In their piece they’ve tested free versions of both tools, and outlined that “Linguix is no match for ProWritingAid when it comes to understanding your writing.”

This was a nice take, but the outline seemed a bit unreliable to us, so we decided to conduct our own side-by-side test. Here is what we’ve found.

Step #1: Analyzing the UX

Folks from PWA have tested the web apps, so we would do the same. Linguix web editor has several important features its competitor could not offer, including:

• Document storage. In Linguix, you can create as many documents as you need, and keep them in your storage.
• Folders and search. Once you’ve created dozens of documents, the navigation issue arises. We solve this by offering easy-to-use search and folders that allow you to organize and browse your content easily.
• Secret mode. Need to edit sensitive content? No worries, just use our Secret mode, get your writing checked, and then the text will vanish forever. It works like secret chat in a messaging app.

What about ProWritingAid? We’ve tried, but failed to find any way to store more than one document, any privacy-related features. Not talking about folders! 

Note: maybe, all these features are in place, but we’ve failed to find them, which tells a lot about the UX.

Step #2: What about the grammar check?

Again, let’s quote folks from PWA:

[..] ProWritingAid went deeper, highlighting issues with commas, capitalization, overly complex language, and confused words. Furthermore, you can use the ProWritingAid reports to visualize key document stats like sentence length to make sure you’re including enough variety.

Alright, let’s test and verify or bust this claim. Here is the test sample we’ve used to run through both Linguix and ProWritingAid (unlike competitors, we’re posting it here, so everyone could run their own test):

Excel has been a goto solution for financial planning for decades. This is a potent tools; however, it allows building linear models only, which may not be good enough in the modern business environment. In addition, such models are limited in their flexibility and could not be easily optimized for higher performance.

Here is an example. A US-based trucking company decided to boost its operations by implemented a more advanced solution for shipping optimization. The goal was to optimized the truck loading and shipment processes ​so that the weight and the axles load are always within the street legal restrictions. If the truck was overloaded, the company can get a fine.

Obviously, there are some mistakes in this sample content. Let’s paste it to both free Linguix and PWA to see what we will be able to get from them.

Here goes Linguix:

We can see nine (9) alerts, some of which are premium.

What about ProWritingAid? Here you go:

We see seven (7) highlighted words and phrases. But what assistant did its job better?

Although Linguix offers some Premium alerts, which do not contain explanations for free users, the tool still highlights the issues. So, the user can in fact understand what to fix to improve the text. For example, here is the sentence: 

In addition, such models are limited in their flexibility and could not be easily optimized for higher performance.

Here you should switch the word could with can to make the sentence grammatically correct. PWA does not see an issue here, while Linguix highlights it to let you improve your content. 

Wait, you may say, but there are some corrections that ProWritingAid shows and Linguix does not. A closer look at these purple underlines tells us that all of them are passive voice, which the PWA’s algorithm does not like:

However, as you can easily read on the web, the passive voice is not grammatically incorrect, and you are not “wrong” if you use it. This is an idea we support here at Linguix. And as so, we do not highlight things that are not actual mistakes. 

Another correction that was not highlighted by Linguix is the “decided to boost” phrase within the second sentence in the last paragraph:

‘

PWA thinks that this affects readability, whatever it may mean. Again, this is not an actual mistake! In turn, Linguix’s Paraphrasing Engine allows you to see how you can change the sentence to make it sound native, all on demand. This makes the whole sentence more readable, not the part of it!

So, Linguix showed more mistakes, it showed actual mistakes, and it offered the way to make any sentence in the text more native, not a part of it.

Step #3: Free app’s functionality

At this point, the PWA’s research was finished, and folks switched to promoting their premium features. What about features that might be useful for a retail customer? Colleagues have mentioned:

• Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge extensions
• Microsoft Word
• Scrivener and Final Draft (we do not have that)
• Google Docs
• Open Office, Rich Text, HTML, Markdown (we do not have that)

Sounds great. Until you know that almost all these features (and even more) are free in Linguix! 

• Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
• Desktop applications
• MS office add-ins (including Outlook!)
• Mobile keyboards for iOS and Android (PWA does not have them!)
• Writing Coach and Content Templates (no alternatives!)
• Paraphrasing Engine (again, PWA does not offer it)
• Intelligent shortcuts for faster typing
• Vocabulary enhancement features

You can use all these applications and features at no cost! Also, while testing, we’ve found out that a free ProWritingAid is limited to 500 words…At that point we felt that this was enough and stopped calculating points.

Final thoughts: we would never build this without you

Here at Linguix we are actively working on the product, constantly pushing new features, and always talking to customers via email (for e.g., you can reach our founder Alex here) or in our Facebook Community.

This unbelievable connection between the whole team at Linguix and our users and customers makes the whole thing work. As a result, the simple test that follows the methodology of side-by-side comparison of two writing assistants leads to Linguix’s win. We could never achieve this without your support, so thank you!

P. S. And in the meantime I’ve searched for letters from PWA in my inbox, and guess what I’ve found? 

Asking for feedback using a noreply email address..

P. P. S. I still think Chris Banks and his team are doing a great job at PWA. However, we at Linguix do even more.

The post ProWritingAid vs Linguix: A Side-by-Side Comparison appeared first on Linguix Blog.