a few years ago. They were practically inescapable, and I vividly remember only getting their ads for every YouTube video that I watched. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, however. They really stood out by virtue of not having any other tool that was able to assist you in writing the way Grammarly does. I also recall getting my mind blown by its ability to give out real-time suggestions as you write wherever you are on your desktop. All I’m thinking at that time was how much of a game changer it was.
When you create a new document, it asks right away the type of content you’re writing and what goals you want to achieve. Whether you’re working on a report or academic paper with the purpose of appearing knowledgeable or wanting to be informative, Grammarly grants you the freedom to tailor it to your writing needs. This level of customization ensures that the output would match as closely to your vision in mind.
Another thing is that they let you decide where you want to use Grammarly. You can utilize its feature everywhere on your PC or limit it to just your browser. Although seemingly minor, this was something I really liked since I personally found the pop-up distracting at times. I’m aware that for some people, being able to take it anywhere is the appeal of the app, so having this option definitely didn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated.
Did I already mention you can take it everywhere? I mean literally everywhere, including your phones! With the Grammarly app, not only are you able to check for issues with your written projects, you could also use it when chatting with your friends, making posts on social media, or even writing your to-do list. This opens up a whole lot more possibilities to how you can use this AI writing assistant.
With Premium, you will gain access to more advanced suggestions for improving the clarity and tone of your work. You'll also get to use their Generative AI, which allows you to give more specific instructions or receive more tailored feedback. Unfortunately, their monthly subscriptions are more expensive compared to their annual plans. As such, it’s recommended to deliberate first on how much you’ll be using the tool before committing to a subscription.
Check out Grammarly by visiting their website.
3. LanguageTool
Best for checking complex text
LanguageTool analyzes your text to look for awkward phrasing, redundancy, and inconsistencies that might affect your message's meaning. Its powerful grammar-checking capabilities is even able to identify common words that are used as proper nouns, allowing for more thorough corrections.
LanguageTool easily remembers proper names and technical terms. A major hurdle I’ve encountered with these AI grammar checkers is their tendency to misidentify proper nouns and names as errors. I am forced to constantly overrule the checker's suggestions which interrupts my workflow. Thanks to its personal dictionary feature, I’m able to circumvent this issue. It ignores the intentional capitalization and spelling of the words I added in it, allowing LanguageTool to learn my specific writing style and to avoid these unnecessary flags.
Although its features are limited compared to QuillBot, for whatever it is able to do, it does exceptionally well. LanguageTool’s strength lies in its ability to analyze context within a sentence. This is showcased when it correctly identifies 'Tuna' in the first sample text as a proper noun and suggests capitalization for subsequent appearances of the word.
LanguageTool's premium subscription plan upgrades their grammar checker and paraphrase even further with more in-depth corrections and recommendations. It also comes with unlimited AI-powered sentence paraphrasing, a personalized style guide, and exclusive access to the Microsoft Word add-in.
Check out LanguageTool by visiting their website. You could also browse through their list of add-ons to see which ones work for you.
4. ProwritingAid
Best for mastering your writing
ProWritingAid serves to assist you improve your work in more ways than one. With over 25 writing analysis reports, you get detailed insights on various aspects of your writing, like redundancy, structure, and readability. It can help you transform your text into something that you can be proud of, staying true to their tagline of helping you write with confidence.
One of the things that improved my writing were the constructive criticisms my teachers would give me throughout the years. I unfortunately no longer get that kind of personalized feedback anymore, and I find it hard to judge my own work since I wouldn’t be able to tell which areas need improvement. That is why I really liked how ProWritingAid provided me with over 25 detailed reports that analyze my writing for overuse of certain words, sentence length variation, and pacing. These reports gave a deeper understanding of my writing style, which helped me pinpoint the parts I could write differently.
ProWritingAid's strongest feature is the seamless integration with various platforms, such as Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Their web extension gives you access to all that they have to offer, regardless of where you choose to write.
Similar to Grammarly, its subscription plans are a bit on the pricier side. This could be a dealbreaker for casual users who are only looking to use it for certain projects. However, if your work involves having to write consistently, you might want to consider their annual plan which brings down the price by a whole lot.
Head over to ProWritingAid’s website and see how they can improve your writing.
5. SudoWrite
Best for creative writing
Writer's block can definitely be difficult to overcome, which is why SudoWrite is here to help. It lets you generate ideas, brainstorm plot points, and even craft entire narratives for you. Whenever you're seeking fresh inspiration, this AI tool made for creative writers will give you the spark to keep you and your narrative going.
