Content writers, students, and professionals of all kinds must avoid unintentional plagiarism in their papers, blog posts, and marketing materials. Whether you need to submit an academic article for a review or publish a unique guide that will increase a site’s online visibility, a plagiarism checker will confirm that the text is original. In this guide, we will review the 10 best online plagiarism checkers available today and analyze their advantages and shortcomings to help you choose the most suitable option for your needs.
What Are Online Plagiarism Checkers and Why Use Them?
The term refers to web-based tools that utilize complex algorithms designed to cross-check texts for copied or paraphrased content. They analyze published sources for similarities in sentence structure and wording to determine whether a text has been plagiarized.
As installing desktop software might be costly and time-consuming, companies and individuals rely on online plagiarism checkers. Here are the main upsides to using such tools:
- Automated text checking. Online checkers scan the web and analyze published content, trying to determine whether a text is unique. It would take a lot of time to perform the same task manually.
- Well-known services analyze a publication quickly and highlight words and phrases that were likely copied from other sources. The best platforms use different colors for each source to make it easier to understand the reports.
- Protection against unintended plagiarism. When a person paraphrases sources without attribution, their text might be flagged as copied. It may result in penalties and decrease a page’s online visibility.
- Intuitive interface. Online plagiarism checkers have streamlined functionality and can be used with no prior experience. Many of them generate reports within a couple of minutes.
- Such services are cost-effective solutions for those who want to verify the originality of their content while staying within their budget.
- Whether you work at the office or want to check your text while traveling, you can access online plagiarism checkers regardless of your whereabouts.
Below, we have analyzed the most popular free and paid online plagiarism checkers available today.
Top 5 Free Online Plagiarism Checkers
If you are on a tight budget or do not want to pay for a costly subscription to use advanced plagiarism checkers, you can find a free service or use a platform that allows users to check a limited number of words without paying a dime. Here are the most widely used free services with extensive functionality available today. They will be suitable for students and beginner content writers.
Scribbr
Pros:
- Powerful plagiarism detection capabilities.
- Detects plagiarism issues even in paraphrased texts.
- Safeguards clients’ data and does not store texts online.
- Users can access a free version with limited functionality.
- Live support.
- Checks for self-plagiarism issues.
Cons:
- Only premium users see the exact plagiarism score.
- A detailed report is not available in the free version.
Scribbr is a powerful online service that checks texts uploaded by users against millions of web-based repositories to determine whether they are unique. It has a free version with limited functionality that analyzes a text and flags it if it has possible plagiarism issues. While you will need to pay for a premium version to view a complete report, the free service still allows users to determine whether their texts are unique.
Scribbr is known for the high quality of its matches. Moreover, it demonstrated high accuracy when checking different types of texts, including essays, journal articles, and blog posts. This service stands out for its capacity to determine paraphrased content.
The platform is easy to navigate. After checking a text, users can download a report with highlighted sentences. The site features a free Citation Generator, making it ideal for students who need to quickly format their essays before submission. Another advantage of this service is that it allows users to check whether they copied any content from the texts they had previously written.
The platform automatically deletes texts after 30 days if a user forgets to delete them. The customer support team serves customers in multiple languages, which contributes to the widespread popularity of this service.
DupliChecker
Pros:
- Allows checking 1,000 words per scan for free.
- Doesn’t store user data.
- Detailed reports.
Cons:
- Too many ads.
- Limited plagiarism detection capabilities.
- Discovers only partial matches.
DupliChecker is a popular online plagiarism checker that allows users to check their content without paying a dime. The free version lets users check 1,000 words at a time. The premium plan costs $10 a month. It enables clients to unlock the word limit and upload larger texts to see whether they were partially plagiarized.
The service is valued for its convenience of use and ability to identify sentences that aren’t unique. Nonetheless, some users complain that it highlights only partial matches and has too many distracting ads. Novice users may find it difficult to use the service, as sentences copied from various sources are highlighted in a single color.
Users do not need to worry about their privacy, as the platform does not store uploaded files and deletes text automatically after the check is completed. While the service does not have live support, you can contact the team by describing your issue in the contact form.
