Comparison
Proofreading software, compared by what it can read
Writing assistants, proofing platforms and creative QA tools are three different products with one name. The difference that matters is whether your text is still editable.
Proofreading software falls into three groups. Writing assistants — Grammarly, LanguageTool, Hemingway Editor — check text while you can still edit it, and the first two list free plans. Review platforms route files to people and track approvals, but find nothing themselves. Creative QA tools read the text off finished images and PDFs and check it against your brief and price list. Which you need depends on whether your words are still text or already pixels.
Last updated October 2026.
The three kinds, side by side.
| Kind of tool | What it can read | What it catches | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing assistantsGrammarly · LanguageTool · Hemingway Editor | Text you type or paste — documents, email, browser fields, Office and Google Docs plugins | Spelling, grammar, punctuation, tone, readability; rewriting suggestions | Yes — Grammarly and LanguageTool both list free plans; Hemingway Editor is free in the browser |
| Review & proofing platformsFilestage and similar | Files you upload, for people to comment on | Nothing by itself — they route files, collect comments and track approvals; a human finds the mistakes | Varies by vendor |
| Creative QA / artwork proofreadersLYNCE · Gard | Finished files — JPG, PNG, WEBP and multi-page PDFs — reading the text off the design | Typos on artwork, plus wrong prices, dates and claims checked against your brief, price list and other versions | LYNCE: no free tier · 7-day free trial on every plan |
Competitor details were read from each vendor’s own public site in October 2026 — grammarly.com, hemingwayapp.com and languagetool.org — and may change; check their pages for current features and prices. Prices are deliberately not listed here: they vary by region and date. “Cannot open” means the file type is not something the tool accepts, not that the product is poor at its own job.
The same sentence, before and after export.
This is the whole difference, in one example. Nothing about the words changes; what can read them does.
Still a document
Tickets €45. Sat 12 July, 19:00.
A writing assistant reads this. It will fix a typo and tighten the sentence — and it will pass “€45” and “Sat 12 July” without a word, because both are perfectly written.
Exported artwork
The same words, now pixels. No writing assistant can open this file. A creative QA tool reads the text in place — and, given the price list, says €45 should be €40.
Which one you actually need.
You’re writing it
A document, an email, a blog post, a caption still in a text field. Use a writing assistant. Grammarly and LanguageTool both list free plans that cover spelling and grammar; Hemingway Editor is free in the browser and is about readability rather than correctness. LYNCE is the wrong tool here — it doesn’t work on text you are typing, and it has no opinion on your tone.
You need people to approve it
Many reviewers, comments, versions, sign-off. That is a proofing platform’s job, and it is a real one. It will not find the mistake for you — see LYNCE vs Filestage for where the two meet.
It’s already exported
A JPG going to Meta, a print-ready PDF, twelve sizes of the same campaign. No writing assistant can open these. This is where an AI image proofreader belongs, and where the costly mistakes live: a price that changed once, a date that is not that day, one version that never got the final edit.
It’s going to print
Same as above, with no undo. PDF proofreading reads long documents page by page and names the page.
It’s in another language
A grammar checker checks the translation as writing. To check it against the original — prices, dates, meaning — you need the master alongside it: translation QA.
About the word “free”.
Worth being precise, because it is the thing most often glossed over in a roundup.
Genuinely free tiers
Grammarly lists a free plan, LanguageTool lists a free grammar checker, and Hemingway Editor’s browser editor is free to use with paid AI features on top. If your text is in a document and your budget is zero, those are the honest answers and you should use them.
A free trial, not a free tier
That is LYNCE, and we would rather say so than blur it. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial. During the trial you get a week’s share of your plan’s credits (1 image is 1 credit, 1 analysed PDF page is 1 credit); after that it is a paid plan — pricing is here. Reference files, like the brief or the price list, never cost credits.
Why there is no free tier for this
Reading a design is not a spell check: every scan looks at the artwork itself and at the documents it has to agree with, and that costs real money per file. A permanently free plan would have to be so small it couldn’t check one campaign, which is a worse answer than a week of a real plan, on your own files.
Where LYNCE is the wrong answer.
Your copy is still a document
Use a writing assistant. LYNCE starts at the export; before that, it has nothing to look at.
You want rewriting, tone or readability
LYNCE reports what is wrong and suggests a fix for it. It will not rewrite your paragraph, shorten your sentences or adjust your tone — that is squarely Grammarly and Hemingway territory.
You want a permanently free tool
Then the free text checkers are the answer, and we would rather you knew that now than after signing up.
You want brand-visual policing
Logo placement, fonts, colour values and safe areas are not measured. LYNCE guards what the creative says, not how it is drawn.
Proofreading software, answered.
The final check, before it goes live.
Give the finished creative one more QA pass before publish, send or print.
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