Short answer: Claude scores 9.8/10 on the Free plan ($0/mo). Free plan covers every checklist item; usage caps are the only catch.
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Tool
Score
Quality
Speed
Price
Ease
Verdict
1
Claude →profileScored on: Free$17/mo billed annually ($200/yr; $20 monthly)Free plan
9.8
10
9
10
10
Free plan covers every checklist item; usage caps are the only catch. Why?
2
ChatGPT →profileScored on: Free$20/mo (Plus, billed monthly)Free plan. No annual billing
9.7
9.9
9
10
10
Same checklist as Claude on the free tier; upload cap is tighter. Why?
3
Grammarly →profileScored on: Free$12/mo billed annually ($144/yr; $30 monthly)Free plan
7.5
5.1
8
10
10
Polishes the proposal you wrote; it does not research or pitch. Why?
Scores come from public evidence (vendor pricing pages, help docs, feature pages), checked 2026-10-22. We have not run hands-on tests yet. They are planned, and these scores will be updated. See every source ↓
A proposal’s job is one thing: get a reply that turns into a paid contract. We score the tools on what they can verifiably do for that job today.
How this ranking was scored: desk research, version 1, checked 2026-10-22. We checked each tool against the public checklist below using vendor pricing pages, help-center docs and feature pages. Every point links to its source under “Why each tool scored what it did”. Plan scored: Cheapest plan that can draft a full proposal from the brief. All three tools do this on a free plan.
We have not run hands-on tests yet. They are planned with the fixture in tests/proposals/brief-01.md, and scores will be updated when they are done.
Why each tool scored what it did
Each Quality and Speed check is worth 2 points (2 = verified on the plan scored, 1 = limited, add-on, higher tier or conflicting docs, 0 = not available or not verifiable). Price bands, monthly list price: $0 = 10 · ≤$10 = 9 · ≤$15 = 8 · ≤$20 = 7 · ≤$25 = 6 · ≤$30 = 5 · ≤$40 = 4 · ≤$50 = 3 · ≤$75 = 2 · more = 1. Quality here blends in public review ratings: 0.8 × checklist + 0.2 × (2 × rating), because every tool in this ranking has a Product Hunt rating with 20+ reviews.
