WhiteSmoke Review - A Solid Grammar Corrector

WhiteSmoke is an accurate grammar corrector, complete with style improvement features, a plagiarism checker, and translation functionality. At $3.47/month with the most cost-effective subscription,  it’s priced well below the industry leader Grammarly and offers many of the same features.

But is it really better than Grammarly?

In this WhiteSmoke review, we at Web Tribunal will take an in-depth look into the software’s perks and downsides to help you decide.

What Is WhiteSmoke

WhiteSmoke reviews praise it as an affordable and high-quality online grammar check, perfect for college students, bloggers, and English as a second language (ESL) students alike. 

Does the WhiteSmoke software live up to the expectations? Let’s start by comparing its pros and cons:

WhiteSmoke Pros

WhiteSmoke’s grammar review capabilities are not the only thing that sets the software apart from other options. It also has:

• In-depth spelling and grammar check
• Style improvement suggestions
• Scoring system for clarity and structure
• Natural language processing (NLP) technology to improve accuracy
• UX design to improve your performance and efficiency
• Translation into 55 languages
• Plagiarism checker
• Affordable pricing
• Recently redesigned to improve functionality and remove previous issues

WhiteSmoke Cons

But there are some downsides to the White Smoke grammar checker: 

• 10,000 character limit on the desktop app
• WhiteSmoke download is available only after you pay for your plan (no trial or free version)
• Poor knowledge base and slow customer service
• Mobile app no longer available

Overall, WhiteSmoke has robust functionality and performs admirably at a lower price point than its competitors.

The software and the company behind it could make some tweaks to improve the user experience even more.

The recent redesign is a step in the right direction, and I’m hopeful that WhiteSmoke will get even better in the future. 

WhiteSmoke Works On

The WhiteSmoke writing software works as a: 

• Stand-alone application for Windows 7, 8, and 10 and macOS Sierra (10.12)
• Web application with WS for Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer/Microsoft Edge

WhiteSmoke used to have a mobile app. At the time of writing this review, there is no app published by WhiteSmoke Inc. on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Hopefully, the company will come out with a new White Smoke app soon because it’s currently one of its biggest downsides.

What Is WhiteSmoke Best For?

The WhiteSmoke grammar software is perfect for: 

• Journalists, bloggers, and professional copywriters
• High school and college students who want to improve their papers
• ESL students
• Content creators who want to translate their pieces to other languages

WhiteSmoke is also useful for anyone who wants to improve their writing skills but prefers a more budget-friendly solution than Grammarly. The user interface, accuracy, and functionality of the two apps are similar, but WhiteSmoke is much cheaper.  

How Does WhiteSmoke Work?

WhiteSmoke uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology to make sure it accurately catches all mistakes. 

But what exactly is NLP? 

It’s the subfield of linguistics, computer science, and AI that explores how machines can interact with natural human language. NLP “teaches” computers to understand sentence structures, context, and even informal phrases.

The White Smoke grammar corrector uses state-of-art technology to analyze and correct your writing. It does more than detecting simple grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. With NLP, WhiteSmoke can check contextual spelling and word choice (for example, using “affect” instead of “effect”), suggest style improvements, and translate your text into over 55 languages.

Of course, artificial intelligence isn’t all-powerful (and here’s to hoping it never will be), but WhiteSmoke comes pretty close. It is impressively accurate in English and a decent translator, too.

The code and technology are constantly upgraded, so they now detect thousands of mistakes, even ones that other applications miss. While it doesn’t outperform a human proofreader or translator, WhiteSmoke is the next best thing. 

Here’s how to get started with the program:

Using WhiteSmoke

One of the weirder parts about WhiteSmoke is that you can’t download it unless you set up a profile and pay for your subscription. There isn’t a trial version or a free account option.

Instead, you have to go to Whitesmoke.com and sign up with your email address. You’ll then have to choose a subscription plan (more on them later) and check out with your credit card or PayPal. Once you do, you’ll get an email with the WhiteSmoke download link. 

WhiteSmoke Web Editor

The WhiteSmoke online editor is a web-based application that works within your browser. You can also install the Chrome extension and edit as you go. If you prefer a more in-depth edit, copy and paste your text, type it up, or upload the file into the editor.

Once you do, the all-in-one checker will go through your writing and underline grammar, spelling, and style mistakes. Red is for spelling mistakes, grammar and punctuation are in green, and purple is for style mistakes.

The suggestions appear over the text, and you can see them right away (with most other apps, you have to hover or click the underlined part.) While this is a small design tweak, we prefer this option because we can see everything right away, and it saves time on editing.

WhiteSmoke’s online grammar checker also gives your writing a score (out of 10) based on several criteria. Click on “Show my activity report” to see a breakdown of your score on:

• Sentence length
• Sentence structure
• Redundancy
• Voice
• Informal expressions
• Word choice

Finally, the online editor also counts your sentences, words, and characters, which is handy if you have a word limit. Then again, virtually every word processor does the same; but it’s still nice to have another reminder. 

