LanguageTool
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 2 of 4 grammar checkers by recommenders
People recommend it for reliable grammar and typo checking, and it is made in Germany by an EU-based team.
People recommend it for reliable grammar and typo checking, and it is made in Germany by an EU-based team.
15 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 87%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 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
Reliable grammar and typo checking
“It's now good enough to show smelling pisstakes inside my IDE, including things like missing articles.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Adafruit Receives Demand Letter from Fenwick Legal Counsel on Behalf of Flux.ai” “I use LanguageTool for everything I write to make sure my grammar is both correct and current.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “I Canceled My French Tutor and Built an LLM Tool That Does It Better” “I use LanguageTool instead, simply to catch typos.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Always be ready to leave (even if you never do)” - Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Grammarly will send unhinged messages to all your users if you try to cancel”
Made in Germany, EU-based
“LanguageTool, which is spell-checking this message, is made in Germany.”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “European Tech Alternatives” “LanguageTool, which is spell-checking this message, is made in Germany”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “European Tech Alternatives”
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grammarly | 24 | 66 | 27% | 10 | — | — |
| LanguageToolThis page | 13 | 2 | 87% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Slop Cop | 13 | 21 | 38% | 4 | — | — |
| Hemingway Editor | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
14 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's incredibly reliable.”
“Grammarly itself is basically a closed-source version of LanguageTool”
“It isn't as aggressive as Grammarly”
“they support AI features, like LanguageTool”
“I use LanguageTool for everything I write to make sure my grammar is both correct and current.”
“It's now good enough to show smelling pisstakes inside my IDE, including things like missing articles.”
“their core engine is still more traditional and open-source, and hasn't really seemed to change in years”
“LanguageTool, which is spell-checking this message, is made in Germany.”
“LanguageTool, which is spell-checking this message, is made in Germany”
“Kind of awful for swedish”
“LanguageTool also belongs to an American company, because it was acquired by Learneo in 2023.”
“And it works great for my languages. I really like it.”
“I don't use it but a grammar tool is the next most popular, so I could see this being quite a useful feature.”
“I use LanguageTool instead, simply to catch typos.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.