I have reviewed 7 free plagiarism checkers for students.And in my opinion, the best free plagiarism checker for students is Quetext.It has a high quality control panel as good as any paid tool. It also detects a fair amount of plagiarism.
Some other decent tools that get an honorable mention are Duplichecker, plagiarismdetector.net, and Small SEO Tools.
Here are my overall results:
| plagiarism checker | Classification | Plagiarism detection capability | user experience |
| 1.What text | 8,5/10 | alto | alto |
| 2.duplicate checker | 7,5/10 | alto | Half |
| 3.plagiarism checker | 7,5/10 | alto | Half |
| 4.Small SEO Tools | 7/10 | Half | Half |
| 5.1texto | 6,5/10 | Half | Low |
| 6.Plagiarism | 6/10 | Half | Low |
| 7.paper sorter | did not give results | Low | Low |
a word of warning
Please note that free plagiarism checkers arenot that goodlike the plagiarism checkers I use as a teacher. Your teacher likely has access to a quality guideplagiarism checkerlike Turnitin, which will detect plagiarism not only from the web, but also:
- newspaper articlesy
- text books
So the best you can do islearn to paraphrase correctlyto completely avoid the possibility of plagiarism.
Below is my full review of 7 free plagiarism checkers.
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How was the test done?
To take this test, I wrote a 470-word mini-essay aboutglobalization. I just pulled it off in a short session so it's not mentioned or of the quality I would submit to a university. But it was enough for the test.
So I went online and found some phrases that I could cut and paste into the piece. The idea here was to see how well the plagiarism detectors would detect the sections I had plagiarized.
Here are some examples of plagiarized phrases:
… there were some serious downsides to globalization.Economic globalization impacts the environment andsustainable developmentin a wide variety of ways and through a multitude of channels.The great expansion of...
…many blue-collar workers felt disenfranchised and left behind.Globalization has not been good for workers (whether blue or white collar) and has led to the continued deindustrialization of the United States.…
Overall, 4 sentences and 74 words from the essay were directly plagiarized. That's 15% of the total text. I then took 7 different free plagiarism checkers and ran the piece through the plagiarism checkers to see which ones would catch the plagiarized text.
Here are the results.
Best FREE plagiarism checkers for students
1. Which text
Quetext.comit has a beautiful interface. Just go to your home page and paste the text to get started. Once you click on 'check for plagiarism' it will ask you to register to get your results. I recommend doing this. It is worth it.
Once you log in, the dashboard is very clean and high quality for a free tool. In fact, it looks a lot like the industry-leading (but expensive) Turnitin panel.
The text is presented in the middle of the piece, with the passages identified as plagiarism underlined. You can click on each identified plagiarism section and the right column will show the original web page to see the similarity highlighted in its original context:
Often, identified potential plagiarism is not a cause for concern. The resemblance could just be a coincidence, in which case you can leave it. Other times, it is clear that the original source and the copied section are too similar and it is worth altering the text.
In general, quetext identified the 4 plagiarized sentences. He also found 4 sentences that he had not plagiarized but were very similar to some online source texts.For two of them I would have switched them because the similar page also talked about globalization. For the other two it was a total coincidence and the similar page didn't even talk about globalization so I didn't find them too much of an issue.
How does a teacher assess whether I plagiarized?
Your teacher will check the original text, just as I did above, to see if any similarities are cause for concern. There are regularly false positives (for example, when the source text isn't even about globalization), so just as your professor will, you should check for suspected plagiarism and assess whether the similarity is coincidental or too similar for your comfort. It's common for tools like quetext to return a plagiarism score of 15-20%, and these are all false positives you shouldn't worry about.
One thing I wish Quetext would allow you to do is edit your dashboard. It would be good to take those sentences that were plagiarized, rewrite them on the board and then check again. This may be a PRO version feature, but of course, this is a review of the FREE features of each plagiarism checker.
2. Duplicate Checker
duplicate checkerit was quite easy to use, and although it was full of ads, it was usable without any problems. The report shows the plagiarized sections highlighted on the left side and the corresponding sources on the right side:
This interface was better than many of the others I've reviewed here. You can see the plagiarized sentences in context on the right side and an estimated percentage similarity to the source.
