Online plagiarism checker, how effective and reliable are free tools? Let's find the best ones

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On the web we can find a myriad of free software : among them the anti- plagiarism tools .

But beware, they are not all the same and they are not all reliable .

I have undertaken to check some of the most famous free plagiarism tools  available online to verify the originality of the texts.

Let's start by saying that we have used a single text for all software .

The article used has a small part copied , equal to a percentage of 2%. Plagiarism is highlighted in yellow .

 

I also cite the source of the acclaimed copying.

Below you will find the reference URL and the offending part highlighted in red , i.e. copied from scratch for a total of 23 words .

 

With this review we will therefore see if the free plagiarism tools are able to detect what is actually copied by someone else, even if in a minimal way; I take it for granted that plagiarism in higher percentages are so macroscopic that they can be detected by any anti-plagiarism tool even by the less "reliable" and I don't think tests are needed to verify a 1000-word article copied for 30% or more!

TEST: Verification of the reliability of free plagiarism tools

Here is a series of online software useful for verifying the originality of the texts . So let's find out the actual reliability with our test text copied at 2% :

Plagiarismdetector

Let's proceed with the check of the test text .

The plagiarism check can be carried out both on the insertion of text but also by uploading a file or by inserting a url.

When entering the text, it provides various data about it: the number of characters (characters), the number of words and phrases, the estimated reading time in minutes.

 

Two buttons are also available to users to check the grammar of what has been entered and a tool that helps make your content unique.

The scan is quite slow, it takes about 1 minute.

Once you have finished checking the text you will find on the right the reference percentage in relation to uniqueness and plagiarism. In case of copying, it allows you to view the copying sources.

At the end of the check the tool allows you to download a report (to choose between word and pdf) and / or to start a new search as well as a collection of opinions to evaluate your experience!

Unfortunately his database did not detect the 2% copy of the text that was inherent in our article.

In my opinion for a professional use in the SEO field this free platform is not powerful enough and certainly not among the best .

It will also be useful for students who attend university and / or teachers who need a "hand" to verify (in a less exact way) the originality of their writings such as degree theses .

Searchenginereports

The text can be entered in a window that has a search capacity limit of 1500 words. You can also upload a file from local or dropbox or enter the url to search. The function that allows you to exclude up to 5 URLs to be excluded for the identification of the copied parts is interesting.

We insert the text, we flag the captcha and proceed with the text check.

Those who wish can also carry out a grammar check by clicking on the button to the right of the one reserved for the identification of plagiarism.

The scanning of the text is a little faster than the previous one, after which you can download the report, send it or start a new search.

At the foot of the report the sentences of the text check are summarized: next to each of them you will find the unique detection in green or plagiarism in red .

If you wish, next to this command you can also check the sources of the plagiarism detected and the view of the document as a whole in the next access key.

623 words are detected. Here, too, the text is defined as 100% unique without having detected the small part copied inside it.

Prepostseo

In this tool you can enter the text in the opening box, even here it is possible to insert files from local and / or from the cloud. The exclusion of citations and URLs can be envisaged. You can also choose the language used for the text from English, German, Spanish, Turkish and other languages. The scan time is short, less than 30 seconds .

 

At the end of the check, the percentage of plagiarism appears which is zero and denotes a 100% original content .

Below we find the possibility to click on the (+) show all matches button, but at the time of selection you are blocked: to make more than one comparison we have to switch to the Premium version.

At the bottom of the page we find the limits imposed by the service:

• If you are simple free and unregistered visitors you can check up to a thousand words.
• Those who are free but registered will be able to check 1500 words.
• Premium users at basic premium level will be able to check up to 5000 words.
• Standard level premium users have the ability to verify up to 15,000 words.
• Company premium users can verify 25,000 words.
• Organizations and entities have unlimited access.

This free platform also offers an extension with Google Chrome in order to search for duplicate content online .

It also gives you the opportunity to automatically remove copied content from your text sentences and download applications on mobile.

It is a pity, however, that despite all the aspects reported , it did not detect the true plagiarism present in the text.

Result: this tool at least in the free version in my opinion is not powerful enough for use in the SEO field and is far from the best.

Quetext

First of all, we specify that even if the tool is free, registration is required to proceed with the check .

The plagiarism check of the text is quite slow , it takes at least a minute and a half, but finally a portion of plagiarized text is reported and the source site of the plagiarism is correct :

The program asserts that the copied text is the underlined one: in reality a part of it is included within the red line but it is not exactly the underlined one .

