Writing is a serious undertaking, at least for most of us. Professionalism is key, and nothing puts a better professionalism stamp on your work than polished work.
And that’s where grammar checkers enter the fray.
Grammar checkers are indispensable writer’s tools nowadays; Contemporary writers need a Grammar checker tailored to their needs and affordably priced.
With many grammar checkers available nowadays, you need to understand what a particular checker can and cannot do.
And Since WhiteSmoke is one of these ‘indispensable tools,’ I took it upon myself to do a review and help you understand it before you decide whether or not to purchase one of its plans.
WhiteSmoke Pros
Video Tutorials
This is what sets WhiteSmoke apart from its competition.
On top of flagging errors and offering suggestions, WhiteSmoke offers video tutorials. The tutorials are designed to help users understand what and why the mistakes are flagged and how the tool does it. In a way, the tutorials help you to improve your writing by acting as a writing coach.
Ready-Made Templates
The software tool has a lot of templates for documents and letters for users to choose from. The templates are a very convenient time saving feature of the tool and let you go straight to work instead of fine tuning some inessential details.
Premium Plan Is Available on Multiple Platforms
WhiteSmoke is a versatile tool that is available as a Desktop app, Web browser extensions, and mobile app.
When you get the Premium package, WhiteSmoke offers browser extensions, integrations with MS Word and Outlook, and a mobile phone app (For both Android and iOS).
It also works on more web browsers than most other grammar checkers, including Grammarly and ProWritingAid.
WhiteSmoke Cons
Limited Web Package
When most grammar checkers offer a paid plan, they at least make it usable on multiple platforms, for convenience’s sake.
Counter-intuitively, WhiteSmoke has a package that can only be used on the web, and it’s not free.
I think this is, as a marketing strategy, can only help sell the premium version, not the Web package itself (People will think the Premium is juicier).
Hence, this is a con for us and a bargaining chip for their Premium plan.
Has No Free Plan
Not being a cheapskate, but WhiteSmoke needed to have a free plan at least.
Who Can Use WhiteSmoke?
Freelancers
With features like grammar and spell checkers, bloggers and freelance writers can use WhiteSmoke to fine-tune their online posts. They can also utilize the translator to enable their content to reach wider, non-English audiences.
Social Network Influencers and Company Pages
The world has become a global digital village thanks to the internet and social networks in particular. Nowadays, you find yourself trying to communicate with people from Japan or the Netherlands (and some of your audiences feel comfortable communicating in their vernacular languages).
Enter the translator!
With this tool, you can naturally communicate with clients and friends from all over the world.
The grammar, punctuation, and spell checks also come in handy for businesses trying to communicate with their customers, offer discounts, or issue sponsored ads.
Business Owners
Businesses have to send emails, write reports, draft contracts, make public statements, etc. Professionally written and edited communications (aided by grammar checkers, WhiteSmoke, in this case) help raise the perception of the business’ professionalism and legitimacy.
And of course, the translator also plays a huge part. Successful businesses are continually expanding into new markets and tailor-made communication (in local languages) is vital.
Academicians and Researchers
Academicians and researchers are continually looking for content to add to their knowledge base and to use in their research papers. But, some academic and research texts are written in foreign languages hence the need for a translating tool.
Moreover, when they are done with research, the academicians and researchers need to write reports which will be accessible to professionals and students worldwide.
So, apart from translating the reports to other languages, they will need the reports to be polished and have a perfect professional tone.
What Key Products Does WhiteSmoke Offer?
WhiteSmoke sells two key products: Desktop Premium and WhiteSmoke Web.
WhiteSmoke Web
With WhiteSmoke Web, users can utilize the core features simply by logging into their WhiteSmoke account using a web browser.
This is the basic product that WhiteSmoke has on offer, but it’s comprehensive and adequate as a web-based grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style correction tool.
Desktop Premium
Desktop Premium includes all the features that WhiteSmoke Web has plus other features that are non-web-based.
Premium Desktop has core features including grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style checkers, which utilize rule-based and statistical algorithms to detect and correct mistakes in your text.
However, it has extra features. For example, Premium Desktop has add-ins that let you take your AI editing buddy and the entire editing process off the web to your MS Word and Outlook.
How Much Does WhiteSmoke Cost?
From the two products or packages that I have covered in the previous section of this post, WhiteSmoke offers three distinct pricing plans namely: Web, Premium, and Business.
The pricing (of the three packages) also depends on the solutions chosen (whether Corporates or reseller). You can pay for the packages in one yearly payment, or if you are sold on WhiteSmoke, you can choose a three-year payment.
The Web package—which is, as I said, the most basic of the three—Costs $5 per month and is billed as one payment of $59.95 for the yearly plan. The same plan costs $3.47 per month, billed as a single payment of $124.95 for the 3-year deal.
Users can upgrade from the Web plan to the Premium plan. The premium version, which has more integrations, features, and one computer license, costs $6.66 per month when billed as one yearly payment of $79.95. When billed as one 3-year payment, the plan has a total cost of $199.95 and $5.55 monthly.
If your work is handled by a team, WhiteSmoke has got your back.
