Hey there! Looking for the best FREE plagiarism checker?
Soda PDF has your back!
Here’s the bad news – the vast majority of free plagiarism checkers MISS TONS OF ACTUAL PLAGIARISM. This leaves everyone – students and businesses – open to academic or legal repercussions.
These 5 are the only ones that actually passed our criteria. This guide will give you everything you need to get peace of mind for your essays, dissertations, or web content.
First: Should You Even Use a Free Plagiarism Checker?
A free plagiarism checker is free for a reason: It’s not that good.
Plagiarism can open you up to a lawsuit or, if you’re a student, severe academic repercussions.
That being said, some free plagiarism checkers online actually catch the vast majority of plagiarism (We’ll get to that in a second).
There are a few times when using a free tool is fine. Namely:
- When you only need to check small snippets of text
- When the content or paper isn’t that important
- If you’re just publishing quick SEO articles
- You have no other option
Here are some of the disadvantages of using a free plagiarism checker. Make sure you thoroughly read and understand the risks.
The downsides are:
- Usage is normally severely limited
- No customer support
- Some do not detect all plagiarism
- You are normally bombarded with ads
For this reason, we don’t recommend any of these tools for your dissertations or important company products (EX: an eBook).
OK, back to the tools on our list.
The Best Free Plagiarism Checker 2020
#1) Duplichecker – Our Favorite Plagiarism Checker
Duplichecker is the best free plagiarism checking tool online for students, freelance writers, marketers, and cautious webmasters checking their outsourced content.
Just copy, click, and paste, and the tool instantly spits back a RELIABLE plagiarism score.
Out of all the tools we tested, this was the only one that nearly scored a 5/5 on reliability (According to our methods).
The best part? There’s 0 signup process and the results are ready in less than a minute. Most other free tools make you create an account or at least fork over an email. Not this one!
Then, you can download a Word or PDF report to prove you’ve checked everything for your teacher, boss, or anyone else who’s curious.
Overall, Duplichecker scores the best overall for usability, UX, and accuracy. We highly recommend it!
#2) Quetext – The Nicest Plagiarism Checker
Quetext is nearly as fast and easy to use as Duplichecker, but it wasn’t as accurate, so we couldn’t give it the top spot even though it has a much nicer interface.
Quetext goes even beyond Duplichecker by giving you red-underlined sentences when it detects a matching sentence elsewhere on the web.
Then it nicely displays where it got the match so you can scope it out for yourself.
So it’s a bit nicer and gives you more information, but Duplichecker is faster and more accurate. It all depends on what you’re after.
Now for the downside….
Quetext only gives you one free check before forcing you to create an account. It’s not the end of the world, but we don’t like extra steps included for no reason, and we don’t want even more annoying emails in our inbox.
The choice is yours!
NOTE: Quetext does not give you the option to download your plagiarism report.
#3) Easybib – The Best Plagiarism Tracker for Students
Easybib is a simple, fast, and free plagiarism checker made specifically for students that offers an awesome interface, plagiarism scans, and even grammar checks. Plus, if you’re really in a pinch, you can enlist the help of a professional editor.
You do have to sign up to use it, but you get a free limited version in exchange for your Facebook or email, so it’s not that big of a deal.
Just paste or upload your essay, and the tool instantly checks it against billions of sources, checks your grammar, and even makes language suggestions. Pretty awesome tool!
In fact, it’s one of the most popular tools on college campuses based on its accuracy, citation checker (Super important in essays), and spellcheck.
There’s just one problem – the free trial only lasts 3 days, so use it fast!
We highly recommend this if you have an important essay or thesis due, and need an accurate check. Just sign up quickly then cancel when you’re finished.
#4) Copyscape – The Best Free Tool for Online Business
Copyscape is one of the oldest names in the business and still one of the easiest and most reliable free plagiarism tools online.
Here’s how it works:
You enter your URL, Copyscape scans the internet looking for similar content, then provides links to the sites and shows you side by side word analysis to see how similar your content is.
It’s nothing special, but if you need a quick scan to see if anyone is plagiarizing your articles – or if a writer has copied someone else’s and turned it in – then Copyscape will do just fine in a pinch.
NOTE: If you’re serious about your business, invest in a paid tool!
#5) SmallSEOTools.com Plagiarism Checker – The Best for SEO!
SmallSEOTools.com has a free, fast, and accurate plagiarism checking tool that’s perfect for checking SEO articles, web pages, and other documents submitted by outsourced writers. We don’t recommend it for academic papers because it doesn’t check certain databases.
It’s definitely the best free tool out there for protecting your SEO company from any liability.
Just upload the document or paste it in, run the scan, and boom you get easy to understand results:
There’s even a WordPress plugin that goes straight into your site to make your life even easier. That way, you can check a document in one click as you upload to make sure nothing fishy is going on.
Now check this out:
If your content has any plagiarized material, you can instantly rewrite it with 0 effort. No sending it back to your writer or bothering your editor. Everything is taken care of right on their site.
Can’t beat it!
Closing Thoughts
Free plagiarism checkers are fine in some cases. These tools will get the job done if need be. But we highly recommend investing in a paid tool if you need it for business. And remember, Soda PDF can always be used to secure files, so no one can copy them and claim them as their own. Just set a password, set permissions, and boom, you’ve got an airtight document that no one can ever copy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I check for plagiarism for free?
A: You check for plagiarism for free by using a free plagiarism checking tool, pasting or uploading your document, and running a scan. The most popular tools are Duplicheck, Copyscape, and Quetext.
Q: What is the most accurate plagiarism checker?
A: The most accurate plagiarism checker is Scribbr, but the most accurate free checker is Duplicheck.
Q: Are free plagiarism checkers accurate?
A: Yes, some free plagiarism checkers are accurate. However, they are not nearly as accurate as paid tools and many are completely inaccurate. You must be careful.
Q: What is the best plagiarism checker?
A: The best plagiarism checker is Scribbr. No other tool has the level of accuracy or sophistication. However, the best free tool is Duplichecker. It’s fast, easy, and free to use with no account needed.
Q: Are plagiarism checkers accurate?
A: Yes, most plagiarism checkers are accurate. However, paid tools are normally far more accurate than free ones. No tool can ever be 100% accurate, but there are some that get 99.9%.
Q: Can you use Turntin for free?
A: No, Turntin is not free for students. It is a paid service.