Unlike Quetext, you cannot click on highlighted sentences to display the similar font on the right. Instead, you have to wade through and do a little detective work. Also, it would be nice to have the sections on the right side to have similar text highlighted in the same color as the sentence on the left side. Then again, Quetext wins in terms of user experience.
Duplichecker outperformed Quetext by finding all 4 plagiarized sentences and no false positives. However, the source web pages they identified were mostly from CourseHero, which was not the true original source.Coursehero is simply a database of student essays, so it really only found other plagiarized essays that other students had written. However, it's good enough to find similar phrases.
Another thing I found a little annoying was that Duplichecker has a "make unique" feature that rotates text to make it unique. DON'T DO THAT! This makes the text awkward and sometimes unreadable.
3. Plagiarism detector
detectordeplagios.netit's very similar to Duplichecker, to the point where I wonder if they were using the same technology to generate their results. It also has a very similar layout with the text on the left and excerpts from the plagiarized sources on the right:
However, I noticed that upon parsing, the paragraph formatting had collapsed. It turned my essay into one big wall of text that I found difficult to navigate. It would have been helpful to keep the paragraph breakpoints.
Also like Duplichecker, I was unable to click on the highlighted sentences to generate a highlight panel on the right with the original text highlighted in its original context. The lack of this feature in all but Quetext really bothered me personally.
Once again, CourseHeroe results (aka other essays by students who plagiarized the original source) were displayed instead of the actual original source. I would like CourseHero not to take precedence, so if CourseHero plagiarism.yanother source, the other source is displayed instead of CourseHero. So would the UKEssays website, which is another database of (often plagiarized) essays that students use.
In general, the plagiarism detector identified the 4 plagiarized sections and did not generate false positives.
4. Small SEO Tools
Small SEO Toolsit has a plagiarism checker designed for online editors and bloggers rather than students, but we can use its power for any text really.
The first thing you'll notice is that you have to navigate between ads to use the tool. Of course, it's a free tool, and the owner of the tool has to pay the bills somehow, so I don't hold that against him.
You can paste your text into the search bar or even upload a document to verify it. Then check the Captcha to prove you are human and click "check for plagiarism".
One thing I really like about Small SEO Tools plagiarism checker is that it provides a very good analysis using sentence by sentence as shown below:
When you click the red 'compare' button for plagiarized phrases (as shown above), it will pull that phrase as a citation into Google and display all the results:
That might be good cause you can seehow many different fontsthey all used the same phrase, and googleing quotes like this is something I definitely do when I suspect one of my students is committing plagiarism.
But again, Quetext won as far as the UI is concerned because it displays the results in the dashboard, allowing for quick and easy checking without having to switch tabs.
Overall, Small SEO Tools found 3 out of 4 plagiarized phrases and did not give false results.
5. 1 text
1textois a clean, basic plagiarism checker that doesn't require you to log in to get your results. Just go to 1text.com and paste the text you want to check into the search bar:
When you click 'check for plagiarism' the check takes a while to load. That's because they prioritize people who sign up, so you might get a spot in the queue and have to wait:
1text will look at three things: word count, grammar and spelling, and plagiarism. For our purposes, we want to focus on the plagiarism checker.
Unfortunately for this text, they didn't find any of the four phrases plagiarized:
This was disappointing because in the past I have found 1text to be very good at spotting plagiarism.
But for demonstration purposes, I decided to submit an article completely copy-pasted from a few different blog posts on 1text. I wanted to show you how the results look. Here, I made a blog post about 'how to write an introduction' and passed the plagiarism checker. He correctly identified the entire blog post as plagiarized and pointed me to the copied sources:
Unlike Quetext, however, it did not provide the dynamic functionality to click on a highlighted section and show which sentence was taken from which source. So, in that regard, much more detective work was needed for 1text. When it comes to user experience, Quetext has gained a lot.
