Best Grammar Checker for Teachers: 9 Top Options (2024)

Discover the best grammar checker for teachers and what you can expect from these tools.

One sleepy Thursday afternoon, our grammar teacher captured the classroom’s attention. Using a large black marker, she wrote the following sentence on the whiteboard:

“A woman, with her, man is nothing.”

We struggled to figure out what she meant. Then our teacher wrote this sentence:

“A woman: with her, man is nothing.”

She explained these two sentences mean the opposite of each other thanks to the placement of the humble comma and colon. A good English grammar teacher relies on real-world examples like that instead of droning on grammatical rules without context. 

In the past, teachers used only the best grammar books and traditional media to instruct students. These days, they can also turn to the best grammar checkers for teachers to explain how key grammatical concepts affect a student’s work. But what tools should a teacher use? In this round-up, I profile the best grammar checkers for teachers and what to expect from them.

What To Expect In a Grammar Checker For Teachers

A reliable grammar checker for teachers supports how they work in a classroom environment or online. It helps students learn basic grammar English grammar rules and how to write correctly via examples and clear explanations of grammatical concepts. 

It’s helpful if these tools cover more advanced topics like managing citations, avoiding accidental plagiarism and writing styles, as all are relevant for students in academia. Teachers should consider if their students are learning English as a second language, as some tools support multiple languages.

Typically, these grammar checkers require internet access. Some offer a free trial while others charge on a per-seat basis. The best offer student and educational pricing discounts. If they don’t, best look for a budget-friendly grammar checker students can afford and easily access. 

Grammarly is a best-in-class grammar that teachers and students can use.

Grammarly excels as an all-round grammar checker. It works across systems and devices, including Windows and Mac, and browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Teachers can use its artificial intelligence writing assistant to review and fix grammar, syntax and spelling errors, at a click, in real-time. 

The free version fixes some errors but lacks context. Grammarly Premium version offers tool tips and examples behind each grammar mistake. For example, it explains grammar and punctuation issues like apostrophes, capitalization and localised spellings. The AI writing assistant fixes grammar mistakes at a click. However, it is best to encourage students to review these suggestions individually rather than accept them blindly.

The premium version includes a plagiarism checker. Teachers and students can check writing for incidents of accidental plagiarism, with the caveat that Grammarly only checks against articles freely available online. Don’t expect it to compare a document against a gated research paper. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t include a citation manager, so teachers must cover this topic manually. However, Grammarly offers discounts for students and educational institutions. 

Interestingly, Grammarly founder Max Lytvyn claims, based on company research data, that this tool can improve a person’s ability to speak in grammatically correct sentences.

To learn more, read our Grammarly review.

ProWritingAid is ideal for grammar-checking long-form articles.

ProWritingAid is a popular alternative to Grammarly. It includes dozens of good writing and proofreading reports. These can demonstrate how to fix common grammar mistakes.

We particularly like its reports for addressing the readability of a piece. ProWritingAid works well for teachers who want to demonstrate concepts behind grammar errors. It provides contextual help documents or articles that expand on how to fix grammar mistakes, style issues and other errors.

We liked ProWritingAid for its many reports. However, these reports are also its biggest weakness. They can overwhelm new students and take teachers’ time to explain. Not all are necessary, either.

It lacks a citation manager, and the plagiarism checker isn’t ideal due to its requirement that users purchase additional credits. Mobile support lags behind Grammarly, although no serious teacher or student grammar checks only on mobile! 

To learn more, read our ProWritingAid review.

Antidote is ideal for teachers working in English and French and or without internet access;

Druide released Antidote over 25 years, and it’s actively developed today. Teachers can choose from three versions: Antidote web, Antidote mobile and Antidote 11. 

The web version operates via a browser like Chrome or Safari, while the mobile version works on iOS devices. However, it lacks the same number of browser extensions as Grammarly. Antidote 11 installs onto a student’s or teacher’s computer.

Antidote has several features ideal for teachers. Firstly, teachers can play an audio-pronunciation of any common grammar terms. Secondly, it supports the English language and French, meaning it’s a good choice for language learners. Both tools are ideal for English language learners.

Antidote contains an inbuilt dictionary and grammar guide. Teachers and students can use this feature to look up grammar, syntax, punctuation, and more rules. Antidote also doesn’t require internet access to work.

Chegg is a grammar checker for students who need help with homework and exam prep. It scans writing for accidental plagiarism, fixes grammar mistakes, and addresses readability issues. Chegg is affordable and syncs with Google Drive, meaning students can combine a free service with a cheap one.