The same thing happens for the second part of the reported text: the highlighted words are close to those actually copied.

If you want you can proceed to have the plagiarized text next to the verified one, and therefore have an immediate comparison.

The problem is that the system can only identify whole sentences, leaving fractions of them behind.

Very convenient is the side drop-down menu on the right that allows you to send an email with the results but not to save a pdf (reserved for premiums). On the other hand, the menu on the left saves and names all your searches in one or more folders, also giving you the possibility to rename them.

Too bad for the imprecision on the recognition of the text, otherwise the free functionality, even on a professional level, could be interesting. Still not bad.

Check plagiarism

We insert our text in the appropriate box, we check and in less than 10 seconds the response of content plagiarized to 3% arrives .

The text is divided into sentences and laterally the uniqueness is indicated in green and the plagiarism in red .

We will now try to investigate the plagiarism reported by the tool by clicking the button appears next to the offending sentence.

A mirror opens with the url of a pdf, which by clicking on it takes us back to a generic page where you can download a file converter.

If we go to the second folder we find the word matched urls, again the url is replicated (ref. Converter) the percentage that is now defined as "similarity" has risen to 8% and clicking on the compare text (to actually compare the texts ) opens a new session already prepared where we find our text in the first section and the plagiarism reference url in the second.

The system itself tells us that the second URL generated by the system is incorrect.

Even the sentence marked as non-original is not the one actually copied .

Basically , the system captures a small percentage of copying , but is not able to identify it exactly and punctually. The impossibility of use becomes complete since the source of the comparison is not recalled .

We point out that the reports can only be exported by registered users.

One of its possible usefulness in the SEO field is the reporting of the density of keywords present in the text , both single and both 2 or three words.

As far as plagiarism is concerned, it seems to me that it cannot offer much security.

Duplichecker

We insert the text in the pre-established box and click the check button. We could also have inserted a file or a url.

The scan is quite fast : just over 15 seconds .

However, the result is poor, the text is recognized as 100% unique and no copying is reported .

Through this tool it is also possible to upload images and photos to search for plagiarism of the same .

The download of your report can be done both in word and in pdf and shows the full text, the number of words, the check date and the reference percentages.

Professional use? Not even

Plagium

To proceed with the analysis of a text you must select the desired option at the top. For the analysis there is a fast and a deep type of search. Deep search is for paying customers only.

Upon entering the text, we regret that only a portion of it is taken into consideration , in fact it is only possible to scan a thousand characters at a time .

Well, let's break our text into 5 parts and do 5 (quick) scans.

The tool did not detect any plagiarism .

There are several possibilities if you decide to register. We indicate that registration is free, once completed, you can check your text in its entirety and decide whether to compare it with your document or search anywhere on the web.

You can choose between fast search or deep search and in the first case you are asked for € 0.16, in the second case € 0.28.

The result is that what is given for free is ineffective and impractical given the number of entries to be made: one every thousand characters.

Furthermore, taking into account that no plagiarism was detected. So I do not recommend it for professionally valid uses.

Paid plagiarism tool, is it worth it? If so, at what price?

After this series of tests carried out on free anti-plagiarism tools with not completely convincing results, I decide to make another attempt, but going towards something different from "amateurism ".

I need a precise tool and I decide to test the professional plagiarism tool indicated by many as the best on the market .

Let's see what happens and if it's really worth it.

Copyscape

Let's now try to test the most used and most praised program by professional SEOs considered by many to be among the best if not the best: Copyscape .

We insert the text copied at 2% in the provided box (where we could also insert the url of the article), and by pressing the button below for the premium search we are reported in less than 10 seconds 1 plagiarism result : we immediately notice that the reference url is the correct one .

Below it is a caption that highlights the words " vanilla is the heart of the fragrance that becomes the absolute protagonist ".

The rest of the copied text is highlighted in comparison with the original article.

We find the words that have been copied highlighted in pink .

In essence , all portions of copied sentences have been identified and highlighted.

A note must certainly be made about the failure to compare the entire copied part . However, only through this last tool I was able to obtain a certain and reliable result.

But at what price will you say? Professional service of this level will cost a lot. Actually no.

For this scanned text I spent € 0.08 , which is certainly achievable and plausible in the case of effective work.

There are no subscription fees . It is sufficient to register and make a minimum top-up of $ 10 valid for 1 year with your credit card .