Search API Price Hike Impacts Plagiarism Checking

When PaperRater first "opened its doors", we were excited to find that Yahoo offered a cost effective Search API to power our free proofreader's plagiarism checking technology.  Google later offered a free API as well, and Bing too would eventually jump on board.  In just a few years, the search API landscape changed dramatically with Yahoo dropping out completely and Google replacing its free search API with the most expensive option (read prohibitively expensive). Fortunately, Bing remained steady offering an option of decent price and solid results, which granted us another couple years of free plagiarism checking integrated into our automated proofreader and grammar checker.  Yay!

I can say with great conviction that offering high quality tools for free is a wonderful way to spend my days, which is why it pained me to receive notification recently that Bing was increasing the cost of their search API.  Moreover, because the specific search package we are using will no longer be offered, the cost of the API to which we are forced to migrate is 2.5X higher than the current pricing. The bottom line of this very sad news is that we can no longer bundle free plagiarism checking with our automated proofreader.  Only premium members will have access to plagiarism checking when using the automated proofreader.  The good news for our users is that we have no plans to increase the cost of our premium service even in spite of the cost hike we are facing, and we will continue to offer plagiarism checking as part of our free premium EDU service for teachers to use with their classrooms. PaperRater also still offers our standalone (w/o automated proofreading) plagiarism checker for free.  We will continue to work at our mission of offering the best free automated proofreader and for those interested in additional features, thank you for supporting us via our premium membership.  Use the button below to learn more about our premium subscriptions.




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9 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 14, 2016 at 10:52 AM

    I've used this for school so many times. My class also used this, out teacher recommends it. Now that we have to pay for premium just to be able to get a plagiarism report is upsetting. My school loves it because it is a reliable plagiarism checker, but now that we have to pay for it...lets just say you will be loosing a lot of students and schools who do not have the income for it. I understand the premium price hasn't changed, but we used it because it was free. I'm sorry for your issues with Bing and Google. I wish it could stay free. It's hard to find a really good plagiarism checker that's free and that a user does not have to sign up for an account just to get their plagiarism score. I hope everything works out in the end for you and you'll continue to be free one day. Thank you for your time and efforts to make this website better.

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  2. PaperRaterDecember 14, 2016 at 11:29 AM

    Thanks for the comments. It sounds like you may not be aware that schools are able to get free premium subscriptions. More info here:
    http://blog.paperrater.com/2016/08/announcing-free-premium-edu.html
    Hopefully that clears up any confusion about "students and schools who do not have the income for it."

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  3. UnknownDecember 15, 2016 at 9:52 AM

    This is a bombshell. The news about ending the free plagiarism checker came as a surprise. I would have expected your management to inform users before time so we can prepare our minds. What should we do now. This is actually frustrating.

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    Replies
    1. PaperRaterDecember 15, 2016 at 11:23 AM

      Joyce, we've added an "Additional Resources" section above with links to other options that we offer.

      Delete
  4. KateeyMDVDecember 16, 2016 at 4:35 PM

    Awww, seriously!? I'm a Freelance Writer & Editor and have relied on this checker for my job. It was so convenient being able to edit and check for plagiarism in one place without paying a penny. Sigh.

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  5. JacobJanuary 10, 2017 at 5:18 PM

    As a graduating senior in college, one who has religiously used PaperRater since high school, I'm very sad the plagiarism checker is no longer available free of charge. I passed this website on to many of my friends, and I'm sad that I no longer will be able to recommend this website as an instrumental tool throughout one's academic career-without paying a fee. Thank you for your assistance throughout the years!

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  6. BethanyJanuary 24, 2017 at 12:48 PM

    Ugh. Such a surprise to see this. What to do now? As a college student, it is hard to find resources like how Paper Rater to check for plagiarism before we turn in our final paper. Such a disappointment. Paper Rater should offer a student discount for students with valid student IDs/ emails. Really kicks us in the butt. College is expensive, trying to check our papers for plagiarism shouldn't be.

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  7. PaperRaterJanuary 27, 2017 at 5:26 AM

    Thanks Juliet! Just wanted to clarify that the only thing that is no longer free is the plagiarism checking integrated into the automated proofreader. Everything else remains free.

    ReplyDelete

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