6. Plagiarism
PlagiarismIt is a premium service, but it allows you to perform light controls for free without the need for registration. You will be able to do a quick search for free, but "deep search" requires a login.
From what I can tell, deep search costs 8 cents per page. Not sure if I could get some for free before paying:
So I did the quick search!The plagiarism quick search identified 0 out of 4 of the plagiarized results.
I wasn't happy about that so I did another quick search with some obvious plagiarism. This time, Plagium identified several results.
For Plagium, plagiarized sections are not highlighted. Furthermore, it is not placed next to the identified source text. Instead, it is simply placed in a list below:
So overall, I wasn't particularly happy with Plagium. In my experience it was a third-tier UX level for me and a lot of detection work would need to be done to identify plagiarism even if the tool found it in the first place (which is clearly not guaranteed).
The paid tool might be easier to use, but of course this review is for the free features only!
7. Paper Sorter
paper sorternone of the four plagiarized sections could be found. So I filled in a bunch of paraphrased text from sources like Forbes and Wikipedia. And still found no plagiarism. so i filledfurthertext plagiarized inAnd still not found plagiarism:
I was very surprised by this. So I guess I won't be returning to Paper Rater any time soon.
Conclusion
Overall I was very impressed with Quetext. Although Quetext found some false positives, I'd rather get a comprehensive test that returns false positives than a tool that doesn't find any results. Quetext also had the most professional control panel and user experience.
In the second tier of free plagiarism checkers, Duplichecker and plagiarismdetector.net receive honorable mentions. Both identified all plagiarism and no false positives. Its interfaces were pretty good, but still not as user-friendly as Quetext.
I also didn't care for Small SEO Tools for its simplicity.
For others, I personally would not accept a number of user experience issues, as well as not finding plagiarism in this test.
Chris Drew (PhD)
Site web |+ publications
doctor Chris Drew is the founder of Helpful Teacher. He holds a doctorate in education and has published over 20 articles in academic journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education.
FAQs
Is there a plagiarism checker for students free? ›
Grammarly's plagiarism checker can detect plagiarism from billions of web pages as well as from ProQuest's academic databases. Our free plagiarism check will tell you whether or not your text contains duplicate content.
What is the number 1 plagiarism checker? ›Per our in-depth research, Scribbr is the most accurate plagiarism checker. Many free plagiarism checkers fail to detect all plagiarism or falsely flag text as plagiarism. Plagiarism checkers work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.
What plagiarism checkers do schools use? ›The gold standard of comprehensive plagiarism checkers is Turnitin. If your school has a subscription, you're in luck! Turnitin checks assignments against a range of databases. Submissions will also be compared against each other, so a current student will not be able to reuse an essay that a former student wrote.
Which plagiarism checker do colleges use? ›If the work is original or all words and ideas that belong to other authors are cited, then the student will likely not be guilty of committing plagiarism. Professors use TurnItIn to ensure students submit original work.
What is the safest plagiarism checker? ›Grammarly
Grammarly is one of the most trusted tools by academics. Many universities around the world use it regularly. With accurate plagiarism detection, Grammarly plagiarism checker is also an automated proofreader and plagiarism checker. It has a huge database of 16 billion web pages and ProQuest's databases.
A free and low-cost alternative to Turnitin, Viper is designed for everyone. Whether you're a student, teacher, business or inquisitive individual, Viper can help you detect, monitor and reduce plagiarism in your documents. Viper works just like Turnitin, the well-known plagiarism checker used by many universities.
Can I use Turnitin plagiarism checker for free? ›Find out if your writing contains potential plagiarism
The free plagiarism checker, powered by Turnitin, will give you a heads up if your writing is similar to the content in our database.
We found that Copyleaks used SmartTextTM technology to detect 55% more plagiarism per document with a paraphrased content present. On the other hand, Turnitin failed to detect any plagiarism in 80% of the cases with paraphrased text.
What is the best accurate plagiarism checker for free? ›Plagscan is one of the best plagiarism checkers that helps you to find the percentage of matched text in the document. This application provides easy to analyze the report in PDF or word document.
