10 Best Proofreading Services in 2025
- Melchior Antoine
- May 8, 2024
- 17 min read
Updated: Apr 1
How to choose the best proofreading services? This is a question essential for many. Academic or research paper proofreading and editing services provide students and academic professionals with affordable and reliable means of improving and correcting their work. They can be a crucial step to ensure that you submit work you can be proud of. This type of service is also known as research paper editing services.
An academic editor can find and correct several errors in your writing, including punctuation, sentence flow, and spelling. Also, some academic editing assistance provides commentary on how your research paper could be improved.
However, there are dozens of professional sites to choose from. In this article, I look at the benefits of using various professional proofreading services, their disadvantages, and an alternatives.
More importantly, I examine over twenty different academic editing or research paper services and choose the best proofreading services to work with. In addition, I closely examine the top five best editing companies in depth for your benefit.
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What factors to consider when selecting the best research paper editing services
The factors to consider when deciding on the best academic editing services are 1. price, 2. customer satisfaction, 3. process, and 4. speed of service delivery. There are dozens of proofreading companies out here.
But students find it difficult to choose the right one. Anyone who has even thought about purchasing proofreading services would be familiar with names like Proofreadingservices(dot)com, Scribbr, Scribendi, Paper True, and so on.
As a student or academic professional looking to get their documents edited or proofread, you may have several questions:
Is the academic editing assistance offered by these various websites and companies legit?
Are they charging me too high?
Can this proofreading service finish editing my document on time?
Will they do a good job of editing my research paper or thesis?
This article is my attempt to help you make the right decision. I have examined dozens of online proofreading companies to decide which would be the best option for you. See the table below for the criteria I used to make that choice.
Criteria | Description | Allocated Points |
1. Price | This refers to the price charged for academic proofreading services. The rate is per 1000 words and is denominated in US dollars. The best proofreading services were priced at around 30 USD per 1000 word | 30 |
2. Customer satisfaction | This refers to how happy students and academics are with their proofreading. This is a five-star rating system, which relies on Trust Pilot or Google Reviews. The best academic proofreading services tend to have an over 4.5-star rating. | 30 |
3. Process | This refers to the process that begins with visiting the website and ends with your order finally being delivered. The best proofreading services give customers an idea of what their pricing is on the website. | 20 |
4. Speed | This refers to how quick the turnaround time is. The best research paper editing services have rapid turnaround times of at least 12 – 24 hours. | 20 |
The table above shows our criteria and point system to determine the best research paper editing services. More points were attributed to Price and customer satisfaction because in my mind these two factors would be the most important for you the customer.
In my previous appraisal of the best proofreading companies, I included employee satisfaction and resource support as benchmarks or criteria. These two benchmarks have their unique value, but here I choose to put more weight on pricing and service quality as judged by the customer.
To read our previous appraisals, please click on the following link: The top 13 proofreading services in 2024.
In my assessment, customer satisfaction is based on the Trust Pilot rating system. Trust Pilot is a website that allows customers to leave anonymous reviews for the assistance that they paid for. However, in the absence of Trust Pilot's five-star rating for an academic editing company, I rely on Google Reviews.
In the following sections, we describe in detail each one of the four benchmarks or criteria that are used to judge the various proofreading websites.
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What are academic editing services?
Academic editing services are companies that offer paid assistance to correct your academic writing. These services include both proofreading and editing. They include academic documents such as:
Master's theses and PhD dissertations
Academic essay
College essay applications
Academic essays
Manuscripts to be submitted to journals
These companies do not just focus on academic editing. They also do business editing, that is, editing blogs that can rank on Google and other business-related or professional writing. To learn more about this type of editing, check out this article: SEO Editing: A Comprehensive Guide.
However, the main focus of this article will be academic editing. Proofreading companies are numerous and differ significantly from each other. But they do share some common characteristics:
1. Cheap pricing. Because of the high level of competition among the various proofreading companies,, proofreading and editing prices can be relatively affordable. With standard turnaround times of three to seven days, you may end up paying only 30 USD per 1000 words.
Well, this may not be exactly cheap, especially for those who live in developing countries. However, based on the value being provided, it is a reasonable price.
2. Expert proofreaders and editors. Academic editing and proofreading companies employ both in-house editors and freelance ones. These freelancers are located throughout the world. To qualify to work for these companies, they have to go through challenging qualifying tests and rigorous training. This is to ensure that they are more than prepared before editing your work.