Desktop App

Once you download the desktop app, you can use it to integrate WhiteSmoke with Microsoft Office applications. You can also copy and paste the text inside the editor or type right in. The annoying aspect of the desktop app is it has a 10,000 character limit. This is enough for shorter papers, emails, or blog articles. But if you’re a book writer trying to self-edit their draft, or a graduate student going through their thesis, you’ll have to do it in several batches. 

Otherwise, the desktop app has the same functionality as the online editor. It detects grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes; it gives you style improvement suggestions, detects plagiarism, and translates texts. The desktop app still needs an internet connection to work since WhiteSmoke is a cloud-based software.

The WhiteSmoke Mac and Windows apps are only available with the Premium and Business plans. The lowest-tier WhiteSmoke Web plan includes only the online editor.

WhiteSmoke Features

What can the WhiteSmoke grammar software do for you? Here’s a breakdown:

Grammar, Spelling & Punctuation

WhiteSmoke runs your text through thousands of checks to make sure it’s correct and clear. It does a great job detecting and removing issues—from mechanical mistakes and capitalization errors to hard-to-detect issues like contextual misspelling and poor pronoun use.

Within the editor, spelling mistakes are underlined in red, while grammar and punctuation are in green. You’ll see the correct version over the line. The final writing report takes this into account—if you have a lot of mistakes, it will naturally bring down your score.

Writing Style

Becoming a better writer is about more than just grammar. WhiteSmoke makes sure your pieces are clear and easy-to-follow for the average reader. It analyzes sentence length and structure, as well as word choice, to recommend style improvements. If you use excessive passive voice, fragmented sentences, or long, hard-to-follow sentences, WhiteSmoke will help you reduce them and choose better-sounding alternatives. 

If you find this WhiteSmoke review pleasant to read, that’s great because we ran it through the software and applied many suggestions.

The writing style suggestions are also great for non-native speakers, who often struggle with sounding fluent when writing in their second language. With the contextual thesaurus, pronoun use check, and redundancy improvement feature, WhiteSmoke can help you express yourself more naturally and improve your writing skills over time.

Plagiarism Checker

The plagiarism checker is (strangely) not mentioned among the WhiteSmoke features. However, when you’re selecting a plan, it’s listed as one of the functions you get. It runs with credits, with different length checks costing you a different amount. All WhiteSmoke subscription plans include 500 credits, which is enough for 10,000 words or 40 pages. You can purchase up to 12,000 credits extra if you need additional plagiarism checks.

The plagiarism checker compares your text to billions of pages on the internet and looks for similarities. It’s very efficient for college and high-school level papers. But, just like other online plagiarism checkers, WhiteSmoke struggles with finding matches with older texts like books and articles. If you used any documents that aren’t digitalized as a reference, double-check for possible plagiarism to protect yourself. 

WhiteSmoke Translator

WhiteSmoke uses the same natural language processing technology to pull from 55 different languages. The Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) tool looks through hundreds of professionally translated texts. Then, it uses statistical analysis to decide which translation is most likely to be accurate in your case. 

This tool helps you translate your content in a way that sounds natural in your target language, whether that’s French, Spanish, or Mandarin. With the WhiteSmoke Translator, you can get both word-to-word and complete text translations. Each word comes with an explanation of the context and text application, which is great for language learners (ESL and English natives learning a second language.)

WhiteSmoke Integrations

With comprehensive functionality and impressive accuracy, word processor integrations are among the few weak points of WhiteSmoke.

With the desktop app, you can use the WhiteSmoke writing assistant in Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It runs smoothly, overriding the default spell checker, detecting more mistakes, and giving additional style suggestions.

You can use WhiteSmoke for Mac and Windows with their Premium or Business plans. They also include the Gmail integration. The Web plan features an online-based editor, as well as a browser extension. You can always copy and paste your texts into WhiteSmoke Web for an in-depth edit, but you’re not getting any of the time-saving integrations the desktop app offers.

WhiteSmoke doesn’t currently work with Google Docs, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice, although they’ll hopefully develop an integration soon.

WhiteSmoke Premium: Plans, Costs, and Features

WhiteSmoke has three tiers of subscription. There’s no WhiteSmoke free version or a trial. Once you sign up and pay for your plan, you’ll get the download and WhiteSmoke activation key to start using the program.

So, how much is the subscription?

The WhiteSmoke price fluctuates because they often run seasonal promotions and discounts. At the time of writing, the plans are 50% off their regular cost.

If you need more than that, contact WhiteSmoke for an enterprise subscription.

Customer Support

You can contact the WhiteSmoke support team via email or the contact form on the website. There’s also have a LiveChat feature, but it always seems to say: “Our agents are not available right now. Please leave a message and we'll get back to you.” Business users also get phone support.

Unfortunately, several WhiteSmoke reviews have complained that its customer support is less-than-ideal. To make matters worse, there isn’t a knowledge base or FAQ section on the website to help you.

That being said, the software is easy to set up and use, guiding you through the steps. But you could still run into issues with the program, and WhiteSmoke could do more to support you through them.

WhiteSmoke Privacy & Security

To review your grammar, WhiteSmoke sends your text to their server, runs the check, and returns the results. 