Can students use Turnitin plagiarism checker? ›As a student using Turnitin, you'll most likely access us from a Learning Management System (LMS) such as Canvas or Moodle. Below are all the available ways you can access Turnitin. If you are unsure about which LMS your college or university uses, ask your instructor.
Is 12% plagiarism a lot? ›
As a guide a returned percentage of below 15% would probably indicate that plagiarism has not occurred. However, if the 15% of matching text is one continuous block this could still be considered plagiarism. A high percentage would probably be anything over 25% (Yellow, orange or red).
Which is better plagiarism checker or Turnitin? ›Is Grammarly Plagiarism Checker as Good as Turnitin? Grammarly is more valuable than Turnitin because of the additional features and the option to edit one's work. It also caters to a more diverse market of writers, including individual students, researchers, fiction authors, and business writers.
Which plagiarism checker is better than Turnitin? ›We have compiled a list of solutions that reviewers voted as the best overall alternatives and competitors to Turnitin, including Grammarly Business, PlagiarismCheck.org, Unicheck, and PlagScan.
Can I use Scribbr for free? ›Yes, the Scribbr Citation Generators are 100% free.
What plagiarism checker does Harvard use? ›Plagiarism Detection Software
Turnitin generates a report highlighting any areas of concern. These reports can be used by students as a basis to refine their academic writing skills and ensure that all sources are cited correctly and the appropriate references provided.
Not every plagiarism checker has access to the same database. This can lead to major differences in results. Free plagiarism checkers often have smaller databases. This means that there are large gaps in their ability to find matches, especially with less readily available online content.
Do all colleges use Turnitin? ›More than 2,500 higher education institutions use Turnitin, including 69 percent of the top 100 colleges and universities (U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges list).
What app do professors use for plagiarism? ›Turnitin is the best-in-class plagiarism checker for teachers and students, as well as businesses that create online content. For schools looking to subscribe to a program that helps students write better papers while keeping plagiarism in check, we recommend Turnitin.
Is Grammarly accurate for plagiarism? ›While there are several plagiarism-detecting tools, Grammarly, to our best knowledge, is the most accurate plagiarism checker. It detects plagiarism against a database of 16 billion web pages along with that of ProQuest.
Which site is best for removing plagiarism? ›Rewriter Tools
This online paraphrasing tool helps you generate unique content easily and efficiently.
Is chegg the same as Turnitin? ›
The plagiarism checker from Chegg is similar to Turnitin, another popular plagiarism checker for student essays. The plagiarism tool from Chegg will also check your paper for any incorrect citations, including APA citations, and offer corrections.
Is Scribbr as good as Turnitin? ›If your university uses Turnitin, the result will be very similar to what you see at Scribbr. The only possible difference is that your university may compare your submission to a private database containing previously submitted student papers.
What is the difference between Grammarly and Turnitin? ›Grammarly is for professionals, bloggers and freelancers who use the written word regularly. Turnitin is aimed solely at students and those working in academia, checking essays for plagiarism and other issues.
Does Turnitin detect cheating? ›So, we KNOW that there is a great deal of uncertainty. The answer, however, is simple: Turnitin does not detect plagiarism. In an effort to clear up any remaining doubt, let's go through some of the most frequent questions we hear one-by-one and try to answer each one as simply, directly, and clearly as possible.
Does paraphrasing count as plagiarism? ›Paraphrasing without crediting the original author is a form of plagiarism, because you're presenting someone else's ideas as if they were your own. However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly cite the source.
How can I avoid plagiarism for free? ›- Paraphrase your content. Do not copy–paste the text verbatim from the reference paper. ...
- Use Quotations. ...
- Cite your Sources – Identify what does and does not need to be cited. ...
- Maintain records of the sources you refer to. ...
- Use plagiarism checkers.
Plagiarized ideas or concepts, or paraphrasing
Turnitin does not flag essays that include plagiarized ideas or concepts, nor can it detect paraphrasing that dramatically changes the wording of an original source while maintaining that source's organization.
