Two of these three raised prices in 2026, and one of them a lot: ProWritingAid's annual plan jumped from $79 to $120 — a 52% increase in one go. Grammarly's individual Pro sits at $30/month or $144/year. LanguageTool is the one that stayed cheap, at $4.99/month on a two-year plan (around $70/year).
| Cheapest annual | One-time option | Distinct strength | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LanguageTool | ~$70/yr (2-yr plan) | — | multilingual, cheapest, privacy-friendly |
| Grammarly | $144/yr | — | best real-time correction, widest app coverage |
| ProWritingAid | ~$120/yr | ~$399 lifetime | deep "writing craft" reports for long-form authors |
LanguageTool's case is straightforward: it does the core job — grammar, spelling, style suggestions — across many languages, for less than half of Grammarly, and it's more privacy-conscious about your text. If you write in more than one language, it's the only real option here.
Grammarly is still the smoothest for real-time correction as you type, and it works in the most places — browser, desktop, mobile keyboard, inside most apps. Its Pro tier now also leans on generative rewriting. At $144/year it's the priciest, and whether that's worth it depends on how much the friction-free everywhere-integration matters to you.
ProWritingAid is a different tool wearing a similar label. Its grammar checking is fine, but the reason people pay for it is the craft reports — pacing, sentence variety, overused words, dialogue tags, readability — analysis aimed at people writing novels and long-form, which Grammarly doesn't attempt. And its $399 lifetime license is the one way in this category to stop paying annually forever, which for a working author who'll use it for a decade is the cheapest option by far.
Casual correction, multiple languages, or a tight budget: LanguageTool. Want it everywhere with zero friction: Grammarly. Writing a book: ProWritingAid, and take the lifetime license.