3. Speedy and convenient services. Academic proofreading and editing companies offer turnaround times that range between four hours and one week. They are all based online, and they offer opportunities for you to upload your document and pay around the clock.
4. Educational support. The ideal editing company does not just edit or proofread your document. They also offer a richness of resources, such as blogs and YouTube videos to help explain the questions you have relating to academic tasks and writing. More than that, a proofreader with their corrections and suggestions can help make you a better academic writer.
1. Best service based on price
There is much subjectivity around what is an acceptable price for correcting your academic document. So how do you deal with that? I looked at the pricing for over 20 different companies and websites providing research paper editing services to determine what would be a fair price.
The bar chart below shows the pricing for 22 different websites providing academic proofreading services. The price is USD per 1000 words in USD. The maximum price was 165 USD charged by Edanz — a proofreading service based in Japan. The minimum price was 13 USD charged by London Proofreaders, a proofreading company based in London as the name suggests. The Median price was 30 USD.
However, it should be noted that the price changes based on the type of service. These companies differentiate between proofreading and editing. They also differentiate pricing based on turnaround.
For example, an order with a turnaround time of twelve hours will be more expensive than one with a turnaround time of three days.
2. Best proofreading services based on customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction refers to how happy you the client are after using a proofreading service. This happiness could be based on whether or not you were content with the quality of the editing and proofreading. Or, it could be based on whether or not the editing and proofreading achieved the intended aim, such as:
Getting a high score on the essay paper that was proofread or edited
Your journal paper being successfully accepted by your target journal
Your thesis/dissertation being edited to a high-quality
Your grant proposal getting approval
To measure customer satisfaction, as mentioned earlier, I relied on either Trust Pilot or Google Review scores. These are scores out of five stars left by clients who use these services. And as far as I can tell, they are not at all affected and controlled by the proofreading service providers.
3. Best proofreading services help based on process
By process, we are talking about what happens between you the customer finding a proofreading service and getting your paper properly edited. It also involves things like communication. For example:
What happens if they get your order wrong?
Do you have a fair idea of what the price is before submitting the order?
Do you have to submit the document and provide payment information even before getting an idea of the price?
How long does it take to get contacted after uploading your order?
Is your order completed on time?
Do they have a peer-editing system where two editors work on your paper?
Is it only a single editor working on your paper/document?
Ideally, this process should be smooth and frictionless. The less friction, the better. For example, it would be ideal that you get a clear idea of the pricing based on the word count alone. That is, instead of having to upload your document and provide credit card information beforehand.
Also, having the option of a free sample edit makes the process of establishing trust between you and the proofreading service easier. This is why I also count this as being part of an ideal process.
4. Best proofreading services based on speed
Speed refers to how quickly your document is returned after being accepted by your chosen proofreading service provider. Most proofreading services offer at least a 12-hour turnaround, which is pretty good. Ideally, a properly edited document would require three to seven days to complete.
This is because the document needs time to “rest.” That means the editor should be allowed space and distance from his work. This allows them to come back with a fresh pair of eyes that can see errors that may have been previously missed.
But that’s the ideal. Students and academics are often under very tight deadlines. In other cases, they may simply misjudge the amount of time they have to complete assignments. So they have no choice but to rush. ProofreadingPal and Scribendi had the shortest turnaround speeds at three to four hours.
The best proofreading companies account for these scenarios by providing expedited services that come at a higher cost. Table 3 shows the various prices for different expedited offers for different companies. Expedited services can be as quick as four or two hours. Such prices may be over 200% more expensive than standard pricing for proofreading.
Top 10 proofreading sites
Table 2 provides a list of the top 10 research paper editing services. Here is the list in descending order:
Cambridge Proofreading, which placed No. 2 in our last assessment, is now No. 1.
Even slight differences in customer satisfaction led to major differences in customer satisfaction scores. For example, a customer satisfaction rating of 4.9 would get a score as high as 20/20. However, a slightly lower rating of 4.4 would be scored 20.
Also, for pricing. The ideal pricing was the median rate of 30 USD per 1000 words. However, pricing below that was not necessarily given a higher score. As too low a price was deemed as underappreciating the value offered by your editor.
