Writefull vs. Grammarly: What’s The Difference?

Writefull Vs. Grammarly – Which writing software is a better option? Continue reading to find out.

I’ve reviewed and tested writing assistant software for around five years and never encountered something designed around the use cases of students. That’s until I came across Writefull.

Writefull markets itself as a writing assistant containing everything a student is looking for. It even offers discounted plans for academic institutions.

So I wanted to know how this writing assistant stacks against the reliable Grammarly. I went ahead and tested these tools and compared them in specific categories to see which was better. Below, I’ll cover my experiences with Writefull and Grammarly and how to know which you should choose based on your writing needs.

Product Name	Availability	Use For	Features
Writefull	Microsoft Word, Overleaf, and the Writefull web app.	Students or anyone working in academia looking for a formal writing assistant.	Writefull Cite, Writefull Academizer, and sentence palette.	Try Now
Grammarly	Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and the Grammarly desktop and mobile app.	Those who need a writing assistant and plagiarism checker in one.	Grammar checking, plagiarism checking, readability analysis, and team plan features.	Try Now

What are Writefull and Grammarly? 

Writefull is AI software that helps you write, edit, and paraphrase academic text so you can create better assignments for school. Students and researchers from Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Stanford use Writefull to get higher marks. It scans for various problems like:

• Grammar and spelling
• Word use
• Conciseness
• Word order
• Phrasing 

Think of it as a Grammarly alternative for college and high school students. Writefull offers features like sentence palette and a title generator built for academic writing.

On the other hand, Grammarly is also an AI writing assistant, but its use cases are more general. Although educational institutions can benefit, it’s mainly targeted toward writers with a more casual writing voice.

But it’s still one of the most accurate writing tools, streamlining the editing process. Grammarly’s suggestions help you identify plagiarism, readability issues, and repetitive language. You might also be interested in our CreativeLive vs. LinkedIn Learning guide.

What Do Writefull and Grammarly Have In Common?

When I first signed up for Writefull a few months ago, it reminded me of Grammarly’s accuracy. To prove my point, I ran a test. I pasted an older article reviewing Canva into both Writefull and Grammarly. With Writeful, the AI suggested 77 changes, most of which were correct:

When I pasted the same text into Grammarly, there were 81 suggestions:

This report shows how closely matched Writefull and Grammarly are when it comes to accuracy.

Writefull Vs. Grammarly: The Differences

However, there are a few key differences between Writefull and Grammarly. Knowing these differences can help you choose the platform tailored to your writing needs:

• Writefull is designed for academics
• Grammarly is more general

Writefull Is Designed For Academics

Writefull has features designed around academics, such as sentence palette and language search. With the sentence palette function, you can browse through sets of phrases commonly used in academic papers. For instance, if you want to introduce your study, browse the various options to see which suits your paper best.

These phrases are so short and common that you can safely copy and paste them without worrying about plagiarism. Also, the Writefull language search allows you to type a word or phrase and it’ll give you examples of other research papers using it.

Grammarly Is More General

Grammarly is a more general writing assistant. Even though it can help academics, it’s more suitable for freelance writers, teams, and marketers. Unlike Writeful, Grammarly will encourage more casual writing, so it’ll help you communicate complex ideas in a way that’s easy to understand.

Grammarly is also compatible with text messaging apps like Whatsapp and Messenger, so you can send error-free messages to friends and family.

What’s Better About Writefull?

Here are some areas that I noticed Writefull doing a better job than Grammarly:

• Writefull has a citation generator
• Writefull’s suggestions are more formal

Writefull Has A Citation Generator

Writefull has a citation generator available to institutions and publishers. It’s a useful tool for several different reasons. Writefull uses an AI model to define the meaning of each of your sentences and assesses whether it needs to be supported by a reference. It can help you avoid poor citations and accidental plagiarism. 

For example, if you’re writing a research paper and say, “studies show,” then Writefull will prompt you to add a reference.

Writefull’s Suggestions Are More Formal

You probably see formal writing as staid and dry if you’re in the freelance writing industry. However, lecturers can mark a paper down for casual writing, particularly in high schools and colleges. Fortunately, when you paste your assignments into the Writefull Academizer, it’ll provide options for rephrasing your work, making your sentences sound a little more formal.

What’s Better About Grammarly?

However, Grammarly offers benefits for writers and students that few AI applications can compete with:

• Grammarly has a plagiarism checker
• Grammarly is compatible with more apps

Grammarly Has A Plagiarism Checker

The one academic area where Writefull is lacking is in the plagiarism checking department. This is where Grammarly helps. The accuracy of the plagiarism checker is on par with Copyscape and PlagiarismCheck.org.

You must log into Grammarly, paste your school assignment, and select “Plagiarism” in the bottom right-hand corner. 

From here, you’ll see all the potential plagiarism problems on the right. Since I already published this Craft review, Grammarly flagged my entire article for plagiarism.

