Hi! I’ve just used 10 different resume builders to create 10 different versions of my resume. Why?
Choosing the right resume builder for you and your CV can be a struggle. I wanted to test each of them so you don’t have to waste your precious time.
Speaking of which, let’s do this fast: I'm Martin, I'm the leadwriter at Kickresume, and these are the ten most popular resume builders I could find. I have looked at both free and paid resume builders so I could tell you what makes each of them great. Here we go!
What is a resume builder?
Resume builder is a tool that makes your life and job search much easier. You don'thave to spend hours writing your own resume in programs that you're not too familiar with. Instead, you can use one of the resume builders that will do the work for you! One can choose from pre-existing visually attractive templates that will captivate your future employer immediately. There are free and paid resume websites that offer this service, depending on what you are looking for. Now, let’s find the perfect one for you!
1. Kickresume
Yes, I work for Kickresume. Because of that, I don't want to review Kickresume myself.
Instead, I’m going to show you what other people had to say about Kickresume.
“Quite honestly one of the best and most useful products I have come across. The resume templates are amazing! Too good :). I created a new version and within 3 days, I had interviews with GitLab, Salesforce, Heroku, Red Hat, and IBM!” —Brandon Stephan
“This is one of the best companies ever. They charge around 700 percent less for a resume rewrite over Monster, Indeed, etc… $4 a month, I am one happy customer.” — Cody Noyes (Although, technically, it’s not really a rewrite. We prefer to call it “proofreading”.)
“Honestly, I don’t review things, ever. But this site is next level. I actually have been raving to my friends about it. So simple, so intuitive, so well designed, tons of options, zero messing around with spacing and alignment. Made the best resume I’ve ever had, took me half an hour. Just info in, gorgeous resume out. Worth the price hands down.” — Keith Allan
You can also have a look at other free services that we offer, such as tips for job searching that can be found in other articles at our blog. Here, you can also find plenty of resume examples, and many other helpful tools!
If you're not convinced yet, what follows is what our direct competitors had to say about the pros and cons of Kickresume. We’re in the same market. We fight over the same customer. Yet, they had to admit this (thank you guys):
What others liked about Kickresume:
“[Large] number of templates” (Source: Zety)
“Website maker” (Source: Zety)
“A lot of strong features, resume and cover letter templates available for the freemium version.” (Source: Novoresume)
“Pre-written phrases to help you out in case you’re not sure how to phrase your achievements.” (Source: Novoresume)
“Grammar correction proofreading services available, if needed.” (Source: Novoresume)
What they didn’t like about Kickresume:
- “Very basic pre-written content.”(Source: Zety)
- “Limited options when making a free resume.” (Source: Zety)
- “Most templates are creative and sometimes too vibrant — can be a bad thing depending on where you’re applying.” (Source: Novoresume)
With Kickresume, you can choose free resume tools, as well as premium ones, for which you have to pay.
Kickresume’s Pricing
- Freemium: available
- 6 Months Free Premium for students and teachers
- 1 Month Premium: $24 per month
- 3 Months Premium: $13 per month ($39 billed every three months)
- 12 Months Premium: $8 per month + 1 free proofreading included ($96 per year)
Also, there's a bonus for you! If you subscribe for more than a month, up to 5 of your friends get a month of Kickresume Premium for free!
Kickresume’s Templates
- 3 free templates
- 34 premium templates
2. Zety
To begin with, for all of the Zety’s resume templates, you have to pay. In return, this is what you get:
What I liked about this resume builder:
- Impressive auto-suggestion feature which comes handy when writing the section about work experience and skills.
- Very good guides and resume content (and it’s available to anyone without having to sign up for it).
- Clean templates that are well-constructed, simple, and no-nonsense.
- Resume score. Once you’re done, Zety will score your resume and tell you how you can make it better. (But from my experience, this is a bit hit or miss.)
What I didn’t like about this resume builder:
- Clunky copy&paste. The rich text editor started acting up on me when I tried to copy-paste my information into it.
- Confusing UI. It’s easy to get lost in the interface sometimes.
- Not-so-smart editor. The editor was sometimes trying to be too clever but ended up being stupid (e.g. forced capitalization in “University Of Amsterdam”).
- No page breaks. In the preview, the resume page seems to continue indefinitely, not giving you a proper idea of what it is going to look like when printing it out.
- Unsuitable for creatives. All templates have a very similar, conservative, and rather a dry vibe. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. On the other hand, if you’re looking to create a resume that’s a bit more “out there”, you should probably look elsewhere.
- Poor customization options. In most cases, you can only change the color of some parts of your resume.
- Little misleading. Zety allows you to create a whole resume for free but in the end, you cannot download it unless you pay.
Zety’s Pricing
- First 14 days Full Access: $2.70
- After first 14 days Full Access: $24.70 per 4 weeks
- 12 Months Full Access: $5.95 per month ($71.40 paid upfront)
Zety’s Templates
- 0 free templates
- 13 paid templates. They say they offer “20+ best resume templates”. I couldn’t find more than 13.