Rank | Proofreading Service | Standard Price in USD Per 1000 Words | Customer Rating | Country |
1 | Cambridge Proofreading | $30 | 4.9 | USA |
2 | Paper True | $32 | 4.8 | India |
3 | Proofreading Pal | $28 | 4.5 | USA |
4 | Scribendi | $37 | 4.6 | Canada |
5 | Scribbr | $42 | 4.4 | Netherlands |
6 | Editor World | $28 | 4.5 | USA |
7 | Proofed | $45 | 4.7 | South Africa |
8 | Wordvice | $48 | 4.6 | UK |
9 | Editage | $58 | 4.8 | USA |
10 | Enago | $58 | 4.2 | USA |
Top 10 proofreading services.
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Comparing the best 5 proofreading services
Choosing the top three academic proofreading services is a subjective matter. It relies heavily on personal opinion. However, to come to a conclusion, I used the following four factors: 1. Price, 2. Customer satisfaction, 3. Speed of service, and 4. Process.
Now, Let’s take a look at the top five editing sites and see how they compare with each other. The top five proofreading companies are:
Cambridge Proofreading
Paper True
Proofreading Pal
Scribendi
Scribbr
No. 1. Cambridge Proofreading
Cambridge Proofreading earned first place as teh best proofreading service in large part due to its high score for customer satisfaction. It is an editing company that was founded in the UK but is now located in the US. Its score on Trustpilot is an impressive 4.9 out of 5 stars.
Therefore, it is safe to conclude that those who use the service are happy with it. Also, at a price of only 30 USD per 1000 words, these clients may be getting a good deal for their money.
No. 2. Paper True
Paper True scored second place for best academic proofreading services based on its price and customer satisfaction ratings. The headquarters of the company seems to be based in India. Their average price is 27 USD per 1000 words, which is lower than the $30 median. In short, they're just more affordable compared to the competition.
Their customer rating on Trust Pilot is also notable at 4.8 out of 5 stars. This suggests that their clients are getting value for their money at a relatively cheaper price.
No. 3. ProofreadingPal
ProofreadingPal is based in the USA. They charge lower than the median price of 28 USD per 1000 words for their proofreading services. Their fastest turnaround time is two hours and their customer satisfaction rating out of five stars is 4.5.
No. 4. Scribendi
Scribendi — a company based in Canada — witnessed substantial improvement from my last assessment. This was due to the new criteria that left out employee satisfaction. Before they placed No. 7. Now, they're No. 4.
Scribendi may well be unique in its process of relying on only one editor as opposed to a peer editing system. Their editors are well-trained to handle and take full responsibility for editing clients' papers.
Any complaints on the part of the client mean that the editor pays the cost. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the perspective. An editor who has full responsibility for editing a manuscript may feel motivated to do a good job of it. However, the extra step provided by a pair-editing system may provide an extra layer of precaution that one editor may miss.
Nonetheless, it seems to be working just fine. After all, the customer satisfaction rating is 4.6 for Scribendi. This suggests that clients are rather happy with the services they receive.
No. 5. Scribbr
Scribbr is located in the Netherlands, and the last time around they won first place. This was due to the different criteria used, which emphasized Resource support for students. Now, they are in the fourth position. Its standard pricing is around 42 USD per 1000 words for standard turnaround time. They provide a comprehensive academic editing service.
This includes a peer editing system, which involves your work being first reviewed by a freelance editor or proofreader, followed by an in-house editor. More than that, their website remains very student-friendly and loaded with information and resources that students can use.
No. 6. Editor World
Editor World describes itself as an American editing and proofreading services company. They seem to place a heavy emphasis on their editors being American or native English speakers from the United States, United Kingdom, or Canada. They work by providing a panel of on-demand proofreaders and editors. They are available around the clock every day of the week.
The company is based in Virginia, USA, with an office in London. With Editor World, you have the ability to choose your personal editor and communicate directly with them. The cost of proofreading a 3,000-word manuscript ranges between $78 for a 5-day turnaround and $102 for a 1-day service.
No. 7. Proofed
Proofed Proofreading and Editing is a South African firm. It assigns your document(s) to one of its expert proofreaders upon submission. The company recruits its proofreaders and editors through Knowadays. Editing a 3,000-word document at Proofed costs $105 (USD) with a 1-day turnaround.
The price rises to $315 for urgent services. Their professional editors handle PhD manuscripts, books, business documents, and more. The proofreading services offered include grammar, spelling, and punctuation corrections, enhancing word choice, ensuring consistency, providing helpful feedback, and addressing clarity issues.
