--- title: "Deploy LanguageTool vs Grammarly" description: "Self-hosted grammar checker compared with Grammarly" category: "Other" url: https://railway.com/deploy/deploy-languagetool-vs-grammarly --- # Deploy LanguageTool vs Grammarly Self-hosted grammar checker compared with Grammarly **[Deploy LanguageTool vs Grammarly on Railway](https://railway.com/template/deploy-languagetool-vs-grammarly)** Machine-readable deploy manifest (JSON, validated by TemplateCI): https://railway.com/deploy/deploy-languagetool-vs-grammarly/manifest.json - **Creator:** onepush - **Category:** Other ## Template content ### LanguageTool - **Image:** erikvl87/languagetool:6.8@sha256:ef8fa12cbd485166c9ceeb7139d76d56d07707a624da6bb1fc1fbb5411750527 - **Start command:** `/bin/bash -c 'cd /LanguageTool; N=/ngrams; U=https://languagetool.org/download/ngram-data; ROOT=0; [ "$(id -u)" = 0 ] && ROOT=1; [ $ROOT = 1 ] && [ -d $N ] && chown languagetool:languagetool $N; JOBS=""; for l in $(echo "${NGRAM_LANGUAGES:-none}" | tr "A-Z," "a-z "); do case $l in none|off|false) continue ;; en) f=ngrams-en-20150817.zip ;; de) f=ngrams-de-20150819.zip ;; es) f=ngrams-es-20150915.zip ;; fr) f=ngrams-fr-20150913.zip ;; nl) f=ngrams-nl-20181229.zip ;; *) echo "ngrams: unknown language $l (choose from en,de,es,fr,nl)" >&2; continue ;; esac; if [ -d $N/$l ]; then echo "ngrams: $l already on the volume"; elif [ -d $N ] && [ -w $N ]; then JOBS="$JOBS $l:$f"; else echo "ngrams: $l requested but $N is not a writable volume; add a volume at $N (see README)" >&2; fi; done; if [ -n "$JOBS" ]; then P=$$; ( NEW=0; for j in $JOBS; do l=${j%%:*}; f=${j#*:}; echo "ngrams: downloading $f in the background (LanguageTool keeps serving meanwhile)"; rm -rf $N/.$l.zip $N/.$l.tmp; if curl -fsSL --retry 5 -o $N/.$l.zip $U/$f && unzip -q -o $N/.$l.zip -d $N/.$l.tmp && [ -d $N/.$l.tmp/$l ]; then mv $N/.$l.tmp/$l $N/$l; rm -rf $N/.$l.zip $N/.$l.tmp; [ $ROOT = 1 ] && chown -R languagetool:languagetool $N/$l; echo "ngrams: $l installed"; NEW=1; else echo "ngrams: $l download or unzip failed (check free space on the volume)" >&2; rm -rf $N/.$l.zip $N/.$l.tmp; fi; done; if [ $NEW = 1 ]; then echo "ngrams: restarting so LanguageTool loads the new data"; kill $P; fi; ) & fi; if [ -z "$langtool_languageModel" ]; then for l in en de es fr nl; do [ -d $N/$l ] && export langtool_languageModel=$N && break; done; fi; [ -n "$langtool_languageModel" ] && echo "ngrams: languageModel=$langtool_languageModel"; if [ $ROOT = 1 ]; then exec su languagetool -s /bin/sh -c "echo \"running LanguageTool as \$(id -un)\"; exec bash start.sh"; fi; exec bash start.sh'` - **Health check:** /v2/languages - **Public domain:** Yes ## Documentation # Deploy and Host self hosted LanguageTool vs Grammarly (Self-Hosted Grammarly Alternative) on Railway This template deploys the open-source LanguageTool HTTP server for grammar, spelling and style checks in about 60 languages. AI rules and rewrites remain cloud-only. ## About Hosting LanguageTool vs Grammarly open-source software on Railway (self hosted LanguageTool as a Grammarly alternative template) Running LanguageTool yourself keeps every draft on a server you control. ## Why Deploy LanguageTool vs Grammarly, the Grammarly alternative on Railway (Railway Free Trial) Grammarly gives you AI rewrites and tone help in a hosted product. You won't get the AI rules, so skip it if you need those. Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it. By deploying LanguageTool vs Grammarly on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway. ### Railway vs Other Hosting Providers and VPS for LanguageTool vs Grammarly self hosting Railway gives you a managed container, while a VPS means you configure the server yourself. | Provider | What You Get with Railway | What You Get with the Other Provider | | --- | --- | --- | | DigitalOcean | A deploy from the LanguageTool image with HTTPS and a public domain handled for you. | A droplet you size and patch yourself, including Docker and the Java heap settings. | | AWS | One service and a domain with no VPC or security group setup to start. | Full control over networking and scaling, but more services to wire together first. | | Hetzner | A managed deploy with no server maintenance and a predictable