QuillBot vs ZeroGPT: Which Tool is Better Overall?

If you use online AI detectors and paraphrasing tools, odds are that you might have come across QuillBot and ZeroGPT before.

But both these platforms offer a lot more than what they’re famous for. So, which one is better than the other, and what tool should you commit to long-term?

In this blog, I compare QuillBot vs ZeroGPT to figure out a winner. I’ll first give an overview of both the platforms and then perform hands-on testing of their key tools.

Below is a spoiler of the test results in the form of a TL;DR table. If you want to read through the full testing, stick with us till the end.

TL;DR

What is QuillBot?

When QuillBot launched in 2017, it was a paraphrasing tool that would rewrite your text to convey the same meaning using different words and sentence structures.

As the platform matured, it added more writing tools to stay relevant and compete with industry giants.

For example, one of those additions was a grammar checker that it launched to challenge Grammarly.

Then, in July 2024, QuillBot entered the AI detection market that GPTZero had pioneered two years earlier in 2022.

Fast forward to today, QuillBot’s toolkit includes the following:

• Paraphrasing tool
• Grammar checker
• Plagiarism detector
• AI detector
• AI humanizer
• Citation generator
• Translator
• AI chat 
• AI image generator

In addition to these tools, QuillBot also offers a range of other mini tools like Chat PDF, image background remover, spell checker, word counter, and more.

Users can also use QuillBot on the go because it now also exists as a browser extension and apps for different devices and operating systems.

What is ZeroGPT?

It’s evident from the name that ZeroGPT is a copycat of GPTZero. The platform surfaced on January 18th, 2023, to capitalize on the fame and popularity of GPTZero by creating confusion with a similar name.

ZeroGPT also put a misleading tagline as soon as they started their AI detection service. The tagline was “Millions of users trust ZeroGPT's detector.”

You can read more about the platform’s unethical practices and motivations in our investigative review of ZeroGPT.

That was something worth considering about the ZeroGPT brand. Now, let’s talk about what is ZeroGPT offering.

The platform provides the following services:

• AI detector
• AI summarizer
• AI paraphrase
• AI grammar check
• Plagiarism checker
• Word counter
• AI email helper
• AI translator

ZeroGPT also offers an AI assistant, which it claims helps students “crush every class like it’s rigged in their favor.” The AI assistant basically contains a bunch of AI wrappers for condensing notes, creating quizzes from study material, and other similar tasks.

QuillBot vs ZeroGPT: Feature-by-Feature Testing

Now let’s get to what this QuillBot vs ZeroGPT comparison is really about.

We will be testing the tools that both platforms have in common and share the results with you. This will help you figure out the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms.

There will also be a verdict announcing the winner of each test. 

Common tools to test for our ZeroGPT vs QuillBot comparison are:

• Paraphraser
• AI detector
• Plagiarism checker
• Grammar checker

We’ll be using different text samples for these tests.

ZeroGPT vs QuillBot: AI Paraphraser

To test the paraphraser, I asked Claude to generate a human-sounding text on a random topic. 

The text was 340 words long and had paragraph length sentences with no punctuations. 

QuillBot’s paraphraser allowed me to paste the entirety of it because there’s no word limit on the paid plan. Free plan users can only paraphrase 125 words at a time.

You can also choose a paraphrasing mode depending on what you want to accomplish with your text. You can also create custom modes if the given ones don’t meet your needs. 

Again, only two of these modes are available for free: Standard and Fluency. 

QuillBot did a good job at paraphrasing the text without compromising its meaning or mood. There were almost no replacements of words with imprecise synonyms. 

The story didn’t lose nuance either.

There are a few extra features that are worth appreciating about QuillBot’s paraphraser. For example, it uses colored underlines and text highlights to show the type of changes made. 

And there’s the Thesaurus feature, which lets you click on a word or phrase and replace it with a list of synonyms, similar phrases, or expressions. 

Before you hit the Paraphrase button, you can give QuillBot a list of words present inside the text that you want it to preserve. This feature is called Freeze Words.

So in short, QuillBot’s paraphraser performs good and has great features. Now let’s test ZeroGPT.

ZeroGPT’s paraphraser can only scan 300 words in one go if you’re on a free plan. So I entered part of the sample text only.

It also gives you a list of tones to choose from. But only two tones are available for free, Standard and Simplified. I chose standard.

ZeroGPT’s paraphrasing missed the mark in several places. For example, it replaced “grocery” with “food items,” which is incorrect. Grocery doesn’t refer to food items only.

Replacing “walk” with “trek” in the second paragraph is also imprecise. Trek is a certain kind of walk on foot on difficult terrain.

ZeroGPT also overdid the third paragraph. 

And notice how it completely ignored the fourth paragraph. That’s information loss right there and a marker of inaccurate paraphrasing.

Lastly, ZeroGPT’s legend is also misleading and an exact copy of QuillBot’s legend. According to the legend, the text should have yellow underlines for structural changes, but there are no underlines in the paraphrased text. 

Verdict: QuillBot’s paraphraser performs far better than ZeroGPT’s. It also has a better UI and features. 

QuillBot vs ZeroGPT: AI Detector

For the AI detection test, I first generated a 100 word paragraph on “How climate change is impacting the world” using ChatGPT by giving it a simple 1 line prompt.

I then tested QuillBot by copying and pasting the exact output, and it correctly detected the output as 100% AI written.

Same happened with the ZeroGPT’s AI detector, as it also correctly identified the text as 100% AI.

For more indepth testing, I used a text sample that was 100% AI-written intro of an article. I gave a detailed prompt to ChatGPT and asked it to avoid common AI patterns and follow a human-like writing style.

