The 11 Best Plagiarism Checkers for Freelance Writers
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No one likes stolen content. It’s theft of the author’s intellectual property. But it’s also something that many people commit involuntarily, most of the time due to disinformation. If you’re not quite sure when you can or can’t use excerpts from another source or just want to be sure your written content is 100% original all the time, we’re here to help! In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best free and paid plagiarism checkers for writers and other content creators so you can be sure you’re never submitting work that isn’t yours.
Why Do Freelance Writers Need Plagiarism Checkers?
Actually, it is quite easy to make mistakes. If you write a piece based on someone else’s article and don’t quote it correctly or don’t leave a record of the author’s property, that’s plagiarism, even if it’s unintentional.
You need to make sure you’re not taking other people’s ideas while documenting, researching, and developing a topic. Always give the appropriate attribution to the authors your research focused on. Even when you’re recycling your own content, it may be considered self-plagiarism if you’re not citing the sources.
In addition, beyond the ethical issue, it’s harmful to plagiarize because search engines will penalize your website for this practice. When it comes to the internet, posting duplicate content on multiple sites hurts your overall SEO efforts. Google will punish your site and it won’t appear in the SERPs.
In fact, plagiarism affects your SEO in the following ways:
- When targeting link metrics (authority, reliability, anchor text, etc.) search engines cannot determine if the information is on a single page or multiple pages.
- When ranking search results, engines have trouble deciding which entry is the most relevant.
- The indexing of your website is compromised because engines lose time searching for duplicate pages, articles or blogs.
- If you’re accused of being a repeat offender in copying intellectual material, your site could be reported for content plagiarism and removed from organic results.
As a consequence, it’s important to avoid plagiarism in all forms. Writers should routinely use online plagiarism scanners before submitting their work. Good plagiarism checkers like the ones below should be part of every writer’s and editor’s workflow.
1. Copyscape
Copyscape is a popular online plagiarism checker that many writers use to make sure that their own writing is original as well as to see if their content is being duplicated elsewhere on the internet.
Particularly, it searches the web for similar content. You just have to enter the URL of the page containing the content you want to check, and it will show you similarities. If you follow one of the suggested links, you’ll see which part of the text matches and be able to determine if it is plagiarism or not.
If you need more options like uploading text from a Microsoft Word file or PDF, there are paid options to choose from too.
2. Grammarly
Grammarly is known for its writing improvement and proofreading tools, but it also has a plagiarism checking feature, which is also useful for writers.
It has a simple interface and is effective for detecting plagiarism as it compares your texts to over eight billion web pages. If you want to check if a certain piece of your writing is the same or similar to anything else on the internet, simply copy and paste the text into the Grammarly plagiarism checker, and that’s it! The best thing? While you’re on the site, you can also use one of Grammarly’s other services like its spelling and grammar check.
The downsides are that Grammarly is only available in English, and its plagiarism checker is a paid service that only detects plagiarism if it originates from sources on the internet. This means it won’t compare your text with books and libraries like our next tool does.
3. Originality.AI
Originality.AI is one of the best tools to check if content was written by AI, but its plagiarism checker is also an incredible aid to writers. You can input text into its system and the software will identify any potential instances of content duplication or plagiarism. It does this by using advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to compare your text to a database of sources.
To use the plagiarism checker tool, you can upload your files directly to the Originality.AI platform, or if you use an existing content management system like Blackboard, Canvas, or Google Classroom, you can integrate the tool with your CMS. The Originality.AI plagiarism checker accepts a wide range of file formats, including DOC, DOCX, TXT, and PDF.
There are also advanced features available, including text and source comparisons, which let you compare your text to specific sources or against multiple documents.
4. Turnitin
Turnitin is a tool with many functionalities for academic writers but it works for other types of writers too. It’s also a great plagiarism checker for students.
This tool is more potent than Copyscape and Grammarly as it takes into account books and libraries, so it is probably the most complete plagiarism detection software.
It has an extensive database and functionality called “Grade Mark,” which includes comments on the documents. The downside to Turnitin is that you can only have access to it if you’re a student or professor.
5. Plagiarism Checker X
Plagiarism Checker X is software built to review millions of web pages, publications, books, and articles. It works great for content writers and independent content creators who need to check their work before uploading it. In fact, its algorithm detects duplicated content around the web and then highlights the plagiarized words or phrases so you know which parts of your text to edit to improve the percentage of originality.
Following this, Plagiarism Checker X allows you to download a report or originality results in different formats such as Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF.
With a free license, you’ll have enough functionalities but a maximum of 30 scans daily. On the other hand, if you get the paid version, you’ll have no word limit and unlimited scans. However, the free version is good enough if you don’t have too much text to check.
