What is the best editing tool for writing?
Wretify is a clean, minimalist writing app for nonfiction writers, built for focus — with an AI that has read everything you've written and refuses to write it for you.
The short answer
The best editing tool depends on what you need fixed. For spelling and grammar everywhere you type, Grammarly is the most widely available. For deep style reports on a long manuscript, ProWritingAid. For clearer, plainer sentences, Hemingway Editor. For writing in several languages, LanguageTool. If you already write in Word or Google Docs, their built-in checkers are free.
No tool replaces the oldest editing method there is: putting the draft away for a while, then reading it slowly, out loud.
How do the main editing tools compare?
| Tool | What it checks | Free or paid | AI rewriting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grammarly | Spelling, grammar and tone as you type, almost everywhere you write | Free tier; Pro $30 a month or $144 a year | Yes — rewrites and generates text |
| ProWritingAid | Grammar plus 25+ reports on style, repetition, pacing and readability | Free up to 500 words per check; paid plans and a lifetime licence | Rephrasing and critique; says it will never write your work for you |
| Hemingway Editor | Readability: long sentences, passive voice, wordy phrases | Free web editor; desktop app $19.99 once; Plus from $100 a year | Only in Plus |
| LanguageTool | Grammar, spelling and style in 30+ languages | Free web editor up to 2,000 characters; browser extension is Premium | Paraphrasing (3 a day free) |
| Microsoft Editor | Spelling and grammar in Word, Outlook and Edge | Basic checks free; more with Microsoft 365 | Text predictions in Edge |
| Google Docs | Spelling (red) and grammar (blue) in six languages | Free with a Google account | — |
Grammarly — best for writing in many places
Grammarly checks spelling, grammar and tone in the browser, on Windows and Mac, inside Word and Outlook, and on your phone’s keyboard. The free plan covers spelling, grammar and tone plus 100 AI prompts; Pro ($30 a month, or $144 a year) adds full-sentence rewrites and 2,000 prompts. It also generates text. Its privacy policy says it may use what you write to train its AI, with a control to switch that off in your account settings.
ProWritingAid — best for long manuscripts
ProWritingAid goes beyond correction with more than 25 reports on repetition, sticky sentences, pacing and readability, and works inside Word, Google Docs and Scrivener. The free version checks 500 words at a time. It says it never uses your writing to train its AI, deletes your text once it has been analysed, and that it will never write your work for you.
Hemingway Editor — best for clarity
Hemingway highlights long and complex sentences, passive voice and words with simpler alternatives, and scores readability. The web editor is free and only highlights; AI rewriting is in Hemingway Editor Plus, from $100 a year. The desktop app for Mac and Windows costs $19.99 once, works offline, and has no AI. Hemingway says it will never let others use your data to train an AI.
LanguageTool — best for more than one language
LanguageTool checks grammar, spelling and style in more than 30 languages and works with Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice and email. The free web editor checks up to 2,000 characters at a time; since 2026 its browser extension is part of Premium. It says it no longer uses customer text to train its language models.
Does Wretify edit your writing?
Wretify is a writing app, not an editing tool, and it will not polish your style. Select a passage and run a grammar pass: it makes the smallest change that fixes what is actually broken, leaves your words, rhythm and style exactly as they are, and tells you by name what was wrong, so you stop making the same mistake. When nothing is broken, it says so and changes nothing. The pass uses your own AI key.
Sources
- Grammarly plans — www.grammarly.com/plans
- Grammarly Pro price — support.grammarly.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000090011-How-much-does-Grammarly-Pro-cost
- Grammarly (Superhuman) privacy policy — superhuman.com/legal/privacy-policy
- What ProWritingAid does — help.prowritingaid.com/article/25-what-does-prowritingaid-do
- ProWritingAid pricing — prowritingaid.com/pricing
- ProWritingAid data safety — help.prowritingaid.com/article/14-is-my-data-safe-with-prowritingaid
- ProWritingAid — prowritingaid.com/
- Hemingway Editor — hemingwayapp.com/
- Hemingway Editor Plus — hemingwayapp.com/hemingway-editor-plus
- Hemingway desktop app — hemingwayapp.com/desktop
- LanguageTool Premium — languagetool.org/premium
- LanguageTool browser extension goes Premium — languagetool.org/webextension/premium-announcement
- LanguageTool service terms — languagetool.org/insights/post/languagetool-service-terms/
- Microsoft Editor — support.microsoft.com/en-us/word/microsoft-editor-checks-grammar-and-more-in-documents-mail-and-the-web
- Editor in Microsoft Edge — explore.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/features/editor?form=MT0160
- Google Docs spelling and grammar — support.google.com/docs/answer/57859?hl=en
Updated . Prices and features of other apps are taken from their own websites on that date and can change. Wretify is our product, so we have tried hard to be fair to the others. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.