ProWritingAid

Comments: I've used the premium version for 18 months and have based my comments on my experience in that time. I use it both for work and for some of the creative writing I do. I'm a massive fan of using technology to improve how I work and ProWritingAid is right up there as one of the most useful tools I use. It makes a significant difference to how long it takes me to write a document. I write fewer iterations and am more confident in the quality of my first draft because of it. I feel like it's not just correcting my grammar, but also helping me to become a better writer. They have a free version as well as premium versions offering:
- monthly subscription
- yearly subscription
- lifetime license (approx 3.5x annual subscription) I would strongly recommend it to anyone writing at work or at home. In my view, it is significantly better value than other editing and reviewing software on the market.

Pros: I like the fact that I can use it everywhere. It's available in Word, Chrome, and Google Docs. There's even a desktop application. I like the real-time checker that identifies the quick fixes. But the real value is in the deeper reports. Don't be put off by the number of them - my advice is to have find out which ones you find most useful. My favourites are: 1. Thesaurus report, which lets me quickly find better words to use.
2. Readability report, which focuses me on areas that I can improve.
3. Sticky sentences report, which helps me get straight to the point.
Once you know which ones you use most, you can combine them (it's called a Combo report) and with one click, you've got detailed analysis of your writing.

Cons: All software has pros and cons. While ProWritignAid is no different, it is worth saying that they do seem focused on continual improvement. My main criticisms over the last 18 months have been: 1. No integration with Google Docs - this has now been released and works well.
2. It can be daunting how much it tells you about your writing but this is necessary - writing is complex. The more you use it, the better it gets.
3. When I was using the free version, the 500-word limit caught me out a few times. It's not an issue for any premium users, however.

Comments: Overall, it's been a useful tool which has helped me improve my writing style. I try to find amusement in its bizarre, triggered reactions to individual words without considering context. For now, I'll continue to use it, but I can foresee a time when I feel I don't need it anymore - unless the improvements I've mentioned above get addressed.

Pros: It's a Microsoft Word plug-in, making it readily available whenever I'm working. The report descriptions are clear and concise, and the results are often helpful. The most useful reports are the Sticky Sentence Check (which helps me minimise fluffy writing), the Overused Words Check (which picks up the most common instances), and the Pronoun check (which helps me avoid excessive pronoun usage). Other reports (the Sentence Length and Dialogue Tags checks) offer useful information too, but they satisfy my interest in document statistics.

Cons: Three things stand out.
1. The Grammar Check for the Word plug-in doesn't have a user-custom dictionary. (Grammarly and Word both provide this feature.) Since I'm writing fantasy, the Grammar Check throws out an irritating stream of unrecognised words - which I've trained Grammarly and Word to accept.
2. The Grammar Check and Writing Style Check have a limited view of context, which often leads to me rejecting every suggestion. For example, it recently flagged "like", suggesting that I consider a stronger verb: examination of the surrounding words would have shown that it wasn't a verbal usage. Some tautology suggestions seem bizarre: it flags "cool" and "smooth", but these are only synonymous in a very limited language community; and it flags "heavy" and "wet" as synonymous, for some unfathomable reason.
3. There are settings to restrict certain checks within dialogue. I'd like to prevent checks for "emotion tells" in dialogue: people often say "I'm delighted to meet you", or "I'm afraid you're wrong." Such utterances shouldn't be flagged.

Comments: ProWritingAid has helped reduce the time it takes to get from first to final draft by half. Our content and copy is written by many people, with all kinds of writing backgrounds. It used to be a chore to pinpoint typos and makes corrections. Now, after running a few reports and working through them, we get great, readable SEO content in a fraction of the time.

Pros: I love ProWritingAid because there are so many helpful reports that allow you to get as detailed as you want when editing. I use the summary, style and grammar reports all the time. When I'm working on a larger marketing piece, I use the readability, pacing and other reports to help tighten my writing up. I also love how well the software integrates with Microsoft Word and Google Chrome. And one of my all-time favorite features is the word explorer. It's helped me pick the perfect word or phrase on numerous occasions. It's also nice that it's regularly updated with new and improved features.

Cons: I wish there was a way to use this on a mobile device. I'm writing this review on my phone, and I feel like I'm flying blind with ProWritingAid there to let me know about spelling, grammar and readability mistakes. I'd never produce marketing material on my phone, but I certainly write enough emails that I want to look and read professional.

Comments: Not a bad thing to say about ProWritingAid thus far. It's inexpensive, and has helped tune my writing style so I'm faster and more confident about it. With all the tweaking options available (and plug-ability), you're almost never without it. That said, Grammarly has its purpose, and I'd perhaps consider keeping free Grammarly around for its browser-based tool. While I'd advocate using both, if only choosing one I'd opt for ProWritingAid.

Pros: I love how ProWritingAid plugs into MS Word and Scrivener, so both authors and other professionals can utilize the power of this service. The price is very affordable, and the features aren't matched by any competitors to my knowledge. It's great to also 'tune' PWA to your writing style, so it doesn't offer irrelevant suggestions. Another cool feature is Plagiarism checks, so if you hire blog content writers, you can check to see if their content is unique. The same is useful for students who want to check their work against internet sources.

Cons: While ProWritingAid is great, for some platforms that requires short snippets of content like e-commerce product pages, you may be better off with Grammarly. This is because PWA has more of a 'style' focus rather than 'grammar' focus. Perhaps the ultimate approach is to start with PWA to get your writing style mastered offline, then use Grammarly for browser-based usage when writing emails and short snippets of online content (to not get style suggestions where its superfluous).

Comments: It helped me a great deal to improve my style. I initially used Grammarly and just of curiosity, I tried ProWritingAid -- only to learn that software can go beyond grammar and spelling. I feel like I grew as a writer by using ProWritingAid. However, it is a bit of pricey and perhaps some different grades/options can be introduced to satisfy variety of users.

Pros: ProWritingAid contains a number of features that will not only instantly correct and suggest alternative wording but that will gradually improve your overall writing skills. Unlike the popular competition, ProwritingAid has a more comprehensively take on writing, it goes beyond just correcting grammar and spelling but help you enhance your style as well. It provides a number of reports that can help you track the improvement of your writing skills. And of top of that, it works in Google Docs -- where all of my writing takes place. :)

Cons: It would be nice to have extensions for a variety of browsers, including Safari. But honestly, what I like the least about it is a price!