monthly cost. | Low-cost hardware with more RAM per euro, but you handle updates and firewalls. | Choose Railway if you want the server running quickly, and a VPS if you need full control over the machine. ## Common Use Cases for hosted LanguageTool vs Grammarly - **Grammar checks without sending drafts to a vendor:** Point your writers at your own server so drafts, contracts and internal notes never leave your infrastructure, which is the main reason teams pick this over Grammarly. - **Multilingual teams writing in German, French or Spanish:** The server covers around 60 languages, so a team writing in several of them can run one checker instead of paying for separate tools per language. - **A docs pipeline calling /v2/check:** Send Markdown or release notes to POST /v2/check in CI and fail the build on new matches, with no per-seat fee for the bot account. - **The browser extension pointed at your server:** Set the extension to Other server with https://your-domain/v2 so in-browser checks run against your instance rather than the vendor cloud. - **LibreOffice for an office:** Set the remote server URL in the LanguageTool extension options so everyone editing documents in LibreOffice gets the same rules from one place. ## Dependencies for LanguageTool vs Grammarly Docker hosted on Railway This is one container built from the official LanguageTool image, with no separate database, cache, or queue to provision. ### Deployment Dependencies for Managed LanguageTool vs Grammarly Service (Grammar Checker) - **Container image:** erikvl87/languagetool:6.8, pinned by digest. - **Public port:** 8010, routed by the public domain. - **Health check:** GET /v2/languages, 300 second timeout, restart policy set to always. - **Volume:** none by default, optional /ngrams mount only if you enable n-grams. ### Implementation Details for LanguageTool vs Grammarly (Using LanguageTool official docker image) The start command runs as root only to give /ngrams to the languagetool user, then drops privileges and hands off to the image's start script. ## How does LanguageTool vs Grammarly compare against other Grammarly alternatives ### LanguageTool vs Grammarly (Self-Hosted Grammar Checker Compared) - **Where the self-hosted server wins:** Your draft goes to your own Railway service, not a vendor's cloud, which matters for contracts and client work. - **Language coverage:** The open-source server checks grammar, spelling and style for around 60 languages through the /v2/check API, which Grammarly does not match for non-English writing. - **Where Grammarly wins:** Its AI rewrites, tone suggestions and generative features are not in this server, so you lose those entirely. - **Setup effort:** Grammarly works after you sign in; here you point the browser extension at your own server URL first. ### LanguageTool vs ProWritingAid (Self-Hosted Style Checker Alternative) - **Scope:** ProWritingAid focuses on long-form style reports for fiction and essays, while this server returns sentence-level matches with rule IDs and replacements. - **Privacy:** Text stays on your server here, whereas ProWritingAid processes writing in its hosted service. - **Where ProWritingAid wins:** Its pacing, readability and overused-word reports have no equivalent on this server, so novelists will miss them. ### LanguageTool vs QuillBot (Self-Hosted Grammar Checker Alternative) - **Core job:** QuillBot is built around paraphrasing, and this server only checks and suggests corrections; it does not rewrite passages for you. - **Cost model:** A self-hosted server avoids a per-seat subscription, though you pay for Railway usage instead. - **Where QuillBot wins:** If you want one-click paraphrasing, QuillBot covers that and this server does not. ### Self-Hosted LanguageTool vs LanguageTool Premium (Same Engine, Different Hosting) - **Shared engine:** Both use the same rule set for the checks the open-source server runs, so results on grammar and spelling line up closely. - **What Premium adds:** The AI-based rules and some extra checks exist only in the vendor cloud, not on the self-hosted server. - **Where Premium wins:** If you need those AI rules or prefer not to run a server, Premium is the simpler route. ## How to use LanguageTool vs Grammarly (the OSS grammar checker)? 