A Writing9 alternative, compared honestly
Writing9 is one of the oldest AI IELTS writing checkers still running, and it does one thing with real focus. If you are here because you want to know whether to switch, the honest answer is that it depends on whether Writing is the only module you need marked. Everything below was checked on the dates shown, and links to the page it came from.
Writing9 facts last checked 14 September 2026 · every claim links to its source
Side by side
| Writing9 | BandNine | |
|---|---|---|
| Modules marked | Writing. Speaking and Listening come as bundled bonus products | Writing, Speaking, Reading and Listening |
| Billing | Auto-renewing subscription | Subscription, or $12 once for 15 days that does not renew |
| See a score without paying | No. You can write and edit free; the report is paid | Yes. Three writing and three speaking scores on the free tier |
| Account needed to start | No account to write. Payment gates the report | No card and no password. An email for the report |
| Published accuracy measurement | No figure, method or sample size published | Re-measured weekly, published with the sample size and the limits |
| Named, credentialed people | No team or about page | Two DELTA-qualified teachers, named, with profiles |
What Writing9 does well
This section is here because a comparison written by one side is worth nothing without it. Everything below is something we think they genuinely do well, and in two places better than we do.
- An enormous free library of scored essays. Other people's full reports, including band, sub-scores, inline corrections and written feedback, are readable with no account and no payment. As a way of seeing what a Band 6 looks like next to a Band 8, it is genuinely excellent and we do not have an equivalent.
- Feedback that goes below the four criteria. Each criterion is broken into named sub-criteria scored individually, which is more granular than a four-band summary.
- Inline corrections anchored to the exact word, each tagged with an error type and offering a concrete replacement.
- Quantified targets rather than vague advice: linking words counted against a stated goal, repetition counted, length checked.
- Feedback written in deliberately plain English, pitched at the band level of the writer.
- A free timed practice environment, with a 40-minute exam timer, live word and paragraph counters, and a random question generator, none of which needs an account.
- It has been running since at least 2019, which is a long time in this market.
Stay with Writing9 if
- Writing is the only module you need marked, and you want the deepest sub-criterion breakdown available.
- You get more value from reading hundreds of other people's marked essays than from having your own speaking, reading or listening scored.
- You want a free, no-account timed writing environment and are happy to pay only when you want a report.
Where we are different
A published error figure you can check
We re-score a fixed reference set every Saturday and publish the mean absolute error, the sample size and the method, including the weeks the number gets worse. We have not found another AI IELTS scorer publishing a measured figure at all. Ours has a real limitation, stated on the page: the reference bands are ours, not a certified examiner's.
The same essay always gets the same score
The first full score for a piece of text against a given task is sealed and returned byte for byte on every later submission of that text. You can test it in a minute, which is the point of saying it.
All four modules, with reading you can actually sit
81 complete reading tests, 41 Academic and 40 General Training, free and with a written explanation on every one of the 3,240 questions rather than a bare answer key.
Named teachers
Two DELTA-qualified teachers, named, with profiles and bylines on what they wrote. One of them built the scoring engine, so the rubric it applies is theirs rather than an anonymous vendor's. The reference bands it is measured against are labelled in house, not by a certified examiner, and the quality page says so.
The accuracy figure, the method behind it and the limits we put on it are all on the scoring accuracy page, updated every Saturday. It is written by Manish Sharma and Anjali Tripathi.
Where these Writing9 facts came from
Each of these was read on Writing9's own pages on the date shown. Nothing here came from a review site, and nothing came from behind a login, because we did not create an account or pay. If any of it is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
Writing9 sells three auto-renewing subscription tiers, shown on the homepage with no login: $7.99 a week, $14.99 a month, and $29.99 a year against a struck-through $37.49.
“Monthly $14.99 / month”
writing9.com/#pricing · checked 14 September 2026
You can write and edit an essay without paying and without an account, but the scored report itself requires Premium. Writing9 states this directly under the editor.
“Write and edit for free. Premium is required only to generate your report.”
writing9.com/draft · checked 14 September 2026
Writing9 covers Writing only. Its FAQ defines the scope as General Task 1 letters, Academic Task 1 charts and Task 2 essays. Speaking and Listening are separate products bundled as Premium bonuses, and Reading is not offered.
“You can check letters from Task 1 General, charts from Task 1 Academic and essays from Task 2 General/Academic.”
writing9.com/#faq · checked 14 September 2026
On accuracy, the site states that its algorithms were tested on thousands of essays. No band-error figure, sample size or method is published anywhere on the site.
“We have tested the algorithms on thousands of essays and through this process their quality is guaranteed.”
writing9.com/#faq · checked 14 September 2026
Questions about accuracy
Is Writing9 accurate?+
Writing9 states that its algorithms were tested on thousands of essays. It does not publish a band-error figure, a sample size, or a method, so there is no number a reader can check. We cannot measure someone else's scorer and will not pretend to. What we can do is publish our own: the error, the size of the reference set, who labelled it, and how wide the uncertainty is. That is on our quality page and it is re-run every week.
Is Writing9 or BandNine more accurate?+
Nobody can answer that today, including us. A comparison needs both tools measured against the same scripts marked by the same people, and no such test exists publicly. Any site claiming to be more accurate than a named rival, in either direction, is telling you something it cannot know.
Try it before you move anything
Three writing scores and three speaking scores free, or a three-minute level test with no card and no password.