Copyleaks does an excellent job as a plagiarism checker and is really easy to use. I highly recommend! I have been a professional writer: a blogger, book author, and freelance writer the last year and have used Copyleaks extensively for checking plagiarism.
Does Turnitin keep papers forever? ›From a legal perspective, when a student submits their assignment to Turnitin and the assignment is stored on the Turnitin database, the student provides Turnitin with a perpetual license to store and use their assignment for the purposes of textual similarity review only.
Does Turnitin violate Ferpa? ›Lastly, Turnitin's terms state they are obligated under FERPA to remain under the direct control of the education institution with respect to their use and maintenance of student data that is part of a student's education record.
Can a student use Turnitin without class ID? ›
Students self-enrolling into a Turnitin class must have the numeric class ID and the case sensitive class enrollment key. This provides a student user with authorization to access the class on Turnitin.
Is Turnitin too strict? ›Unfortunately, it is safe to claim that Turnitin is not always accurate and does not represent the most efficient way to detect plagiarism. It must be added that while it scans through an enormous database of previously submitted academic papers, getting good results does not mean that everything is fine.
Is 4% plagiarism a lot? ›There is a lack of consensus or clear-cut-rules on what percentage of plagiarism is acceptable in a manuscript. Going by the convention, usually a text similarity below 15% is acceptable by the journals and a similarity of >25% is considered as high percentage of plagiarism.
Is it plagiarism if you cite? ›If you've properly paraphrased or quoted and correctly cited the source, you are not committing plagiarism. However, the word correctly is vital. In order to avoid plagiarism, you must adhere to the guidelines of your citation style (e.g. APA or MLA).
How do I lower my Turnitin score? ›If your similarity index is high and you want to reduce it, check that: (a) Quotation marks (“...”) are used around every quote and the source is cited, (b) you are not over-using quotations, and (c) your own words are not too similar to the original text.
Is there a free plagiarism checker with no word limit? ›StudyClerk is a unique plagiarism detector because it does not impose word limits on users like most other similar services. Reliability. Our software is 100% reliable in finding all possible duplicates on the Internet. If there is a single copied sentence, StudyClerk will find it.
Is 30% plagiarism too much? ›As a guide a returned percentage of below 15% would probably indicate that plagiarism has not occurred. However, if the 15% of matching text is one continuous block this could still be considered plagiarism. A high percentage would probably be anything over 25% (Yellow, orange or red).
Is 15% plagiarism a lot? ›Anything above 15% is indicative of the fact that the student's work contains a great deal of plagiarised material. In the context of the student's academic submission, a Turnitin plagiarism score of 15% could result in a range of disciplinary measures.
Is 10% plagiarism a lot? ›There is a lack of consensus or clear-cut-rules on what percentage of plagiarism is acceptable in a manuscript. Going by the convention, usually a text similarity below 15% is acceptable by the journals and a similarity of >25% is considered as high percentage of plagiarism.
Does Grammarly check for plagiarism? ›Fortunately, Grammarly Premium's plagiarism checker can help you catch sentences and paragraphs that may need a citation. Check your text now. Grammarly detects plagiarism in your text and checks for other writing issues.
Is Grammarly a good plagiarism checker? ›
While there are several plagiarism-detecting tools, Grammarly, to our best knowledge, is the most accurate plagiarism checker. It detects plagiarism against a database of 16 billion web pages along with that of ProQuest.
Is Turnitin better than Grammarly? ›Is Grammarly Plagiarism Checker as Good as Turnitin? Grammarly is more valuable than Turnitin because of the additional features and the option to edit one's work. It also caters to a more diverse market of writers, including individual students, researchers, fiction authors, and business writers.
Is Scribbr better than Turnitin? ›If your university uses Turnitin, the result will be very similar to what you see at Scribbr. The only possible difference is that your university may compare your submission to a private database containing previously submitted student papers.
Is Scribbr a one time purchase? ›The Scribbr plagiarism checker doesn't have monthly or yearly plans; however, you can buy plagiarism scans separately depending on the size of your document: One small document up to 7,500 words costs $19.95. A standard-sized research paper of 7,500 to 50,000 words costs $29.95.