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Smodin vs Trinka: an essay writer against an academic proofreader
One of these writes the paper and the other checks it. Smodin will write a full essay from a prompt and, on its paid plans, rewrite the result to “detect and bypass top AI detectors”. Trinka works on text you have written: it checks grammar and academic style, and validates the references you already cite.
If the work has to be yours, Trinka is the one to use, and a year of Trinka Premium costs less than a year of Smodin's cheapest plan. Smodin makes sense only if you want a draft generated and you'll check every source in it yourself.
Prices and features checked on October 17, 2026.
At a glance
Writing assistants help you write; essay generators write the essay for you.
| Product | Type | Paid from | Free tier | Citations | Ghostwriting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smodin | Essay generator | $12.99/month | Yes | Not verified | Writes the essay |
| Trinka | Writing assistant | $48/year | Yes | Does not cite | Drafts text when asked |
One generates, one corrects
Smodin is a toolkit under one subscription: an AI writer, AI chat, an AI content detector, a humanizer, a plagiarism checker, a rewriter, a summarizer and a translator. The writer drafts essays, articles and research papers from a topic, with your choice of style, tone and length, and expands the next section on request.
Trinka's main job is correction. It checks grammar, punctuation and academic style, adds style-guide corrections for APA, AMA, ACS, AGU and IEEE on paid plans, and runs in Word, the browser, a Windows app and on LaTeX files. It does offer “Write & Rewrite with AI”, but capped by monthly requests per plan.
References: invented or inspected
Smodin says its writer can “Find high-quality sources” and cite them in APA or MLA, but it doesn't say where those sources come from. It also claims the writer makes facts, data and statistics “100% accurate”, without saying how. Users disagree: on Reddit, one says its references “need a second look”, and others report having to check facts by hand.
Trinka doesn't supply sources at all. Its Citation Checker goes the other way: it takes your reference list, validates it against Crossref and flags retracted, hallucinated and predatory sources. If you've ever pasted references out of an AI tool, that check is the more useful of the two features.
Detectors, humanizers and your integrity policy
Both sell checks. Trinka's plagiarism checks and AI detector spend credits, and the free plan gets 4 a month. Smodin bundles an AI content detector and a plagiarism checker into its subscription.
Smodin also sells the other side of that check. Its plans promise “Highest humanization possible to bypass Turnitin-level detection”, and its humanizer page calls the output “undetectable”. Submitting that text as your own is an academic-integrity risk, and Smodin's own writer FAQ tells you to follow your institution's policy. Treat the humanizer as a reason for caution, not a feature.
What reviewers say about the output
Trinka's Trustpilot reviewers credit it with improving the grammar and academic tone of manuscripts and theses. Originality.ai, which sells a grammar checker of its own, found in a test that it caught many errors but missed misspellings such as “bussiness” and “atract”. So run a final spell-check of your own.
Smodin's positive Trustpilot reviews mostly praise its summaries and help tidying wording, not the essay writer. One paying reviewer reports inconsistent results for the same document. Read its ratings with care, too: Smodin's site shows 4.8 out of 5 citing Trustpilot, while Trustpilot says Smodin's rating “is unavailable due to a breach of our guidelines” and that it has removed fake reviews.
Price and free use
On annual billing, Trinka Premium is $48 a year. Smodin Starter is $10 a month billed annually, which comes to $120 a year, and Premium is $16 a month. Trinka's Premium Plus, at $125 a year, is $5 more than a year of Smodin Starter; its Confidential Data plan is $300. Smodin also bills monthly at $12.99 and $19.99. Trinka Premium is $20 billed monthly, and its $48 and $300 yearly prices are shown as 40% off $80 and $500.
For free use, Trinka's Basic plan never expires: 5,000 words of writing help, 5 AI writing requests and 4 credits a month, in lite grammar mode. Its users complain about those limits more than anything else. Smodin lets you try its tools without signing up, but its pricing page lists only paid plans and doesn't publish free limits.
Smodin's billing draws complaints: users on Trustpilot and Reddit describe annual charges they didn't expect and refused refunds. Check which billing period you're choosing before you pay.
Which should you choose?
Choose Smodin if you want an AI draft plus rewriting, summarizing and translation under one subscription, and you'll verify every source and fact before you use any of it. Stay away from the humanizer if your work is assessed.
Choose Trinka if you've written the paper and want academic grammar, style-guide corrections and a check that your references aren't retracted or invented. The free Basic plan is enough to test it on a few thousand words.
There's a middle path if you want help writing without handing the essay over. EthiWrite, our tool, cites only from sources in your Library and offers short autocomplete you accept or ignore, a sentence at a time. Trinka goes further on language polish, and EthiWrite's quotas are finite on every plan.
FAQ
- Can Trinka detect AI-written text?
- It has an AI detector, which runs on credits along with plagiarism checks and the citation tools. The free plan includes 4 credits a month.
- Are Smodin's citations reliable?
- Smodin doesn't say where its sources come from, and users report references and facts that need checking by hand. Treat every reference it adds as unverified until you've read the source.
- Will Smodin write my whole essay?
- Yes: its plans let you “write full essays with simple prompts”. Its writer FAQ also says “Always follow your institution's academic integrity policies when using AI writing tools.”
- Does Trinka work in Microsoft Word?
- Yes. Trinka works in Word, in the browser, as a Windows app and on LaTeX files. Smodin's Premium plan includes a Chrome extension.
- Is Smodin free to use?
- You can try its tools without signing up, but its pricing page lists only paid plans, from $12.99 a month on monthly billing, and it doesn't publish its free limits.