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ProWritingAid and QuillBot are AI-based writing tools that work across a variety of platforms, word processors, and apps.
Both are more than just grammar and style checkers that catch simple mistakes in your writing. They consider themselves worthy of becoming your personal writing coach, writing mentor, and grammar guru.
At our content writing agency, we have paid for and tested both. As such, we are in the perfect position to compare the duo and inform our readers which of them provides a better value for their money.
Our rating:
- ProWritingAid: 4.5/5
- QuillBot: 4.2/5
| Criteria | ProWritingAid | QuillBot |
| Ease of Use | User-friendly interface | Ditto |
| Customization | Lets you pick the writing style that best fits the project you\’re working on | Multiple modes offered by paraphraser |
| Analysis Reports | 24+ in-depth reports that cover pretty much every aspect of your writing | Pretty basic |
| Rephrasing Tools | Allows you to rephrase your writing pretty much any way you want | Fairly advanced |
| Integrations | Lacks a mobile app | Integrates with most apps, platforms, and software |
| Pricing and Support | One-time pricing as well as other affordable plans | Pocket-friendly |
| Accuracy | Highly accurate in identifying and correcting grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. | Plagiarism detector can be more accurate |
| Writing Style | Lets you pick from predefined writing styles | N/A |
| Plagiarism Checker | There are better (and more reliable) options out there | Same |
| Mobile Integration | No | Yes |
| Educational Material | Plenty of in-app explanations, quizzes, video lessons, and interviews with writers | The site has some excellent explainers |
| User Reviews | Routinely gets 4.5* out of 5 | Routinely gets 4.2* out of 5 |
| Free vs Paid Plans | Free Plan: Limited to 500 words Paid Plan: Doesn’t include a built-in plagiarism checking tool Paid Plan: Includes a plagiarism checker | Plagiarism detection, summarize, and citation generator are only available in the premium plan |
| Writing Goals | Lets you set your writing goals in advance as well as change them down the line | Free Plan: Limited to 500 words Paid Plan: Doesn’t include a built-in plagiarism-checking tool Paid Plan: Includes a plagiarism checker |
| Language Support | Only English | Compatible with multiple languages |
Overview: What both tools are about?
QuillBot is an AI-based software that lets you rephrase your content pretty much any way you like.
It also checks your writing for grammar and spelling errors, lets you summarize large documents in key points, and generates citations for any book, PDF or webpage.
One major feature that QuillBot offers – that most of its competitors don\’t – is the translator. Using this option, you can translate content from 21 different languages into English (and vice versa).
ProWritingAid\’s (PWA\’s) unique selling point is its ability to check your writing for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style errors.
PWA also scores your writing for readability using multiple metrics, including the Flesch Reading Score, Gunning Fog Index, and many others.
The plagiarism detector feature (only available in the paid version) checks your writing for duplication against a database of over 1 trillion web pages.
Another notable feature of PWA is that it lets you share your written content with your fellow writers and collaborate on editing and feedback.
Ease of Use: How user-friendly are the interfaces of each product?
ProWritingAid\’s interface is pretty user-friendly.
Despite the sheer number of options (20+ per my last count), you can easily find and select the feature you might be looking for.
Luckily, PWA\’s web-based editor shows equal care for the brain cells of its users.
A top-down menu on the right side neatly lays out all the major features of this writing tool.
Additionally, it assigns a score to your writing based on multiple factors as well as highlights your strengths.
QuillBot\’s user interface is much friendlier than PWA\’s.
That is mainly because QB offers fewer features than PWA. This enables its interface to be much cleaner than PWA\’s.
Notice how all the features are listed on the left-hand side?
Once you have selected the option you want to use, the workplace in the centre will change accordingly. This means you can use all the features on one workspace rather than opening different tabs for different options.
Thus, as far as the user-friendliness of their interfaces is concerned, QuillBot is a clear winner.
Customization: How customizable are the settings and options for each product?
ProWritingAid offers more customization options than you\’d ever need.
Take its Combo Check feature as an example. This feature lets you customize the reports PWA generates to look for your specific problem areas.
Next comes the Style Guides (formerly the House Style Report) that lets you set certain style-related rules for PWA to follow.
For example, if you work at a law firm where lawyers are referred to as attorneys, you can create a rule that flags the word \’lawyer\’.
QuillBot only lets you customize its paraphrasing suggestions.
It offers different modes (standard, fluent, formal, academic, simple, creative, expand, concise, and custom), with each mode focusing on specific things in your text.
For instance, while the formal mode changes your text to read and sound more professional, the creative mood might end up changing the meaning of the text altogether.
All in all, ProWritingAid offers more customization options than QuillBot.
Analysis Reports: How customizable are the settings and options for each product?
ProWritingAid offers 24+ analysis reports that cover pretty much every aspect of your writing.
These reports cover the use of vague wording, passive voice, adverbs, and much more, including:
- Repetitive words/sentences
- Sentence length
- Readability grade
- Sentence length
- … and much more
QuillBot offers similar reports as well.
Upon pasting your content into QuillBot’s grammar-checking workspace, click on the ‘⋮’ icon at the bottom right corner of your screen, and you’ll see stats like these below:
So, which tool offers more useful reports?
My vote goes for ProWritingAid.
Not only are PWA\’s analysis reports more comprehensive, the suggestions included within are also far more likely to improve your writing if you act on them.
Rephrasing Tools: How effective are the rephrasing tools for each product?
ProWritingAid\’s rephrasing tool appears pretty basic when compared with QuillBot\’s rephraser.