The software works over the internet through a web-based editor and a browser extension. This means WhiteSmoke only has access to the texts you put in the online editor or desktop app. It doesn’t store your sensitive information and it doesn’t allow access to third-party vendors. WhiteSmoke is also not a keylogger, nor does it monitor every text field on the internet (like extensions do.) Finally, it only sends your information over a secure connection to make sure it doesn’t get intercepted.

Overall, the WhiteSmoke online grammar checker is one of the safest writing aid programs you can use. 

WhiteSmoke User Reviews

Most WhiteSmoke reviews on the internet praise how affordable and functional the software is.

Not only does the program detect thousands of grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes (including contextual errors, not just formal grammar), but it also helps you improve your writing style and even translate into 55 different languages. Reviewers were happy with the easy-to-use interface, too, especially with the fact that it displays correction suggestions over the line. Not having to hover over the underlined section saves time and makes your editing process more efficient.

So are there any issues users report? 

The most common WhiteSmoke review complaint is the lack of robust integrations, mobile app, or free trial. Users were also unimpressed with the WhiteSmoke support team, which wasn’t quick enough to respond to their issues, and the lack of an adequate knowledge base. 

However, the overall WhiteSmoke review consensus is still very positive. Most users recommend WhiteSmoke as one of the best Grammarly alternatives (and one with additional functions and cheaper plans, too.)

WhiteSmoke vs. Human Proofreader

While WhiteSmoke is very accurate thanks to the NLP technology it uses, no software can outperform an experienced editor. It’s not trying to, either.

But WhiteSmoke is significantly more convenient and affordable than a human proofreader or translator.

It’s simply not realistic to run every email, school paper, or blog article you post through an editor.

The time and money waste would be ridiculous. This is where online grammar checkers come in and WhiteSmoke is one of the best options among them.

When to Use WhiteSmoke?

The WhiteSmoke writer’s aid software is an excellent choice for anyone that writes online with any frequency. But it’s especially useful for:  

• High school, college, and graduate students who want to proofread their papers and keep the style neat, clear, and easy-to-read;
• Journalists and bloggers who often self-edit their pieces;
• Professional writers (copywriters, ghostwriters, and other content creators) who want to keep their writing consistent and improve their editing workflow;
• Business professionals who need to keep their correspondence in check and avoid embarrassing, unprofessional-looking mistakes;
• English as a second language (ESL) students who are looking to improve their writing skills, avoid grammar mistakes, and sound fluent in their second language;
• Translators and foreign language learners who can benefit from the WhiteSmoke translator, which saves time and is impressively accurate.

With pricing as low as $3.47/month, WhiteSmoke is a cost-effective alternative to other options on the market. The program identifies thousands of style and grammar mistakes, it’s designed to make your editing faster, and it comes at a fraction of the price of writing aid software.

WhiteSmoke Alternatives

Whether you’re a professional writer, language learner, or college student, we all make grammar mistakes.

In 2022, we have AI-powered writing aid software to correct them for us.

With nearly two decades in the game, WhiteSmoke was one of the pioneers in online grammar checks. But is it still relevant? How does it stack up to other options? Here’s what you need to know:

WhiteSmoke vs. Grammarly

Priced at $29.95/month, Grammarly is a luxury for most writers. Sure, it’s a user-friendly application with multiple integrations, ever-evolving functionality, and style insights that help you tackle everything from formal academic writing to funny tweets (that won’t get you bullied online.)

WhiteSmoke has the same core functionality minus the hefty price tag and marketing. It also pulls from multiple languages, which is a significant perk for ESL students and non-native writers. That said, WhiteSmoke lacks key integrations like a mobile app or Google Docs functionality. Grammarly gives you all of these, plus weekly writing insights and additional handy tools.

Ultimately, Grammarly is the “shinier” option, the internet’s favorite English grammar checker. And it’s great at what it offers, but it comes at almost ten times the price of WhiteSmoke. So, it all comes down to your budget and your needs.

If you write a lot on your mobile phone, mostly use Google Docs, or want the snazzy little emoji (that tells you what your tone is like,) choose Grammarly.

If you don’t care about these but still want to get the job done, save money, improve your writing, and quality punctuation checker, go for WhiteSmoke.

WhiteSmoke vs. Ginger

The Ginger proofreading software is another affordable alternative, complete with accurate grammar checks and style improvement suggestions. It also attracts students and language learners with its personal English coach functionality. This Ginger feature collects information about your frequent mistakes and offers personalized exercises to help you improve.

Their two-year plan is currently at $4.99 /month, which is around the price of WhiteSmoke Premium, and they also offer a translation feature. But Ginger lacks a plagiarism checker, and it has been described as clunky and slow-to-use by some writers.

Overall, both WhiteSmoke and Ginger are reliable, budget-friendly options; choose one based on what you need and know you’ll use.

WhiteSmoke Review: Final Thoughts

WhiteSmoke is an accurate, safe, and budget-friendly proofreader that helps you keep grammar mistakes at bay. It improves your style with word choice and sentence structure suggestions to boost readability. WhiteSmoke also serves as a translation software to adapt your writing to 55 different languages.

Overall, it’s one of the best, most functional, and price-effective grammar checkers for 2022. Try it out today for as little as $3.47/month!