Last Updated on October 20, 2022 by Chimezie Chidi
This list of the best free plagiarism checkers, available online, for free, will save you the pain of plagiarism whether you are a student, teacher, or just a working professional.
On July 23, 2014, the New York Times made a very detailed publication that indicted Senator John Walsh of Montana for plagiarism.
The US senator was said to have looked up to other sources for help without due attribution while working on the final paper for his master’s degree.
The resolution was simple: he had his master’s degree revoked by the Army War College in 2014.
It took 7 years after John Walsh graduated for his achievements to come crumbling down like the walls of Jericho.
When it comes to plagiarism, offenders can run but they can’t hide.
Since then some well-known individuals have been caught passing off as their own, ideas and literary works, copied from other people.
Table of Contents
What is Plagiarism?
Wikipedia defines Plagiarism as, “the “wrongful appropriation” and “stealing and publication” of another author’s “language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions” and the representation of them as one’s own original work.”
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as:
- “the act of using another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to that person.”
- “an act of copying the ideas or words of another person without giving credit to that person.”
In simple terms, plagiarism is taking and using the ideas, words of other people and using them as your own without due credit to these people.
It is an infringement of copyright and the financial implications for the guilty party can run into millions of dollars.
What are the common forms of plagiarism?
The common forms of plagiarism are:
- Passing another person’s work, book, material as your own.
- Copying content from another website and pasting it on your own without linking back.
- Taking parts of other people’s work and adding them to your own work without citations.
- Not using quotation marks when you are actually quoting someone else work.
- Using quotation marks but not including or linking to the source.
- Submitting an essay or research paper that you did not write yourself.
- Copying the structure of a sentence, then changing the sequence of words without citing sources or linking to the source.
- Merging various pieces of work from different sources without due citation.
- Inaccurate citation of sources.
- Wrong citation of sources.
- Incomplete or partial citation of sources.
What are Plagiarism Checkers or Detectors?
Plagiarism Checkers or Detectors are software tools that use computer software to check or find out if a work or document has been plagiarized.
It essentially compares a test work or document with a huge source or sources of published works or documents to determine that it is original.
For this to work though, the source or sources used for comparison must be vetted as the original.
The level of originality must meet a certain minimum threshold or number.
As a writer or student or researcher, there is a need to study the works of others to get insight or inspiration.
To come out with something unique, ensure your work is constantly checked for plagiarism.
There are free online tools you can employ to shield your work from plagiarism.
The best free online plagiarism checker for students and teachers
Academic Help
Academic Help is a simple and free online plagiarism checker built for writers and students.
You just copy and paste the write up you want to check and it scans it. You can only scan articles of 1000 words at a time.
You are allowed to check up to 5 documents per month. You can increase your limit to 50 documents per month if you register on the site for a free account.
PlagiarismDetector.net
This free online tool is designed mainly for students and teachers. It uses its deep scan technology to make sure that essays, school assignments and term papers are not copied works.
You can conduct as many searches as you want. You can only search for 1000 words at a time. You can copy and paste the text or upload the document or a webpage URL.
PlagiarismDetector.net doubles also as a grammar checker.
The tool is great and does what it says it does. The only “downside” is that the site has ads splashed all over the place.
Plagiarisma.net
Plagiarisma.net is one of the best free plagiarism checkers that advertises itself as Copyscape and Turnitin alternative.
It is one online resource that teachers and students can use for free to detect copyright infringements in submitted school essays, dissertations, research papers and coursework.
You can check content written in over 190 languages.
You can copy and paste text, upload documents in popular formats like TXT, HTML, RTF, MSWORD DOC, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, XLS, PDF, ODT, EPUB, FB2 and also scan a webpage by using uploading its URL.
There are only 3 searches per day permitted. A paid version gives you unlimited searches.
You can also download the app free on your android phone, Blackberry or your Windows computer.
Quetext.com
According to the makers of the application, Quetext.com remains the number one plagiarism checker.
It is trusted by more than 2 million people and possesses some distinctive features.
For example, you can upload up to five files at once and check all simultaneously.
Other benefits include:
- Support for different file formats like MS Word, PDF, and plain text.
- Ability to export the report of the result in PDF format so you read with one click alone.
While Quetext.com can be used for free, their DeepSearch Technology is only available with the pro version.
DeepSearch is its technology for plagiarism detection. It will compare your text with over 20 million books, 35 billion web pages, and 1 million journals in a few seconds.
The paid version accords you unlimited reports and currently goes for $9.99 per month.
Plagly.com
The best free plagiarism checker for writers
Duplichecker.com
Duplichecker.com is trusted by eHow.com, a recognized site that explains how to perform a lot of things.
Additionally, it is used by Kansas State University.
For a one-off use, enter your text into the text box provided. You can only carry out a one-off check once a day and no need to create an account to perform that.
Just ensure you paste a maximum of 1,000 words into the search box. Do well to become a registered user to get up to 50 free checks each day.
Registered users can upload the text file or Docx file they want to check. Duplichecker software is free with no fine print to be wary of.
Grammarly
A plagiarism checker trusted by world-class academic institutions such as Stanford University and the University of Michigan can’t come behind any of its kind.
Their robust database of over 16 billion web pages is very appealing to scholars and writers.
More importantly, it doesn’t just serve as a plagiarism checker alone. You can use it to proofread your work.
There is a free version for interested users. The premium version comes with a monthly payment, which offers more than is available for the free version.
Get the Grammarly Google Chrome extension to support the real-time editing of your work.
PaperRater
PaperRater.com has a 100% free basic version that comes with 10 free plagiarism checks per month. Users are allowed five pages for each submission. There is also an automated scoring system attached to it.
A signup is not mandatory for the free version.
To use PaperRater, go to paperrater.com, upload your text file or paste in the text box provided.
Next, select the education level of your paper and the type of paper you are submitting.
The best free plagiarism checker for research papers
PlagiarismCheck.org
Plagiarismcheck.org, unlike some other free plagiarism detectors online, can apprise you of the percentage of your work that isn’t free from plagiarism. They support.DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF, and PDF formats.
It can also detect the trickiest manipulations you do with the text of your source.
It is that smart and you don’t have to do any monthly subscription to get the pro version. You only pay for the pages you check.
Copyleaks.com
Artificial Intelligence is the buzzword in technology, and Copyleaks.com is using its superpowers.
They employ revolutionary AI technology in assisting their users to write safely. The most enjoyable part is they provide a mobile app you can download and use on the go.
Students, researchers, and publishers can use Copyleaks due to its versatility.
It will save users a lot of time as they can test up to 100 essays, thesis, and research works at once. The free version will permit you to check up to 2,500 words each month and it comes with multi-language support.
You can get more out of Copyleaks with their paid plan.
Conclusion-Use a combination of Plagiarism checkers.
When it comes to plagiarism, you can’t be too certain until you’ve carried out checks.
These checks take a few minutes and will definitely preserve you from a life of embarrassment.
Apart from duplichecker.com, other tools mentioned above have both free and paid versions.
Students, teachers, researchers and other working professionals can use some multi-purpose plagiarism checkers like Grammarly.
It is critical to note that all the plagiarism checkers have their own database of genuine works. They check your submission against them before coming up with a report. Database variation between checkers constitutes one reason why you must use more than one checker for your work.
The second reason is that they all have their own search algorithm with which they run checks on submitted materials.
Try to experiment with all the checkers before making your choice. If you have the means, do well to use the free version of one and the paid version of another.
With plagiarism checkers, it is never the best to place all your eggs in a basket.
Which plagiarism checker do you use?
Please let me know in the comments.