5 'Free' AI Resume Builders Tested: Here's the Best One

I tested 5 AI-Powered tools to build my resume, all of them were advertised on Google as FREE. After finishing my resume with each tool, I was surprised by a pop-up when I tried to download it, saying something along those lines : ‘You need to pay now’.

In the end, only one was free.

1) Career.io and Resume.io : The Twins

Career.io and Resume.io are basically the same thing, just different names. The tool's solid, with good pre-written text and recruiter tips for beefing up your content. They've got a basic resume score feature to point out what needs work. If you're looking to make just one CV, it's gonna cost you $6 for a 7-day trial. They claim there's a money-back guarantee, but take that as you will.

2) Resumenerd.com : The Mixed Bag

Free-spirited maybe, but not money free.

Can't see the resume build in real-time, which is a bummer. Their AI help is lacking, especially when it comes to skills and pre-made text. They've got a fancy resume score feature, but it's locked behind the $3 for 14 days paywall. They say you can get a refund, but I didn't pay, so can't vouch for that.

3) Resume-Now.com : Could Be The One

More like ‘They’re free to use my private information’

Resume-Now charges you $3 for a two-week period to build your resume. They've got a 14-day money-back deal. The platform has solid pre-made text and skill options, and the design is up-to-date. You can even see your resume as you make it. But their TOS about what they do with your personal information is kinda sketchy.

4) Kickresume.com : Free!

They don’t even say it’s Free, the irony.

KickResume's got AI for generating, rewriting, and scoring your resume. Best part? It's free. No joke. You put in the work to make your CV, and you can actually download it without dropping a dime. That's a win. (Well, obviously it’s only free for one CV)

Privacy warning!

Take this into account : Most of those services keep your information and can use them. The most shady of those services is Resume-Now.

ResumeNerd: Claims any content you upload becomes their property and may not be easily deletable.

Career.io/Resume.io: Shares your data with third-party service providers and affiliates, but doesn't claim ownership of your content.

Kickresume: Does not claim ownership of your uploaded content and doesn't specify broad licensing rights like Resume-Now.

Resume-Now: You retain ownership, but grant them a broad, irrevocable license to use, modify, and distribute your content, including resumes with personal information. Shady

My advice is : use ChatGPT. Give it the minimum private information and just use Word or some free alternative to find a template. It’s the best to keep your private information, private.

Use ChatGPT

The good ol’ ChatGPT is still your best bet when it comes to building a resume. It’s totally free and gives a great result helping you rephrase and give feedback on your resume. You can use a free software to create a template and add the information that ChatGPT gives you. A very important thing to add is that you don’t need to give personal information to ChatGPT, so no need to get anxious about finding your picture or email address on the other side of the internet!

End Words

This article proves two things : not everything is what it seems on the internet, and especially in the AI world. There are a lot of useless tools out there, and just as many overpriced ones. The golden era of AI also brings a lot of risk to you, user, that just want to gain some time by using AI. My advice to you is to use ChatGPT instead of relying on those tools. As complete and practical as they seem, they are far from worth it when you compare it to that good old pioneer that is ChatGPT.

One more thing to take into account is how similar all those services are. It’s not very useful to make a deep dive into each of them, because in the end they propose almost the same templates, AI integration and overall functions.