6. DupliChecker
DupliChecker is a free tool to detect the existence of duplicate content by copying and pasting a text fragment of up to 1000 words per search. It also offers the option of uploading files in other formats such as Word, PDF, or ODT.
If you want to make one quick search, this tool is perfect. Just enter your text and scan it. But if you think you might need to frequently check for plagiarized content, it might not be the right tool as every scan is limited to 1000 words.
On the other hand, the number of tools provided by DupliChecker is really impressive, and the best part is that you can use them directly without any payment. Some of its features include image tools, SEO, IP tools, file converters, and even password generators.
However, its algorithms are not strong enough to catch all possible plagiarism and you have to consider this weakness. Compared to Plagiarism Checker X or Grammarly, it will skip some plagiarized content.
7. PlagScan
PlagScan is a solid choice for analyzing your text and it is used by many writers globally to track their content online. It is also useful for academic writers because academic institutions and enterprises use it regularly.
It has a freemium model (some functionalities are free and premium services are paid). With its free version, you get 2000 words free, which is normally enough to check a blog post, but if you need to check a book, you’re better off getting one of their plans. For instance, if you decide to pay for the private plan to check the originality percentage of your dissertation, you can scan up to 100,000 words (about 400 pages) for $49.99.
Also, it works with the most popular formats such as PDF or Microsoft Word. You just have to drag and drop your document and PlagScan will analyze it and send you a report.
8. Plagramme
Similar to Turnitin, Plagramme helps mainly academic writers and students but its key features are also helpful for other writers too, as it:
- Creates detailed and downloadable reports after checking extensive databases to show you the originality of your work
- Operates with a free trial and premium service
- Has a responsive customer service department
- Allows users to download reports in DOCX format to learn from their mistakes and correct the duplicated content
In short, this tool is useful if your content is mainly academic. In addition, it’s much more accessible than Turnitin and its features are good no matter what industry you write for.
9. Quetext
Quetext is a leading plagiarism checker for freelance writers. Its algorithm helps you detect duplicated content not only by the similarity of words but also by the context of the sentences. So, this tool can detect plagiarism even if some of the texts have been modified.
Simply register and enter the text to get a report on the plagiarized parts of the document. However, searches in the free version are limited to 2500 words, while in the premium service, they are unlimited.
As this tool is able to analyze the context of the texts, you’ll have peace of mind as it detects plagiarism that other tools can’t. But, you have to analyze the results carefully because it can also extract text that’s not necessarily plagiarized.
Another nice feature of Quetext is that you will be able to do a grammar check thanks to its integration with Grammarly.
10. Viper
Viper is a tool with an easy-to-use interface and a good scanning process to review documents and produce a complete anti-plagiarism report. Additionally, it is available in English and Spanish.
It has a pay-as-you-go model, where $5 is the minimum amount you have to pay to check up to 5000 words. Just buy the credits you need and use them to scan your documents against essays, newspapers, magazines, and numerous other sources on the internet.
Best of all, there are no delays – you’ll get your report in seconds. In fact, you’ll receive a clear and concise anti-plagiarism report, which will point out precisely the text in your document that contains duplicated content.
If you’re a writer who has a regular need to check for plagiarism, paying for each project is perhaps not the best idea, so checking out one of the other tools would be a better long-term investment.
11. Unicheck
Unicheck is an online plagiarism scanner for freelance writers that verifies the authenticity of texts or documents by providing a detailed similarity report. It quickly checks similarities on the web, as well as in databases, journals, and documents.
Some main features of Unicheck:
- Supports 99% of text formats
- Supports several languages such as English, Spanish, German, and French
- Has a visually attractive layout and highlights the matching fragments in yellow
- Detects quotes and lists of references, and excludes these from the check
Despite its benefits, it doesn’t stand out compared to other plagiarism checkers with similar characteristics. The only difference from the other plagiarism detectors mentioned above is that Unicheck charges about $5 per page.
Bonus: Google Search Engine
For short texts or phrases, you can use the Google search engine to look for existing content on the internet. This is probably the most basic resource for detecting plagiarism. For example, if you believe someone else is using your content, you can just copy and paste it into the Google search bar and see if it gets any results.
It’s not the most elegant way to check for plagiarism on the internet, but to check for content quickly, it’s useful as long as this content is quite short and generates reasonable doubts.
Ready to Start Using the Best Plagiarism Checkers Online?
With these plagiarism checkers, you’ll have peace of mind and get stronger SEO abilities to rank higher in Google searches. It’s easier than you think to end up with accidentally plagiarized content, so it’s a good idea to always scan your work before publishing.
However, it’s best not to rely only on free plagiarism tools because they may miss some results. Before deciding how much you want one of these tools to be part of your own writing process, try each one out until you find the one that works best for your needs.
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