Scribbr Review & Best 5 Alternatives
- Melchior Antoine
- Sep 4
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 15
Scribbr has emerged as one of the most popular online editing services available to students and academics. It is a proofreading company that offers both human-based proofreading and editing services, as well as AI-powered proofreading software. The company is based in the Netherlands and is part of the parent company called, Learneo, which also owns QuillBot.
The company offers a range of editing and proofreading services to a varied clientele base, including businesses. However, their main focus is on students and academics. This includes:
University students who have to complete essays for assignments
Master’s students who have to complete their theses
Postgraduate students who have to complete their dissertations
Academics who have to submit articles for journal publication
As the company itself puts it, it’s “your path to academic success." However, in keeping with their student-based or academic approach to services, they don’t stop with just proofreading. Instead, the company provides a number of other functions and tools that relate to AI detection, AI writing, and the proper citation of sources. In this article, we take a look at the human-based editing services at Scribbr, their AI-based software editing tools, and the alternatives to Scribbr.
Scribbr’s human-based editing
Scribbr started off as a traditional editing company that hires professional editors to edit and proofread essays and other academic documents. In a previous article, we rated them as being among the top 10 proofreading services. You can check it out here: 10 Best Proofreading Services.
The company is based in the Netherlands and the standard pricing for their proofreading and editing services hover around 42 USD per 1000 words for standard turnaround times. They provide a comprehensive academic editing service. These are the following features of the service provided by Scribbr:
A peer-editing system with checking by a human editor and what they describe as “the algorithm”
24-7 online services
Academic proofreading for students
Online editing software with free trials
Turnover times as fast as twenty-four hours
More than that, the company also has a high Trustpilot rating of 4.4 out of five stars. They rely on an editing system that includes both in-house and freelance editors. Their freelance editors are drawn from all over the world and have to go through a stringent editing test and training to ensure that they are qualified to edit or proofread your paper.
This test and training includes a challenging quiz known as the Scribbr Language Quiz, which is the first part of the process and involves answering a number of multiple choice questions. The quiz is then followed by the Scribbr Application round, which involves editing tests of actual documents.
This is then followed by training in the Scribbr Academy, a rigorous training program, where editors are trained “to edit and provide feedback in the Scribbr style.” Their proofreading package is comprehensive and includes the following four components:
Structure Check
Clarity Check
Paper Formatting
Citation Editing
Citation editing and paper formatting are self-explanatory; however structure check and clarity check are a little difficult to tease out from each other. The structure check ensures that chapters are focused and free of redundancies. On the other hand, the clarity check ensures that ideas are presented clearly. The Trustpilot of 4.4 out of five can be read as proof that their process works as the average customer seems to be satisfied and happy with the results.
Scribbr’s Student resources
One of the great features about Scribbr are the student resources that they make available free of charge to their users. This includes free trials of their editing software, citation software, and other AI-powered tools. However, here, I will focus on their blog and youtube channel.
Their blog includes over three-hundred articles on a wide range of topics including academics and rhetoric. This includes how-to articles for students such as:
How to write an essay
How to write a thesis
How to write a methodology section
How to write an introduction section
How to write a college essay application
How to properly use various punctuation marks
Etc.
Any student at university or college would find these useful. The blog is well-written and provides plenty of practical information and insights for students to follow. In addition, they provide articles that can be seen as a glossary of terms when it comes to rhetoric, as well as advice on proper grammar usage and citing sources appropriately based on style guides such as:
CMoS
APA
MLA
More importantly, they also have a YouTube channel where they cover mostly academic topics. This coverage aims to help and teach students better understand how to carry out academic assignments at the university level. It does a good job of complimenting the blog content related to academics that already exists on the site.
AI-powered proofreading and writing software
Scribbr’s proofreading and editing services do not end with human editors. It also includes AI-powered software. Their AI-powered software includes its:
Paraphrasing Tool
AI Humanizer
Grammar Checker
Summarizer
AI Detector
AI-Proofreading Tool
The remarkable thing about it is that they have free trials available to all users. In addition, these features are incorporated seamlessly into the website. It must be said that most of these AI tools are powered by QuillBot, a partner company of Scribbr. The pricing for Scribbr's AI-powered assistant and editing software is $19.95 per month.
In short, Scribbr is not an ordinary editing website where you sign up for human-based editing and proofreading. Its blog includes three hundred well-written articles designed to answer most of the questions that you as a student may have about academic assignments and writing. It also provides the latest AI-powered tools that many university students find indispensable today, such as AI-detection.
Five Alternatives to Scribbr
Scribbr is certainly not the only game in town. In fact, the proofreading and editing online industry is a highly competitive one. Nevertheless, Scribbr is one of the few academic editing websites that provide both human-based and AI-powered proofreading services seamlessly. However, let’s look at a handful of companies that provide similar services to Scribbr and see how they compete.
The alternatives to Scribbr that we are going to examine are a mixture of providers that offer both AI-powered proofreading software and writing assistance as well as human-based editing.
