Product Review

GradeProof Review

GradeProof is a grammar proofreading and plagiarism checking tool that is powered by artificial intelligence. It has a limited free plan that checks for the basics of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

However, the true benefit of GradeProof comes from its Pro plan; a premium subscription service that adds a slew of intuitive features, including a plagiarism detector.

We put GradeProof’s free and Pro proofreading plans through the wringer, checking both for accuracy, ease of use, and customer support.

How did GradeProof measure up to other services like Grammarly, Hemingway app or ProWritingAid? Read this GradeProof review to find out!

Disclosure: These reviews are reader-supported. We might earn a small commission if you purchase something through our site. Learn more

Our Verdict

While there are some good bits and pieces to GradeProof, I can’t recommend it over a service like Grammarly. It is on the pricey side, you can save 20% with our link. 

Grammarly Best All-Around

$11.66 /mo – before discount
PROS
  • 86/86% accuracy
  • 16+ billion database
  • 150k+ word limit
  • 5 device limit
  • 1-hour response
CONS
  • Only English
  • Expensive without our link

GradeProof Limited Features

$24.95 /month
PROS
  • Free trial
  • Multi-platform support
  • Easy sign up process
  • Impressive pro features
CONS
  • Limited free plan features
  • Constant ads
  • Limited customer support

Grammarly Premium Walkthrough Video

Pros of GradeProof

Free Trial

The first thing I noticed when looking at GradeProof’s Pro subscription is that is has a free trial membership. That’s always great to see as you want a grammar and punctuation checker app that will stand by its service and give you a chance to try it out for yourself.

GradeProof gives you seven days of full access to all the features of the Pro subscription. You will have to enter a credit or debit card number to start your trial, but it won’t be charged until that free week is up.

When it comes to a grammar checking tool, I find that a week is plenty of time to see what you’re getting. Typically, you can upload a document that you have on the computer and get a feel for how the service performs.

Multi-Platform Support

GradeProof has an impressive line up of platforms.

It is available online as a Web app. That means you can sign in on the website from any browser and use the service. There is no desktop app.

It also features extensions for Google Chrome, Google Docs, and Microsoft Word. On top of that, there is a mobile app that is only available on the iOS platform. As of this review, they don’t have an Android app. Hopefully, that will change soon as a mobile app is a great way for checker software to correct your online grammar on the go.

There are no limitations placed on platforms. If you’re using GradeProof you can rest easy knowing that whatever service you use will deliver the same quality.

Plagiarism Checker

GradeProof has a plagiarism checker that you can use with their Pro plan. Plagiarism is a plague in the writing world, but a lot of it is accidental. Using a good plagiarism detection system, you can ensure that your writing (or that of your students or clients if you’re a teacher or editor) is on the up and up.

I used a sample article that we use to check all of our plagiarism detectors to test the effectiveness of GradeProof’s system.

I was impressed with the results.

When you select the plagiarism tool from the menu on the left, the checker will instantly get to work examining your text and comparing it to the searchable internet. You can conduct 50 plagiarism checks per month.

GradeProof states that its plagiarism database encompasses “millions” of sites but would not give any more information when I asked.

GradeProof found that 87.4% of this article matched other articles from throughout the Web.

That’s right on the money with some of the best plagiarism checkers we’ve tested.

Grammarly, our highest-rated plagiarism detector, scored it at 86%. It found more than some other popular checkers as well.

QueText marked it up at 84%, so GradeProof is finding additional instances of plagiarism that went completely unnoticed by some of our highest rated plagiarism software.

Easy to Sign Up

Sign up for GradeProof was a breeze. The whole process took less than two minutes.

When you click the Sign-Up button on the main screen, it will ask you what language you primarily write in and what you’ll be using GradeProof for.

Once you make that selection, it will ask you to create an account. You can use your Google account, your Facebook profile, or your email address to sign up for the free service.

Then you’ll be asked to select your plan. I recommend starting out with the free plan to get a feel for the interface, as you’ll have to enter a credit card if you want to start your Pro 7-day trial membership.

