Let us be straight: Grammarly is excellent at its job. It catches typos, comma splices, and clunky phrasing as you type, it suggests clearer tone, and its extension lives in nearly every text box you use. If clean grammar and live correction are what you need, Grammarly is the right tool. But a sentence can be perfectly grammatical and still read as obviously machine-written, and no proofreader fixes that, because there is no error to flag. TextSight is the Grammarly alternative for that gap. We detect AI-sounding text, score how human a draft reads, and rewrite the flagged lines into your own voice. Keep Grammarly for the grammar pass. Add TextSight for the authenticity pass.
Most people who search for a Grammarly alternative do not actually dislike Grammarly. They have hit a wall it was never built to clear. Grammar correctness and a human-sounding voice are two separate axes, and they fail in different ways. Here is the honest split, with Grammarly's real strengths stated first.
Grammarly is a mature, polished proofreader. It corrects grammar, spelling, and punctuation in real time, suggests clearer phrasing and consistent tone, and runs as a browser extension and desktop app that work inside Gmail, Google Docs, Word, Slack, and most web text fields. That ubiquity is the real selling point: it fixes your writing everywhere you write, as you write, without you copying anything anywhere. For day-to-day correctness across every app, it is hard to beat and we are not pretending otherwise.
Clean grammar is not the same as a human voice. A paragraph drafted by an AI can pass every correctness check and still read as flat, hedged, evenly cadenced machine output, because the giveaways are not grammatical mistakes. They are patterns: uniform sentence length, predictable transitions, scaffolding phrases, and an absence of the small irregularities a person leaves behind. A proofreader has nothing to underline there. TextSight is built to see exactly those patterns, score them, and help you rewrite past them.
As more first drafts start in an AI tool, the bottleneck has shifted. The problem is rarely a typo anymore. It is a technically correct draft that still sounds generated, which trips AI detectors, reads as generic to an editor, and undermines a student defending their own work. Grammarly leaves that draft grammatically spotless and unmistakably machine-flavored. TextSight is the tool you add to turn it back into writing that sounds like a person wrote it. The two are complements, used at different stages of the same draft.
A short feature table, framed around the difference that matters here: Grammarly is the live correctness layer everywhere you write, TextSight is the authenticity layer for finished drafts. The notes below name where Grammarly is plainly the better call.
| Feature | TextSight | Grammarly |
|---|---|---|
| Core role | Detect AI-sounding text, score, and rewrite | Real-time grammar, spelling, and style |
| Grammar & spelling correction | Paste-and-check Grammar Checker tool | Best-in-class, real-time, as you type |
| Works inside Gmail / Docs / Word | Chrome extension for scanning text | Yes, live correction in nearly every text box |
| AI detection | Transformer detector, sentence-level highlights | Has an AI-detection feature; not the core focus |
| Authenticity Score | 0–100, live, vs our own detector | Performance score (correctness/clarity/tone) |
| AI rewriter for machine voice | Light / Balanced / Maximum, preserves meaning | Rewrite suggestions tuned for clarity, not de-AI |
| Plagiarism indicator | Plagiarism Risk bundled, no extra cost | Plagiarism check on paid tiers |
| Free tier to evaluate | 3 scans/day, 5,000 chars, no signup to try | Free grammar tier; AI features mostly paid |
| REST API | Business tier, detect + rewrite + bulk in one key | Has business/API offerings, correctness-focused |
| Pick this when | The draft is correct but sounds AI-written | You need live grammar fixes everywhere you type |
Feature read reflects each tool's public positioning at a qualitative level. Verify current pricing and feature availability on Grammarly's own pages before subscribing. "Win" markers are our reading of fit for the authenticity workflow this page is about, not a third-party audit.
This is the one idea to hold onto before you decide. Grammarly answers "is this written correctly." TextSight answers "does this read as human." Both are useful. They are just not the same question, and most drafts need both answers. Here is what TextSight's side adds.
TextSight runs a transformer AI detector and paints your draft as a sentence-level map: which lines read as machine output, how confident the model is per line, and a short reason (regular rhythm, predictable vocabulary, low length variance). Grammarly underlines grammatical issues; TextSight underlines the un-human ones. For a writer trying to ship a piece that does not read as generated, "these three sentences, for these reasons" is exactly the guidance a proofreader cannot give. Read more on our AI Detector page.
The Authenticity Score is a 0 to 100 read of how human the writing sounds, measured against our own detector, and it updates live as you edit or run the rewriter. It is a different axis from Grammarly's performance score: a draft can score high on correctness and still score low on authenticity, because clean grammar and a real voice are not the same thing. The score is guidance for your own revision, calibrated against our detector only, not a promise about any third-party system.
