ProWritingAid

Must have if you are a writer

Comments: I'm using this tool mostly when I'm writing posts for my personal blog. It helps me to do all kinds of analysis over my text and make it better. Although, it is good for every day usage, when it highlights common errors in real-time.

Pros:

It has a simple to use widget that can highlight your grammatic errors in real time. Though, when you want to open a detailed view, you can do that by tapping on the widget and it will open a full-featured editor with a lot of data about your writing.

Cons:

Sometimes, the widget does not work for some of the text editors on websites. Hell, it even didn't work on the website where I'm writing the review now.

The best software of its kind

Comments: I personally find the Grammar and Spelling filters on the ProWritingAid checker to be most relevant to my personal needs. I would love to see ProWritingAid keep expanding and refining those particular checks! Right now, I feel that the software focuses more on passive voice and optional stylistic refinements than necessary while failing to catch some fairly obvious typos, but I have confidence that the software will just keep improving over time.

Pros:

As a full-time editor, I get the editing software question almost weekly. I like to think of editing software as Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar check on steroids—it's a very similar process, but much more thorough. ProWritingAid is a fantastic last line of defense against rogue typos and subtle style errors.

Cons:

Many users don't understand that editing software can't be used as a substitute for human eyes on their manuscript. Accepting all of ProWritingAid's changes without reviewing them will result in a stilted, strange manuscript! Instead, for best results, review changes individually, evaluating whether you feel that each change is relevant and necessary for your manuscript. This is also a great way to identify areas for improvement in your writing and improve over time! I would love to see ProWritingAid one day check for errors while users type or underline errors within the body of a Word document (as they do on their online interface) but I understand that their MS Word integration is new and features along those lines may be coming in the future!

Peace of mind that follows you around

Pros:

First of all, contrary to other similar software I used in the past, this one doesn't slow my computers to a crawl. It does everything it says, does it well, and offers a web version as well as an installable version which can be conjured to use within most windows applications. Great for my Scrivener workflow.

Cons:

Bit bare-bone and the windows app seems bulky and clumsy to use at times but under the hood it packs a lot of powerful features and quality tools

Great Tool for Extremely Short Texts, Monumental Fail Otherwise

Comments: Sharing my two cents about ProWritingAid that I purchased a lifetime licence for: If you're reviewing texts about 300 - 400 words in length at maximum, you'll be happy with the tool. Otherwise, it's not worth the money. If you need a short-term solution, then by all means go for it but don't pay a buck for actually using the SW. I've been using the Word add-on for over three months now and if you want to use most of the tools on more than 800 words, the tool simply can't handle the 'load.' Usually, it breaks off after a minute or so and you can run the check again which normally doesn't help. You end up wasting a ton of your time and accomplish nothing at all. While the language advice and the correction improvements you get recommended are helpful, you're better off using Grammarly or another alternative if you're reviewing long chunks of text in one go and don't want to constantly copy-paste from Word to their interface and back which is a pain if you have to do that daily like myself.

Pros:

Totally intuitive. If you know anything about how English, grammar and vocabulary alike, finding your way through the options and how they work will be a breeze. No learning curve. The tool as well as the report are perfectly self-explanatory. Easy-to-use online interface.

Cons:

Useless add-on when dealing with texts of 800+ words. Constant copy-pasting to and from the online interface wasting your time.

My best grammarly alternative

Pros:

I like all about ProWritingAid... Easy to use. Really useful and free.

Cons:

I have not found currently one. I've used it for some weeks.