The free Grammarly alternative that ships every feature you actually use
Grammarly is the default grammar tool, but the most useful features (clarity rewrites, tone detection, plagiarism, fluency) sit behind a $12-30/month Premium plan. Here is the free alternative with multi-tone preview built in.
AI Grammar Checker vs Grammarly, feature by feature
| Feature | Molixa | Grammarly |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 5 checks/day, unlimited words per check | Free (spelling/grammar only, soft caps) |
| Pricing | Free, $4/mo Pro | Premium $12-30/mo, Business $15/user/mo |
| Multi-tone preview | See the same text in 5 tones side-by-side | Tone detection only |
| Custom style guide upload | Yes (PDF/DOCX/TXT) | Business plan only |
| Inclusivity scanner | Free | Premium |
| Reading-level targeting | Free (target grade level) | Limited |
| Languages | 30+ | English + a few |
| Browser extension / MS Word | Not yet | Yes (their biggest strength) |
4 reasons people switch to Molixa
Multi-tone preview, free
Paste a paragraph, see how it reads in Professional, Friendly, Confident, Empathetic, and Direct tones side-by-side. Grammarly only detects the current tone — it does not show you alternatives.
Bring your own style guide
Upload your team's style guide (PDF, DOCX, or text). The checker enforces it on every submission. Grammarly only offers this on Business plans at $15/user/month.
Inclusivity + reading level out of the box
Flags non-inclusive language (gendered terms, ableist phrasing) and lets you target a specific Flesch-Kincaid grade level. Grammarly paywalls both behind Premium.
Browser-first privacy
Text goes to the AI provider for the check, then is discarded. Grammarly stores documents on its servers by default for the Editor and Cross-device sync features.
When to pick Molixa vs Grammarly
Grammarly's killer feature is ubiquity — the extension corrects you everywhere you type. If you write all day in Gmail, Slack, Notion, Google Docs, and Word, the extension alone justifies the cost.
For one-off long-form checks — a blog post, a contract draft, an email you want to nail, a college essay — pasting into a focused grammar checker is faster than enabling Grammarly Premium and turning on every feature.
Molixa's grammar checker hands you the depth (multi-tone preview, custom style guides, inclusivity scanner, reading-level targeting) without the monthly bill. We do not have a browser extension yet, so for "fix my typos everywhere I type" Grammarly is still the right tool.
Pick by frequency: daily typing-everywhere = Grammarly, occasional long-form polish = Molixa.
Where Grammarly is still the better choice
Honest answer first. Grammarly has real strengths. If any of these match your workflow, stick with them.
- Grammarly's browser extension and MS Word/Google Docs integrations are unmatched — they correct as you type.
- Grammarly has 10+ years of UX polish on the corrections panel.
- Grammarly Premium includes plagiarism checking against a large corpus.
- Grammarly has best-in-class onboarding for non-native English writers.
- Grammarly Business adds team analytics and style-guide enforcement at scale.
Try AI Grammar Checker, it's actually free
No signup. No watermark. No 5-minute paywall after the trial.
Open AI Grammar Checker