Kibin.com

Kibin.com is not a writing service in the normal sense of the term. Founded in 2011, Kibin promotes itself as a writing assistance service for students, not as a company that produces written products. To conduct a review as requested by some of our users, though, we tried to use the same criteria that we use for other writing services – the content on the website, testimonials of site users published on the site, customer comments and feedback we solicited and received and that we found on the web, pricing, and any unique benefits the company offers.

Services Offered

It is clear from the Kibin.com landing page that the services offered have nothing to do with crafting original writing pieces for students. Instead, it offers the following:

• Editing and proofreading of academic writing that students have already crafted and submitted for review by Kibin.com professional staff.
• A “paper grader” service in which editors review a piece, using a standard rubric, and provide a grade, along with recommendations for improvement
• A thesis builder resource, assisting students in crafting solid thesis statements for their academic writing pieces
• Essay examples in virtually all content areas, offered for free, once a user signs up and agrees to the policies of the company
• A large blog with posts related to crafting solid academic writing pieces

Students who want editing and proofreading will upload their writing pieces and then receive a pricing quote. All other services are free of charge.

Quality of Products And Writing

Before ordering editing and proofreading, students can look at samples of edited pieces to view exactly how editors work and the types of comments and recommendations they make for improvement. They do not change the original writing through this editing process. 

If proofreading is ordered, editors will actually correct errors in sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation, but will not correct organizational structure, flow, transitions, thesis statement, or paragraph topic sentences. These are reserved for editing.

To determine the quality of editing and proofreading, we relied upon customer feedback that we were able to find or that was submitted to us. Here is what those customers had to say:

• Proofreading services were pretty good, that is, the editors seemed to find and correct those grammatical errors
• Editing services were not as customers expected. While suggestions were made for improvement, they did not provide the detail that customers believed should have been given for the price paid
• The blog did provide helpful information on how to write all types of essays and papers
• The sample essays were somewhat helpful though they contained errors in grammar and word usage

In all, we have determined that Kibin.com is a legal and reliable service in terms of providing helpful information to students, but the quality of editing could use some improvement.

Pricing And Discounts

Kibin prices are individually calculated and are based on the length and complexity of the piece and the deadline requirement. Editing a basic essay, for example, will be less expensive than a paper that involves research and citations. One customer reported to us that she paid $45 for a short 5-page research essay with a 72-hour deadline.

Customers will not know the price until they upload their piece of writing and submit their deadline requirements. The company also clearly states that if ESL students use their services, the proofreading will cost more, because there are often more grammatical and word usage errors.

Relative to discounts, there are none. Once a student receives a price quote, that is what it is.

Payment methods are standard for the industry. Customers may pay via any major credit card or PayPal, and a secure third-party payment processor is used. This means that customers can feel safe in submitting their financial information because Kibin does not receive or store it.

Extra Features

The free resources are extensive – the paper grader, the thesis builder, the sample essays and papers, and the large blog. To use the paper grader, the thesis builder, and to access the sample essays, the user must register with the site and provide their email addresses, so that the company can continue to contact them. This might be a “turn-off” to some who do not want their inboxes filled with unsolicited promotions.

There is information on the six major principals of the company. Beyond that, they state that they use freelance editors from all over the world so that they can accommodate students in any time zone.

Final Recommendations

Kibin.com is clearly a trusted and reliable editing and proofreading service company. It receives submissions, provides clear pricing quotes, and delivers according to the customer requirements. Further, it provides a number of free resources that may be helpful to some students, from high school through graduate work. There are some issues related to quality, based upon customer feedback. Overall, in terms of the fee-based services offered, we are assigning a rating of 3.5, on a scale of 1-5.