Grammarly is possibly the best-known online spelling and grammar checking tool. It also has a helpful built-in plagiarism checker that searches for online texts similar to your content. However, the plagiarism checking utility begs comparison with Turnitin. Turnitin has multiple tools like Grammarly, but it was designed for a different target audience. Grammarly is marketed towards professionals, whereas Turnitin is marketed for teachers. You want to use the tool that provides the best value and the best product in your online business. Let’s take a look at Grammarly vs Turnitin to see which is best for your online business and website.
Grammarly
Grammarly is an online application for professional proofreading, spell-checking, and grammar checking. Grammarly’s process is based on 400 rules of English grammar. It detects spelling and punctuation errors, passive voice, wordy sentences, vocabulary errors, and much more.
Extra features with Grammarly are the online plagiarism checker, proofreader, and writing tone and style checks. It’s very user-friendly and has both a free and paid version.
Grammarly at a Glance
- $12.00 monthly
- Highly accurate
- 16+ billion websites in the database
- Word limit of over 150,000
- Plagiarism check
- Customer support response time under one hour
- Only supports English
Turnitin
Turnitin was developed primarily as a plagiarism checking tool for educators. The updated online tool is used mainly by students, content writers, teachers, and bloggers. It has a built-in reminder system that will alert you of deadlines via email and track whether you’ve met deadlines. Turnitin also allows you to submit images and graphics for plagiarism checks, a feature not found within Grammarly.
There is no free version of Turnitin. It now has grammar and spells checking incorporated into the application.
Turnitin at a Glance
- $3 per user
- Over 12 different languages
- Compatible with different devices
- 70 billion websites in the database
- Plagiarism check
- Marking tools
- Good customer service
- 5,000 character limit for commenting
- Costs vary based on the number of users and features you need
Grammarly vs Turnitin Features
Grammarly is offered as a plugin for Firefox, Chrome, and Microsoft Word. A Grammarly extension can also be applied in Microsoft Outlook for spelling and grammar checking of email communications. If you are using a Windows-based operating system, there is an app that enables you to type documents directly into Grammarly.
Turnitin enables its users to upload content to be saved and accessed across multiple devices and platforms. It also provides easy uploading to Google Docs and Dropbox. In addition, Turnitin’s plagiarism checker runs automatically upon upload, with a comment marking feature to help teachers comment on student work. This feature could also be used by a business owner reviewing employee work products. Unfortunately, Turnitin has a content limit of only 5,000 characters, and grammar checking is only available after upload.
The one area lacking within Grammarly is support for multiple languages within the plagiarism checker. It only detects plagiarism within English documents and websites, so it is possible to bypass it if you’re writing in a different language. However, Grammarly does provide the option to write and check in American, British, Canadian, and Australian English.
Grammarly vs Turnitin Price
Grammarly offers a free version of its grammar and spellcheck tools. However, you can subscribe to Grammarly Premium to use the plagiarism checker and advanced grammar tips. Unlike Turnitin, Grammarly offers subscriptions to individual users for $12/month. You can save by signing up for a quarterly or annual subscription for under $150/year.
A business plan can be purchased on Grammarly for use by up to 149 users, but it’s pretty pricey. If your business requires access for many users, consider subscribing to the education tool, Grammarly@Edu. It’s designed for educational institutions but allows you to subscribe to the plagiarism checker for $500/year for every five users. It’s significantly cheaper than a business subscription.
Turnitin’s plagiarism checking tool does not come cheap. It’s designed for purchase by large institutions, and the fee is based on the number of users and the features you wish to use. It can cost as much as $300 to check 75,000 words for copied content.
Primary Differences Between Grammarly and Turnitin
- Grammarly offers some free services, and Turnitin does not
- Turnitin requires contacting your account administrator to add grammar checking as it’s primarily a plagiarism checking tool. Grammarly offers grammar checking with all its services
- Both applications have large databases
- Grammarly’s plagiarism checker scans whole sentences, so sometimes you can change only one or two words to avoid plagiarism. Turnitin scans words, letters, and symbols, so changing a word will still mark it as plagiarism
- Turnitin’s reliability score is higher than Grammarly’s, but it lacks the extra features offered to Grammarly users
FAQs
Does Turnitin Detect Paraphrasing?
The answer to this depends on the quality of the paraphrase. Plagiarism is considered copying another person’s work, whereas paraphrasing rewrites or restructures concepts for other sources. The meaning of a paraphrase will be the same, but it will have a different structure and style to the original.
Turnitin can detect any overlap of text between your writing and another source and flag it as plagiarism. Paraphrasing will not usually be flagged as plagiarism because its style is different from the original source. This being said, Turnitin is a lot more likely to detect paraphrasing than Grammarly.
Turnitin’s plagiarism checker searches for similarity in content rather than word-for-word sentences. It employs keyword analysis in its checks as well. Therefore, it’s best to use standard methods of paraphrasing to avoid it being perceived as plagiarism.
Is There a Free Turnitin?
There is no free version of Turnitin available.
Is Grammarly a Reliable Plagiarism Checker?
Yes, Grammarly is a reliable plagiarism checker. They run a check with their online database and have recently partnered with the extensive content database ProQuest to run an offline plagiarism check. This partnership has given Grammarly a leg up over Turnitin for the quality and thoroughness of its checks.
Are Plagiarism Checkers Accurate?
The accuracy level depends on which application or software you use to check for plagiarism. For example, a lot of plagiarism checkers will only scan your writing against websites. This limits their accuracy because it doesn’t include books, journals, or papers in the check.
Another downside of plagiarism checkers is that most of them only check direct plagiarism or word-for-word copying. However, a high-quality plagiarism checker will also detect patchwork plagiarism – where synonyms are used or a few words are rearranged in sentences.
Are There Other Options Besides Grammarly or Turnitin?
There are a few other plagiarism-checking tools on the market. For example, SmallSEOTools has a free plagiarism checker where you can copy and paste your writing to have it scanned. In addition, it allows you to upload documents to Dropbox or Google Drive or submit published URLs.
The issue with free online plagiarism checkers is that they’re less likely to be reliable. You can’t save your work in Word like you can with Grammarly, and you can only check 1,000 words at a time. So if you want accurate and reliable plagiarism checker for your online business, it’s best to pay for the service.
Recommendation – Grammarly vs Turnitin
Both Grammarly and Turnitin have some great features and stand out for their target markets. But which one is best for your online business? More than likely, unless you have many employees or a corporate environment, you want to choose Grammarly Pro.
Grammarly Pro is most useful for content marketers who require an online tool to check and improve the quality of their content. Grammarly will check for plagiarism and ensure your documents and content are free from spelling and grammar errors. Because Grammarly can be purchased for both group and individual use, it is more cost-effective than Turnitin. Many online businesses outsource their content creation but are only run by one or two people. You can pay for a single-user subscription and check your content yourself with Grammarly.
Grammarly has the added advantage of improving your writing quality along with a plagiarism checker. Turnitin doesn’t provide you with this option.
The decision of which tool to use for your online business should be based on your business’s size, needs, and budget. Both Grammarly and Turnitin are quality applications. Which is better for you will be determined by the needs of your business.
