Compared
EssayGuard vs Process Feedback
Process Feedback is a good free tool and an honest one. This page is about what EssayGuard adds on top, and when you do not need it.
In short
Process Feedback is a free tool with a hosted editor at write.processfeedback.org, a Google Docs extension, and a process report that breaks down where pasted text came from. EssayGuard records the same kind of session and adds a printable evidence report, retention windows per assignment, a published DPA, department and campus plans, and a snapshot cross-check that reads a fabricated history as unrecorded.
The two in one paragraph
Process Feedback is a nonprofit-style free tool that positions itself as an AI detection alternative. Students write either in its hosted editor at write.processfeedback.org, with nothing to install, or in Google Docs with its extension, and the instructor receives a process report with a paste-source breakdown. That breakdown is the feature people recommend it for: in a July 2026 r/Professors thread the top comment, at 35 points, recommends Process Feedback for exactly that. We could not verify its paid tiers; the pricing page returned a 403 when we checked, so this page treats the tool as free and says nothing about what a paid plan might include. EssayGuard records the same kind of session in its own hosted editor: every keystroke, revision, pause and paste, with server-side timestamps, cross-checked against periodic document snapshots. What it adds is the layer around the record: a printable evidence report written for a reader who has no reason to trust you, a retention window per assignment, a published DPA, and department and campus plans with a chair view and case-scoped access for an integrity office.
Source: processfeedback.org and write.processfeedback.org, checked 2026-09-08 (pricing page returned 403); r/Professors thread, July 2026; EssayGuard facts from essayguard.io.
Side by side
| Process Feedback | EssayGuard | |
|---|---|---|
| Who installs what | Nothing for the hosted editor. The Google Docs extension for classes that draft in Docs. | Nothing for the hosted editor. The instructor shares a link. Classes that draft in Docs can use the EssayGuard extension on the assignment document. |
| Where students write | The hosted editor at write.processfeedback.org, or Google Docs with the extension. | EssayGuard’s hosted editor, in any browser, including inside an LMS frame. |
| What is recorded | The writing process, reported with a breakdown of where pasted text came from. | Every keystroke, revision, pause and paste, with server-side timestamps, plus periodic snapshots. Pasted text stays marked in the replay. |
| Who owns the record | A process report is produced for the instructor. We have not verified who holds it afterward or for how long. | The instructor’s course, under a retention window set per assignment, with deletion at the end of the window committed to in the DPA. |
| Can a history be faked | In the hosted editor, text is recorded as it enters, so a finished document alone does not produce a record. We have not seen Process Feedback publish how it treats a replayed session. | Snapshots cross-check the event stream. A replayed or fabricated history reads as unrecorded rather than as writing. |
| Price | Free. Paid tiers, if any, unverified; the pricing page returned 403 in September 2026. | Free for the rest of this semester. $99 a year for an instructor, from $495 a year for a department, from $2,950 a year for a campus. |
| Contract needed | No. | No for an instructor. Department and campus plans come with a published DPA and can be invoiced against a PO. |
Source: processfeedback.org, checked 2026-09-08; EssayGuard facts from essayguard.io and essayguard.io/dpa.
Choose Process Feedback if
- You want a free tool, and you do not need a report written for someone outside your office.
- The paste-source breakdown is the thing you want most. It is good, and the people who use it say so.
- You are trying process-based assessment for the first time and want to see whether it changes your teaching before spending anything.
- Your class writes in Google Docs and the extension covers what you need.
Choose EssayGuard if
- A case may leave your office. The evidence report is written for a chair, a hearing panel, a dean or a parent, and it states what the record does and does not establish in plain language.
- You need a retention window, a published DPA, and a stated FERPA posture. EssayGuard acts as a School Official with a Legitimate Educational Interest, and deletion at the end of the window is a commitment in the DPA, not a setting.
- You are buying for a department or a campus: a chair view, integrity office access scoped to open cases, one annual invoice, and a DPA on your institution’s paper at campus scale.
- You want the snapshot cross-check, so a history replayed into the editor by an auto typer reads as unrecorded rather than as writing.
- You want a whole semester to decide, free, and then a price that is published rather than a pricing page you cannot open.
What a keystroke record shows
Both tools rest on the same observation: a finished document cannot show how it was made. A keystroke record can. Typed text arrives at a human rhythm, with pauses where the writer stopped to think and deletions where a sentence did not work. Pasted text arrives in a block; Process Feedback tells you where it came from, and EssayGuard keeps it marked for the rest of the session. The order tells its own story: a conclusion drafted first, a thesis that changed at the halfway mark, a paragraph rebuilt until it held. That is the material for a conversation with a student, and it is what neither a similarity score nor an AI percentage can give you.
What neither does
Neither Process Feedback nor EssayGuard can tell you whether the ideas were the student’s. A record shows how text entered the editor: typed or pasted, from where, in what order, over how long. It does not show what was on a second screen, what a tutor said, or whether an outline was generated elsewhere and retyped by hand. Treat the record as evidence for a conversation with the student, not as a verdict, and do not let either tool be the last word in a hearing.
Neither is an AI detector. Process Feedback says as much in its own positioning, and EssayGuard does no stylistic analysis and issues no finding of any kind. If you have arrived here from a detector whose percentages could not be defended, both of these are the right kind of tool, and the free one is a fine place to start.
Questions people ask
Is Process Feedback free?
Yes, as far as we can verify. The hosted editor and the Google Docs extension are free, and the tool describes itself in nonprofit-style terms. Its pricing page returned a 403 error when we checked on 2026-09-08, so if paid tiers exist we could not confirm what they include or cost. This page treats it as a free tool.
Is EssayGuard free?
For the rest of this semester, yes: every course you teach, unlimited students, full session replay, once per teacher. After that it is $99 a year for an instructor, from $495 a year for a department of up to eight instructors, and from $2,950 a year for a campus.
Do students install anything for either tool?
No, for the hosted editors. Process Feedback's editor at write.processfeedback.org and EssayGuard's editor both run in a browser from a link. Each also offers a Google Docs extension for classes that draft in Docs, and that does require an install.
Which should a single instructor pick?
If you want to see how students write and use that in feedback, and no record is likely to leave your office, Process Feedback is enough and costs nothing. If a paper might be questioned and the record might go to a chair, a panel or a parent, EssayGuard's evidence report, retention window and DPA are what you are paying for. The free semester lets you decide with a real class.
Is either tool an AI detector?
No. Process Feedback positions itself as an AI detection alternative, and EssayGuard is not a detector either. Both record how a document was written. Neither scores prose for style or reports a probability that a passage was machine-written.
Try it with one assignment
The rest of this semester costs nothing. Setup takes three minutes.
Every course you teach, unlimited students. Students install nothing.