Zety Alternatives Ranked by What It Costs to Download Your Resume
Affiliate disclosure: some links here are affiliate links and we may earn a commission at no cost to you. The order below follows the stated criterion and nothing else; no vendor paid for a position or saw this page before it went up.
Zety’s free Basic Package will build your resume and then hand it back as a text file. “TXT format only” is the free tier’s export row; PDF and Word sit behind the Pro Package’s 14-day trial at $1.70, which auto-renews at $23.95 billed every 4 weeks, and Zety publishes no money-back window at all. So the honest answer to what leaving costs is: nothing, if you move to a builder where the export was never the paywall in the first place.
Five of the ten builders compared here let a finished resume out for free. Kickresume lists unlimited downloads on its $0 / month plan, Teal’s Free Forever plan exports unlimited resumes, Rezi’s free plan includes three PDF downloads, TopCV’s free PDF carries a mark, and Novorésumé’s free document is capped at one page. This page ranks all ten by that single question — what it costs to get your document out, what a cheap first term turns into, and whether any published window lets you get the money back. Prices were read on 17 September 2026.
What this ranking measures
This ranking measures one thing: the price of the finished file. That means whether a free export exists and in what format, what the cheapest paid route to a usable, unbranded download costs, what a discounted first term auto-renews to and on what cycle, and whether any published window lets you recover the money. A vendor that does not publish a renewal price loses position for it — “not published” is treated here as a finding, not a blank. Deliberately not measured: template design, AI writing quality, ATS scoring, job tracking, support quality and popularity. Nothing here was installed, subscribed to or trialled; this is a comparison of the vendors’ own published pages, read on 17 September 2026.
The short answer
The cost of getting a finished resume out is $0, and there is no dated charge behind that zero. The $0 / month free plan lists unlimited downloads, documents come out as PDF or DOCX without payment, and downloads are not metered on any plan. Kickresume publishes no trial of any kind, so nothing auto-converts. It loses nothing to Teal on export and gains a second free route: up to 180 days of full Premium free for students and teachers verified via ISIC, ITIC or UNiDAYS.
The Free Forever plan takes no card and, per Teal’s help centre, lets free users edit and export unlimited resumes, so the download costs nothing. Every paid price — $13 Every 7 Days, $29 Every 30 days, $79 Every 90 days — is the recurring price rather than a first term, so there is no renewal figure hidden behind it. PDF is the only format offered, which is what keeps it second.
The cheapest way to buy an unbranded, multi-page PDF that cannot renew. The pricing page states “Pay once. No recurring billing.” and the checkout repeats “There Is No Automatic Subscription”, with a refund available within 14 days of purchase. You pay for one month and the billing stops by itself, which is the opposite of a $1.70 trial rolling into $23.95 every 4 weeks.
All 10 compared
| # | Product | Best for | Price from | What decides its place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Getting a finished resume out without paying at all | Free $0 / month; Premium from $4.50 / month (Yearly, “Pay $54 every 12 months”), $9 / month (“Pay $27 every 3 months”), $19 / month | Free plan: unlimited downloads, no export paywall | Visit | |
| 2 | A free PDF export with unlimited resumes, no card | Tools — Free Forever; Teal+ from $13 Every 7 Days ($1.85 a day), $29 Every 30 days, $79 Every 90 days | Free Forever exports unlimited resumes — PDF only | Visit | |
| 3 | Buying once instead of subscribing, 30 days to undo | Free $0 (no card); Pro $29 / month; Lifetime “Buy for $149” | Free plan caps you at 3 PDF downloads; Pro is $29 / month | Visit | |
| 4 | One clean PDF with no subscription to carry | Basic Free Unlimited; Premium 21.99 USD (Month), 39.99 USD (Quarter), 149.99 USD (Year) | 21.99 USD buys a month; “Pay once. No recurring billing.” | Visit | |
| 5 | Applying in Vietnam, where the pricing is in VNĐ | Mới and Thường: Miễn phí / Vĩnh viễn; Pro VIP 50,000 VNĐ / 1 tháng; Premium VIP 500,000 VNĐ / 1 năm | Free PDF carries the ©topcv.vn mark; removing it is 50,000 VNĐ | Visit | |
| 6 | Design-led templates if an unclear price is acceptable | Free Plan $0, “Valid for 7 days”; Pro Quarterly “$13.52 billed every 3 months” ($4.51/mo as displayed) | Free plan is “Valid for 7 days” and carries Enhancv branding | Visit | |
| 7 | Shareable resume links at $48 a quarter | Free Account $0; Pro $16USD Per Month (Billed quarterly); Pro Monthly $25USD Per Month (Billed monthly) | “Download Unlimited PDFs” is Not included on the free tier | Visit | |
| 8 | A free cover letter in PDF and Word, if not a resume | Free Access $0; 14-day Trial $2.95, then $23.95 billed every four weeks; Annual Plan $7.95/ Month (“One time payment of $95.40 for 12 month access”) | $2.95 trial auto-renews at $23.95 billed every four weeks | Visit | |
| 9 | The longest cheap-trial window before a charge lands | Basic Package FREE; Pro Package “With a 14 day trial for: $1.70”, then $23.95 billed every 4 weeks; Annual Package $5.95/month (“Pay $71.40 at once”) | $1.70 trial auto-renews at $23.95 billed every 4 weeks | Visit | |
| 10 | A week of premium templates for $2.95 | Free plan $0.00; Premium 7-day trial $2.95, then $29.95 billed every 4 weeks; Quarterly $49.95 | $2.95 trial auto-renews to $29.95 billed every 4 weeks | Visit |
1. Kickresume
Why it sits at 1 Free plan: unlimited downloads, no export paywall
Kickresume’s paywall sits on templates and AI features, not on the download button. The free plan is $0 / month, its feature list includes unlimited downloads, and finished documents come out as PDF or DOCX without payment. No trial exists to convert, so nothing is queued up to charge you later.