No. 8. Wordvice
Wordvice appears to be a Korean-based editing service. They offer a range of services. This includes academic editing, college essay admissions editing, book editing, and business editing. Their pricing ranges from $22 per 1000 words for admission editing to $44 per 1000 words.
In addition to professional proofreading by humans, they also offer AI-powered proofreading software. This is an AI software application that allows you to edit your own work. It is similar to Grammarly. However, it has other features such as a paraphrasing tool. They have a fremium version with limited features, and their premium plan begins at $9.95 per month. To learn more about Wordvice, please check out this article: Wordvice Reviews | Including a Look at Wordvice AI.
No. 9. Editage
Editage is an editing service based in the US. They appear to be closely related to journal editing services, like their counterpart Enago. Their prices also seem to be the same at $58 per 1000 words. Their customer satisfaction rating is also relatively high at 4.8 out of five stars on Trustpilot.
This means despite the relatively high prices, people seem to be happy with the editing services they provide. They also offer support during the peer review process frp scholars who publish in academic journals.
No. 10. Enago
Enago is based in New Jersey and offers author services to the research community. It also has additional offices in Tokyo, Seoul, Istanbul, New York, Beijing, and Shanghai. Their editing services appear to be closely associated with publication in academic journals. This means they focus heavily on research paper editing services for scholars looking to get published in high-end journals.
They offer among the highest editing prices at around $58 per 1000 words. The customer rating is also relatively low at 4.2 compared to other editing services. The company also provides add-ons such as a manuscript report, re-editing support, and assistance during the peer review process for journal articles.
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1. Pricing and Speed. The different proofreading companies had the fastest turnaround times, which ranged between twelve and three hours. Scribendi had the largest differences between standard pricing and the lowest turnaround time. For example, its pricing for 1000 words at a four-hour turnaround was over 200% higher than its standard pricing for a one-week turnaround.
2. Customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction was generally high for all five editing companies. None of the top five proofreading sites scored below 4.3. However, Cambridge Proofreading scored the highest at 4.9, with a total of 3111 reviews on Trust Pilot — an impressive feat.
3. Process. All five of the best proofreading service providers had a process that allowed you to view the pricing before providing information, such as credit card information and email. Everything was done directly through the Internet without any need to place a call or send emails. However, EditorWorld stood out as it allowed direct communication between author and editor in its system.
AI-assisted editing
There are a handful of companies from our list that provide AI-assisted editing. By that I mean, they offer you the chance to edit your own work using their proofreading software tools. These companies include:
Wordvice
Scribbr
Editage
These tools are similar to Grammarly. However, they have one big difference with Grammarly. Grammarly is not a tool designed for academic editing. It is best used for business writing or blogging. On the other hand, the software provided by these three companies has been designed especially for proofreading and editing academic content.
Their software was trained on millions of words edited by professional editors working for these companies. This means we should expect the suggestions and corrections made by this software to be of a higher quality than what you would get from Grammarly.
These companies offer fremium versions of these tools with limited features. However, they normally come in the form of monthly subscriptions. For Editage, the Premium plan has three tier options: 1. Annual at $11.50 per month; 2. Quarterly at $18.30 per month; and 3. Monthly at $25 per month.
For Wordvice, the Premium Plan comes in three payment options: Annual, $9.95/month; Semi-Annual, $15.95/month, and Monthly, $19.95/month. Lastly, Scribbr has a plan that starts at $9.95 a month.
While it is a good idea to try this software to see how well you can edit your own, you should remember one thing. A tool is only as good as the person using it. If you have limited expertise in English, the results from using these tools may not be optimal.
From my experience, it can be said that these tools are best used by professional editors working for these companies. They are typically used to make the editing process smoother and faster for professional editors. However, the good thing is that these companies give you the option of professional human editors. This means you can switch to professional proofreading and editing services if ou feel too overwhelmed.
To learn more about using AI-assisted editing software, please check out this article: 6 Best Proofreading Software Tools.
Should I get academic editing services?
Whether or not you should get proofreading services depends on a few factors. Proofreading services are the final step of academic writing. Proofreading and editing are not ghostwriting services. You should not expect the editor to substantively edit or change your work. This is your job as a student or academic.
