Grammarly
The most recommended of 4 grammar checkers
Recommended for catching grammar errors and readability problems. Critics say its AI-style rewrites replace your own voice and raise consent and privacy concerns.
Recommended for catching grammar errors and readability problems. Critics say its AI-style rewrites replace your own voice and raise consent and privacy concerns.
90 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 24
- criticize it
- 66
- approval share
- 27%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 24 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Catches grammar and readability problems
“Grammarly and Hemingway can identify the same sort of issues without "you are a stupid robot" vibes.”
Comment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Slop Cop” “It catches misrecognitions and language where I thought the right word but said a different one.”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Show HN: Winpodx – run Windows apps on Linux as native windows” “it does find grammar mistakes and it does give good readability suggestions”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “AI should elevate your thinking, not replace it” - Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans.”
Teaches and builds writing confidence
“Tools like Grammarly give the language-deficient writer more confidence and willingness to write.”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Grammarly will send unhinged messages to all your users if you try to cancel” “it actually guides and teaches you to improve your writing along the way”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Meta's Embrace of A.I. Is Making Its Employees Miserable” Light edits, not heavy rewriting
“I don't find that it (defaultly) corrects too far into the ai slop territory”
Comment from 21 Feb 2026 in “AI uBlock Blacklist” “doesn't try to rewrite everything”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Is There I/O After Death? What Happens to Io_uring When a Process Dies” Useful for everyday writing
“what a saver this tool has been throughout my time”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Grammarly will send unhinged messages to all your users if you try to cancel” “I find grammarly quite useful”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Replaces your voice with its own style
“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.”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans.” “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”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “We're losing our voice to LLMs” “The creepy information gathering, the way it blandifies output and encourages reliance over building communication and language skills”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Grammarly will send unhinged messages to all your users if you try to cancel” - Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Grammarly will send unhinged messages to all your users if you try to cancel”
Privacy and consent concerns
“Just wait until the emails threaten to reveal all the compromising messages that users unwittingly sent to Grammarly's servers”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Grammarly will send unhinged messages to all your users if you try to cancel” “more about transparency and consent around how the models are trained and how author personas are being used”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Grammarly Is Offering 'Expert' AI Reviews from Top Authors – Dead or Alive” “If it feels like Grammarly does not respect your right to digital sovereignty, it is because it does not.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Grammarly Is Offering 'Expert' AI Reviews from Top Authors – Dead or Alive” - Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Grammarly Is Offering 'Expert' AI Reviews from Top Authors – Dead or Alive”
Pushy marketing and upgrade prompts
“I don't know what they were thinking with that marketing campaign given that universities are probably one of their biggest market segments.”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Grammarly will send unhinged messages to all your users if you try to cancel” “don’t spam my users or I’ll cut off contact at the network level and block your app from running on our laptops.”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Grammarly will send unhinged messages to all your users if you try to cancel” “could you possibly include a few more onboarding animations and reminders to upgrade to the paid version?”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model” - Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Grammarly will send unhinged messages to all your users if you try to cancel”
Other grammar checkers people recommend
The three most recommended other grammar checkers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GrammarlyThis page | 24 | 66 | 27% | 10 | — | — |
| LanguageTool | 13 | 2 | 87% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Slop Cop | 13 | 21 | 38% | 4 | — | — |
| Hemingway Editor | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 95 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I've deleted Grammarly because I think the flaws make the comms more authentic in the age of AI.”
“what a saver this tool has been throughout my time”
“don’t spam my users or I’ll cut off contact at the network level and block your app from running on our laptops.”
“Tools like Grammarly give the language-deficient writer more confidence and willingness to write.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed it, even as an (ex)native speaker.”
“replacing entire sentences with LLM replacement which are random and inject bias to being near useless”
“I don't know what they were thinking with that marketing campaign given that universities are probably one of their biggest market segments.”
“The creepy information gathering, the way it blandifies output and encourages reliance over building communication and language skills”
“Just wait until the emails threaten to reveal all the compromising messages that users unwittingly sent to Grammarly's servers”
“Displaying a full page warning in an app where grammarly is just an integration is... not a good look.”
“we're the people generally cancelling those services now given everyone is being pushed to use their flavor of AI instead”
“Doesn't look that unhinged to me.”
“doesn't try to rewrite everything”
“Grammarly was pushing some to edit their writing in ways that just screamed "assisted by Grammarly"”
“Grammarly working hard, and multiple human editors.”
“grammarly, 1password, and darkreader were the big ones”
“could you possibly include a few more onboarding animations and reminders to upgrade to the paid version?”
“so if you want to experience something similar on iOS”
“it actually guides and teaches you to improve your writing along the way”
“It catches misrecognitions and language where I thought the right word but said a different one.”
“it does find grammar mistakes and it does give good readability suggestions”
“Grammarly and Hemingway can identify the same sort of issues without "you are a stupid robot" vibes.”
“they help you get to the point”
“The part I find most useful is the what-if scenarios”
“it becomes the equivalent of Académie Française for English and no further development of the language is permitted”
“A tool like Grammarly is the difference between readable and unreadable”
“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.”
“Grammarly-brand unauthorized digital agent Hunter S Thompson, provide a critique of my writing”
“Digital necrophilia. The living ones are the ones that are going to have to make the objections here.”
“an application of clear utility that could be run entirely locally”
“more about transparency and consent around how the models are trained and how author personas are being used”
“If it feels like Grammarly does not respect your right to digital sovereignty, it is because it does not.”
“a right of publicity claim when a company profits from your name and simulated judgment without consent”
“because they are not writing articles where you can cite people, they are selling a product.”
“I don't find that it (defaultly) corrects too far into the ai slop territory”
“it says it's AI content with a 99% accuracy”
“I find grammarly quite useful”
“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”
“they just wanted to help people write and translate better”
“it has the tendency to reject things that (as far as I can tell) are still technically correct but don't have the "AI vibe" to it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.