PlagScan is a plagiarism checker designed around the educational institution. While there is a plethora of tools available, both individual and commercial, PlagScan has remained a competitor for both price and accuracy. However, compared to some of the other top competitors, PlagScan has some drawbacks.
First, it can be a bit slow compared to programs like Copysentry and Plagium. Second, it is somewhat limited in features.
Subscriptions and Prices
For starters, PlagScan offers a free trial to test it out without buying first. For students and individual users, PlagScan gives the first 2,000 words for free. There are also options for private and business use.
Private
A note to make, these choices are: prepayment options† The first choice is a 6,000 word, 24 page option. This option costs $1 per 1,000 words and costs $6. The second choice is 17,500 words, 70 pages and costs about $0.74 per 1,000 words, totaling $13. Fourth, there is a 40,000 words, 160 pages option . This option works out to about $0.63 per 1,000 words and is about $25 in total. Finally, the 100,000 word option with 400 pages is about $0.50 per 1,000 words and about $50 in total.
Company
The business options are different from the private options in that they are not prices based on words, but rather pages. There are three levels; Lite, Professional and Enterprise. Lite provides a URL checker, plagiarism checker, and email support. Professional adds API access and full reports. Company adds even more with Private Repository and Premium Support.
To get into business pricing, at 200 pages, averaging 250 words per page, Lite costs $18 per month. Moving on, Professional costs about $20 per month and Enterprise is an additional $3 for $23 per month. At 3200 pages, Lite costs $255 per month, Professional $286 per month and Enterprise $330 per month. The integrated pricing tool reaches a maximum of 102400 pages, averaging 25,600,000 words per month. Lite for this format costs $7,140 per month, Professional $7,930 per month and Enterprise $9,120.
Interface and in use
All in all, PlagScan’s interface is relatively simple. Side-by-side mode allows you to compare your originally uploaded document against possible matches.
You can also look in standard view, which keeps the main document in the middle, the header at the top with information about “Plag Level” and a sidebar with resources. A handful of different colors are overlaid on your original document to easily show where plagiarism may have occurred. Red text exactly matches a source, blue may have been reworded or reformulated, and green is text marked as a quote.
support
There are quite a few support options for PlagScan users to gather more information. There are how-to videos to help you use the product, step-by-step guides, and guides explaining how to work within the program.
In addition, there is an extensive FAQ section, documentation for API and LMS integration, as well as the Reseller Partner Program. Finally, there is a contact page where you can send a form to the team or even call to ask questions. They were even kind enough to give their address for their headquarters in Germany.
final verdict
All things considered, PlagScan is a pretty robust anti-plagiarism program. While some other programs may have some standalone functions, no program should be used solely for plagiarism detection. PlagScan themselves say in their training and support videos that human interaction is the only real way to determine if it is plagiarism. However, as a counter-infringement tool, PlagScan is certainly a sensible tool to add to your arsenal.