An academic editor's main advantage is correcting your work with a lack of bias. Because an academic editor is supposed to be professional, they approach your work with a balanced perspective. Academics and students are too often too close to their work to make proper judgments on what should be changed, corrected, or left out.
Therefore, hiring a professional proofreader or editor would help in making sure that your final academic project is something that meets the highest academic standards. Besides this, these are situations where it makes sense to hire a professional academic editor:
You are not a native English speaker
Your time is restricted
You lack confidence in your writing abilities
You wish to make sure that your work is A grade
I recommend academic editing and proofreading services for anyone who is interested in making sure that they end up completing final projects that are free of error as much as possible while meeting high academic standards. Good luck with your research writing!
Tips on choosing the best services
Now you know the 10 best proofreading services, how do you go about choosing from the list? Here are seven tips that I recommend to make your decision.
1. Conduct self-editing first. Before seeking external assistance, you should thoroughly review your document. Use a self-editing checklist to identify and correct obvious errors. This will help improve the overall quality of your work. This initial step can reduce the workload for professional editors and can even transform your document from needing heavy editing changes to just needing lighter proofreading.
2. Determine the type of editing needed. You should understand the specific editing services your manuscript requires. Academic editing typically includes 1. developmental editing, which focuses on content and structure; 2. copyediting, which addresses grammar and style; and 3. proofreading, which corrects minor errors. Clearly defining your needs will help you choose a service that fits your objectives.
3. Check customer reviews and testimonials. Think of checking out feedback from previous clients to assess the reliability and quality of potential editing services. This can be found on Google Reviews and Trust Pilot. Positive reviews and testimonials can provide insights into the service's effectiveness and how happy customers generally are with the service.
4. Request a test edit. Before committing to a full edit, if possible, ask for a sample edit of a portion of your document. This allows you to evaluate the editor's proficiency and ensure their editing style is something that you are satisfied with. Scribbr, Scribendi, and Paper True are all examples of proofreading services that provide a test edit for your manuscript.
5. Evaluate affordability. Consider your budget when selecting an editing or proofreading service. It's important to invest in quality editing. However, you should ensure that the service's fees are reasonable and transparent. Some services offer tiered pricing based on the level of editing required.
6. Assess turnaround times. Ensure that the editing and proofreading service can meet your deadlines. Discuss and confirm the expected turnaround time before proceeding to avoid any misunderstanding or scheduling conflicts.
7. Verify expertise and specialization. If possible, you should choose an editor or proofreading services with experience in your specific academic field. Specialized knowledge ensures that the editor is familiar with the terminology and conventions relevant to your discipline.
By carefully considering these factors, you can select an academic editing and proofreading service that can enhance the quality of your manuscript and make sure that you can submit academic work that you are proud of.
How EminentEdit can help with editing your manuscript
EminentEdit provides premium academic or research paper editing services to ensure that your work meets the highest standards. We count ourselves as among the best proofreading services. We're a small group of professional editors with extensive experience in the art of reviewing and correcting manuscripts.
This experience includes both editing millions of words on behalf of others and publishing our own work in academic journals. So, we know exactly what it takes to produce high-quality academic projects. The pricing for our academic editing services begins as low as $0.02 per word. Check out the pricing sheet below:
Type of Editing | Description | Price Per Word ($) |
Copyediting Lite | Line-by-line editing to improve sentence structure, syntax and idiomatic English usage. It also includes thorough proofreading and commentary. | $0.03 |
Copyediting Plus | Line-by-line editing to improve sentence structure, syntax and idiomatic English usage, and reference editing and formatting | $0.04 |
Proofreading | Proofreading to correct punctuation and grammar. | $0.02 |
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Our services don't just start with proofreading the final product. It also includes help from the very beginning of your project. This includes editing and double-checking your project proposal, including thesis and essay proposals. Our editing services include:
Proofreading and editing for theses and dissertations
Proofreading for both fiction and nonfiction books
Proofreading and editing for reserach papers
Substantive editing to improve the quality of your writing on a sentence level
Extensive commentary and recommendations to improve literature review, structure, and arguments
Proofreading to make sure your writing is grammatically correct with proper spelling and punctuation
Assistance in transforming your thesis into a published scientific paper
Get in touch with one of our representatives: CONTACT US AT EMINENT EDIT.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, May 08). 10 Best Proofreading Services in 2025. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/selecting-the-best-proofreading-services-pricing-and-service |
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