Grammarly is good at prose. It is also $12-30/mo, and it still rewrites useEffect into "use effect" if you paste a component next to your sentences. If your writing lives in a repo, you need a checker that knows the difference.
Side-by-Side
| Capability | Grammarly (Free/Premium) | Code-aware checker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free / $12-30 mo | Free (10/day, no signup) |
| Code-aware parsing | No | Yes |
| Identifiers preserved | No (often "fixed") | Yes (untouchable) |
| Backend | Proprietary | DeepSeek (BYOK free) |
| Signup | Required for most features | None |
When the Free Alternative Wins
- You write docstrings, READMEs, or comments and paste them whole.
- You want zero account friction - open the tool, paste, done.
- You want to self-host or bring your own key (BYOK mode is free entirely).
When Grammarly Still Wins
Long-form creative prose, team style guides, browser-everywhere integration. For repository-adjacent writing, the code-aware checker is the better fit.
Try It
No account, no card: free code-aware grammar checker. Pair it with the translator (code blocks skipped in translation too) and the readability analyzer for a full, free docs toolkit.
The whole thing runs on DeepSeek with a BYOK switch - so if you already pay for an API key, the checker costs you nothing beyond your own usage.
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