Good for: Real-time spelling and grammar checking
Pricing: Free, with optional paid premium

One of the most popular and well-known writing tools for a reason, Grammarly provides grammar and spelling checks, style and tone suggestions and a plagiarism checker. With the option of integrating across your internet browser, Grammarly will tell you in real time if you’re about to send an email with a spelling mistake or if there’s a way to reword something to improve how it reads.

Check it out here.

Good for: Improving readability
Cost: Free

Hemingway is a tool for making your writing clear and easy to read. It highlights things like long sentences, passive voice and unnecessary adverbs, encouraging simple, straightforward writing. The app also gives readability scores, so you know how your writing stacks up for different readers. Plus, it helps you cut out the fluff so your ideas can shine through.

Check it out here.

Good for: Spelling and grammar
Cost: Free, with optional paid premium

Available in over 25 languages and powered by AI, LanguageTool is a writing assistant that helps with grammar, spelling, punctuation, style and formatting. Particularly useful as a browser add-on, the software can correct spelling mistakes as you go, whether you’re writing an email or a Google doc.

Check it out here.

Good for: Real-time spelling, grammar and style checking
Cost: Free, with optional paid premium

Another bit of software using AI to check your writing, on the surface ProWritingAid offers very similar functionalities to Grammarly in terms of spelling and grammar, but was also designed with a focus on storytelling in mind. It offers suggestions to improve style, clarity and readability, as well as including a thesaurus, word explorer and a plagiarism checker.

Check it out here.

Good for: Spelling and grammar checking
Cost: Free

SEO specialists Ahrefs host a number of AI-powered tools on their site relating to writing. Although most relate to marketing copy, their grammar checker is useful for inputting any chunk of text. It uses a language model that learns patterns, grammar and vocabulary, then uses that knowledge to generate human-like text. It only operates on their site rather than integrating into other platforms, but if you’re looking for more straightforward checking, this might be for you.

Check it out here.

Good for: Word processing
Cost: Free

If you need somewhere to draft your writing that isn’t your notes app, LibreOffice is a free, open-source, cross-platform office suite that can perform many of the same functions as Microsoft Office, but for free! You can write documents, create spreadsheets and embed images on the downloadable app. It does lack more complex features like collaboration, built-in translation or a dictation option, but if you want an affordable alternative it might be worth trying out.

Check it out here.

Good for: Paraphrasing
Pricing: Free
If you’re trying to summarise your work experience into some key skills, or cut down the intro of a brief you’re writing, this tool can help! Another AI-powered writing tool, amongst the usual spelling and grammar suggestions, Quillbot is designed to assist users in rephrasing and paraphrasing content. Also able to be integrated into platforms like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, it is especially useful for help rewriting content to refine things like sentence structure.

Check it out here.

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If you have any other suggestions for affordable creative software, feel free to get in touch and let us know at [email protected]!