Free plagiarism checker comparison
Free plagiarism checkers are popular. Many students, marketers and text writers use them to avoid plagiarism. We conducted research to answer two main questions:
- Which plagiarism checkers are really free?
- How much plagiarism is detected by each plagiarism checker?
| Plagiarism checker | Plagiarism detected | Really free? | Restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Quetext | 29% | Only free trial | 3 x 500 words |
| 2. EasyBib | 19% | Only free trial | 3 days (credit card required) |
| 3. PlagScan | 17% | Only free trial | 2,000 words |
| 4. Plagramme | 16% | Not free | Only shows percentage |
| 5. Copyleaks | 7% | 100% free | 2,500 words p/m for free |
| 6. Small SEO Tools | 5% | 100% free | Max. 1,000 words per check |
| 7. Grammarly | 1% | Not free | Only shows percentage |
| 8. Search Engine Reports | 4% | 100% free | Max. 1,000 words per check |
| 9. PaperRater | 0% | 100% free | 10 checks per month |
| 10. Edubirdie | 4% | 100% free | Might not be safe to use |
| Scribbr | 44% | Not free | Best plagiarism checker |
Conclusion
- Almost all 100% free plagiarism checkers detect very little plagiarism.
- Plagiarism checkers that offer a free trial perform much better. However, you will probably end up paying for the service.
For comparison purposes, we added the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker, which is the best plagiarism checker as of 2018. It’s not free, but it does detect the most plagiarism of all plagiarism checkers.
When to use a free plagiarism checker?
Many free plagiarism checkers do not detect all the plagiarism in a document. In some cases, this might pose a problem, but sometimes a free version is good enough.
You can best use a free plagiarism checker when:
- You’re only checking small snippets of text (maximum one page)
- You want to test it before buying the premium version
- No one else will check your text for plagiarism
Disadvantages of free plagiarism checkers
Free plagiarism checkers can be useful, but they often have serious disadvantages compared to paid plagiarism checkers. Many free plagiarism checkers:
- Do not detect all plagiarism
- Have usage limits
- Store, publish or even sell your work
- Have a lot of advertisements
- Have no customer support
- Reserve certain features for the paid version
Free plagiarism checker reviews
Quetext
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- Simple plagiarism report
- Built-in citation feature
- Your document is not stored in a database
Cons
- Only the first three checks (up to 500 words) are free of charge
- Commonly used sentences are sometimes falsely flagged as plagiarism
- After the free trial, only a monthly subscription is possible
Review
The Quetext Plagiarism Checker is the number one free plagiarism checker. It’s easy to use, as you can just copy and paste the text to the website. In addition, the generated plagiarism report provides a nice overview and is easy to understand. Similarities are underlined, and a plagiarism percentage is displayed.
Quetext offers a free trial of three checks (up to 500 words) in the hope that users will switch to the paid version of $9.99 per month after the trial ends. Overall, Quetext is a safe plagiarism checker to use. However, if you’re willing to pay money for a plagiarism check, there are better alternatives, such as the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker.
EasyBib
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- Built-in citation tool
- Combined with spelling check tool
Cons
- Your document is added to the BibMe plagiarism database
- Only a 3-day trial period
- Credit card details required to start the trial
Review
EasyBib’s plagiarism checker is developed specifically for students. You can either upload a document or copy and paste text to use the plagiarism checker.
EasyBib detected 19% plagiarism and placed second in this comparison of free plagiarism checkers. Unfortunately, the free trial lasts only three days, after which it’s automatically converted into a paid subscription.
EasyBib is fairly easy to use, and it includes a built-in citation and spell check tool. If this is what you’re looking for, then Easybib’s plagiarism checker might be something for you. Do keep in mind that all the documents you upload are added to BibMe’s plagiarism database.
PlagScan
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- Easy to use
- No credit card required for the free trial
- The paid version is relatively cheap
Cons
- Only the first 2,000 words are free
Review
PlagScan completes the top-three free plagiarism checkers. It detected 17% of the plagiarism in our test document.
From beginning to end, the PlagScan plagiarism checker is easy to use. It’s possible to upload files from your computer, copy and paste your text, or upload a file via Dropbox or Google Drive.
The plagiarism report is easy to understand. It shows you a percentage, a list of sources and an overview of your document that highlights the plagiarized text.
Unfortunately, only the first 2,000 words are free. PlagScan hopes that those who like the tool will eventually pay for it. For $10, you can check another 20,000 words.
Although this isn’t extremely expensive, do keep in mind that other plagiarism checkers detected more plagiarism. If you’re willing to pay for a plagiarism checker, you might want to use a more accurate plagiarism checker, such as the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker.
Plagramme
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- Paid version is relatively cheap ($0.35 per page)
Cons
- The free trial shows only the plagiarism percentage, not which sections contain plagiarism
- Account needed to use free trial
- Text doesn’t maintain the original formatting
Review
With a detected plagiarism percentage of 16%, Plagramme placed fourth in this comparison. The technology is slightly worse than PlagScan and EasyBib. The plagiarism report can be complicated, and it sometimes falsely marks commonly used phrases as plagiarism.
