For my line of work, I need to ensure my writing is as top-notch as possible. I’m currently using Grammarly, but I guess that’s not a very private tool. What are some alternatives? Any way to block trackers in these tools?
LanguageTool exists, although there has been some discussion about removing it. You should be fine if you self-host it. I still use it, just not for anything personal.
Harper is great but kind of basic compared to LT or Grammarly. Works well for me in Zed. [Discussion]
LTeX is pretty basic, but very simple to use and doesn’t require installing. [Discussion]
In my opinion, the best results come from LLMs. If you have the means to run a local one, I think it’s worth it. Yes, they do hallucinate and sometimes insert obvious “AI writing,” but in my experience they catch dumb mistakes and provide some nice rewrites if you ask them to. Especially useful if you have to write a lot and don’t have much time to double-check everything.
4 Likes
I use LanguageTool. It’s at least better than Grammarly, which isn’t FOSS.
But it wouldn’t be a problem to switch again if there appears a better alternative.
1 Like
How do I set up an LLM? Does it do a good job with the grammar and spelling check? I do have a certain writing style so any AI revision could probably do more harm than good. If I run these LLMs locally, is that more private than Grammarly?
I’ve been using the free version of LT for a couple of years. It’s alright. Do you guys pay for it, or are you also on the free tier?
@dumdum How is LT better than Harper?
1 Like
@iluvprivacy, I cannot help with the local LLMs much, I’ve tried running one specifically for spellchecking and grammar, not style correction. I don’t doubt that many general-purpose models can handle that sort of work as well. If you have a certain style you have to uphold, the ultimate goal would probably be to train your own model. Results will depend heavily on your texts and goals. For me, it’s a perfect little “proofreader” that catches any dumb mistakes that I make when my brain short-circuits.
To get started, I suggest picking one of the clients on PG’s recommendation page and checking them out. The documentations for those are solid. Ollama is very easy to set up and use if you’re comfortable with the terminal, and KoboldCpp has a more familiar GUI. An even simpler tool would be LM Studio (though, if I remember correctly, only the CLI version is open-source). You don’t need a beefy computer to run a smaller LLM, but larger models demand a more powerful GPU and lots of RAM.
As privacy goes – local LLMs are truly private. Nothing leaves your device, including the models, prompts, chat logs, etc. By contrast, with Grammarly, everything essentially happens on their servers, so your data is at their mercy.
Right now, I personally just use DuckDuckGo’s AI chats. The texts I check contain no personal info; and if they do, I omit such details and add them manually afterwards. Be mindful about any cloud-based AI chatbots, as anything you send may be stored infedinitely as per the privacy policy. With Duck.ai, it depends on what model you use.
@PurpleDime, I actually wanted to start paying for the premium version of LT because I used it so much. In the end, I ended up on “spellcheck it with free LT, then run it through Duck.ai for a secondary pass” kind of system.
I haven’t used Grammarly in years, but from what I remember, even the free version of LT seems very similar. In my tests, everything you see on Harper’s test editing page is all you get. Harper doesn’t do tone checking, punctuation remarks, sentence length notifications, AI rewrite suggestions, etc. It’s still better than what MS Word or LibreOffice Writer offer, but LT’s still much more advanced.
1 Like
I like Antidote. It is developed and sold by a book publisher in Canada, and they are not in the business of selling data - just books. They are a big player in education locally.
It’s also just a very well designed software. It doesn’t correct your text in real time, and has a standalone desktop app with a corrector that works offline. The corrector also connects with most obvious compatible software like word processors and email apps.
It also includes a dictionary with tons of linguistic and usage data for every word. LLM reformulation service is also included.
As a consequence of it not maintaining connection to their servers, the corrector is not available on iOS or Google App store apps - those only have the dictionary. But you can use Antidote Web to correct on mobile.
It is used a lot for ESL so it is very thorough. I’ve been using it for years and it’s a great piece of software.
1 Like
The free version is enough for my use. After all, I have a mind to help me, right? 
Hi, friend.
I recommend Hemingway Editor. The desktop app is $20, but it’s an investment. Also, it’s on your machine and your data stays there.
I’m a writer and I used it frequently. It’s helpful and not AI.
I hope that helps.
$20 flat or $20/month? Because those are not the same thing.
On their website, the individual plan is $25/month. That is way too expensive for me. Even if it was $10/mo, it’s not something I can afford. It’s also not clear if Hemingway protects your privacy.
1 Like
You want the Hemingway desktop editor, which is $20, not their ai tools. Get the Hemingway Editor for Mac and PC
And yes, it is private. You can run it without an internet connection.
1 Like
I’ve been wanting to run Antidote for a bit now, but they don’t seem to ship a Linux version any more. You have any insights I might of missed?
$20 once. It’s a desktop app.
That’s awesome! I might give it a go.
1 Like
Sweet! As mentioned, I’m a writer and use it to help me. It’s not comprehensive or absolute, but it’s a great tool. I don’t know why people gave me a thumbs down on my recommendation, but it’s useful.
2 Likes
@PurpleDime also asked about privacy practices
Isn’t this irrelevant if the app can run offline?
Yep, but he said that “it can”. What if you connect the device to the internet?