ProWritingAid
← Back to All AI Tools1. Should you try ProWritingAid? Overview
| What it is | ProWritingAid (ProWritingAid Ltd, UK, 2013, Active, Not Shut Down) Status: Active (founded 2013 by Chris Banks; 4M+ users; 2026-01 pricing restructure Premium 79→120/yr, new Premium Pro $144/yr; prowritingaid.com + desktop + all extensions live 2026-09). |
| Country / HQ | ProWritingAid Ltd, UK |
| Best for | Novelists / self-pub authors editing in Scrivener (pacing/dialogue/echo reports) |
| Check before buying | Watch out: Everyday email/Slack/IM users wanting 1-click inline fix (→ Grammarly) |
| Pricing signal | Free tier + paid from $9/mo |
2. Features What it does
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| 25+ reports | Grammar, style, overused words, sticky sentences, sentence variety, passive, clichés, dialogue tags, pacing, readability, consistency, homonyms, alliteration — Depth no grammar-only tool matches |
| AI rewrite | Rephrases (formal/informal/longer/shorter/fluent/sensory), Sparks (expand/summarize/continue), 3–50/day by tier — Not a draft generator, edit-side only |
| Fiction/dev edit | Chapter Critique 1–3/day, Manuscript Analysis, Virtual Beta Reader, Plot/Marketability (Story Credits metered) — Story Credits ~$25+ each full-MS run |
| Integrations | Word, Google Docs, Scrivener (native win/mac), Outlook, Chrome/Firefox/Safari/Edge, desktop macOS/Win — No mobile app, no EU region |
| Style control | Custom style guide, terminology base, document-type goals, ignore-rules per context, author-comparison (90 fiction authors) — Power-user knobs |
| Plagiarism | Separate credit pack (10/10,40/100) or 50/yr in old Premium+; not in 2026 Premium — Common complaint |
| No | No non-English, no autonomous agent, no real-time-as-fast-as-Grammarly on 10k+ words, no human editor replacement — Slowdowns on long docs |
3. Pricing Pricing (2026-10, USD)
| Plan | Price / mo | Key limits & who it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 — 500 words/check, 2 report runs/day, 10 Rephrases/day, 3 Sparks/day, 19 core reports, web only |
| Premium | $30 | **10∗∗(120/yr) $399 Unlimited words/reports, 25+ reports, 5 Sparks/day, 1 Chapter Critique/day, custom style guide, integrations, 40% off Story Credits |
| Premium Pro | $36 | **12∗∗(144/yr) $699 50 Sparks/day, 3 Chapter Critiques/day, live author workshops, 65% off Story Credits, priority support |
| Teams | $9–12/seat/mo (annual, min 2–3 seats) | — — Shared style guide, admin, analytics |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom — SSO, DPA, central billing |
| Add-ons | Plagiarism 10/10checks,40/100; Story Credits à la carte | — — — |
4. Integration Access & integrations
| Access type | Details |
|---|---|
| Access | 🌐 prowritingaid.com web · macOS/Win desktop · Word/Outlook add-in · Google Docs add-on · Scrivener plugin (native) · Chrome/Firefox/Safari/Edge extensions · no mobile app, no MCP, no API for self-serve. |
5. Reviews & Sources External reviews
| Source | Rating | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Pros | — | Aggregate ~4.6/5 (G2 4.5/5 ~48, Capterra 4.7/5 ~497, Trustpilot 4.4/5 ~549, GetApp/SoftwareAdvice 4.7). |
| Pros | — | Praise: report depth unmatched for fiction/long-form, Scrivener integration best-in-class, lifetime $399 pays back ~40 months, teaches craft not just corrects, explains every flag. |
| Pros | — | Complaints: dense UI overwhelms casual users, slower than Grammarly on 10k+ words, English-only, plagiarism not in Premium, 3-day refund stingy, Rephrases can trip AI-detection in academic contexts, false positives on proper nouns/UK-US variants, sup |
| Pros | — | Verdict: top manuscript editor for novelists/academics; overkill for email/Slack (Grammarly wins there); lifetime is the standout value in writing tools. |
6. Best for / Not for Fit
| ✔ Suitable | ✘ Not suitable |
|---|---|
| • Novelists / self-pub authors editing in Scrivener (pacing/dialogue/echo reports) • Academics/students wanting deep style + separate plagiarism pack • Long-form bloggers/content writers (5k+ drafts) • People who want to learn craft, not just de-error • Buyers ok with $399 lifetime to escape subscription |
• Everyday email/Slack/IM users wanting 1-click inline fix (→ Grammarly) • Non-English writers (English only, vs LanguageTool 30+ langs) • Casual short-text users — Free 500-word cap + report overload • Teams needing real-time collaborative editing (individual-first) • Mobile-first writers (no app, lags Grammarly mobile) |
7. Competitors How it compares
| Competitor | How it differs | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Mainstream grammar | Grammarly (in your list) | Grammarly faster/real-time/tone/mobile/non-EN; PWA deeper reports+Scrivener+lifetime |
| Readability-only | Hemingway Editor | Hemingway one-time/minimal; PWA 25+ reports+integrations |
| AI fiction draft | Sudowrite | Sudowrite drafts; PWA edits/reports (complements) |
| Paraphrase+grammar | QuillBot, Wordtune (Wordtune in your list) | QuillBot/Wordtune paraphrase-first; PWA craft-reports-first |
| Multilingual | LanguageTool | LanguageTool 30+ langs, simpler; PWA English depth |
| AI writing suites | Jasper, Writesonic, ChatGPT | Those generate; PWA revises existing prose |
| In-list overlap | Wordtune (your list, Writing & Copywriting) | Wordtune = rewrite/copy; PWA = manuscript editing coach |
8. Summary Verdict
| Who should pick it | Novelists / self-pub authors editing in Scrivener (pacing/dialogue/echo reports) |
| Who should skip it | Everyday email/Slack/IM users wanting 1-click inline fix (→ Grammarly) |