I’m sure that some can relate to thinking up a really great plot for a novel, sitting down to write it, and immediately dropping it once you hit the wall of having to construct the world and create story beats. I’ve been there too many times, and the pile of unfinished drafts in my closet is proof of my wavering resolve. With SudoWrite, I found that starting your novel doesn’t always have to be so daunting. As long as you have the idea, this writing tool would expand the universe for you.
Its standout feature is definitely Brainstorm, which generates dialogues, names, plot points, and basically anything that you could think of. This is especially helpful for overcoming the bane of every author’s existence, namely writer's block. Its ability to generate creative suggestions and detailed prompts definitely helped me keep my narrative flowing smoothly during those times that I’m out of brain juice. Additionally, its aptitude for enhancing and expanding on your initial concepts ensures that your story develops in rich and unexpected ways.
If you’re a writer, I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase “show don’t tell” all too well. For advice so simple, it’s arguably one of the hardest things to achieve in writing. Which is why I am thoroughly impressed with SudoWrite’s Describe function. What it does is it takes the word you selected and generates sensory details for it to provide more vivid descriptions.
Perhaps you’re stuck on how to depict a bustling marketplace. By simply clicking the word “marketplace,” SudoWrite will provide you with more colorful descriptors. You might find yourself immersed in the aroma of exotic spices, lost in the cacophony of bartering voices, or overwhelmed by the kaleidoscope of fabrics swirling around you. This ability to generate vivid descriptions, whether based on a literal interpretation or a creative metaphor, elevates your writing from simply informing the reader to truly transporting them into the heart of your story.
You can tailor your creative writing process even further with SudoWrite’s extensive library of plugins. I honestly had fun browsing through this because of the abundance of tools that have niche and very specific functions. For one, Darkify Characters turns your sweet, do-no-wrong Mary Sue to an immoral, curses-on-your-grandma delinquent. While SudoWrite excels at creative exploration, it is unfortunately hindered by the fact that it doesn’t have a built-in grammar checker. Still, you could find plugins for this function albeit ones that are made by the users themselves.
With its free plan, you can get a feel for how SudoWrite can ignite your creativity and streamline your writing process before deciding on a subscription. I definitely recommend aspiring authors and professional novelists to check this tool out.
Have a go at SudoWrite by visiting their website.
How we picked these tools
We cast a wide net to identify the tools that people are already using. Firstly, we prioritized tools that have a substantial and active user base. A high number of monthly users indicates that it is dependable and the product resonated with a lot of writers. We also scoured through online communities where authors gather, like Reddit and Facebook groups. The discussions being had about these writing assistants gave us a picture of what they feel about it, which are further reinforced by the number of upvotes and the sentiment of the comments. Those who are consistently getting positive feedback easily made it to our shortlist.
With so many excellent AI writing assistants available, selecting just a few for this review proved to be challenging since each tool offered unique strengths and functionalities. Ultimately, we were able to narrow down the selection from 7 down to 5 by looking at what sets them apart from the others. Although Ludwig and Hemingway are both amazing tools that made it to our shortlist, we chose to exclude them in the end.
Ludwig has incredible features that I really liked, particularly their Rewrite function, which gives you suggestions on how to word a sentence differently. Their UI is clean and free from unnecessary promotions, which is always nice. Regrettably, my only bone of contention is with its Sentence Fix function. Although it does highlight errors in your text, I got a prompt saying there was nothing to correct when I clicked on Fix. This doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it can be a little vexing. We can attribute this to the fact that this feature of theirs is still in beta and stuff like this is usually unavoidable. Which is why I’m excited to test it again once it’s fully fixed considering how much potential this AI tool has.
Another is Hemingway, which was a tool that I had experience using a few years back. Going back to it now, the first thing that I immediately notice is how their grammar checking and paraphrasing features are locked behind a Pro plan. I vaguely remember that this wasn’t the case before, but regardless, this alone made it hard for me to recommend it considering that all the other tools on this list have those features available for free.
How I tested these tools
I primarily focused on desktop functionality, taking note of how well their website and browser extension (where offered) works. I also made sure to check out their mobile apps to assess for cross-platform compatibility, which factored heavily into our rankings.
I've used three distinct texts for this comparison. Everyone writes for different reasons, from essays to novels, and there is no "one size fits all" approach to writing. We want to make sure that these tools will help you achieve your writing goals.
The first text, written by me, served as a benchmark to check for the tool's error-checking capabilities. I wanted to see if the tool could effectively identify and correct all grammatical and spelling mistakes, while also understanding the nuances of proper nouns.
The second and third texts, generated by ChatGPT, are used to test for the paraphrasing functionality. The second sample was used to test the ability to simplify complex language, while the third checked for the ability to change the report's tone and style.
What's inside
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