QuillBot owns the word “paraphrase” and Grammarly owns “grammar”, and on a laptop both are hard to argue with. On a phone the picture is different: the browser-first tools get cramped, the keyboard tools only work where a keyboard is, and since iOS 18 Apple ships rewriting tools of its own. Here’s how they compare on the device you actually have in your hand.
I built Textrix, so the last section is mine. The rest tries to be straight about where each option is the right answer.
Table of contents
Open Table of contents
QuillBot
The paraphraser most students know. Several rewrite modes, a summariser, a grammar checker, a browser extension and a mobile app. The free tier caps length and modes; Premium is a subscription. Processing happens on QuillBot’s servers.
Where it’s strong: the quality and range of English rewrite modes, and it’s what your classmates use. Where it isn’t: the phone experience is a small version of a web tool, the useful modes are paywalled, and your draft is uploaded to be rewritten.
Grammarly (keyboard)
On iPhone, Grammarly is a keyboard. It corrects and suggests as you type in any app, which is its whole appeal, and it does that well. Tone and rewrite suggestions are in the paid tier. Everything you type through the keyboard is processed on Grammarly’s servers.
Where it’s strong: inline correction in Mail, Messages, Notes — wherever you type. Where it isn’t: it’s not a paraphraser or summariser, it can’t read a PDF or a photo, and a third-party keyboard that sends keystrokes to a server is a real privacy trade.
Apple Writing Tools (iOS 18+)
On an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, select text anywhere and get Proofread, Rewrite (friendly, professional, concise) and Summarize, processed on-device or through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. Free, built in, no account.
Where it’s strong: it’s already there, it’s private, and for a quick tone fix in an email it’s the right answer. Where it isn’t: the styles are few, paraphrasing into another language isn’t the point, there’s no OCR-and-then-rewrite flow, and it needs a recent iPhone — most of the installed base can’t run it yet.
Where Textrix fits
Textrix is the standalone writing toolkit for iPhone, with the AI running on the phone:
- Paraphrase and translate in 30+ languages with eight styles — Standard, Formal, Casual, Academic, Simple, Creative, Expand, Shorten — so “rewrite this in formal German” is one screen.
- Summarise long text into the load-bearing claims.
- Grammar and tone fixes that keep your meaning and language.
- Scan to text and PDF to text on the device, then feed the result straight into any of the above — the workflow the web tools don’t have on a phone.
- On-device AI. Apple’s on-device model where the phone supports it, a downloaded local model everywhere else — so it works on iPhones that can’t run Apple Intelligence, and your text never leaves the device. The post about that switch is honest about what got slightly worse as well as what got better.
- Free uses of every tool, then a subscription for unlimited access.
Which one, honestly
- You write in English on a laptop and want the widest range of rewrite modes: QuillBot.
- You want corrections as you type in every app and accept the keyboard trade-off: Grammarly.
- You have a recent iPhone and need a quick proofread or tone change: Apple Writing Tools — free, use it.
- You need paraphrasing across languages, summaries, OCR and PDF extraction in one place, on any iPhone from the last several years, with nothing uploaded: Textrix. The guide to summarising a PDF on iPhone covers the built-in routes first.