Grammarly vs PERRLA: Which Writing Software Is Better?

If you’re looking for a writing tool that can help you improve your writing, there are lots of options available on the market.

Two popular writing tools include PERRLA and Grammarly. So, how do you choose between Grammarly vs PERRLA?

The short answer is that Grammarly is a grammar checker that helps you correct grammar errors and spelling mistakes, while PERRLA is a tool that helps you format papers and create citations.

This article will summarize the strengths and weaknesses of each tool and help you decide which one works better for you.

Quick Overview of Grammarly

Grammarly is an AI-powered grammar correction tool, founded in 2009, which helps you spot spelling and grammar issues in your writing.

It will also help you create more compelling writing by highlighting stylistic weaknesses, such as repeated words, redundant adverbs, wordy sentences, and more.

Many freelance writers, content creators, and busy professionals find Grammarly useful because it allows them to communicate more clearly and effectively.

Here are some of Grammarly’s popular features:

• Grammar check: looks for common grammar and punctuation mistakes
• Spell check: checks for spelling errors
• Readability score: creates a readability score from 1 to 100 by looking at factors like word length, sentence length, and vocabulary choices
• Writing style suggestions: provides word choice suggestions based on the intended audience and tone of your work
• Tone adjustments: assists you in achieving your intended tone
• Plagiarism detector: assigns you a plagiarism score by comparing your work to that of other websites and articles

You can use Grammarly as a web editor or as an integration into your favorite writing software, such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or your web browser.

Quick Overview of PERRLA

PERRLA is a formatting tool founded in 2018 that helps you format your academic papers and nonfiction in APA and MLA style. It can also help you create citations and references.

PERRLA is most useful to students, researchers, and nonfiction authors. If you need to do any kind of research to write your work, PERRLA’s citation generator can make your life much easier.

Here are some of PERRLA’s key features:

• References and citations panel: produces a new citation or reference for you based on the DOI, URL, ISBN, or author and title of any study or source
• In-text citations: automatically lets you add in-text or parenthetical citations
• Tables and figures: lets you add a pre-formatted abstract, table of contents, appendix, figure, and more
• Paper formatter: automatically formats your paper in APA or MLA format, including headers, section breaks, page margins, spacing, and more
• Writing videos: PERRLA offers video tutorials on topics like how to research a paper, how to format a paper, and how to follow grammar rules

You can use PERRLA as either an online web editor or as an extension for Microsoft Word. Both options give you access to all of PERRLA’s features.

You should invest in PERRLA if you often need to follow the APA or MLA style guides and if you need to generate a lot of references and citations. It excels at helping you with both of those tasks.

Differences Between Grammarly vs PERRLA

Grammarly and PERRLA each excel in their own ways. Here’s a quick breakdown of the major differences between the two tools.

PERRLA for Citations and APA Format

PERRLA isn’t designed to be a grammar checker. Its strengths lie in creating citations and formatting your paper in APA or MLA format.

It can even automatically generate citations that many students and researchers find tricky, such as citations for sources with multiple authors, or multiple sources published by the same author in the same year.

While Grammarly also offers a citation generator, it doesn’t create citations and references as easily and seamlessly as PERRLA does. It also doesn’t offer any kind of formatting options for your writing.

So, if you’re looking for those features, you should definitely go with PERRLA over Grammarly.

Grammarly Is a Grammar Checker

Grammarly is designed to be a grammar checker, meaning it can find grammar mistakes and stylistic weaknesses in your writing.

As a result, Grammarly appeals to a broader audience than PERRLA because it can be used for many different types of writing.

If you’re looking for ways to improve the strength and clarity of your writing overall, Grammarly will be more helpful than PERRLA.

Grammarly Offers More Integrations

If you don’t write in Microsoft Word, it might be a hassle to use PERRLA. You’ll have to import and export your work into PERRLA’s online web editor every time you want to benefit from the app.

