Grammarly vs Turnitin: Which is Better & Why?

Turnitin and Grammarly are two different tools serving different purposes and audiences. 

While both tools offer exceptional functionalities, they are not ideal for everyone. 

So, now the question is, which one of Grammarly vs Turnitin is better?

As a Grammarly user for the last three years, I decided to compare it with Turnitin to see which one is the better option. 

Safe to say, the results were quite surprising. 

Excited to check the winner? Read the article further to find out which one wins the battle between the two most popular tools!

Grammarly vs Turnitin: The Complete Comparison 

Don’t have time to go through the entire comparison? 

Here is a quick overview of Turnitin vs Grammarly!

Parameter	Grammarly	Turnitin
Grammar Checker	Yes	No
Plagiarism Detection	Not entirely accurate	Highly accurate results.
Availability	Extension, online editor, mobile app, desktop Mac iOS, and Windows.	Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.
Free Version	Yes	No
Pricing	$12/month	Custom pricing
Best For	Anyone looking for a plagiarism checker and writing assistant powered by AI.	Students and teachers for checking plagiarism.
Overall rating	4.7/5	4.2/5

Now let’s dive into our detailed comparison of the parameters. 

Overview Of Grammarly And Turnitin

Now that you have seen the differences in the table above, let’s go through a deeper understanding of learning what Turnitin and Grammarly have to offer!

Grammarly Overview 

Boasting millions of global users, including students, writers, and working professionals, Grammarly is one of the best AI writing assistants in the market. 

With powerful features for checking your content, it ensures your text is 100% grammatically correct and clear. 

It breaks down complex sentences, so it is easier to understand by your audience. It also detects overused words and picks sentences that are affecting the tone of your content. 

Additionally, it lets you personalize your settings, so Grammarly provides suggestions based on what you are writing. 

Moreover, Grammarly also empowers its users to check their content for plagiarism through its billions of databases. 

It has a free version that lets you check your content for basic errors. Also, the free version can point out if your content has plagiarism. However, to see which text is plagiarized and get access to additional settings, you need to upgrade to Grammarly Premium. 

Bonus: You can get to know more about Grammarly from our in-depth Grammarly review.

Turnitin Overview

Empowering students to do their best and original work, Turnitin is solely for students and teachers. 

Launched as a plagiarism detector, the tool ensures that students uphold academic integrity with original work. 

In addition, it also addresses the most sophisticated potential misconduct by students. 

Besides, if you are an educational institution, you can provide instructors with tools to streamline the manual grading and assessment process, making them focus better on teaching students. 

Lastly, it introduced its latest functionality for detecting AI content, including the one written from ChatGPT. This will ensure your students write original content without using AI writing tools. 

While it is powerful, Turnitin’s significant drawback is that it is only for educational institutions and doesn’t have any free version. However, you can use its plagiarism detector through its partnership with Scribbr. 

Key Features Comparision 

Undoubtedly, both tools have amazing features for their audience. 

However, here is a quick overview of their features to get a better understanding of what they offer. 

Grammarly Key Features 

• Checks grammar, spelling, and punctuation. 
• Focuses on content clarity and tone. 
• Built-in plagiarism detector tool. 
• Chrome and Firefox extension that works everywhere you type. 
• Mobile and desktop apps with the same features. 
• Excellent customer support. 
• Detailed explanation of errors. 

Turnitin Key Feature

• Built-in AI detection tool. 
• Allows you to set grading assessments inside the platform. 
• Supports bulk checking. 
• Draft couch features for students to improve their writing. 
• Solutions for higher, secondary, and middle school. 
• Detailed resources for teachers and students. 
• Collaborative dashboard. 

Ease Of Use: Which Has Better Interface?

Comparing the two tools against each other is incomplete without checking their user interface. 

Grammarly and Turnitin both boast easy user interfaces, but do they really stay true to their words?

Let’s find out!

Grammarly Ease of Use 

Grammarly has a straightforward interface. Honestly, out of all the grammar-checking tools I have used, Grammarly’s interface is one of the most beginner-friendly. 

You can use Grammarly’s mobile app, desktop app, or an online editor. irrespective of how you are using Grammarly, it works the same everywhere. 

You can upload or paste your doc, and it will automatically underline the errors. When pointing errors, Grammarly uses different colors for each parameter, such as grammar, clarity, overused words, delivery, tone, etc. 

With a click of a button, you can make corrections. Similarly, you can adjust goals and settings within the app itself. 

Now, if we consider plagiarism detector, it is easy to check plagiarism. On the right side, at the bottom, you can see the plagiarism checker. 

Within a few seconds, Grammarly will find the source with plagiarised content. 

Overall, Grammarly is extremely easy to use. 

Turnitin Ease of Use

Turnitin has a straightforward interface, too. Since Turnitin has different tools, the interface is also simple to understand. 

If you are using a plagiarism checker through Scribbr, you can check for plagiarism within a few steps too. 

You can upload your doc by dragging and dropping it. 

While using Turnitin is no rocket science, the only downside for many people is that loading the results takes a lot of time. 

However, even if you don’t have experience with using Turnitin, there is no learning curve.

Which Is More Accurate?

Turnitin boasts of having one of the largest databases, with 99 billion web pages, whereas Grammarly has 16 billion. 

The larger the database, the more likely it is to be accurate since your content will be compared to more published. 

Let’s compare Grammarly and Turnitin to see which is more accurate. 

Grammarly Accuracy

Grammarly’s plagiarism detector is quite good. 

