Students and teachers are both part of the academic world. In the world of academics, integrity and honesty are very important. Students are expected to be responsible and accountable for their work. They are expected to put in the time and effort to create unique assignments and write original essays as well as papers.

If their write-up is not original, i.e., it is plagiarised, they should be punished. It is the teacher’s responsibility to educate their students about plagiarism and enforce the punishments should their students not comply.

For students to avoid plagiarism and for teachers to find it, they both require a plagiarism checker. Now, all plagiarism checkers are not created equal. Some of them are better than others. In this article, we will list five such tools that both students and teachers can use.

1. Editpad

Editpad’s plagiarism checker is a competent tool that can give its competitors a run for their money. Since this plagiarism checker for students is free, students can easily check their assignments with the help of this plagiarism tool.

Editpad’s plagiarism checker does not perform like a standard plagiarism detector. What that means is that there is no database; instead, it compares the content against indexed sources online. If any source has similar content, then that source is listed in the plagiarism report.

Speaking of the report, the part of the text that is plagiarised is underlined in red, so users can spot it instantly. Other things included in the report are:

The degree of plagiarism
The degree of uniqueness
List of plagiarised sources
Total words
Number of unique words

All in all, this is a pretty comprehensive report. This brings us to the next topic, which is its accuracy. From the image, we can see that the content is 100% plagiarised, which is correct. That’s because we tested this tool using an article from Forbes. Since the entire article is already published, it should show up as 100% plagiarised. Going forward, the same article will be used to test all other tools on this list.

Another testament to this tool’s accuracy is the list of sources. It correctly identifies Forbes as the source of this article.

The paid version of this tool only allows users to check more words at once (around 3,000) while the free version lets you check 1,000 words. This is enough for students, as they seldom have to write more than a thousand words in their assignments. Hence, overall, this is a suitable tool for students and teachers owing to its accuracy and accessibility.

2. Prepostseo

Prepostseo is a free online toolkit. Its plagiarism checker is one of the best ones available on the internet. It provides a variety of useful features that are helpful to both students and teachers.

To check your content with this tool, you only need to copy-paste it into the text box. However, the free version of this tool can only check up to 1,000 words per check.

This is not a problem for most students, as most assignments and essays do not span 1,000 words. Naturally, that extends to their teachers as well, since they only have to check assignments that are shorter than 1,000 words.

For larger documents, they can either split the file into smaller chunks or they can upgrade to the premium version to increase the word limit.

We checked the content and got this result.

And we got the right result. The plagiarism checker did detect all of the content as plagiarised. It also correctly recognised the source as the Forbes article that we used.

So clearly, this tool works well. Great for teachers and students.

3. Paper Rater

Paper Rater is a free plagiarism checker. It is an online tool, and it allows people to check their content for plagiarism. It operates the same way as any other plagiarism checker and compares the inputted text with a bunch of online sources.

If a source has matching content as the input, then the tool includes that source in its report. Paper Rater is great for students and teachers because it is completely free. It is very easy to use and does not have any usage limits.

A student only needs to copy-paste or upload their file into the tool and click the “Get Report” button.

Once that is done, the tool generates a report in which it highlights the plagiarised parts and provides the sources as well. When we tested it, we got this result.

This report says that the content is 8% original, which is not quite correct. But an accuracy of 92% is still great. One weird thing about this report is that the same source is provided again and again for each individual matching sentence. But that is a minor issue, and students and teachers only need to know that this tool can do the job pretty well.

4. Study Moose

StudyMoose is another free plagiarism checker that is very helpful for students and teachers. It performs the same way as other plagiarism checkers, and it even generates a report in the same way.

This tool does not require an account, so students can easily access it without any issues. The method to use it is the same as with other tools, i.e., input content and click the “Check my essay” button.

Then the tool will generate a report. The report looks like this.

This time, the result says that the text is only 5% unique, meaning that it is 95% plagiarised. So, Study Moose is more accurate than Paper Rater but less accurate than Prepostseo. However, you should also consider that a 5% error is possible in all processes and can be safely ignored in most cases.

Anyhow, this is a great tool for students to check their work for accidental plagiarism. The red highlights are great for pinpointing the plagiarised areas, which can be edited to avoid plagiarism. Teachers can use it for finding out if students are cheating or not.

5. ITS

The free plagiarism checker by ITS can help students and teachers detect plagiarism in any given text. This plagiarism checker is a little bit different than the other tools on this list. Most of these changes are related to the UI and the information given to the user at the end of the check. But more about that later.