Small SEO Tools
Pros
- 1,000 words per scan are free.
- Integration with cloud services.
- Does not store client data.
Cons
- Fails to detect a high level of plagiarism.
- The UI is not intuitive enough.
Small SEO Tools is a handy tool with a convenient free version that permits users to check 1,000 words per scan without paying anything. Those who want to lift this restriction can pay $4,99 per month.
The platform caters to the needs of users who often need to check multiple texts at once. However, you will need to enter CAPTCHAs whenever you upload multiple files. Small SEO Tools integrates with Dropbox and Google Docs, making it easier to use on the go.
The platform focuses on partial matches and scans the web to find similar sentences in other texts. Users who utilized this plagiarism checker to check the same document multiple times reported that they weren’t able to achieve consistent results.
Even though there are many ads, it does not prevent users from accessing their reports. The service features a “Remove Plagiarism” option that helps users paraphrase their content. However, its functionality is limited, as it does not fix issues with copied text.
Plagiarism Detector
Pros:
- 1,000 words per check are free.
- No distracting ads.
- Focus on usability and privacy.
Cons:
- Issues with long documents.
- Uses the same color to highlight sentences from different sources.
There is no need to create an account or buy a premium version to use this service. However, users won’t be able to check more than 1,000 words per scan unless they pay for the Pro subscription. Students can increase the word limit to 25,000 after paying $8 per month for the basic plan.
The service mostly discovers partial matches and can find a specific source from which a particular sentence was copied. Nonetheless, it has demonstrated limited capabilities when checking text copied from scholarly articles. Moreover, it may fail to flag the text that was thoroughly edited.
Online reports are easier to understand than reports that a user can download to their device. Users can click on any highlighted fragment to see its source. All in all, this solution will appeal to those who need to quickly check their materials without paying.
Copyleaks
Pros:
- The service maintains original formatting.
- Easy-to-understand reports.
Cons:
- A limited free trial.
- No detailed information about sources.
- Issues with detecting plagiarism in academic sources.
Copyleaks allows quest users to check 6,250 words for free per month without creating an account. Besides plagiarism and AI checkers, it has advanced cross-language detection tools. The premium version starts at $8.99 per month. Premium users get 1,200 monthly credits (250 words each). Users can configure scan sensitivity and omit specific parts of text when checking a file.
Similar to other platforms, the service focuses on partial matches. It stands out for its ability to determine the right original source of a text. Users can access a comprehensive online report with a list of all sources. Nonetheless, Copyleaks may fail to flag paraphrased text as plagiarized. Even though the company cares about user privacy, its clients may have to contact the support team via a live chat to remove their scans.
Best Paid Plagiarism Checkers
If you work on large projects that require you to check high volumes of text, it might be a smart idea to invest in a premium version of an online plagiarism checker. Paying for an annual subscription will allow you to save money and access powerful tools designed for verifying the authenticity of text content.
PlagAware
Pros:
- Detailed report with color-coded sentences.
- Advanced plagiarism detection capabilities.
- Safeguards user data and does not store files.
- Allows checking up to 10 pages for free.
- GDPR compliance.
Cons:
- A short free trial.
- PDF reports are challenging to understand.
- Issues with scholarly sources.
This service is used by individuals and organizations who value the high quality of their checks. The free trial allows registered users to spend 10 credits to check 10 pages. Individual users can choose between four credit packages. The most basic S package allows users to check 100 pages for €12.99. The largest XL package lets clients check 1,500 pages for €89.99.
PlagAware identifies full matches and accurately detects 57% of plagiarized text across available sources. However, its accuracy may decrease when a user uploads a text that was edited and paraphrased. Moreover, it often fails to find copied material in scholarly sources.
After checking a text, a user can see differently colored sentences attributed to various sources. The site also provides information about the similarity percentage for every segment that was flagged as non-unique.
The site has a convenient dashboard, where a user can access the history of previous checks. The only downside of this service is that it fails to preserve the original formatting.
Grammarly
Pros:
- Powerful spellchecker;
- Strict privacy policy;
- Intuitive UI.
