The growth of the Internet has meant that billions of web pages, books, journals and other resources are available to students in just a few clicks. Consequently, student plagiarism is now the biggest dilemma that colleges, universities and other learning institutions now face, threatening to undermine and call into disrepute the value of awards that those learning institutions confer. It is therefore no surprise that those institutions have devoted a great deal of time and effort into plagiarism detection.
As a student, you may have the best intentions to submit your own completely original work, but this doesn’t always happen. Sloppy referencing, careless paraphrasing and unintentional plagiarism (for example, cryptomnesia) can all land you in a world of academic trouble and sometimes result in you losing a place on your course. It therefore makes sense to take advantage of the good number of plagiarism checkers accessible on the web today, before you submit your work to be marked. Here, we review four of the best:
1. WriteCheck – en.writecheck.com
At the top of our list is WriteCheck – created for students by the makers of TurnItIn. TurnItIn plagiarism detection software is used by more than 15,000 learning institutions in over 140 countries across the globe and is the number one brand in the plagiarism detection industry.
The pros of WriteCheck are that it is one of the most comprehensive plagiarism checkers, checking against its database of 337 million previously submitted papers, over 130,000 published works and more than 45 billion web pages. When you scan your essay through WriteCheck, it doesn’t get added to their database, which means that you don’t need to worry about a match showing when your school or university later scans the work.
The cons are that when a match is identified, you won’t have full information about what source the content has been matched to – although usually you can figure this out from reviewing your own work and notes. WriteCheck is also paid software – a single paper of up to 5,000 words will cost $7.95 to scan, with three resubmissions permitted.
UPDATE: WriteCheck officially closed on June 30, 2020
2. SmallSEOTools – smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker
You might be surprised to see that our second choice of plagiarism checker is actually a free online tool that consists of no more than a box to paste in text on the screen. Surprisingly, this tool is incredibly effective. It works by breaking up your text and sending it off to Google in chunks, and then reporting back with an overall match score. Because Google is extremely good at matching content, even when it has been changed around a little, the SmallSEOTools checker actually performs better than WriteCheck and as a bonus, you’ll learn the source of any matching content which makes it easier to correct.
The cons of this tool, and the reason it isn’t number one on our list, is that the resources it scans against are limited to sources publicly accessible via Google. WriteCheck by contrast scans against sources that aren’t available through web search, including journal databases and students’ papers. The latter is extremely valuable since students frequently quote from paper sources (e.g. popular academic books), which means that the resources available to the WriteCheck scanner go beyond online content only.
UPDATE: We can no longer recommend this plagiarism checker, having been repeatedly redirected to scam competition websites on our last visit.
3. Viper plagiarism scanner – scanmyessay.com
Our third choice is Viper, which is now exclusively an online tool—there’s no downloadable software version anymore. After creating an account and logging in, you upload your document and choose either a free limited scan (if available in your country) or purchase credits. It checks your text against 10+ billion sources, covering not just web pages but also online essays, books, journals, PDFs, and more.
Pros:
- Simple pay‑as‑you‑go model: buy credits when needed—no monthly subscription.
- Broad source coverage: includes journals, books, essays, and web pages.
- Fast, clear reporting: detailed highlighting, source links, reports downloadable in seconds .
- Free scans (to try): in some regions, users get limited free credits; free scans are clearly marked and may be removed or upgraded.
Cons:
Free-scan reports may be published on partner sites unless you upgrade to a paid scan—however, paid scans are guaranteed to remain private and never published.
Free scan availability varies by country – currently they are not available.
Credit cost starts at around £6 per ~5,000 words (1 credit), although bulk packs reduce the cost per scan to £2.
4. PlagPointer (PlagiarismChecker.net)
When it comes to combining accurate plagiarism detection with powerful AI‑generated content analysis, PlagPointer truly stands out as the best tool on the web.
Pricing:
- Credits start at £2.50 for 10 credits (2,500 words) – that’s £0.25 per 250 words,
- Bulk credits drop even lower to £0.16 per 250 words, making it deeply cost‑effective compared to competitors.
Core strengths:
- Scans 60 trillion web pages, 16,000+ open‑access journals, major search engines (Google & Bing), with optional internal database inclusion for even more thorough coverage.
- Exceptionally accurate AI‑text detector (99.12% accuracy), capable of spotting content from ChatGPT, GPT‑4, Gemini, Claude, and more – in over 30 languages.
- Allows sensitive configuration like excluding quotations, references or TOCs, adjusting scan sensitivity, and scanning multiple file formats (DOCX, PDF, PPTX, HTML, ODT, EPUB, and others) for maximum flexibility.
Privacy & control:
PlagPointer gives you full autonomy over your work: you choose whether to store documents in the internal database, and you can request deletion at any time at no extra cost. This ensures your essays remain confidential unless you explicitly opt in.
Why PlagPointer is number one:
- Works on a pay‑as‑you‑go basis – no hidden subscriptions or bundled wasteful credits.
- One of the most budget‑friendly plagiarism checkers available, with bulk options that drive the per‑word cost down to pennies.
- Excellent coverage, accuracy, and usability: it addresses web content, academic journals, internal files, plus AI‑generated text detection—all in one seamless tool.
- Highly praised by institutions: its award‑winning API is trusted by over 1,000 universities and 300 organisations worldwide.
If you’re looking for a single, reliable, and affordable plagiarism and AI‑content checker that ticks every box, PlagPointer is hands‑down the best choice on the web.
Conclusion
There are many free and paid plagiarism checkers on the web and making use of them is a good idea to avoid accidental plagiarism and its dire consequences. However, for free plagiarism checkers, you need to read the small print and be satisfied with the way that the website intends to use your work in the future, if at all.