That is mainly because QB lets you change many things when paraphrasing, including:
- Modes: Modes are settings that let you decide what sort of paraphrasing suggestions QB\’s rephraser offers. There are seven modes: standard, formal, fluent, simple, concise, creative, and expand. Each of them provides different paraphrasing suggestions than the remaining 6.
- Synonyms Slider: Available in the form of a slider (hence the name), it lets you decide how many words you want to replace with synonyms.
- General Settings: If you click on the gear icon on the top right corner of your screen, you can adjust various settings. These include English dialect, contraction usage, and paraphrasing of quotations.
The fact that PWA\’s paraphrasing tool offers none of the above features is why QB is a clear winner in the rephrasing side of things.
Integrations: How well does each product integrate with other platforms and tools?
ProWritingAid integrates with hundreds of other platforms and tools.
It also offers an API. This means that any developer who wants their software to offer real-time writing support can benefit from PWA.
QuillBot also integrates with a large number of online platforms and tools.
A QB API is on offer as well, using which you can bring real-time writing support to your app or software by writing a few lines of code.
Pricing and Support: How do the pricing plans and customer support options compare between the two products?
Given that almost every app out there wants your money, it\’s crucial that you only pay for those which provide the best value for your money.
Luckily, that is precisely what QuillBot and ProWritingAid do. Both these writing tools offer all their features at prices most people can easily afford.
Here are the different pricing plans of ProWritingAid:
Following are the prices for QB\’s monthly, six-monthly, and annual plans:
Language Support: How many languages do each product support for grammar and spelling checks?
ProWritingAid only supports the English language.
However, its language detection feature checks the first 200 characters of each paragraph for non-English text. If it finds non-English text, it won\’t scan that particular paragraph for errors.
This feature particularly benefits those who alternate in different languages when writing. As it makes sure that ProWritingAid only flags real errors, sparing you from irrelevant suggestions.
QuillBot works with different languages, depending on features.
For instance, QuillBot\’s grammar checker works with English, French and German, whereas its Co-Writer, Summarizer, Citation Generator, and Plagiarism Detector are compatible with English languages only.
The Paraphraser and Translator support multiple languages, including English, Afrikaans, Chinese, Dutch, Danish, French, German, Hindi, and many others.
Free vs Paid Plans: How do the free and paid plans for each product compare in terms of features and value?
ProWritingAid\’s free and paid plans cannot be more different in the features they offer.
For example, a free account limits suggestions to 500 words per day. However, with a premium account, you can check documents of any length.
Here are other features only available in the paid version:
- Unlimited word count
- Unlimited rephrases
- Advanced style improvements
- Custom style guide
- 24+ Writing analysis reports
- Citations, author comparisons
- Collaboration with fellow writers
- Unlimited document storage
QuillBot\’s free and premium plans are equally different.
| Features | QuillBot Free Version | QuillBot Paid Version |
| Words in Paraphraser | 125 | Unlimited |
| Fluency Modes | Standard and Fluency | Unlimited Custom + 8 pre-defined modes |
| Use of Synonym Slider | Limited | Full Use |
| Freeze Words | 1 | Unlimited |
| Summarizer | Limited to 1,200 words | Limited to 6,000 words |
| Plagiarism Checker | No | Yes |
| Paraphrasing History | No | Yes |
| Tone Insights | No | Yes |
| Recommended Rewrites | No | Yes |
| Compare Modes | No | Yes |
Writing Style: How well does each cater to different writing styles and genres
ProWritingAid lets you write in several styles, including:
- General
- Academic
- Business
- Technical
- Creative
- Casual
- Web
- Script
QuillBot also offers multiple modes in its rephrasing tool, such as:
- Standard
- Formal
- Academic
- Creative
- Custom
If you only compare the number of styles on offer, ProWritingAid wins.
Integrations: How well does each product integrate with other platforms and tools?
Both apps integrate with hundreds of thousands of tools, apps, websites, word processors, browsers and devices.
Each also offers API support. So, if you\’re a developer who wants their app to incorporate real-time writing support, both will come in handy.
Plagiarism Checker: How effective are the plagiarism-checking tools for each product?
ProWritingAid\’s plagiarism checker is highly effective at detecting duplication (if there is any) in your documents.
Bear in mind, though, that the plagiarism checker doesn\’t come in the premium plans. You must pay extra for this feature, with 1000 checks costing $200.
QuillBot also offers plagiarism detection in its paid version.
Unlike ProWritingAid\’s plagiarism detector, which has different pricing tiers based on the number of checks you perform, its plagiarism detector can only scan up to 20 pages a month (amounting to around 5,000 words).
Thus, if the success/failure of your work depends on whether or not it\’s original, ProWritingAid is far more helpful.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which paraphrasing tool is number 1?
What are the disadvantages of ProWritingAid?
ProWritingAid vs. QuillBot: Which One Comes Out On Top?
Grammarly and Turnitin appeal to different sets of users.
Users who should pick ProWritingAid:
- Who primarily write in English and need advanced grammar, punctuation, and spelling error-checking
- Writers who want in-depth analysis reports covering pretty much every aspect of their writing
- Users who appreciate receiving advice from fellow writers
- People who like setting writing goals and tracking their progress
- Those who need plagiarism detection and are willing to pay extra for it
Users who should pick QuillBot:
- Who write in multiple languages and need a grammar checker
- Who frequently rephrase or paraphrase content in various styles
- Who need to summarize large documents and generate citations
- Who want a mobile app for Android
