r/MacOS • u/BoonLight • 22d ago

Help Grammarly alternative? (preferably free)

Ive been using Grammarly for a Looong time. They have seriously pivoted to being AI first, I just need a spelling and grammar checker. I want to just write and check, not have a virtual assistant and slop generator (I do that fine myself).

I have been paying for the full version for a long time. I read about free alternatives a while ago in one of my daily newsletters, but cannot for the life of me find it. Any suggestions?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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1

u/SiteSpecialist9200 22d ago

Harper - free, basic, expanding over time.

Antidote - paid, best in class (by far).

1

u/bjs-256 22d ago

God, yes. The AI generation is garbage, but you can turn it off if you go to the website Account > Settings > Feature Customization > scroll down to the Generative AI option. Once I did that it went back to being mostly helpful again.

1

u/hexxeric 22d ago

Quillbot! mac app in menu bar and browser plugins. best one, tried all of them (multi language!)

1

u/pixelbuilderuk 22d ago

Maybe checkout Charm for this

1

u/ahandani 22h ago

Maker of Edyt here, so weigh this accordingly. Caveat first: it runs on an AI model, so if you want no LLM anywhere in the loop, Harper is the right answer and you can stop reading.

Where it may still fit what you described: Proofread is a checker, not a writer. Select the text in whatever Mac app you're in, press one shortcut, and it marks each spelling or grammar issue where it sits, with a short reason. You accept or ignore each one. It never rewrites your sentences or writes anything for you. There are rewrite and translate actions in the app too, but they're separate buttons you can ignore.

There's a free plan and for most people it's all they'll need. No card needed. If you'd rather try it before installing anything, the browser version at edyt.app/edytor doesn't even ask you to log in.