Grammarly, on the other hand, comes with a wide range of integrations. For example, you can use the Grammarly plug-in on almost any website in your web browser.

Pricing of Grammarly vs PERRLA

PERRLA is more affordable than Grammarly.

Using PERRLA costs $49.95 per year, which is equivalent to $4 per month.

On the other hand, Grammarly’s premium edition is available with three different payment options. The monthly plan costs $30, the quarterly plan costs $20 per month (billed as $60 per quarter), and the annual plan costs $12 per month (billed as $144 per year).

As you can see, even the cheapest payment plan for Grammarly ($144 per year) is still nearly three times as expensive as paying for PERRLA.

Of course, Grammarly also offers very different features from PERRLA, so you shouldn’t consider the two to be interchangeable.

You can also try Grammarly’s free version, which lets you access the basic grammar checker and spell check. You’ll need the premium version in order to access the plagiarism checker, writing style recommendations, and more.

PERRLA has a 7-day free trial, but there’s no free version that you can use for longer than seven days.

Why ProWritingAid Is a Great Alternative

If you’re considering Grammarly and PERRLA, you should also consider ProWritingAid.

ProWritingAid does more than just check your writing for basic errors. It offers sophisticated suggestions that can help you take your writing to the next level.

With ProWritingAid, you get access to over 20 reports, which is more than any other grammar checker offers. These reports include:

• Grammar Report: uses an advanced AI to catch grammar and punctuation mistakes, as well as misused words such as “adverse” vs “averse”
• Writing Style Report: highlights areas of your text that a copyeditor would tell you to revise, including passive voice, overuse of adverbs, repeated sentence starts, and more
• Sentence Length Report: ensures you’re using varying sentence lengths to engage the reader, instead of too many long sentences or too many choppy sentences
• Contextual Thesaurus Report: allows you to explore a wide range of synonyms for any given word, so you can use the most effective word choices possible
• Overused Words Report: highlights words that weaken your writing, such as “very,” “just,” and “maybe”
• Transition Report: looks for transition words like “similarly,” “nevertheless,” and “as a result,” so you can make sure you’re using the right transitions to guide your reader through your work
• Plagiarism Report: checks your work against over a billion webpages and articles to makes sure you’ve cited any content you’re using
• Author Comparison: lets you compare your own writing to that of famous authors

These reports give you high-quality, in-depth suggestions that will transform your writing.

In addition, ProWritingAid gives you access to educational resources, so you can learn more about your writing mistakes. Each suggestion has an in-app description that you can view to better understand the underlying problem.

You can view videos on grammatical rules and even take quizzes to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes over and over.

ProWritingAid also comes with integrations that make it easy to incorporate into your normal writing process. You can use ProWritingAid directly with Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Word, Scrivener, Final Draft, and more.

Finally, ProWritingAid lets you customize your grammar checking experience based on what type of writing you’re working on.

You can choose from the following document types to get customized suggestions for that type of work:

• General
• Academic (sub-options: Academic Essay, Abstract, Admissions Letter, and more)
• Business (sub-options: Cover Letter, Email, Case Study, and more)
• Technical
• Creative (sub-options: Nonfiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and more)
• Casual (sub-options: General Fiction and Dating Profile)
• Web (sub-options: General Web Copy, Short Web Article, and more)
• Script

If you want to try ProWritingAid, you can use the tool for free on up to 500 words. Try it out and see if it works for you.

Conclusion on Grammarly vs PERRLA

Both PERRLA and Grammarly are useful editing tools that can help you improve your writing. However, they accomplish very different things.

Grammarly focuses on helping you check for grammar mistakes and spelling errors. It’s useful for working professionals, freelance writers, and people who want to communicate more clearly.

PERRLA focuses on generating citations and formatting your papers correctly. It’s useful for students, academics, and researchers who have to cite a lot of sources in their work.

ProWritingAid can help you improve your writing in countless different ways. If you are looking for an online editing tool that works for you to make your writing shine, give ProWritingAid a try.

Good luck, and happy writing!