Both tools failed to detect 100% AI in this modified text, although it was totally AI-generated.

QuillBot couldn’t detect any trace of AI, not even a single sentence.

ZeroGPT, on the other hand, only detected 12.58% of the text as AI, which is still inaccurate by afar.

It looks like these two AI detectors are only good at catching blatantly AI-written content. Someone good at prompting can easily bypass these AI detectors.

The only good thing about the two AI detectors is their words per scan limit on the free plan.

QuillBot allows 1200-word long scans while ZeroGPT has a limit of 15000 characters (2100-2500 words approximately).

Verdict: Both QuillBot and ZeroGPT have inaccurate AI detectors.

QuillBot vs ZeroGPT: Plagiarism Checker

ZeroGPT’s plagiarism checker allows one free plagiarism scan. After that, you need to buy a subscription for more scans.

Meanwhile, QuillBot’s plagiarism detector is a paid feature from the outset. Free users get no tries. 

To test both plagiarism checkers, I copied text samples from a random 2023 BBC article. 

ZeroGPT was quick to trace the text back to the BBC's website. It marked the entirety of the text as plagiarized using red underlines.

QuillBot’s plagiarism checker also detected plagiarism, but only 17%. It only traced back the beginning two lines to the BBC article. 

It also highlighted some words of a sentence to show that it was a partially plagiarized form of the sentence “The Lazy Girl Job hashtag has reached more than 40 million views on TikTok,” from this article.

But honestly speaking, that doesn’t look like plagiarism.

Verdict: ZeroGPT’s plagiarism checker has more accurate results than QuillBot’s. However, QuillBot has the capability to detect partial plagiarism from multiple sources.

ZeroGPT vs QuillBot: Grammar Checker

For this test, I asked Claude AI to generate text with slightly wrong grammar, spelling mistakes, and incorrect or missing punctuation. 

ZeroGPT has a simple grammar checker. It only allows you to paste your text and press a button. There are no other controls. The word limit is 1000 words on the free plan.

When you hit the button “Check Text”, the tool applies the corrections automatically. It doesn’t suggest grammar changes like Grammarly does. It applies them straight away without giving you any control.

The checked text comes with green highlights specifying the changes it made.

However, if you cross-check the edited text with the original text, there are some changes that ZeroGPT hasn’t highlighted. For instance, ZeroGPT added many commas that it didn’t highlight. Also notice how it corrected “...since we already…” to “...since we had already…” without highlighting the had.

QuillBot’s grammar checker is a free tool with no word limits. But it also made a few silly mistakes while suggesting correct edits.

For example, look at the first suggestion. It’s asking me to write “Last week my friend and my friend…”, which makes no sense. The second edit is also faulty. While it’s correct that “my friend” should be changed to “I”, it’s bizarre for QuillBot to want to write “I” and “decided” combined as one word.

These mistakes can come under hallucinations (algorithmic or model errors) and might not be inherent to the tool.

One good thing about QuillBot’s grammar checker is that it gives users control to accept or ignore edits. QuillBot also supports text formatting and allows you to specify what you’re working on so it can suggest tailored edits.

Verdict: Both platforms are good at detecting grammar and spelling mistakes with a small margin of error. QuillBot’s grammar checker is better in terms of richness of features and user-friendly interface.

ZeroGPT vs QuillBot Pricing

Let’s now talk about the free and paid plans of QuillBot and ZeroGPT.

ZeroGPT Pricing

ZeroGPT has a forever-free plan with certain limitations. For instance, it has word limits on all of its tools, and its plagiarism checker only allows one free scan.

To bypass these limitations, there are three plans to choose from. 

The cheapest plan costs $7.99 a month if you choose an annual payment. Some capabilities aren’t provided in all three of these paid plans because they unlock with business plans only, which start at $69.99/month.

QuillBot Pricing

QuillBot’s plans are simple.

There’s a forever-free plan that only lacks the plagiarism checker.

Then there are two paid plans. The basic premium plan starts at $4.17 (if you pay annually), which is much lesser than ZeroGPT’s $7.99 starting price.

The team plan’s price is custom, and you’ll have to contact sales for an estimate.

Verdict: QuillBot’s plans are cheaper than those of ZeroGPT. Since QuillBot’s tools are rich in features, have a modern interface, and are more cost-effective as well, QuillBot wins the QuillBot vs ZeroGPT pricing comparison as well.

Final Verdict

Here’s a recap of our QuillBot vs ZeroGPT feature-by-feature testing:

• AI paraphraser: QuillBot performs better
• AI detector: Both platforms deliver inaccurate results
• Plagiarism checker: ZeroGPT’s plagiarism checker is accurate. QuillBot isn’t.
• Grammar checker: QuillBot performs better and has an appropriate interface for grammar checking.

So both platforms managed to secure some wins, but had unsatisfactory performance in the others. You can simply go for the platform that performed better at the tool you’re looking for.

But one thing both these platforms won’t deliver you with is accurate AI detection.

So if you want an accurate AI detector, you should use GPTZero. Our AI detector is officially the most accurate AI detector based on a recognized benchmark called RAID.

It has a tested and proven accuracy rate of 99%.

Try it yourself and see the difference.

FAQs

Which is better, QuillBot or ZeroGPT?

Neither platform is clearly the winner. Both have their areas of strength. QuillBot offers better paraphrasing and grammar checking with a more user-friendly interface, while ZeroGPT provides more accurate plagiarism detection. Both struggle with AI detection accuracy. So choose based on which specific tool you need most frequently.

Can QuillBot really detect AI?

QuillBot is only good at catching blatantly AI-written content. If AI generated text is tweaked a little or it is generated with a good prompt, QuillBot fails to detect AI in it with accuracy.