Writers, students, and business people rely on online writing tools to sound more professional and reliable. They usually use Grammarly because it’s the most popular platform. But have you heard about its contender, Ginger?
In this article, I compare Ginger and Grammarly regarding their accuracy in suggestions, pricing, and software integrations. Get to know their strengths and weaknesses before deciding which one to install.
What is Ginger?
It’s a spelling and grammar checker that corrects your text as you’re typing. As one of the oldest online writing editors, Ginger offers suggestions for a wide array of writing mistakes. See our Ginger review.
Its real-time suggestion feature allows you to receive instant corrections on your sleeping, grammar, and other writing issues. I thought that was nifty, especially for a free editing tool.
The writing enhancement tool also has dictionary definitions and a sentence rephraser. But I find it’s fairly basic compared to Grammarly’s in-depth suggestions. You can also translate your text into up to 50 different languages.
What is Grammarly?
Grammarly is perhaps the most widely used grammar checker software that checks your document for basic and advanced writing errors. And for good reason. I sing its praises all the time. It offers many writing styles, spelling corrections, grammar and vocabulary suggestions, and syntax.
This accurate grammar checker also provides options for users on how to access it. Use Grammarly via the website, desktop app, mobile application, or browser extensions. I have it installed in Microsoft Word and my Google Chrome browser. See my in-depth Grammarly evaluation here.
Features of Grammarly
Here are the essential features of Grammarly I think are worth mentioning.
Advanced Writing Suggestions
Grammarly divides its writing suggestions into four: correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery. But I love that you can choose to tackle all the issues in those categories at once, or you can refine and select one category at a time.
Aside from the basic proofreading service, it also allows writers to write their sentences clearer through active voice suggestions, removal of repeated words, etc.
If Grammarly doesn’t recognize a word and flags it as a misspelling, you have the option to add it to your personal dictionary. As a Fiction writer in the Fantasy genre, this is so handy for me. You can also tailor the suggestions based on the different English languages.
Grammarly’s premium plan points out offensive words, informal statements, and impolite sentences, unlike other grammar checkers. It’s also concerned with sentence variety and wordiness.
Plagiarism Checker
Grammarly features a plagiarism checker on its premium version to save you time from consulting another program. It detects copied phrases and sentences while linking them to the original source.
Software Integrations
Whether you’re using Grammarly Free or Premium, the grammar checking tool offers integration with several platforms.
Download the mobile extensions on Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge so you can correct them as you type. Grammarly will underline your mistakes on email, Google Docs, social media, and other sites.
Grammarly also has a desktop version you can download. Quickly install Grammarly for Windows and Grammarly for Mac to receive suggestions on your computer applications.
The writing assistant also offers a mobile version so you can correct grammatical mistakes on different mobile devices. Download the app and enable it on your keyboard settings.
Pricing
You can subscribe to a Grammarly plan to unlock the advanced grammar tools and features that make you a professional writer. Grammarly Premium’s price starts at $29.99 every month, although the company is very generous with its annual plan discount.
Below are the three pricing plans for the Premium version:
- Monthly plan: $30 per month.
- Quarterly plan: $60 per quarter.
- Annual plan: $144 per year.
Grammarly doesn’t offer lifetime plans, one-time plans, and gift subscriptions. I tried the free version at first, but quickly upgraded to an annual plan once I saw how easy it is to use and how much I really benefit from it.
Features of Ginger
Take a look at the essential features of Ginger. I’m not a huge fan of it, I feel it’s fairly basic. But I can see how it could be a great additional tool for writers in addition to others.
Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation Corrections
The Ginger writing app promises to provide a solution to your English grammar and spelling errors. The advanced grammar checker claims to scan thousands of mechanical and contextual writing issues.
Improve your English writing skills through Ginger’s spell and punctuation correction, correct pronoun usage, subject-verb agreement, and phrasal verbs.
It can increase your piece of writing’s quality with only one click. Ginger corrects all the mistakes at once through the “Correct All” feature. You can also choose to receive suggestions for either American or British English.
Translator
Despite Ginger’s basic features on grammar and spellchecking and lack of plagiarism tool, it has a built-in translator for over 50 languages. It’s a free functionality that works better than Google Translate.
It ensures that your translation sounds natural to the target audience as it compares your text to actual sentences on the web. But I would still recommend getting a proofreader to edit your translation.
Style and Readability
Ginger Software elevates your text by spotting repetitions and wordy sentences when it comes to writing style. It offers many ways you can shorten each statement while also asking you to complete sentence fragments.
The Ginger Rephraser is another essential feature of the comprehensive grammar checking tool. Besides the simple grammar fixes, it rephrases a sentence with synonyms, idioms, phrases, and antonyms.
Software Integrations
Mobile applications and browser extensions are key features of every online writing editor. Ginger offers a wide range of options where you can access it. It integrates with MS Office applications and other desktop apps for smooth writing.
