Grammarly: An Honest Review

What Grammarly actually is

Grammarly is a writing assistant that checks your text for grammar errors, spelling mistakes, style issues, and clarity problems. It works as a browser extension, a desktop app, and integrations within Google Docs and Microsoft Word. As you type, it flags issues and suggests corrections. The premium version adds tone detection, vocabulary suggestions, and a plagiarism checker.

We used Grammarly for eight weeks across email, documents, and this publication. It's a tool we have complicated feelings about, which is why the verdict here is "depends" rather than a clear thumbs up or down.

Who it's actually for

Grammarly is most useful for people who write in English as a second language, people who write quickly and make frequent typos, and people who need to write formal documents but aren't confident about grammar rules. In these situations, having a real-time checker catching basic errors is genuinely valuable.

It's less useful — and potentially counterproductive — for people who already write well. Grammarly's suggestions are based on statistical averages of "correct" writing, which means it regularly flags stylistic choices as errors and pushes writing toward a bland, corporate middle. If you have a developed writing voice, Grammarly will occasionally try to sand it off.

What it does well

Basic error catching is reliable. Grammar mistakes, obvious spelling errors, and subject-verb agreement problems get caught consistently. If your concern is "I want someone to read this before I send it and catch basic errors," Grammarly does that adequately.

The browser extension integration is smooth. It works in Gmail, LinkedIn, Twitter, most web-based text inputs, and doesn't slow the browser noticeably. The setup takes two minutes and then it's just there, quietly running in the background.

Grammarly's tone detection is surprisingly useful for formal writing. Knowing that an email reads as "confident and direct" versus "apologetic and uncertain" is useful feedback for professional communication, even if you don't act on every suggestion.

What it doesn't do well

The style suggestions are frequently wrong for anyone with a deliberate writing voice. Grammarly routinely suggests passive voice where the passive is intentional, flags sentence fragments that are stylistic choices, and pushes toward longer words when shorter ones are better. In eight weeks of use, we accepted maybe 30% of the non-grammar suggestions. The rest we dismissed.

The free tier is genuinely limited now. Basic grammar and spelling checks are free, but the features that make Grammarly worth using daily — clarity suggestions, tone detection, full style recommendations — are Premium, which costs around £8-12/month depending on the plan. That's not outrageous, but it's an ongoing cost for what is essentially spellcheck-plus.

Grammarly's AI writing features (GrammarlyGO) are mediocre compared to dedicated writing AI tools. If you're using Grammarly primarily for AI writing assistance, you'd get better results from Claude or ChatGPT for the same or lower cost.

Verdict

Grammarly is a good tool for the right person. If you write in English as a second language, write quickly and need error-catching, or produce formal documents where errors would be costly, it's worth the free tier and probably the Premium subscription. The error detection is solid and the browser integration is seamless.

If you already write reasonably well and want to improve your writing, Grammarly's suggestions may teach you to write more cautiously rather than more effectively. In that case, consider whether a tool that points out every deviation from average is actually helping you develop, or just adding friction.

Best for: Non-native English speakers, people who write frequently in formal contexts, and anyone who sends a lot of email and wants a last-pass checker. Not ideal as a style improvement tool for already-confident writers. Score: 7/10. Verdict: depends on your needs.