Exploring an Old-Timer:
An Insight Into the First Writing Service

First Writing Service has a rating of 4.1 stars based on 85 reviews, so customers are mostly satisfied with the quality of the service. Things that positive reviews note are a user-friendly interface, low prices, and fast turnaround time. The platform holds the 41st place in our ranking of the best writing websites.

Given the small number of reviews (both good and bad) and the lack of detailed information about the platform online, we knew that we had to do our own 1ws review at some point. After learning a bit more about the service, we finally decided to place an order for a 5-page research paper in Law to see how it works for us.

Besides that, we did a thorough examination of the platform and will cover its every aspect in detail here. Jumping ahead, despite the high ratings and obvious positive aspects of the platform, we still weren't completely satisfied. But hang tight ‒ we'll discuss everything in order.

We can answer the question "What is 1ws.com?" with just one sentence: it's a platform with good service but insufficient quality. We genuinely enjoyed many aspects of 1ws: browsing the site is a pure pleasure, our interactions with customer support were great, the ordering process was easy, and so on.

However, the mediocre quality of the paper is a big disadvantage that even the lowest prices can't compensate for. 1ws might be a good option for simple school-level essays that don't require much from the author. But we feel this platform is not suitable for college-level papers or anything more advanced, at least at the moment.

Everything aside from that and a number of small drawbacks (which we're going to discuss later), is good. If 1ws can improve the quality of its papers, or perhaps reconsider its approach to selecting experts, it could become a top player in the academic help market. As for now, we don't think a lot of progress has been made in that regard while being on the market for over 20 years.

As you've likely figured out, 1ws.com, also known as First Writing Service, is a platform that offers academic writing services. The name is somewhat symbolic ‒ according to the website, the platform was founded back in 2001. At the same time, it’s odd that a platform with a two-decade history has less than 100 reviews online.

The website itself looks good; it's clear that much effort was put into its design. It's easy to navigate whether you're just a guest or logged in: both the homepage and your personal account page are very user-friendly.

The deadline for our order was 48 hours, and we actually received it slightly ahead of schedule ‒ seems like the positive reviews about 1ws's speed weren't lying after all. The quality of our paper, though, was average: nothing special, with a few minor errors and typos, but nothing major. Our author's lengthy personal reflections may have disrupted the paper's structure a bit in the end. And we believe there's a reason for this, which we'll discuss later. But overall, it was okay.

1ws.com offers three ways to reach out to the support team: email, live chat, and a phone call. The platform has two separate emails: one for order-related questions and the other for suggestions or complaints. Nonetheless, we tried all three contact options, asking the support team various questions.  

We received quick responses via live chat and phone, but the email reply, unfortunately, arrived 10-12 hours later. But to be honest, it was expected, as email is more suited for feedback rather than urgent queries.

In general, every support agent that we communicated with was courteous, helpful, and tried to answer all of our questions as clearly and efficiently as possible. The conversations were smooth and pleasant, especially with the support agent on the phone.

A phone call also turned out to be the quickest way to contact support on 1ws. The most convenient option, in our opinion, is the live chat, which we used till the end of our journey with the platform. However, agents don't respond that quickly during the night. But at least it's possible to contact them at that time ‒ the website says the support is available 24/7, and it's true.

Now this is where we first had some concerns. While we can't speak for every single 1ws essay writer in the pool, the one we were assigned seemed to have little experience in writing research papers. Although they somewhat managed to do the job, the overall paper quality fell short of the undergraduate level that we needed.

Our team believes this issue may stem from the service's approach to selecting experts they cooperate with. 1ws offers very low prices, which often results in lower pay for the writers. Top-tier writers are unlikely to work for low wages, so we suspect there aren't many highly skilled writers on the platform.

However, these are just our assumptions. With only a few reviews available, it's hard to confirm or deny this ‒ most positive reviews focus on the overall experience rather than the quality of the final product.

The platform offers extremely competitive and affordable prices for its writing services. The lowest price for writing from scratch (an undergraduate-level paper with the longest 14-day deadline) is just $10 per page. The highest one, a professional-level (we believe it's the platform's equivalent for a Master's) paper with the tightest deadline of 3 hours, costs $57 per page.

Compared to other writing services, these prices here are among the lowest we've seen. We get that 1ws pricing structure is designed to be accessible to students and professionals on a budget. But as we already speculated, this affordability might come from worse compensation for writers, which in turn may affect the quality of work.

At the same time, 1ws offers discounts and promo codes. You can get 15% off your first order and bulk discounts for big orders: 5% off orders over $500 and 10% off orders over $1000. Sounds cool, but it’s hard to imagine how often they receive orders totaling more than $1000. Unfortunately, any discounts for orders under $30 aren't applicable.

1ws also has a loyalty program that rewards customers by giving them a 10% credit for the amount paid for each order. You can use that credit to pay for your future orders or accumulate it to eventually get a paper for free.

Customers on 1ws are entitled to only three free revisions for each order. They can be requested at any time before the final paper is approved. After approval, you can still ask for a revision but within the allowed timeframe ‒ 7 days for orders up to 20 pages and 14 days for bigger ones.

For any revision requested past that deadline, you'll have to pay extra (though the website doesn't tell how much exactly). The platform won't revise your paper if revision instructions contradict the initial instructions you provided while placing the order. This rule is similar to those on other academic help platforms, and it's completely understandable.

You can also get a partial refund if none of the revisions helped. If the paper is already completed, you can get 50% of your money back, while the other half will cover the work already done by your writer.

The refund system on 1ws is complicated yet understandable. You can get 50%, 70%, and 100% refunds depending on the circumstances, e.g., the time passed since you confirmed your order and other specific reasons for requesting a refund. Long story short ‒ you won't get your money back in full if you're not satisfied with the final version of your paper.

Deadlines on 1ws are very flexible, ranging from as short as 3 hours to over 14 days if you're not in a rush. A great thing about choosing deadlines here is that the service tells you upfront how much can realistically be done in a given timeframe. For example, a minimum deadline for papers over 3 pages is 6 hours, 12 hours for 5 pages, 24 hours for 10 pages, and so on.

A lot of platforms don't usually bother with this, even though it's not that hard to calculate everything in advance. This way, you know exactly what to expect and can plan your order accordingly, knowing that your expert can handle the size of your paper within the deadline. This small but super useful detail helps you avoid any last-minute surprises.

The platform claims that every project is written from scratch and checked for plagiarism using the "WebCheck system." However, if you google that name, you won't find anything about it. On the contrary, some people tried to expose it and claimed that the whole system was fake. So, whether the platform is truthful about its plagiarism checks is up to you to decide.  

For this 1ws.com review, we had to do our own plagiarism checks because the platform charges additionally for extra features (that includes a plagiarism report). To check the uniqueness of papers under 10 pages, you'll have to pay an additional $10. Maybe those extra fees are one of the ways the platform compensates for its extremely low base prices, but regardless, we believe this feature should be free.  

Otherwise, our paper was pretty solid in terms of originality. Different tools showed a uniqueness ranging from 90 to 94%, which is a great result for academic writing.

Despite its attractive design, informative website, and really low prices, we still find it hard to recommend the platform to our readers. The most important aspect of any academic help service is the quality of the papers, and 1ws falls short in this regard at the moment. Along with other seemingly minor drawbacks, this makes the platform average and certainly not a top-tier academic help service.

*Screenshots used for review and criticism purposes fall under the 'fair use' doctrine of the United States Copyright Law.