The tool scans your content through 16 billion web pages and ProQuest databases. It points out which sentences are plagiarized along with the source. 

I copy-pasted a paragraph from the published content from Grammarly vs Quillbot. 

Unfortunately, Grammarly’s plagiarism detector missed out on it. It showed my content is 100% unique, whereas I clearly copy-pasted it. 

The results it showed were accurate, along with the right source. 

Grammarly’s plagiarism detector may miss out on certain sentences or content. Although I wouldn’t recommend relying on it 100%, you can use it for a quick check. 

Turnitin Accuracy

To sign up on Turnitin, you need to be a student or an instructor. I couldn’t log into Turnitin to check how it works in detail. 

However, you can sign up for its plagiarism checker through Scribbr. 

Like Grammarly, it gives you a detailed overview of plagiarised content; on the top, you can see the total percentage of the content copied. 

One thing I like about it is that it highlights the plagiarized text with different colors for different sources. 

On the other hand, Grammarly lacks this feature, and it can be confusing to figure out which content is from which source unless you click on it. 

Overall, Turnitin is more accurate than Grammarly. It even points to minor plagiarized sentences throughout the content. 

Grammarly vs Turnitin: Security 

Grammarly and Turnitin prioritize user data protection with secure encryption and data privacy policies.

Who Offers Better Resources and Support?

Support and resources play a crucial role which is why I’m going to take a closer look at the support and resources offered by Grammarly and Turnitin. 

Grammarly Resources and Support 

Grammarly has detailed and helpful support centers and resources. You can reach out to the support team 24/7 through email. 

In addition, they have a support center with helpful articles and resources. The help center comes in handy for people who want a DIY solution. 

Turnitin Resources and Support 

Undoubtedly, Turnitin has excellent resources and beats Grammarly!

They have a dynamic collection of downloadable resources, videos, blogs, and more to make offline learning fun and effective. 

If you head to their resource section, you will see it is divided into three sections -for students, administrators, and educators. 

Moreover, they have guides and tutorials with plenty of FAQs. I personally liked how detailed their guides and tutorials were. 

Compared to Grammarly, Turnitin has better support and resources. 

Grammarly vs Turnitin: Pricing Plans 

My next parameter to decide which platform is better is by going through their pricing criteria. 

Let’s check the pricing options of both platforms to see which one is more affordable. 

Grammarly Pricing: 

Grammarly has a free version that works perfectly for people who don’t need detailed corrections. 

Compared to other tools in the market, Grammarly’s free version is packed with plenty of features!

Grammarly has only one premium plan. However, it gives you the option to pay monthly, quarterly, or annually. 

Here is a complete breakdown of Grammarly Pricing. 

Plans	Price
Monthly	$30/month
Quarterly	$20/month
Annual	$12/month

The annual plan helps save the maximum compared to the monthly plan. 

So, if you are planning to opt for Grammarly premium, you can go with the annual subscription. You can also try the premium version with an exclusive 7-day free trial.

Turnitin Pricing: 

Turnitin has custom pricing. It doesn’t have specific pricing plans. 

Your university needs to contact its customer support and get a personalized quotation according to your needs. 

Grammarly vs Turnitin: Pros And Cons

Now that we have seen how Turnitin and Grammarly work, let me summarize them by weighing down their pros and cons. 

Grammarly Pros And Cons 

Pros	Cons
Allows checking errors and grammatical mistakes throughout your content.	The plagiarism detector is not entirely accurate.
The free version has a lot of features.	The mobile app for Grammarly has glitches.
Highly secure and doesn’t sell or store your content.	Can sometimes change the meaning of a sentence with its suggestions.
Works as a teacher through its detailed explanation.
Available across all the platforms you write.
One of the most beginner-friendly platforms.

Turnitin Pros And Cons

Pros	Cons
Allows checking up to 15 content at once.	Doesn’t check grammar or spelling errors.
One of the most accurate plagiarism detection.	Doesn’t allow sign-up unless you are a student or teacher.
Collaborative dashboard for students and teachers.	It is only suitable for academics.
Easily detect AI-written content.
Offline mode to compare their work.
Intuitive interface.

Grammarly vs Turnitin: Which Tool Is Better For You?

We have almost made it to the end of our comparison. 

Now, the most important question is -which one is best for you? 

Let me help you by breaking down and summarizing both tools! 

Grammarly should be your pick if: 

• You need an all-in-one solution for your content. 
• You want an editing tool with a built-in plagiarism checker. 
• You are a student, blogger, marketer, or working professional. 

Turnitin should be your pick if: 

• You are an educational institution that wants to ensure your students are not indulging in academic misconduct. 
• If you are a student or teacher. 

In a nutshell, Turnitin works similarly to Notion, where teachers and students can manage the submission and guide students through personalized feedback. 

On the other hand, Grammarly is ideal for anyone who needs assistance in writing and enhancing their existing writing skills. 

Related Read:

• Grammarly vs Ginger
• Grammarly Free vs Premium
• ProWritingAid vs Grammarly

Conclusion: Grammarly vs Turnitin

And now we wrap up our Grammarly vs Turninit battle!

Since I have compared the majority of crucial parameters, I want to sum it up by saying that no tool is better than the other. 

The reason why I’m saying this is because both have different audiences and serve different needs. 

As a writer, Grammarly is more suitable for me. Similarly, Turnitin would serve your needs better if you are a student or a teacher. 

With that, you can decide which is ideal, depending on your requirements. 

FAQs