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Open-Source, Self-Host-Friendly Browser Grammar Checker, Because LanguageTool's Extension Is Going Premium-Only And Is Closed-Source

browser extension weekend hack ••• trending

LanguageTool is locking its browser extension to Premium subscribers within weeks; the official 'just self-host it' workaround is only half a fix because the extension itself is proprietary and the Chrome build often refuses to talk to a self-hosted server. Privacy-minded writers want a trustworthy open-source, cross-browser extension that points at their own LanguageTool instance, so dictated text never leaves their machine. The server side is already open and Dockerizable; the missing piece is the client.

builder note

The server's already open, so the whole product is a trustworthy open-source extension that targets the user's instance and fixes the Chrome CORS mess. Ship that, not another grammar engine.

landscape (3 existing solutions)

The grammar engine is open and self-hostable, but the actual gap is an open-source, cross-browser extension that reliably points at your own instance instead of a closed binary you can't audit.

LanguageTool official browser extension The extension is closed-source and the Chrome build frequently won't connect to a self-hosted server, so the official self-host escape hatch is unreliable and unverifiable.
Self-hosted LanguageTool server (Docker/Java) Self-hosts fine but is a heavy JVM + n-gram setup, and there is no trusted open-source extension to wire it into everyday browser typing.
Grammarly Cloud-only and privacy-hostile; sends everything you type to their servers with no local or self-hosted option at all.

sources (1)

other https://lemmy.world/post/47482464 "no way to verify it isn't selling everything I type" 2026-05-29
browser-extensionself-hostedprivacygrammaranti-subscription