Cons:
- The free trial period is 7 days.
- May fail to detect some plagiarism issues.
Grammarly is a well-established company known for its advanced spellchecker. While the plagiarism checker is not available in the free version, users can access it after starting a 7-day trial that also includes powerful text rewriting tools, citation assistant, and personalized suggestions.
The premium version is quite affordable, costing only $12 per month. Premium users can check documents that are no longer than 100,000 characters, making it the best fit for college students.
As Grammarly’s primary focus is on developing its spellchecking tools, the service has limited plagiarism detection capabilities. As a result, paraphrased texts may be verified as plagiarism-free. Unlike other similar services, Grammarly is more convenient to use and preserves original text formatting. However, users must divide longer texts into multiple fragments to be able to review them.
Prepostseo
Pros:
- Discovers full sentence matches.
- Color-coded reports.
- Integrated citation assistant.
Cons:
- Limited plagiarism detection capabilities.
- No detailed information in the downloadable report.
- It’s challenging to attribute a sentence to a particular source.
While a free version of this service allows users to check 1,000 words per scan and search for 30 sentences per month, its functionality is quite limited. This is why many clients prefer to use a premium version. The most basic plan costs only $10/month. It includes 5,000 words per scan. The site also has rewriting tools, but their effectiveness is low.
Although Prepostseo primarily identifies partial matches, it can also detect full matches. Moreover, it attributes text to sources with high accuracy. The platform uses the same color for various sources, which makes the generated reports hardly informative. And if you download the PDF report, you won’t be able to understand the source of a highlighted sentence.
Check-Plagiarism
Pros:
- Affordable premium version.
- Checks 1,000-word texts for free.
- Detailed online report clearly attributed sources.
Cons:
- The downloadable report is challenging to read.
- Uses the same color for different sources.
- Full matches are rare.
- Ads are too distracting at times.
Check-Plagiarism has a basic free version that allows users to check 1,000 words per scan. However, premium members can enjoy the advanced functionality of this service for only $6.99/week or $17/month. The weekly plan increased the scan limit to 10,000 words.
While experts note that this service identifies only 37% of plagiarized content on average, it remains popular among those seeking an affordable plagiarism checker.
Users can download a report or access it online. The latter enables them to quickly identify the source of any copied text.
Students will appreciate the fact that this service allows them to access a manual citation tool. Nonetheless, the platform is cluttered with numerous distracting ads that may cause minor inconvenience. The rewrite tool has limited effectiveness, as it does not eliminate plagiarism issues. Users can contact the support team via a contact form.
Quetext
Pros:
- A citation assistant.
- Deletes user data immediately.
- Helpful support team.
Cons:
- Discovers only partial matches.
- Not for checking academic texts.
Quetext is an affordable service with a subscription that costs $7.20 per month. Its free trial includes only 500 words, which is hardly sufficient for those who want to assess the functionality of this platform. The most basic version allows users to check up to 100,000 words per month, making this service a great choice for casual use.
Quetext detects 48% of copied or rewritten content. However, it occasionally has issues with attributing text to a single source. The service does not preserve the original formatting, making the text challenging to understand. Students will appreciate the citation assistant that will help them avoid unintended plagiarism by generating citations.
Choosing the Best Online Plagiarism Checker for Your Needs
When looking for a suitable plagiarism checker, consider its capabilities and think about your budget. If you cannot afford to spend a lot of money on improving the quality of your text, use free anti-plagiarism tools. Remember that many educational institutions use more advanced plagiarism detection programs and have their own databases of resources. This is why your text might be flagged as inauthentic even if it passes free plagiarism checkers.
Look for the following features when choosing an online plagiarism checker:
- Generous word limits;
- An ability to discover full matches;
- Comprehensive downloadable reports;
- Available databases;
- Integration with other services;
- Privacy policy;
- Built-in citation assistants.
Remember that free plagiarism checkers often have limitations and may even flag original text as non-unique. After thorough testing, we discovered that Scribbr has the highest accuracy. PlagAware is an excellent alternative to this service, available for free.