Although Plagramme is on this list of free plagiarism checkers, it’s not really free to use. The free version scans your document and only gives you the plagiarism percentage. It doesn’t show you which paragraphs are plagiarized. To unlock that information, you need to pay around $0.35 per page.
Copyleaks
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- Easy-to-understand plagiarism report
Cons
- Only 2,500 words per month for free
- Your document is added to the Copyleaks database
Review
Copyleaks detected only 7% plagiarism, whereas other free plagiarism checkers such as Quetext found 29%. That’s because Copyleaks cannot detect plagiarism if a sentence is restructured or when a word in a sentence is replaced.
Every month, you can check 2,500 words for free. If you need more than that, then you can go for the subscription (starting at $11 per month) or for the prepaid option. For an additional 25,000 words, you will need to pay around $10 to $13.
The plagiarism report is easy to understand, and it shows all the sources containing text that is similar to yours. The report displays a plagiarism check percentage and highlights the plagiarized content.
Be aware that every document you upload is added to the Copyleaks database.
Small SEO Tools
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- No usage limit
- Different views in the plagiarism report
Cons
- Slightly changed but still plagiarised sentences are not detected; therefore, a lot of plagiarism stays undetected
- Word limit of 1,000 words
Review
The plagiarism checker offered by Small SEO Tools was developed for marketers. It can be useful for checking small snippets of text for plagiarism, especially if you might have copied exact sentences from other sources.
However, Small SEO Tools does not detect plagiarized sentences that are slightly changed. A lot of plagiarism stays undetected because of this, as can be seen with our test document: only 5% plagiarism was detected.
The plagiarism report has three different views: the “document view,” which highlights all the plagiarized text; the “matched sources view,” which connects the plagiarized sentences to the original source; and the “sentence wise result,” which analyses each sentence separately.
Overall, it’s an easy-to-use plagiarism checker. It works well for small snippets of text, but it’s not suitable for papers and other large documents.
Grammarly
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- Sleek design and easy to use
- Integrated into the spelling and grammar checker
- Trustworthy
Cons
- A lot of plagiarism stays undetected
- The free version shows only whether a text contains plagiarism, not a plagiarism percentage or which sentences are plagiarized
- Expensive monthly plans for the paid version
Review
Surprisingly, Grammarly found only 1% of the plagiarism in our test document. In addition, the free version of Grammarly’s plagiarism checker has very few options for detecting and correcting plagiarism.
If you get a notification that your document contains plagiarism, then you probably want to know which sentences you need to check. To find that out, you’ll need to commit to the paid version, which costs around $12 per month with a yearly plan or $29.95 with a monthly plan.
Is it worth paying for it? If you already pay for Grammarly, then this tool can definitely help you avoid plagiarism. If you don’t, then there are better and cheaper alternatives, such as the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker.
Search Engine Reports
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- No usage limit
- They claim to delete all content uploaded to the site
Cons
- Lots of distracting ads
- Every sentence is checked separately using Google’s exact match
- Plagiarized text is not highlighted; you only get a complex list of sources
- Original sources are not shown or linked; instead, you’re redirected to Google Search
Review
Search Engine Reports’ plagiarism checker detected only 4% of the plagiarism in our test document. The main reason for this is that Search Engine Reports uses Google’s exact search, which means that every individual sentence is searched on Google to see whether a matching source is found.
If you only want to check a few sentences for plagiarism, then this plagiarism checker might help you. However, if you want to check multiple pages, it isn’t useful at all because the plagiarism report leaves you with more questions than you began with.
The plagiarized text it not highlighted, and the report cannot tell you what the original source is. It can only tell you that Google found a similar-looking sentence on another webpage.
PaperRater
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- Strong privacy policy: your document stays yours
- Does not check every sentence separately
Cons
- Did not detect any plagiarism
- A lot of distracting ads and fake buttons
- Only 10 plagiarism checks per month for free
Review
While most free plagiarism checkers use Google’s “exact search” to check every sentence separately, PaperRater can consider whole paragraphs and conveniently link to matched sources. This makes it really easy to correctly cite the sections you accidentally forgot to cite.
However, PaperRater failed to detect any plagiarism in our test document. Therefore, we do not recommend this plagiarism checker.
Edubirdie
| Safety | |
|---|---|
| Ease of use | |
| Accuracy |
Pros
- No usage limit
Cons
- Possibly sells your document via their essay-writing service
- Lots of plagiarism stays undetected
- Common words are falsely flagged as plagiarism
Review
Edubirdie detected only 4% of the plagiarism in our text document, whereas the other free checks found up to 29%. This shows that there are better alternatives to this service. In addition, we do not recommend using the Edubirdie’s plagiarism checker as its connection with its essay-writing service is unclear.
The terms of use, which every user has to accept, clearly states that you grant Edubirdie a royalty-free licence for your work. In other words, they might sell the text that you upload. This is the last thing you want, especially if you’re a student checking your essay for plagiarism.
