I got tired of depending on Grammarly and ChatGPT, so I built a Mac app that ends the dependency.
The problem For years I leaned on Grammarly and ChatGPT to clean up my writing. They fixed everything, but my English barely improved. I made the same mistakes the next day, then went back and asked again. Eventually it stopped being just a writing problem. I started mentally editing sentences before saying them out loud, because I no longer trusted my own English. Once you get used to AI polishing everything, you slowly stop trusting your own first draft. That happens in any language. That realization led me to build 26Keys. Who it's for 26Keys is for people who already write in English every day, at work, in Slack, in email, but still lean on Grammarly or ChatGPT to get it right. It's not for absolute beginners to learn English. What it does Proofreads while keeping your voice (+ catches ambiguity). 26Keys fixes your mistakes without rewriting your text into something that doesn't sound like you. It also flags unclear sentences that could cause miscommunication before you hit send. Shows you your patterns. Every correction comes with a simple explanation and gets grouped into patterns, so you can see the mistakes you keep making. Turns your mistakes into practice. Those patterns become short daily exercises built from your own writing, not generic lessons. Teaches vocabulary you'll actually use. Instead of random word lists, 26Keys suggests stronger words based on what you write and tracks which ones become part of your vocabulary. Unlike traditional grammar checkers, the goal isn't just to improve today's message. It's to help you rely on them less over time. Privacy No account required. No ads. Your writing is processed for proofreading but isn't stored on our servers after processing. How it compares 1. Grammarly / Apple Writing Tools Grammarly and Apple Writing Tools focus primarily on improving the current piece of writing. 26Keys also proofreads, but it additionally tracks recurring mistakes, explains them, and turns them into personalized practice designed to help you make fewer mistakes over time. 2. ChatGPT ChatGPT is excellent at rewriting, generating, and explaining text. 26Keys intentionally avoids rewriting your voice. Instead, it's designed around coaching rather than rewriting, using your own writing to identify recurring mistakes and build personalized practice over time. 3. Language learning apps (e.g. Duolingo) Language learning apps like Duolingo teach structured lessons for learners at different proficiency levels. 26Keys is built for people who already use English every day. Instead of generic lessons, it turns your own emails, messages, and documents into personalized practice based on your own writing. Pricing Monthly $14.99/month 3-day free trial Yearly $124.99/year 14-day free trial __________________________________________________________________ Available now on the Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/26keys-own-your-english/id6749759921?mt=12 __________________________________________________________________ I hope 26Keys helps you become a little better every time you practice. If that sounds like you, give it a try and let me know what you think. My X account: https://x.com/itsram_sk Email: contact@26keys.app
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Mods have pinned a comment by u/Sea-Election-213: Thanks again for all the thoughtful feedback. One thing I took away from the discussion is that I should have explained the bigger idea behind 26Keys more clearly. While most writing tools help you fix today's text, 26Keys is designed to help you improve your English every day. Proofreading is only one part of the experience. The app learns from your writing patterns, identifies recurring grammar mistakes, detects ambiguous sentences, introduces contextual vocabulary based on what you actually write, tracks your progress over time, and generates personalized Daily Reviews to reinforce what you've learned. The goal is to turn your everyday writing into a way to continuously improve while keeping your own voice. I'd love one more piece of feedback from this community. Since the app continuously analyzes writing, detects ambiguity, generates personalized practice, and creates Daily Reviews based on each user's writing patterns, there are ongoing costs to running the service. With that in mind, what monthly subscription price would feel reasonable to you for a tool like this? I'd genuinely appreciate your thoughts. What is Spotlight?
Imagine paying 125$ a year so my colleagues can read a slightly better english on Slack and me not learning anything from this.
$125 a year is a bit crazy for an app like this I kept it as low as I could while keeping the app alive. And that's not true. Proofreading doesn't eat that amount of money monthly.
Grammarly is $120/yr and includes a lot of advanced tools, Refine.sh is $38 once-off with tons of customizability. $125/yr is a lot to ask imho.
Do you know maybe if refine is planning ios app? Or keyboard? If not is there anything similar and good but cheaper than grammarly?
I’m not sure if Refine has plans for an iOS app. 26Keys is heading in that direction though. The Mac app is available today, and I’m actively working on an iPhone app with a keyboard extension so you can use it anywhere you write.
Uncertain, but even the free tier of Grammarly is helpful.
