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If you’re already paying for Microsoft 365, you get access to the premium version of Microsoft Editor. But is it good enough to replace Grammarly? I use both Editor and Grammarly when working with text documents, and here’s how Microsoft’s offering fares against the popular grammar checker.
Availability
Grammarly offers better cross-platform availability than Microsoft Editor. It is available on the web, as a browser extension, and has dedicated apps for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Unlike Editor, Grammarly for desktop works with all the text editors on your computer, including Word, Slack, Asana, or any other apps you use.
If you don’t want the grammar checker to analyze everything you write, you may turn it off for specific websites and apps. However, its more detailed assessments are still available within the web editor.
Microsoft Editor is more limited in availability. The free version works with Word Online and as a browser extension on Edge, Chrome, and other Chromium browsers. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, you can also access the Editor with advanced features on the desktop Office apps, such as Word, Outlook, and Excel.
Both Grammarly and Microsoft Editor offer core functionalities like spell and grammar checking. Beyond that, these tools provide distinct advanced features making them ideal for different use cases.
Grammarly excels not only at catching spelling and punctuation errors but also offers a more robust set of features. It can highlight issues as you write and suggest improvements for style, tone, and clarity.
However, its suggestions can sometimes be too aggressive, especially with technical terms, partially due to a lack of context awareness. To mitigate this, Grammarly allows you to set goals by selecting the document’s domain, intent, audience, and formality to get better suggestions to match the purpose of your writing.
Like most software these days, Grammarly is also big on AI (also known as GrammarlyGo). Its AI assistant can rewrite sentences, find content gaps, generate ideas and outlines, and even write a full first draft for a blog post. But it’s not just for content writing,AI-assisted tools can improve your school workandhelp you simplify email communication. Another handy feature in Grammarly is document version history, which allows you to download previous versions of edited and saved documents.
If you need further assistance, Grammarly offers a “Get Expert Help” add-on to have your document reviewed by a human expert. It’s a premium service, and the price varies according to the turnaround time, which ranges from 3 hours to 24 hours.
Microsoft Editor
Microsoft Editor is a straightforward tool for checking spelling and grammar issues. It shows suggestions for clarity, formality, punctuation conventions, and vocabulary. The editor highlights spelling issues with a red underline and clarity suggestions with a purple underline; you can click the highlighted suggestions to accept or ignore them.
Text Predictions is another useful feature in Editor that helps you write faster by anticipating your next words and suggesting words or phrases as you type. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s definitely useful. While you can set a document goal in Editor as formal, casual, or professional to get better suggestions, it lacks the extensive customization that Grammarly offers.
Plagiarism Checker
Plagiarism detection is an essential feature for any writing assistant, and Grammarly and Microsoft Editor can help identify plagiarized material from online sources.
Microsoft Editor’s similarity checkercan check your text document against web pages and research resources using Bing, highlight the problematic passages, and allow you to add citations. The integration with Bing also means broader web searches and more accurate results for newly indexed material.
Grammarly uses its own database to detect plagiarised material from web pages and academic papers and allows you to add proper citations. What’s more, Grammarly can also detect AI-generated text, a feature that Microsoft Editor lacks.
I tested both tools by adding texts from my recently published pieces. After the initial scan, Microsoft Editor flagged78%of the content as similar to online sources with accurate citation suggestions. The results were pretty consistent during multiple tests.
Grammarly, on the other hand, is slow to catch recently published work. When using the desktop app, it can simply go into a scan loop requiring a restart before it can start working again.
When it comes to pricing, the comparison is less direct. Both Microsoft Editor and Grammarly offer a free tier with basic functionality, and you’re able to opt for premium plans with more advanced features. Except, in the case of Editor, there is no premium plan; instead, it’s all included in yourMicrosoft 365 subscription, which I think is worth the cost.
Grammarly offers a more comprehensive free plan with basic spelling and grammar checks, along with clarity suggestions. The inclusion of AI features in the free tier is a nice perk, but it’s severely limited. Grammarly’s Premium plan costs$12/month(billed annually) or$30if billed monthly. This gives you access to advanced grammar suggestions, AI features, and a plagiarism checker.
Different Tools for Different Use Cases
While on the expensive side,Grammarly is a must-have tool for students and content writers, especially if you are a beginner. The cost may well be worth it if you have a use for its advanced AI and grammar suggestions.
