# Grammarly 24 Hacker News commenters recommended Grammarly and 66 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended for catching grammar errors and readability problems. Critics say its AI-style rewrites replace your own voice and raise consent and privacy concerns. ## Why people recommend it - Catches grammar and readability problems (4 comments): "Grammarly and Hemingway can identify the same sort of issues without "you are a stupid robot" vibes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47811967)) "It catches misrecognitions and language where I thought the right word but said a different one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47971527)) "it does find grammar mistakes and it does give good readability suggestions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47920297)) - Teaches and builds writing confidence (2 comments): "Tools like Grammarly give the language-deficient writer more confidence and willingness to write." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49817030)) "it actually guides and teaches you to improve your writing along the way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48080256)) - Light edits, not heavy rewriting (2 comments): "I don't find that it (defaultly) corrects too far into the ai slop territory" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47100548)) "doesn't try to rewrite everything" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49591191)) - Useful for everyday writing (2 comments): "what a saver this tool has been throughout my time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49821910)) "I find grammarly quite useful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46939320)) ## What people warn about - Replaces your voice with its own style (4 comments): "It might seem that a tool like Grammarly is just an advanced spellcheck, but what it's really doing is replacing your personal style of writing with its own." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47340656)) "it's a mix of fixing very nitpicky grammar spelling structure issues that push things from casual writing with my own voice into more of a professional tone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46072271)) "The creepy information gathering, the way it blandifies output and encourages reliance over building communication and language skills" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49812910)) - Privacy and consent concerns (4 comments): "Just wait until the emails threaten to reveal all the compromising messages that users unwittingly sent to Grammarly's servers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49812820)) "more about transparency and consent around how the models are trained and how author personas are being used" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47312256)) "If it feels like Grammarly does not respect your right to digital sovereignty, it is because it does not." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47311514)) - Pushy marketing and upgrade prompts (4 comments): "I don't know what they were thinking with that marketing campaign given that universities are probably one of their biggest market segments." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49813058)) "don’t spam my users or I’ll cut off contact at the network level and block your app from running on our laptops." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49817259)) "could you possibly include a few more onboarding animations and reminders to upgrade to the paid version?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48663056)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [LanguageTool](https://hackerapproved.com/p/languagetool.md): 13 recommend - [Slop Cop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/slop-cop.md): 13 recommend - [Hemingway Editor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hemingway-editor.md): 6 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.grammarly.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Grammarly", https://hackerapproved.com/p/grammarly/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).