Thanks again for all the thoughtful feedback. One thing I took away from the discussion is that I should have explained the bigger idea behind 26Keys more clearly. While most writing tools help you fix today's text, 26Keys is designed to help you improve your English every day. Proofreading is only one part of the experience. The app learns from your writing patterns, identifies recurring grammar mistakes, detects ambiguous sentences, introduces contextual vocabulary based on what you actually write, tracks your progress over time, and generates personalized Daily Reviews to reinforce what you've learned. The goal is to turn your everyday writing into a way to continuously improve while keeping your own voice. I'd love one more piece of feedback from this community. Since the app continuously analyzes writing, detects ambiguity, generates personalized practice, and creates Daily Reviews based on each user's writing patterns, there are ongoing costs to running the service. With that in mind, what monthly subscription price would feel reasonable to you for a tool like this? I'd genuinely appreciate your thoughts.
Curious about the architecture, did you consider running the correction locally with an on-device model instead of a hosted API? Seems like it'd help on both fronts you're getting pushback about here. On cost: local inference has no per-use API bill, so it doesn't force the recurring subscription. On privacy: "we don't store your writing" is really a claim about retention, the text still has to be sent to your servers (and whatever model provider you use) to be processed. Going fully on-device is the only way the data truly never leaves the machine, which also sidesteps the whole storage/subprocessor/GDPR-paperwork question instead of having to answer it.
Great question. I did consider it. The app is model agnostic, but today it relies on frontier models for most of the processing because I haven't found on-device models capable enough for the level of coaching and analysis I'm aiming for. As they continue to improve, I'd love to move more of the pipeline locally. It's definitely a direction I'm keeping an eye on. On the privacy side, users' data is synced to their own iCloud account. Text submitted for processing is never retained on my server after the request is completed.
Personally, I like the idea and execution but it is not a problem I would spend that much money—let alone pay monthly for. Though I love the UI, the reinforced learning angle, and marketing graphics/videos. Very neat.
Thanks, I really appreciate that. I'm glad the learning approach resonated with you. 😊
hey, really nice implementation, I've build smth similar but mostly for autocomplete and spell correction which corrects based on context and dictionaries installed. my issue was that i couldn't handle the multi language support correctly, how did you fix that issue? does 26keys handle spell correction in multi language as we type? if i start in english and mid sentence write smth in Italian will it flag it ?
Thank you! great question! We handle mixed-language writing by only proofreading the English portions and leaving the other language as is. So if you write mostly in English and include an Italian phrase, it won’t be flagged or “corrected.” If the entire text is in another language, we currently don’t support proofreading it since 26Keys is English-focused.
Regardless of what you build, there will always be people who say they want it cheaper. That said, I do think for what it's offering, the price could be high and a lifetime deal or bring your own key might actually be better in this particular scenario.
Thanks for the feedback! I agree there will always be different expectations around pricing. A lifetime plan is something I’ve thought about, but since 26Keys relies on frontier AI models, it’s difficult to make that sustainable. BYOK is also an interesting idea, though it comes with a more complex setup and a less consistent experience. I’m keeping an open mind as I learn from early users.
The pattern history is probably the strongest angle here. Plain correction is cheap now, and everyone already has some version of it. What would make this more interesting is whether it can show someone what they keep doing wrong over weeks. If it only fixes the current sentence, the user stays dependent. If it shows repeated habits and those habits actually start disappearing, then the app is teaching something. I’d lean the product story more toward that than “cleaner English.”
Thanks! I completely agree. Fixing a sentence is easy now. The goal of 26Keys is to show your recurring writing patterns, help you practice them through Daily Review, and ultimately reduce your dependence on AI. I probably need to communicate that more clearly because that’s the real value of the app. I’m also excited about the roadmap. I want it to go beyond reducing mistakes and actually coach people to become better at English over time, whether that’s reaching the next CEFR level, reducing awkward phrasing, or learning to write with more clarity and brevity etc.
Honestly, this doesn't nothing mind bending that warrants $125/year. Your pricing is off the charts crazy
Out of curiosity, what would you consider a reasonable price for a tool like this? And are you sold on the core philosophy itself, or do you think the idea just isn’t for you?
$125 is way too much for something like this when you can just use ChatGPT for free
Fair point. If ChatGPT already solves your problem, you probably don't need 26Keys. I built it for people who want to improve their own English over time, not just get better AI-written text.
gold digger
26Keys: Own Your English — by Jambav, Inc Ratings: 0 (no ratings yet) Average: n/a ★ Age: released 8 days ago · rated 4+ Overall score: 0 / 100
Agreed with others here. Too expensive