- All templates customizable
Finally, you should know that I didn’t pay for their Full Access. Because of that, there may be some features that I didn'tmention.
Also, here'sa more in-depth comparison of Kickresume vs Zety.
3. VisualCV
Onto the next one!
What I liked about this resume builder:
- Live preview. You can edit your resume directly in the live preview if you want.
- Rich text copy/paste works flawlessly and there are no hiccups.
- Varied templates. A nice, varied collection of templates.
- Customization options. Templates are customizable. I was even able to change paragraph margins, which is quite rare.
- Clear webpage information. All the information was easy to find.
What I didn’t like about this resume builder:
- Sometimes, the template construction was confusing. It wasn’t always clear what some of the buttons do. Because of that, I accidentally deleted my content twice. But that could just be me.
VisualCV Pricing
- Pro Quarterly: $13/month (billed $39 for 3 months)
- Pro Monthly: $20/month
VisualCV Templates
- 1 free template and cover letter
- 20+ PRO templates
4. ResumeGenius
Another paid resume maker website!
What I liked about this resume builder:
- I liked how it encourages you to mention your extracurricular activities, GPA, and awards when filling in the Education section.
- MS Word download. Some people may like the option to download their resume in the MS Word format and not in PDF
- 1 on 1 help. They offer “1 on 1 help from an experienced career consultant”. That’s something that no other resume builder offers. On the other hand, I'm not sure how expensive it is.
What I didn’t like about this resume builder:
- Step-by-step editor. Instead of allowing me to enter all my information at once, it required me to fill it in step-by-step. This has quickly become time-consuming, as I had to go through every single possible section, whether I wanted to include it or not. And it made me do it every time I wanted to make changes to my resume.
- Preview possible only at the end. I was able to see a preview of my resume only AFTER I had given them all my information. I hated this.
- Couldn't leave any fields blank. Why can’t I leave the “State/Province” field blank? It just wouldn’t let me. Not every country is divided into states or provinces. Also, it required me to enter my home address even though I wanted to leave that field blank. Fortunately, it didn’t check if the address was real.
- No rich text formatting. Okay, I’m going to say it one more time and more clearly: I honestly really hated this editor. It’s clunky and doesn’t support rich text editing. I guess Resume Genius was not that genius after all.
Resume Genius Pricing
- 14-Day Trial Plan: $1.95 (you have to cancel this before 14 days, otherwise…)
- 1 Month Plan: $39.95 per month (auto-renews)
- 12 Months Plan: $95.40
Resume Genius Templates
- 0 free templates
- 17 Pro Resume Templates
5. Resume.com
What I liked about this completely free resume builder website:
- Classic look. Classic templates that make great use of basic typography.
- Emphasis on content. The templates put more emphasis on how your information is organized, instead of being visually stunning. The templates are organized into four categories: Experience, Education, Skill, and Personality, depending on which one you want to emphasize.
- It's completely free.
What I didn’t like about this resume builder:
- Color of the interface. Oh man, that purple-ish color. I almost got a headache just looking at it. But who knows, could be your cup of tea.
- Broken copy&paste. The text editor started acting up when I tried to copy/paste.
- No page break. The preview screen doesn’t show you what your resume is going to look like after printing.
- Step-by-step editor. Yet another resume builder with a step-by-step editor. I would prefer to be able to edit all parts of my resume on a single screen.
- Not visually appealing. The resume templates are notwhat you’d expect them to be. They don’t have much to offer in terms of visuals
- Lack of support and guidance.
Resume.com Pricing
- FREE.
Resume.com Templates
- 12 free resume templates
6. Resume.io
What I liked about this paid resume builder:
- UI navigation. The progress bar at the top of the page allows you to see exactly where you are and what you need to do before you can download your resume.
- Live preview. You can see the changes you make to your resume in real-time. Almost no other resume builder has that.
- Excellent editor. It suffered from none of the problems other resume builders did.
- High level of polish. UI and its high level of polish
What I didn’t like about this resume builder:
- Forces you to sign up from the get-go. It doesn’t let you create a resume without signing up first. On the other hand, it allows you to save any changes you make to your resume.
- Limited customization options. The resume builder only lets you change the color of a template and font size.
- A small number of templates. Only has 12 and, as I've already mentioned, you can't even customize these.
Resume.io Pricing
- €11.95/ month for Premium Semi-annually (Pay €71.70 every 6 months)
- €14.95/ month for Premium Quarterly
- €19.95/ month for Premium Monthly
Resume.io Templates
- 1 free template
- 18 premium resume templates
7. myPerfectresume.com
What I like about this paid resume builder:
- Template recommendations. They recommended me specific templates based on my years of experience. Also, the templates were organized into categories, such as “traditional”, “modern”, and “creative”.