They include 1. EminentEdit; 2. QuillBot; 3. Wordvice; 4. Paperpal/Editage; and 5. Scribdendi. The table below provides a summary of the pricing and editing style of the five alternatives:
Company Name | Pricing In US Dollars Per 1000 Words | Pricing Per Month for AI Editing Tool | Customer Rating Out of 5 Stars | Location |
EminentEdit | $30 | NA | 4.9 | Taiwan |
QuillBot | NA | $19.95 | 3.7 | U.S.A. |
Wordvice | $48 | $19.95 | 4.6 | South Korea |
Editage / Paperpal | $58 | $25 | 3.8 | Singapore |
Scribendi | $37 | $4.99 | 4.6 | Canada |
Scribbr | $42 | $19.95 | 4.4 | Netherlands |
Note. Table showing the pricing and customer satisfaction rating for six different editing companies. Most of the ratings are from Trustpilot, except for EminentEdit with ratings from Google Reviews. Most customer ratings are for human-based editing companies, except for QuillBot and Paperpal, which is the proofreading software for its parent company Editage.
1. EminentEdit
EminentEdit is a relatively new proofreading company. It provides human-based editing, which covers academics and businesses. Because it's relatively new, there are limited reviews on Google. However, customer satisfaction is high at a whopping 4.9 out of 5.
I am Melchior Antoine, the lead editor at EminentEdit. The team is made up of me and a small coalition of highly qualified and professional editors. I have extensive experience as a proofreader and editor and have edited about seven million words in all (and counting).
The average price of editing and proofreading at EminentEdit is around $30 per 1000 words. The advantage that EminentEdit has over the competition is that it is much more personalized. Most of the other editing companies are scaled to such an extent that there is no personal communication with the student and editor.
Besides this, EminentEdit has a resourceful and massive blog that includes over 300 articles on academic topics, business topics, and literary/rhetorical topics. I dare say our blog is as comprehensive and wide-ranging as Scribbr when it comes to covering academics and rhetoric. Our editing includes thorough correction and proofreading, as well as numerous helpful comments that explain changes and corrections. We aim to not only make sure you end up with the best possible version of your document, but also try to make you a better academic writer.
2. QuillBot
QuillBot is an AI-powered proofreading software tool as well as a writing assistant. As mentioned earlier, assistantQuillBot is a partner company t Scribbr and they share many AI-powered writing assistant features. It is similar to Grammarly in that it allows students to edit their assignments by having them choose or reject changes recommended by the software.
It doesn’t just stop there. In addition to proofreading, QuillBot also offers AI detection and AI writing. It is the complete package for any university student who has to worry about completing academic assignments on time while passing AI detection. QuillBot is available at a price of $19.95 per month.
Curiously, the Trustpilot consumer rating for QuillBot was relatively low at 3.7 out of five stars. This is lower than human-based editing companies, which are typically rated 4.4 and higher. The only other provider with a customer satisfaction rating lower than 4 is Paperpal, which is also another stand-along AI-powered editing software.
3. Wordvice
Wordvice is another proofreading provider that includes both human-based editing and AI-powered editing software. It has a fairly high customer satisfaction rating at 4.6. The price for its human-based editing is $48 per 1000 words, while its proofreading software is available at the same price as QuillBot at 19.95 per month. To learn more about Wordvice, check out our previous article: Wordvice Reviews.
4. Paperpal
Paperpal is apparently owned by Editage, an editing service based in the US. They appear to have a special relationship with academic journals. Their pricing for human-based editing is at $58 per 1000 words. Their customer satisfaction rating is also relatively high at 4.8 out of five stars on Trustpilot (which is not shown on the table).
This means that despite the relatively high prices, their clients seem to be happy with the editing services they provide. The same cannot be said about its proofreading software Paperpal, which has a customer satisfaction rating of 3.8. Paperpal is an AI-powered editing tool and writing assistant just like QuillBot and is available at $25 per month.
5. Scribendi
Scribendi is a proofreading company based in Canada and has been providing human-based proofreading and editing services for a few decades now. They have a customer satisfaction rating of 4.6 out of five and their human editing offers begin as low as $37 per 1000 words. Scribendi also has a proofreading software tool at 4.99 per month. However, this is a traditional software, which is not powered by AI like Scribbr. This means it offers proofreading, spelling, and grammar suggestions without AI detection and other forms of writing assistance.
Get in touch for help in editing your academic essay |
How EminentEdit can help with editing your academic papers
EminentEdit provides high-quality proofreading services for academics and students at affordable rates to ensure that you produce A-grade quality work. We cover all kinds of student and academic projects, ranging from
Have a look at our pricing to see how we balance low costs with high value. Our proofreading and editing prices start as low as $0.03/word:
Type of Editing | Description | Price Per Word ($) |
Regular Editing | Line-by-line editing to improve tone and sentence structure. | $0.03 |
AI Editing | Editing to improve tone and fact-checking. | $0.05 |
AI Editing Without Fact-Checking | Editing to improve tone and to humanify. | $0.02 |
Regular Proofreading | Editing to uncover and fix minor grammar, punctuation, and style errors. | $0.02 |
Our copy editing services don't just start with copy editing the final product. It also includes help from the very beginning of your project. Take a quick look at all what we cover:
Proofreading and editing for theses and dissertations
Reviewing and correcting long-form blog copy
Reviewing and correcting short-form copy
Correcting AI-generated content
Get in touch with one of our representatives: CONTACT US AT EMINENT EDIT.
Cite this EminentEdit Article |
Antoine, M. (2025, September 04). Scribbr Review & Best 5 Alternatives. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/scribbr-review-alternatives |