Once that’s done, you’re logged in and taken right to the GradeProof dashboard where you can upload a document. If you want to upgrade to Pro, they make it very easy. (A little too easy in some instances. More on this later…)

AI-Driven Eloquence Engine

One of my favorite Pro features on GradePro is the AI Eloquence Engine. It uses artificial intelligence to improve the overall eloquence of your writing style.

It examines your writing and gives you some tips on how to make it more concise, chopping out erroneous words, fighting passive voice, and simplifying your verbiage to present an easy-to-read final product.

What stood out for me with the Eloquence Engine was the ability to select specific parameters. You can set it up to improve your writing, expand your word count, or chop it down to a more manageable length.

Impressive Pro Features

GradeProof Pro has a lot of features, and they were very helpful when editing my sample article.

Above you’ll see an example of how the Eloquence Engine comes into play. It took a wordy chunk of text and simplified it.

The Pro plan comes with:

  • Engines for spelling and grammar
  • A custom dictionary
  • The AI Eloquence Engine
  • Word Confusion
  • Capitalization
  • Punctuation
  • Repetition
  • Plagiarism checker

The Pro plan is limited to 10,000 words per article, however, you’re not limited to the number of articles you can check in a payment period. If you were checking something like a 60,000-word novel, you’d have to break it up into six 10,000 word text chunks and run them all separately.

GradeProof states on its official site that it is looking to do away with these limitations.

Cons of GradeProof

Free Plan is Extremely Limited (Contains Ads)

The free plan on GradeProof was very limited. It only includes a very basic grammar and spell checker. At first, when I uploaded my test article, I was impressed with the number of mistakes it found. Then, I realized that my Grammarly Chrome Extension was active and a lot of that insight was courtesy of Grammarly.

Once I disabled the extension, I was dismayed to find that a lot of the mistakes found by Grammarly’s free service went completely unnoticed by GradeProof.

The dashboard was easy to use, with a helpful menu off to the left. There’s even a word counter and other useful tools on the right.

However, it still points out mistakes the Pro system found wrong in your work and dangles them in front of you, just out of reach. When you click on those suggestions, it lets you know that this is Pro only and that you can easily start your free trial.

This was annoying to me, but it was nothing compared to what came next.

I found one of the free corrections marked in red and I clicked on it to get a spell checker suggestion.

Before I could see the free correction of my content, this ad blew up on my screen, inviting me to start my free trial of Pro.

So not only did I find the free service to be limited, but the constant ads for Pro were distracting and annoying.

Limited Customer Support

I found GradeProof to be lacking in customer support. They have a knowledgebase with several helpful articles to walk you through the service, but there is no way to directly talk to another human being.

If you can’t find your answer in the Knowledge Base, there is an email address that you can reach out to. There is no phone number listed on the site or live chat option. That means if you need advanced help, you’re going to have to wait.

I sent them a quick email via the provided address. I reached out at 4:25 p.m. on a Sunday with two simple questions.

I wasn’t expecting an immediate response, but I got an email back two hours later. It was impressive response time.

I didn’t love the response. No links to articles, and what’s the deal with their super-secret plagiarism database? I’ve never seen a company refuse to give information about their product like that.

GradeProof Costs, Plans, & Payment Options

GradeProof has two plans, a free option, and a Pro subscription.

The free plan is 100% free. There were no hidden fees that I saw. The Pro plan has three different pricing options.

The yearly price is the cheapest, at only $9.95 per month. However, you have to pay for the entire year upfront. At the time of this review, they were running a Black Friday sale which lowered the cost of the yearly subscription by 60%.

There is also a quarterly subscription, priced at $14.95 per month.

Finally, the month to month plan is a little pricey, coming in at $24.95 per month.

All of these plans have a seven-day free trial. There is also no option for PayPal or cryptocurrency. GradeProof only accepts credit or debit cards.

Do I Recommend GradeProof?

No, I don’t.

While I liked their plagiarism detector, I was less enthusiastic about every other aspect of their service. To top it off, a monthly subscription is very expensive and I can’t justify the cost. I was also not happy with their customer service, which is usually a deal-breaker for me.

So while there are some good bits and pieces to GradeProof, I can’t recommend it over a service like Grammarly.

Get long-term ROI.

We help you grow through expertise, strategy, and the best content on the web.