1. Deploy the template and wait until GET /v2/languages returns 200. The first boot can take a minute while Java loads the rule sets. 2. Run a test check from your terminal to confirm the API answers. You should see matches come back for the typo, which is a good sign the rules are running. ```bash curl -s https://your-languagetool-domain/v2/check -d "language=en-US" --data-urlencode "text=This are a test sentnce." ``` 3. Install the LanguageTool browser extension in your browser. 4. Open the extension's options (the cog icon) and open Experimental settings. 5. Choose Other server and enter https://your-languagetool-domain/v2 as the server URL. 6. In LibreOffice, open the LanguageTool extension options and set the same remote server URL there. ## How to self host LanguageTool vs Grammarly on other VPS Services (LanguageTool self hosting guide) You can run the same LanguageTool image on any Linux VPS with Docker. ### Clone the Repository Clone the template repo onto the server and move into it. ```bash git clone https://github.com/onepush-dev/languagetool.git cd languagetool ``` ### Install Dependencies You need Docker and a reverse proxy such as Caddy so your-domain serves HTTPS to port 8010. ```bash sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y docker.io docker-compose-plugin caddy ``` ### Configure Environment Variables Copy the defaults and set the heap and rate limits for your traffic. Leave NGRAM_LANGUAGES=none unless you have gigabytes of disk to spare. ```bash export Java_Xms=256m export Java_Xmx=1g export langtool_requestLimit=120 ``` ### Start the LanguageTool vs Grammarly Application Start the container, then check that GET /v2/languages returns 200 before pointing clients at https://your-domain/v2. ```bash docker run -d --name languagetool -p 8010:8010 \ -e Java_Xmx=1g -e langtool_trustXForwardForHeader=true \ erikvl87/languagetool:6.8 curl -i https://your-domain/v2/languages ``` Railway handles the domain, HTTPS, restarts and health checks for you, while on a VPS you own all of that yourself. ## Official Pricing of LanguageTool vs Grammarly (LanguageTool pricing) LanguageTool self-hosted is free and open source, so you pay nothing to the project for the server itself. ## LanguageTool vs Grammarly cloud vs self hosted comparison (Pricing, features, costs, and more) Grammarly is a hosted product with AI rewrites and tone features, while this self-hosted LanguageTool server is an open-source HTTP server that checks grammar, spelling and style without the AI-based rules. ### Monthly cost of self hosting LanguageTool vs Grammarly on Railway Expect roughly $5-15 per month for one Java service with a 1 GB heap at light use. Railway's $5 trial covers early testing. ### System Requirements for Hosting LanguageTool vs Grammarly on a VPS Plan for at least 1 GB of RAM for the default heap settings, and raise Java_Xmx if you enable many languages or heavy traffic. ## Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ### Does the self-hosted server include the AI rules or premium features? No. ### Is my text private when I use this server? Yes, text you send to /v2/check stays on the Railway service you deployed. ### Which languages does it cover? GET /v2/languages returns about 60 languages on this image, so you can check text in English, German, French, Spanish and many others. ### Can the browser extension use my own server? Yes. Keep in mind the add-on's synonym feature does not work against a self-hosted server. ### Does the server need a password? No, the server has no built-in authentication, so anyone with the public URL can send checks. ### How fast is it? Speed depends on the Java heap and text length, and the first check after a restart is slower while caches warm. ## Similar templates - [Rocky Linux](https://railway.com/deploy/rocky-linux) — Hosted Rocky Linux 9 workspace with SSH and persistent storage. 🚀 - [Foundry Virtual Tabletop](https://railway.com/deploy/X5tR6G) — A Self-Hosted & Modern Roleplaying Platform - [Letta Code Remote](https://railway.com/deploy/letta-code-remote) — Run a Letta Code agent 24/7. No inbound ports, just deploy. Open this page in a browser: https://railway.com/deploy/deploy-languagetool-vs-grammarly