This tool works in the same way as other online plagiarism checkers and compares the given content against billions of online sources. However, its results leave a lot to be desired. The following features are missing, and they mar the experience a little bit.

No exact figure of plagiarism or uniqueness
Does not show the similarity index for each source
Does not highlight in any way which part of the text is plagiarised

So, all you can find out from that is whether the given content has plagiarism or not. But that said, it does detect the right source and even quite a lot of obscure sources too. And it is free to use, does not require an account, and does not have usage limits, which are all welcome features.

Conclusion

And those are the five best free plagiarism checkers for students and teachers to use. Students can utilise these free tools to find accidental plagiarism in their assignments and remove it before submission.

Teachers, on the other hand, can find out if students have cheated on their assignments or not. In this way, both parties can ensure that they are upholding academic integrity.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is using AI tools like ChatGPT considered plagiarism?

To be fair, it sort of depends. If you just grab what ChatGPT writes and hand it in, that’s copying. But if you’re using it to help you think or fix your grammar, and you actually rewrite it properly, no one’s going to call that plagiarism.

2. What punishment do you get for the first offence?

Usually, nothing extreme. They might warn you or make you redo the work. If they think you meant to cheat, then yeah, you could fail that piece. But for most people, it’s just a wake-up call.

3. My plagiarism score is 20% — is that normal?

Yeah, honestly, that’s not bad at all. Some of that score comes from quotes, names, or even the reference list. As long as you’ve written things yourself and cited correctly, 20% won’t worry your tutor much.

4. Which software do Irish universities use for plagiarism detection?

Mostly Turnitin. Every college I’ve heard of uses it — UCD, Trinity, Galway, all of them. It checks your file against millions of pages and old essays, just to see if you’ve borrowed anything.

5. If a citation is formatted incorrectly, does it count as plagiarism?

Nah, not really. That’s just poor formatting, not stealing. You might lose a small mark for it, but they only call it plagiarism when you skip giving credit completely.

6. How do you interpret Turnitin results?

Don’t panic when you see a number. Turnitin just highlights matches — could be quotes, references, anything. You’ve got to look through it and see if it’s something you actually copied or just common wording.

7. If I reuse my own old assignment, does that count as self-plagiarism?

Yeah, sort of. Even if it’s your own work, re-submitting it without saying so breaks the rules. Most tutors don’t mind if you build on your past stuff, but just ask first to be safe.

8. How is plagiarism handled in group work?

Usually, everyone gets called in together. They’ll talk through who did what. If one person copied, that person gets in trouble, but everyone still has to explain their bit — just how it goes.

9. I got a Turnitin report saying I plagiarized — am I going to fail?

Not always, no. If it’s just a few quotes or you’ve messed up the references, they’ll probably let you fix it. But if it looks like full-on copying, then yeah, that can lead to a fail. Just talk to your lecturer early on.

10. What is a good plagiarism checker that is free?

Honestly, Editpad’s one a lot of students use — simple, free, and doesn’t ask for sign-ups. You just paste your essay in, and it shows the copied bits in red. Prepostseo’s handy too if you’ve a bigger word count. They’re not perfect, but for free tools, they do the job fine. You’ll spot what’s borrowed before a teacher ever does.

11. Can someone check my essay?

Yeah, plenty of ways. Some colleges let you run it through their checker before you hand it in, but if not, you can use free ones online. Editpad, Prepostseo, or StudyMoose all catch the main stuff. Just remember — they’ll find the matches, but you’ve still got to fix them yourself. No one’s rewriting it for you.

12. Is Turnitin free for teachers?

Not really, no. It’s paid, and schools or universities cover the cost for staff. Teachers don’t usually sign up on their own — they get access through the college system. That’s why most use Turnitin inside Moodle or Blackboard rather than going to the site directly. So yeah, free for teachers to use, but not free to get.

13. Can ChatGPT do a plagiarism check?

No, not properly. It can help you reword something or explain why it might sound copied, but it can’t scan databases or match online text. You’d still need a real checker for that part. Think of ChatGPT as the helper, not the judge — it talks you through fixes, doesn’t test your essay.

14. Is it possible to find a good free plagiarism checker?

Yeah, course it is. Most of the ones people mention — Editpad, Prepostseo, or StudyMoose — work grand if you’re careful. They won’t give Turnitin-level reports, but they’ll show what’s risky before you hand in your work. Free’s fine when you’re still learning how to cite things right. Saves a fair few headaches, to be honest

5 Free Plagiarism Checkers for Irish Students and Teachers