There is no dearth of online grammar checking tools to help you with writing error-free reports, emails, presentations, and also social media posts. But there aren’t many that are dedicated to (at least in their name) checking student papers and essays, like PaperRater.
PaperRater is a web-based service that primarily helps students check their essays and papers for plagiarism, grammar, spelling, etc. Powered by AI, the tool is designed to help you enhance your writing. It’s not the most robust tool of its kind, but it looks like it’s on its way to becoming one.
Keep reading to learn more about what PaperRater is capable of, its offerings, subscription plans, and, most importantly, what the important and relevant voices online have to say about the website.
What is PaperRater?
PaperRater is an online writing tool that offers plagiarism and grammar checking services to help refine written texts. As the name indicates, the site primarily caters to high school and college students who need help with their term papers.
Powered by AI, tentatively called Grendel, PaperRater lets a student in on the grade they would likely receive for the paper at school. It also allows sending the text or paper to a teacher right from within the tool. Though primarily catering to students, the service could be utilized for any kind of writing, which includes blogging, professional documents, or social media copies.
Similar: Negative Effects on Copying Content
According to the company’s owners, PaperRater is an automated tool that provides:
- Grammar, spelling, and punctuation checks
- Tips to improve/fix issues and awkward sentence structuring, which includes coming down heavily on passive voice usage
- Plagiarism detection
- A grade/score prediction of a given text as it stands
The tool is available in modules that are tasked with individually looking into the aspects mentioned above. There is a separate tool to help build vocabulary. It offers definitions and exhibits how words must be used in sentences.
The service is available for free and also as a premium plan. The paid plan would set you back $11 per month on an annual subscription or $14.95 per month. The free plan should be more than enough for most people, particularly students. However, professional writers or individuals with more stringent requirements will benefit more if they pay for the service, thanks to the paid service’s added features and also the zero-ad experience.
PaperRater Reviews Across the Web
PaperRater hasn’t been around for the longest, particularly when compared to some of the bigger names in the industry. However, despite being relatively recent, quite a few authority sites have had their say on PaperRater and the efficacy of its services.
The following are reviews from across the web, from different websites, in condensed formats. To see the full version of the reviews, click on their respective links.
Get Codeless (Grammar Gang)
“We can’t recommend PaperRater because of their below-average accuracy.”
PaperRater is a unique online plagiarism checker that’s quite promising on the surface. The biggest issue, however, is its plagiarism tool’s inaccuracy. In other words, the plagiarism checker is likely to miss quite a bit of copied content put through its scanner. Device support, reporting features, language support, etc. are underwhelming too.
Low word count and a limited number of free checks per month are other noticeable problems. Free PaperRater users, who are primarily students, can perform no more than 10 plagiarism checks a month. Though these checks provide relevant suggestions, the audits cannot be done for more than 1,500 words, or five pages with the number of words capped at 300 per page.
On the positive side, customer support is pretty good. You can expect your questions to be answered within hours during working hours. The quality of the response may not be the best, but it would be quick and efficient, nevertheless.
Gotch SEO
“It’s good for research papers and essays, but not that great for conversational or less formal writing styles.”
On paper (no pun intended), PaperRater’s feature set is quite solid. However, when put to use, there are both good and bad things about the service.
The good thing is that it retrieves results quickly. Thanks to AI powering things, the results can be had in no more than 15 seconds. It’s usually around 5 seconds after text submission and for the processing to complete. But these snappy checks apply to grammar and sentence structure only. If the plagiarism filter is added, the processing could take almost double the time. The tool is also quite efficient at checking for major errors in writing, which includes punctuation mistakes.
On the negative side, the website is fraught with misleading ads, which make the website look a bit suspicious or spammy. Also, the tool doesn’t support non-English texts. At times, even sentences in documents written in plain English could get flagged for non-English content. PaperRater is also not good when it comes to dealing with different grammar styles.
EssayReviewExpert
“Like any online writing checking tool, PaperRater is not foolproof.”
The thing that might put off most first-time users of PaperRater is its outdated design or user interface. However, that doesn’t take away anything from the tool’s usability, functionality, or convenience. Customer support via email is pretty decent too. Though there is no chat option, the responsive email support team more than makes up for it. There’s a comprehensive FAQ section to boot too.
As far as safety and security goes, PaperRater is completely cloud-based. You, therefore, need not download any software or install a browser extension. Also, the free plan doesn’t need your personal details to get you started. There is the premium plan, which comes with added features such as enhanced audits, no ads, the file uploading option, etc.
Perhaps, the biggest drawback is that PaperRater doesn’t offer the option to have your texts proofread by a real person. As a result, reliability is not a given with the service.
WriteEssaysOnline
“The tool’s positives are easily outnumbered by its cons.”
PaperRater is an online service that offers grammar and plagiarism checking. Relatively quick to showcase results, the tool can handle both American and British English. However, when making the checks or even when offering stylistic suggestions, PaperRater doesn’t take the context, meaning, and flow of text into account. This makes the tool a bit too unreliable at times.
There is no live chat support, but then that shouldn’t be a problem as it’s not really needed for such a service. On the brighter side, there is a capable email support team and also a FAQs area that satisfactorily answers the most common doubts and questions you may have relating to the service.
PaperRater is available for free with bare minimum features. For those who’d like more features, there is the premium subscription option. The paid subscription service detects information online and offers the source of information and string of words the free version doesn’t provide. This almost makes the free version incompetent at finding plagiarized content. Long story short, if you keep your expectations leveled, you wouldn’t be too disappointed with PaperRater.
RatedByStudents.com
“It would take time for this tool to develop into a service that college students would like to totally, unabashedly rely on.”
PaperRater is an online tool that offers proofreading and quite a few other writing evaluation services. However, the biggest problem with the site is that it doesn’t look like a finished product or, in this case, a fully baked site. The tool leaves a lot to desire with its functionality too.
For instance, some obvious errors in texts are not picked up. And in some other instances, correct punctuation and grammar get marked as incorrect. The good thing about it all is that the makers of the tool are constantly monitoring user comments and feedback and working to make the tool better.
There is also a blog and a fairly robust FAQs section. The blog contains multiple articles that offer tips for writing – such as how to get solid transitions in, writing a conclusion, starting an essay, etc. These tips could be quite handy to students and newbie writers. PaperRater’s FAQs section and blog are certainly promising. However, the absence of chat or phone support is a dampener. There are also no human proofreaders as an option.
Summary
Despite all the negative press surrounding PaperRater, the online writing tool is not outright bad. You certainly cannot point fingers at the free version of the tool. But if you are paying money, you have rights and also reasons to complain.
The biggest issue with the tool is that it promises a lot but doesn’t deliver on them to satisfaction in practice. And that has got a lot to do with the newness of the site’s AI engine, Grendel, which is still in its infancy (at the time of writing this). The site’s design and user interface are also not the most modern-looking, which only exacerbates the reliability issues (albeit psychologically).
If you are worried about the site or its services being genuine, however, you need not as the site is safe to use and a legal offering. The payments on the site are handled by an SSL-certified, third-party company. A minor negative in this regard is PaperRater.com is not a BBB member – something that a reliable service provider should always consider having.
Long story short, the site certainly works but it looks more like a work-in-progress. Needless to say, it has a long way to go before it could truly compete with bigwigs such as Grammarly and ProWritingAid.
Shawn Manaher is the founder and CEO of The Content Authority. He’s one part content manager, one part writing ninja organizer, and two parts leader of top content creators. You don’t even want to know what he calls pancakes.