Quillify vs. Instrumentl
How many hours did your last proposal take?
Grant writing software that also finds the funding and manages the award
Quillify is better for you if you would rather not pay for the year before you find your first grant.
Instrumentl has no free tier. Its $299 price means paying the whole year up front. Quillify starts at $0, and unused credits roll over.
Free to start, no card. Checked October 21, 2026.
Customer results
Our customers have won $6.6M+ from funders including USDA Rural Business Development Grant, Oklahoma Department of Aerospace & Aeronautics, Texas Semiconductor Fund, OCAST Industry Innovation Initiative. Read the stories
Price, side by side
| Quillify | Instrumentl | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Permanent. Browsing and keyword search, no card. | None. 14-day trial, no card. |
| Entry | $0, plans from $99/month | $299/month billed annually, $349 monthly |
| Top published | $750/month | $999/month paid annually, $1,159 monthly |
Our plans and pricing. Every Instrumentl plan, checked October 12, 2026.
| Tool | Price per month and jobs at that price | Jobs it does |
|---|---|---|
| Quillify | $0 for 2, $1 for 3, $99 for 4 | Finds grants, Contracts and lenders, Writes proposals, Manages the award |
| Instrumentl | $299 for 1, $499 for 2, $999 for 3 | Finds grants, Writes proposals, Manages the award |
Find it, write it, manage it: three steps
Find: all the money
Grants, government contracts, and community lenders in one search, with the funders who accept applications flagged.
Write: the whole proposal
Lil’ Q drafts from documents you already have, checks every requirement, and grades the draft before you send it.
Manage: the award
After you win, your award letter becomes a calendar of every report and deadline, and Quillify drafts the reports when they come due.
What you get with Quillify that Instrumentl does not offer
Post-award dates from your award letter
Hand Quillify an award letter and it puts the reporting schedule, closeout window, record-keeping period, and prior-approval changes on your calendar. Each date quotes the letter’s own sentence wherever the letter states it.
The agency’s own payment record
On federal awards Quillify shows what the agency has paid out from its published record. A slow drawdown sits right beside the funder’s own figure.
A slow month costs you nothing
Quillify starts free with pay as you go. Pay-as-you-go credits never expire and plan credits roll over for a year, while Instrumentl bills every month whether or not you search.
Federal and state contracts too
Quillify carries 11,000+ open contract opportunities from SAM.gov nationwide plus the state portals we ingest directly, with 91,000+ tracked in total. Instrumentl’s browse taxonomy has no procurement category.
Community lenders and patient capital
Quillify lists 480+ CDFI lenders plus foundations making loans, guarantees, and equity investments. When a loan fits better than a grant, you see both.
A compliance checklist from every announcement
Quillify turns an announcement into a checklist of every requirement, where it is addressed, its risk, its deadline, and what your team must produce. Instrumentl describes no requirement extraction.
Revise a draft in place
Say “make the budget narrative more specific” and Quillify edits that section and leaves the rest alone. Instrumentl does not describe revising a draft in place.
You can start at zero
Quillify starts at $0 with browsing and keyword search included, and paid plans start at $99. Instrumentl starts at $299 a month billed annually with no free tier.
A public answer on AI and funders
Quillify publishes a page on whether funders accept AI-written applications, with guides on what each funder allows. Instrumentl does not address the question on its site.
Open the rest for the detail.
$300,000 from about four hours of editing
Quillify wrote Grantvest’s application to the OCAST Industry Innovation Initiative, a competitive state program. About four hours of human editing went in before it was filed. It won $300,000. The full story
Switching is three steps
- 1. Start free. Search what you qualify for. No card, no call.
- 2. Upload what you already have. Past proposals, budgets, and reports become the documents Quillify writes from.
- 3. Keep Instrumentl while you try it. Nothing has to move on day one.
Still weighing it up? The wider set of alternatives to Instrumentl, and the whole category in one table.
See what you qualify for today.
Browsing and keyword search are free, and there is no card required.