When a sentence is flagged, the bundled AI Rewriter rewrites it in a more human cadence while keeping your facts, citations, and numbers intact. Three modes (Light, Balanced, Maximum) let you choose how much to change. Grammarly's rewrite suggestions are tuned for clarity and tone, which is great for readability but is not aimed at the machine-voice problem. TextSight's rewriter is aimed squarely at it, then re-scores the result so you can see the authenticity move in real time.
We would rather set expectations correctly than oversell. A few honest limits, so you switch (or stay on Grammarly) for the right reasons.
Not a real-time grammar engine. TextSight is not a type-as-you-go proofreader living in every text box. Our Grammar Checker is a paste-and-check tool, not a replacement for Grammarly's live correction inside Gmail, Docs, and Word. If live grammar everywhere is your priority, Grammarly wins, and you should keep it.
Not a plagiarism shield or a detector-evasion product. The AI rewriter is a clarity and own-voice tool. It does not guarantee a pass on Turnitin or any other third-party detector, and the Authenticity Score it reports is measured against our own detector only. We do not frame this as a way to beat detection or misrepresent authorship.
Not a way to fake work. For students, the responsible use is to improve and disclose your own writing, not to pass off generated text as yours. It preserves meaning by design (facts, list items, and numbers are kept) precisely so it stays a revision tool, not a content-laundering one. English-first today.
We will only quote our own pricing. Check Grammarly's site for its current plans, since the better question is which job you are paying to get done, not which is cheaper. TextSight Pro is 19.99 monthly, or 14.99 monthly on annual billing, with unlimited scans inside fair use and the AI rewriter and Authenticity Score bundled in.
Billed $89.88/year - Save $30
Billed $179.88/year - Save $60
Billed $359.88/year - Save $120
Yearly billing saves 25%. Free tier includes Light + Balanced rewrite modes; Maximum unlocks on Starter and above. View full pricing
Three groups hit the same wall: the draft is grammatically clean, but it still reads as generated. Here is how each one uses TextSight alongside the grammar tool they already have.
You wrote the essay, ran it through Grammarly, and the grammar is spotless, but you are worried it reads as AI because you started from an outline a tool helped you build. Grammarly cannot tell you that. TextSight scans the draft, shows which sentences read as machine output, and gives you an Authenticity Score so you can revise the flagged lines into your own voice before you submit. See our students guide for the responsible-use framing.
Grammarly keeps your blog posts and landing pages error-free. But a clean post that still sounds generated reads as generic to a reader and can trip AI detectors an editor or client runs. TextSight is the pass before you publish: detect the machine-flavored sentences, rewrite them with the bundled rewriter, and re-score. More on the writer workflow in our content writers guide.
When you review work from contributors or freelancers, grammar is the easy part. The harder question is whether a piece reads as authentically written. TextSight gives you a per-sentence evidence map and an Authenticity Score you can point to, and the Business tier REST API lets a pipeline score and rewrite in one call. Grammarly handles correctness; TextSight handles the authorship-quality question Grammarly was never built to answer.
This is not a rip-and-replace pitch. Grammarly and TextSight sit at different stages of the same draft. The cleanest workflow runs correctness first, then authenticity, and it takes only a few minutes more than what you already do.
Write as you normally would and let Grammarly catch the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and tone issues live, in whatever app you are in. By the end of this step the draft is correct and reads cleanly. That is exactly what Grammarly is best at, and there is no reason to change it.
Drop the polished draft into TextSight on the free tier. No card, no email. Read the document Authenticity Score, then look at the sentence-level highlights to see which lines still read as machine-written even though they are grammatically perfect. This is the layer a proofreader cannot give you.
Run the bundled AI rewriter on the sentences TextSight flagged, choosing Light, Balanced, or Maximum depending on how much you want to change. It keeps your facts and meaning while shifting cadence toward a human voice, then re-scores so you can watch the Authenticity Score climb. Publish or submit once both the grammar and the authenticity passes are clean. Two tools, two jobs, one finished draft.
Both are good products solving real problems. The honest answer depends on what is wrong with the draft in front of you right now. Use this picker.
Want the longer multi-tool view? See our full comparison.
Rewrite machine-sounding sentences into your own voice while keeping facts, citations, and numbers intact.
Open the rewriterSee which sentences read as machine output with per-line confidence and a short reason, free to try.
Run a scanThe 0–100 read of how human a draft sounds, updating live as you revise or rewrite.
See how it worksA free paste-and-check grammar tool for a quick correctness pass on a finished draft.
Check grammarKeep your grammar tool. Add the authenticity pass. Start with TextSight's free tier, no card, no signup, and see your draft scored line by line in about six seconds.