It is widely used in countries where the professional language is English, but the native language of the speakers is not.
For example, most Slavic languages don't have the same definite/indefinite article system English does, which means that whilst someone could speak and write excellent English, the correct usage of "a" and "the" is a constant conscious struggle, where having a tool to check and correct your working is really useful. In Greek, word order is not so important. And so on.
Spell check usually just doesn't cut it, and when it does (say, in Word), it usually isn't universally available.
Personally, I have long wanted such a system for German, which I am not native in. Lucky for me DeepL launched a similar product with German support.
A recent example for me was that I was universally using "bekommen" as a literal translation of "receive" in all sentences where I needed that word. Through DeepL I learned that the more appropriate word in a bunch of contexts is "erhalten", which is the sort of thing that I would never have got from a spell check.
For example, most Slavic languages don't have the same definite/indefinite article system English does, which means that whilst someone could speak and write excellent English, the correct usage of "a" and "the" is a constant conscious struggle, where having a tool to check and correct your working is really useful. In Greek, word order is not so important. And so on.
Spell check usually just doesn't cut it, and when it does (say, in Word), it usually isn't universally available.
Personally, I have long wanted such a system for German, which I am not native in. Lucky for me DeepL launched a similar product with German support.
A recent example for me was that I was universally using "bekommen" as a literal translation of "receive" in all sentences where I needed that word. Through DeepL I learned that the more appropriate word in a bunch of contexts is "erhalten", which is the sort of thing that I would never have got from a spell check.
Grammarly is notably a Ukrainian founded company.