- PDF import. You can import your resume from a PDF file. It’s not perfect but it works quite well.
- Nicer templates than Zety. Although it’s the same resume builder as Zety, in my opinion, this one had nicer resume templates.
What I didn’t like about this resume builder:
- Almost identical to Zety. There are minor differences but none of them justify separate branding.
- The same editor as Zety. Since it’s the same rich text editor, it’s no wonder that it started acting up as soon as I tried to copy/paste my information.
- It's Zety with different templates. I’m not going to include any more upsides or downsides since it’s the same thing as Zety, apart from the templates.
myPerfectresume Pricing
Despite everything, the pricing is slighly different from Zety’s!
- 3 months full access: $5.95
- Yearly access: $71.40
myPerfectresume Templates
- 31 premium templates (which is more than you get from Zety)
8. Canva
What I liked about this (completely free) resume builder:
- Design-driven. Canva is not exactly a resume builder. Instead, it's a tool to design stuff when you don’t want to pay for a graphic designer. It's really pretty.
- It’s free. That is unless you decide to pay for a premium subscription. Still, all resume-related features are free.
- Super large number of templates. I tried to count the number of resume templates. I couldn’t. There are too many.
- Limitless customization. Canva is great if you already know what you’re doing and only seek to give your already perfect resume a nice visual boost.
What I don’t like about this resume builder:
- It's not a resume builder per se. Sure, it can be used to create nice resumes or cover letters. Still, if you decide to use it, you’d be missing out on many career-specific features like proofreading, career-oriented customer support, pre-written phrases for your resume, guides, etc.
- Is it ATS-ready? Would a resume created with Canva pass through an applicant tracking system (ATS)? I can’t be sure.
- No career tools or resume-specific features.
- No rich text copy-paste. When I tried to copy and paste my information, it didn’t preserve my formatting.
- Overwhelming and easy to make a mistake. It’s VERY easy to make your resume look bad if you’re not careful. In fact, sometimes I wished I had fewer customization options.
- More difficult to navigate in comparison to other resume tools.
Canva’s Pricing
- It’s free.
Canva’s Resume Templates
- Too many to count.
9. Novoresume
What I liked about this (mostly) free resume builder:
- Live preview. I could edit my resume directly from the live preview screen.
- Holds your hand. If this was my first time writing a resume, I would have appreciated Novoresume’s advice. If you’re a beginner, they can be very helpful.
- Built-in feedback. I loved Novoresume’s “Content Optimizer”. It analyzed my resume and suggested possible improvements.
- Resume management. Novoresume also allowed me to save individual parts of my newly created resume in case I’d like to create versions customized for specific employers. Actually, Novoresume had the best resume management tools out of all resume builders in this test.
- Labeled premium features. All premium features were clearly labeled and I was able to avoid using them since I wanted to create a free resume.
- Customization options. There's a lot of them!
What I didn’t like about this resume builder:
- Sometimes too "helpful". The editor was trying to help me by structuring the work experience section. Unfortunately, that was more of a hindrance than a help.
- No rich text copy-paste. Yet again, the rich text copy and paste didn’t work.
- Character limit in certain sections. It wouldn’t let me enter as much text as I wanted where I wanted.
- A small number of resume templates. Although I have to say, this is to some extent mitigated by your ability to customize each of them.
Novoresume’s Pricing
- 1 Month: $16
- 3 Months: $29.99
- 12 Months: $89.99
Novoresume’s Templates
- 8 free templates
- You pay for additional customization options.
10. CakeResume
And finally, the last resume tool website! Despite its name, CakeResume is not really a resume builder. Instead, it will help you create an online career profile similar to LinkedIn.
What I liked about this resume builder:
- The personal profile. First, you create a “profile” where you enter all your information. Once you’ve done that, you don’t have to do it ever again. It’s somewhat similar to what Novoresume.
- The editor. CakeResume’s editor is, well, satisfying. You begin with a blank page onto which you drag and drop various resume snippets.
- Online resume. You can either download your resume as a PDF file or get a shareable link.
What I didn’t like about this resume builder:
- No rich text copy-paste. At this point, I consider that the norm.
- Missing keyboard shortcuts.Every time I wanted to make a part of the text bold, I had to click on an icon at the top of the screen.
- Basic in terms of visuals. CakeResume’s default template works well, but if you’d like to make your resume a bit more visually appealing, you may want to look elsewhere.
CakeResume Pricing
- Free: Limited to basic resume snippets and only 1 resume download
- Advanced Features: $7.95 per month (Remove CakeResume branding, 20+ additional snippets, unlimited number of resumes)
- PRO Features: $15.95 (analytics and custom domain names)
CakeResume Templates
- 1 Basic Template
- You can subscribe to get additional “snippets” to customize your resume.
And there you have it! The best 10 resume builders of 2021. You're welcome and good luck with your own CV!