Grammarly Is Compatible With More Apps

I’m also a big fan of how many applications Grammarly integrates with. Grammarly is compatible with the following tools:

• Slack
• Gmail
• Whatsapp
• Messenger

On the other hand, Writefull only works with Overleaf and Microsoft. You can’t use it to scan your emails and text messages for errors unless you copy and paste text from your messaging app into Writefull.

Who Should Get Writefull (And Why)?

If you fall into any one of the following categories, Writefull may be a better option for you:

• Students and researchers
• Academic institutions
• Publishers and authors

Students And Researchers

Writefull is built around the needs of students and researchers because it uses language models trained with millions of journal articles. When you paste your writing, you can choose between “Proofread” and “Full Edit.” The proofread option will correct small grammar, spelling, and style issues. Full Edit goes a step further and will rewrite your sentences so it sounds more formal.

Academic Institutions 

I also like that Writefull has group licenses at a 50 percent discount, which can help students and colleges save money. Simply go to Writefull’s group licensing page, enter the number of users you’d like to add, and Writefull will present you with a quote. 

Once you’ve checked out, you can invite students and colleagues to the team account and everyone can take advantage of the premium features.

Publishers And Authors

According to Writefull, 99 percent of publishers and authors feel more confident after pasting their work into the AI writing software.

So if you want to increase your publishing efficiency, you’ll be glad to know that Writefull can evaluate and improve your manuscripts within seconds. The language API auto-applies a set of edits that’ll boost the quality of your work.

You’ll also notice that Writefull’s Manuscript Categorization API rates your work as you make changes. This score will give you a rough idea of the quality of your novel.

Who Should Get Grammarly (And Why)?

After using Grammarly for five years, I realized that it can empower the lives of:

• Freelance writers
• Teams
• Authors 

Freelance Writers

Ever since I started creating content for a living, I’ve used Grammarly to scan my work for writing errors. And this is why I highly recommend using Grammarly if you’re getting started in the freelance writing industry. It’ll spot most of your grammar, spelling, readability, and plagiarism errors, giving you a solid starting point to edit from.

Consider Grammarly’s free plan if you don’t want to commit to the paid plan. The free option also checks for spelling and grammar errors, so you can get a feel for the interface before paying a monthly subscription.

Teams

Grammarly can benefit teams of professionals coordinating writing projects within a business. Grammarly’s business plan offers brand tones and an analytics dashboard that’ll help take your team’s writing to the next level.

You can also scale across platforms because Grammarly works with Slack, LinkedIn, Workday, Lattice, Gmail, and hundreds of other applications. So it doesn’t matter what tools you’re using, you can invite everyone to Grammarly, and as your team grows, you can upgrade your plan. Read our Grammarly Business review to learn more.

Authors

Writing a novel requires endless discipline because you’ll have to create a good story and present it in a way that makes your audience want to continue reading. Fortunately, Grammarly can make this process a little easier by streamlining the editing process. 

Once you’ve completed your first draft, paste it into Grammarly, and the AI will spot mistakes. From here, you can send it to your editors, and since Grammarly has already removed minor spelling, grammar, and readability errors, your editors can focus on more serious problems like plot holes.

My Testing Criteria

Here are the testing criteria I used when comparing Writefull and Grammarly:

Ease of use: When I first downloaded Writefull and Grammarly, I considered the learning curve and calculated the time it took me to use the application to its full potential.

Accuracy: Next, I looked at the accuracy of each tool. It doesn’t matter if a writing assistant ticks all the other boxes, if it isn’t accurate, it’ll have little use in writers’ lives.

Affordability: Students are a significant part of Writefull and Grammarly’s target audience. So I factored in the monthly subscription cost to see which is more practical.

Additional features: The last thing I looked at was any additional features like plagiarism scanners and citation generators that I believe can benefit writers and students.

Why You Can Trust Me

I’ve been a freelance copywriter and content writer for five years, and during this time, Grammarly has become a stable writing app. I’ve used it to check my writing for spelling errors, readability problems, and plagiarism.

I’ve also tested and written countless software reviews for other writing assistants, marketing optimization tools, and AI writers, and Grammarly has helped me edit them. These years of testing software products gave me a good foundation of knowledge to start writing this comparison.

Final Word: Writefull Vs. Grammarly

Writefull and Grammarly are similar tools, but with different use cases. Writefull is for students and anyone working in academia because the suggestions are more formal. Grammarly is tailored around writers, authors, and businesses since its writing voice is casual.

However, I won’t be using Writefull going forward. The changes are based on academic writing, so naturally, it’ll have a formal writing style. When I pasted blog posts into Writefull, I had to reject many changes, even though they were accurate, because the writing voice was stodgy. 

In short, if you’re a student, lecturer, or you work in academia, Writefull is for you. But if you’re writing online or simply outside academia, opt for a Grammarly premium discount.