You can also download ginger Keyboard on your mobile device and open it on your Keyboard shortcuts.
However, the tool lacks OpenOffice, Google Docs, and LibreOffice integrations.
Pricing
Ginger offers very few functionalities with its free version. But with the premium version, you get all the advanced features. You also have access to the read-aloud feature, personal trainer, and style analysis to help you achieve writing goals.
It only offers an annual billing plan worth $7.49 a month. But the company runs discount campaigns with offers as low as $95.76 for two years. In my opinion, both are super affordable options.
I love that the editing tool provides a 100% money-back guarantee for seven days. It gives you time to see if Ginger is the best for you.
Grammarly vs. Ginger
Ginger
Grammarly
Languages supported
English only
Multilingual support
Accuracy score
No
Yes
Plagiarism checker
No
Yes
Translation
Yes
No
Wordiness feature
No
Yes
Uploads documents
No
Yes
Tone suggestions
No
Yes
Text-to-speech feature
Yes
No
Ginger
Languages supported: English only
Accuracy score: No
Plagiarism checker: No
Translation: Yes
Wordiness feature: No
Uploads documents: No
Tone suggestions: No
Text-to-speech feature: Yes
Grammarly
Languages supported: Multilingual Support
Accuracy score: Yes
Plagiarism checker: Yes
Translation: No
Wordiness feature: Yes
Uploads documents: Yes
Tone suggestions: Yes
Text-to-speech feature: No
Advantages of Grammarly
Easy to Use
Grammarly’s web editor is relatively easy to use. It has a dedicated writing assistant panel to correct your contextual mistakes.
This grammar software is also easy to use on an iOS and Android device. Simply enable the dedicated keyboards, and the app will offer real-time suggestions as you tweet, text, and post.
It’s also easy to access synonym suggestions. Just highlight the word, and a set of similar words will appear for you to select.
Accurate Plagiarism Detector
Aside from removing diverse types of grammar mistakes, Grammarly’s plagiarism checker ensures your work is original. Its plagiarism checking capabilities include an originality score and links to the primary sources.
Educational Suggestions
Grammarly’s comprehensive explanations for their suggestions are perhaps why students and professional writers love the tool. After selecting the level of customization for suggestions, it will give you accurate corrections with all the necessary details you need.
For example, if one sentence requires rephrasing, Grammarly explains that it’s because of active voice issues. The AI-powered writing assistant can also tweak complex sentences to be more concise and clear.
These lesson-like explanations will surely make you a writing expert in no time.
Advantages of Ginger
All-in-One Grammar and Style Checker
Ginger is a highly accurate online checker for different writing style elements. It detects most of your grammatical errors, whether using the Ginger browser extensions or application.
It also features a custom dictionary where you can add your favorite words, made-up words, and proper nouns.
Unique Read-Aloud and Translator Features
Unlike other grammar checkers, Ginger has a text-to-speech feature that provides assistance to writers with dyslexia. Dyslexic people usually have difficulty reading, so a read-aloud feature will save them time.
It’s also one of the few writing editors that offer a translation service. You can translate your text into over 50 languages without sounding robotic or amateur.
Disadvantages of Grammarly
No Free Trial
Fellow writers who are tight on a budget will not be able to get a free trial of the premium version. They can’t run a demo document using the advanced features for a limited time. So, there’s no way to test if the premium plan is worth it. If you ask me, it’s totally worth it, though.
No MS Office Add-On for Mac Users
The advanced proofreading tool is available on browsers like Google Chrome and Safari. Windows users also have access to the plug-in. However, you won’t be able to enjoy the MS Office add-on if you’re a Mac user.
Expensive
The premium version is unlike any other online tool when it comes to fixing grammar and spelling mistakes. However, it’s a super-expensive monthly plan for students or new writers to invest in.
Disadvantages of Ginger
Not User-Friendly
In my opinion, Ginger’s user interface seems clunky and hard to use, especially when paired with the program’s slow response time. Its customization options are also limited compared to Grammarly.
Annual Subscription Only
The business pricing model of Ginger only offers annual subscriptions. You don’t have the option to subscribe to a monthly or quarterly plan.
Limited Browser Extensions
Grammarly and other writing enhancement tools only offer browser extensions for Chrome and Safari. It’s not available on Firefox and Microsoft Edge.
Grammarly vs. Ginger Verdict
Grammarly is an obvious winner in this battle of the G editors. Aside from its easy use, the corrections are comprehensive, and the integration with other platforms is exceptional. It also gets plus points for the plagiarism tool.
On the other hand, Ginger rephraser, translation tool, and read-aloud are the only feature worth mentioning in the other editing tool. It could use a few improvements in its interface and pricing model.
Which grammar checking tool are you getting? Share it with us in the comments!