WhiteSmoke has got a Business solution for teams. Apart from the premium version features, the business plan offers extra deluxe services that include a 3-computer license.
The Three Packages Compared
Web
Supported Systems and Integrations
All supported Browsers (Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Opera, Safari)
Features
- Grammar Checker
- Plagiarism Checker
- Translator
Premium
Supported Systems and Integrations
- Windows (From 7 up)
- macOS Sierra (10.12)
- All supported Browsers (Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Opera, Safari)
- Microsoft Office
- Gmail
Features
- Grammar Checker
- Plagiarism Checker
- Translator
- One-click instant Proofreading
- Integrates will all writing platforms
- 1-Computer License
Business
Supported Systems and Integrations
- Windows (From 7 up)
- macOS Sierra (10.12)
- All supported browsers (Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Opera, Safari)
- Microsoft Office
- Gmail
Features
- Grammar Checker
- Plagiarism Checker
- Translator
- 3-Computer License
- One-click instant Proofreading
- Integrated with all writing platforms
- Phone Customer Support
- Extended Download Warranty
WhiteSmoke Review
WhiteSmoke Integrations
Supported Web Browsers (Extensions) and Add-Ins
WhiteSmoke has more web browsers than some of its competitors like ProWritingAid.
The tool works on Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Opera, and Safari. Most grammar checkers only work on Chrome, Safari, or Firefox.
White smoke fully integrates with MS Word and Outlook. The add-ins are only available in the Premium and Business pricing packages.
All the web browsers are supported on both the Web and Premium Desktop packages. However, the Word and Outlook Add-ins are only available to Premium and Business plan subscribers.
Mobile Apps
WhiteSmoke is available as a mobile app, which features all the core functions of the grammar checking tool.
The app is available on both Android and iOS platforms.
WhiteSmoke Features
Grammar Checker
Most of us have sentences and passages that are most often out of shape and consistently need some panel beating.
WhiteSmoke’s grammar checking tool helps you get your Grammar house in order.
The tool helps declutter your paragraphs and stitch your sentences; it takes care of that dangling modifier over there, then goes to correct ‘disagreeing’ and mismatching subject-verb agreement after dealing with some double commas.
Altogether, the WhiteSmoke claims that the Grammar Checker handles all of the following topics:
- Incomplete Sentences
- Fragments
- Run-On Sentences
- Subject-Verb Disagreements
- Double Negatives
- Tense Shifts
- Mechanical Mistakes Like Misspellings
- Incorrect Punctuation
- Capitalization
- Dangling Modifiers
- Sentence Units
- Object Clauses
- Sentence Fragments.
- Comma Splices.
- Missing Words
- Fused Sentences
Plagiarism Checker
Without checking your work for plagiarism, you risk throwing your name or the name of your institution into disrepute.
Whether writing a blog post or writing a dissertation, you probably use plenty of texts from various sources.
You have to make sure that the final product sheds off all remnants of third-party texts that you might have read or copied along the way.
The WhiteSmoke Plagiarism Checker makes this task a lot easier for you; it checks your text against a billion other online databases that might have similar text.
Remember, originality is always cool, ALWAYS.
Style Checker
When we talk about style, we subtly include grammar, punctuation, and some other things that a grammar checker helps us with.
But then, we look further than these minute details. There are other things that a style checker looks at—like monotony and tense.
Monotony: In other articles, I’ve likened writing to painting a fresco, beating a drum, or driving a car (More like a Lambo than a Toyota).
In all this artistry, you need to vary your tempo to create an exciting experience for you and the audience.
It is the same case with writing. You ought to vary sentence lengths and sentence structures to make them sharp and exciting.
You also need to match your verb tenses, past tenses for earlier events, etc.
Translator
The WhiteSmoke Translator tool utilizes Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) technology to provide comprehensive word-to-word translation between 55 languages.
According to WhiteSmoke, its linguists, with the help of computers, analyze a gazillion professional translations and compute ‘translations with the highest probability of being true to source.’
Punctuation and Spell Checker
WhiteSmoke also helps handle spelling and punctuation mistakes like an absent quotation mark or a missing period.
These features might seem irrelevant…
Because, what damage can a missing comma do right?
A lot, actually. In some instances, fatal even.
Let me give you an example—a writers’ meme which I saw on Facebook.
The meme had a billboard with the words, “My three favorite things are eating my family and not using commas”
Ha-ha.
Do you see how creepy that statement is without commas?
Should You Use WhiteSmoke?
Most definitely.
I recommend WhiteSmoke. The biggest reason that I recommend this tool is the video tutorials.
The core features of this tool are similar to the ones that its competitors have, but they took it a step further with the videos. I always say that you should treat a grammar checker like a writing coach, and by making the videos, WhiteSmoke truly made itself a legit coach.
My Verdict
WhiteSmoke is not Grammarly or ProWritingAid…
It’s even a few paces behind Ginger.
But, this is an adequate tool. It can efficiently handle your translations, basic grammar, and style checks.
“They said they’re not sold on WhiteSmoke; what do you think they are smoking over there?”
“I don’t know, but it’s not WhiteSmoke.”