Chegg offers a similar free tool called Easy Bib for managing citations only. We found Chegg helpful but preferred Quillbot because of its extra features for a comparable price. To learn more, read our Grammarly vs Chegg comparison,

Quillbot is an excellent academic proofreader.

First released in 2017, Quillbot claims over 50 million users. How it presents errors and the breadth of its reports doesn’t compete with Grammarly but offers context behind each grammar mistake.

Teachers working with students at college will love the citation generator. This generator automatically formats any link, document or reference based on a teacher or student’s preferred academic style and generates the correct citation. Read our guide to the best citation generators.

Using this tool, teachers can instruct their students about the merits of building a library of citations for their work. It saves teachers and students hours checking and formatting a bibliography and references. 

Paraphrasing and summarising are key to learning how to write in English, particularly in academia. The paraphrasing feature helps instruct this writing skill.

To learn more, read our Quillbot review.

CorrectEnglish is a grammar checker built for students and teachers.

Correct English is a grammar checker built for the academic market. We uploaded work from Google Docs and Microsoft Word for our tests and copy and pasted some essays.

Teachers will love its support for writing style guides, like APA and MLA. These style guides take time to teach. A student or teacher can demonstrate the differences with a click when writing inside the web app. We’ve yet to find another grammar checker with a similar feature.

The free version can check up to 250 words, which is limited. The premium version features plagiarism check a Lexipedia integration. Use the latter to check definitions, synonyms and antonyms. That said, Lexipedia is freely available. This tool also supports an impressive nine languages, including English, Chinese, German, Korean and Spanish. It’s ideal for those learning or teaching English as a second language. 

PaperRater is an affordable academic essay proofreader.

PaperRater is a grammar-checking software built for students. It was released in 2009 and is owned by Barnes and Noble Education. PaperRater claims to rely on artificial intelligence for grammar and spelling checks. It scans a piece of writing based on an intended education or reading level. 

In our tests, PaperRater missed some mistakes Grammarly caught. Don’t expect the same breadth of proofreading reports, collaboration features or a citation manager. It’s affordable and aimed at students, though.

To learn more, read our Paperrater vs Grammarly comparison.

Scribbr is a grammar checker and citation manager built using the TurnItIn engine.

Founded by Koen Driessen in 2012 while living in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Scribbr is a grammar checker for teachers working in more than one language.

It includes a citation manager, which supports APA and MLA. Users can also export to Bib(La)TeX. It is powered by TurnItIn. That’s a popular tool for plagiarism checks, but it’s unavailable outside of academia. Any student who wants to use a version of TurnItIn will benefit from Scribbr. 

Our reviewer particularly liked its citation manager, support for English, Dutch and German, and the plagiarism checker.

To learn more, read our Scribbr review.

Hemingway App is ideal for English teachers covering how to write concisely.

Hemingway App isn’t a typical grammar checker. However, it’s still a good tool for English teachers because it’s inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s writing maxim, “Omit endless words.” TK

Students can copy and paste writing into the app or upload a Microsoft Word document, text, HTML or Markdown file. Hemingway App highlights instances of weak writing and overused adverbs and adjectives. A student should delete these or find a better word,

Hemingway App is great for avoiding wordy writing and improving the general readability of a piece of writing. Plus, it’s free, which students will love. The premium version works offline. Don’t expect it to spot grammar errors and spelling mistakes, though.

To learn more, read our Hemingway App review.

Why You Can Trust Us

I’m a USA Today best-selling author. I’ve worked as a professional sub-editor for several national newspapers and completed proofreading courses. 

I’ve written dozens of essays for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. Several years ago, I completed a Master’s thesis at Trinity College Dublin, which was awarded a distinction. I also have a degree and several diplomas from various Irish universities.

On Become a Writer Today, I’ve worked with writing software reviewers to profile many of the best tools and apps, including the grammar-checking tools featured here.

Our Testing Criteria

We update this roundup of grammar checker tools for teachers regularly. We test key features by checking essays, articles, book chapters and blog posts for grammatical mistakes and other issues. 

These writing samples range from several hundred to several thousand words. Typically, we use the web, desktop and browser apps and plugins, factoring in price, ease of use and functionality. We’ve reviewed many of these tools individually and included links.

Best Grammar Checker For Teachers: The Final Word

Teachers and academics looking for a best-in-class grammar checker should consider Grammarly. It is the easiest to use and offers discounts for educational bodies. Antidote is also excellent because of its grammar guide and its instructional writing tools. ProWritingAid is also good thanks to its writing guide.

We liked Quillbot and CorrectEnglish for citation support too. A teacher without a budget can use Hemingway App with their students.