Premium buys customisation: $19 / month, $9 / month as “Pay $27 every 3 months”, or $4.50 / month as “Pay $54 every 12 months” — a figure the same page’s own comparison table contradicts by listing the yearly column at “$5 / month”. No renewal price appears anywhere on that page.
- Free exports are unmetered, and students or teachers can claim up to 180 days of full Premium access free via ISIC, ITIC or UNiDAYS.
- No renewal price is published anywhere, and no page names the cancel button — the Terms say only that you must cancel before the term ends, and support answers within up to 2 work days.
2. Teal (Teal+)
Why it sits at 2 Free Forever exports unlimited resumes — PDF only
Teal’s Free Forever plan takes no credit card and, per the vendor’s help centre, lets free users edit and export unlimited resumes. Teal+ buys unlimited templates against the free 10, unlimited keyword matching against the top 5, and unlimited AI against the free allowance of 10 bullet credits, 2 summary credits and 2 cover letter credits.
The price on the card is the price that recurs: $13 Every 7 Days, $29 Every 30 days or $79 Every 90 days, with no promotional first term and nothing to step up to. Teal runs no trial at all — the vendor states that entering a card is signing up for a subscription outright.
- No card to start, no trial to convert, and no gap between the advertised price and the recurring one.
- PDF is the only format Teal offers at any price, and refunds must be emailed within 2, 7 or 14 days depending on plan, with no guarantee one is issued.
3. Rezi
Why it sits at 3 Free plan caps you at 3 PDF downloads; Pro is $29 / month
Rezi’s free plan needs no card and includes 1 resume, 1 AI interview and 3 PDF downloads, so the cap is on volume rather than on the act of exporting. Removing it costs $29 / month, the steepest monthly entry on this list, with no annual option on the page; Lifetime is “Buy for $149”, a single payment.
Rezi publishes the longest recovery window here — a 100% money-back guarantee within 30 days of purchase, covering Pro and Lifetime — but that promise lives in a pricing-page FAQ, while the /legal page carries no subscription, renewal, billing or refund clauses at all. A quarterly billing option exists on the in-app upgrade screen and is priced nowhere public.
- The 30-day guarantee covers the one-time $149 Lifetime purchase, not just the monthly subscription.
- Downgrading is lossy — only one resume stays reachable after cancelling — and two Rezi help articles state opposite answers on whether access ends immediately or at period end.
4. Novorésumé
Why it sits at 4 21.99 USD buys a month; “Pay once. No recurring billing.”
Novorésumé is the plainest vendor here about the second term, because there isn’t one: the pricing page says “Pay once. No recurring billing.” and the checkout small print repeats “There Is No Automatic Subscription.” Premium is 21.99 USD for a month, 39.99 USD for a quarter or 149.99 USD for a year, with a refund available within 14 days of purchase.
The free tier is where it loses ground. Basic can download, but only a document using no Premium features: a single version, a maximum one-page resume, predefined layouts, 3 fonts, no cover letter. “No Watermark/Branding” is listed as a Premium item, so the free PDF carries the builder’s mark, and PDF is the only format offered at any price.
- One-off terms with an explicit no-auto-renewal statement and a published 14-day refund window.
- The free export is a single one-page branded version, and the only published cancellation route is emailing a form to contact@novoresume.com — no self-serve path is documented.
5. TopCV
Why it sits at 5 Free PDF carries the ©topcv.vn mark; removing it is 50,000 VNĐ
TopCV’s two free levels are both “Miễn phí” on a “Vĩnh viễn” term with 6 CVs and 6 Cover Letters, and the vendor’s own guide confirms you finish the CV and download it as a PDF. Two frictions ride along with that free file: a 5-second wait on every CV and Cover Letter download, and the ©topcv.vn mark, whose removal is a separate paid row on the upgrade table.
Pro VIP at 50,000 VNĐ for “1 tháng” cuts the wait to 3s and hides the mark; Premium VIP is 500,000 VNĐ for “1 năm” with a 1s wait. Terms read as fixed blocks: a search for “gia hạn” on the upgrade page returns nothing, no auto-renew notice appears, and no card-on-file mechanism is described anywhere.
- Fixed one-month and one-year terms with no auto-renewal published, and CVs stay editable after the term expires.
- No refund policy applies to completed transactions, and the standalone no-logo download is priced only inside the logged-in CV list, so its real cost cannot be read from any public page.
6. Enhancv
Why it sits at 6 Free plan is “Valid for 7 days” and carries Enhancv branding
Enhancv’s free plan is $0 and “Valid for 7 days”, opening every resume template and all design tools, with two ceilings printed on the card itself: “Enhancv branding” and “Maximum 12 section items”. The Pro card’s “No branding” and “Unlimited section items” confirm exactly what the money is buying, and the page’s own meta description states no credit card is required to start.
The price is the problem. Only the quarterly card renders a figure, “$13.52 billed every 3 months”; Pro Monthly and Pro Semiannual are offered as toggle options that display nothing. The block is geo-localised and API-driven, the vendor’s own USD structured data reads $39/$69/$99, and the page title still advertises packages starting at $16.50.
- The 7-day free plan opens every template and design tool, and the page states no credit card is required to start it.
- No renewal amount is published on the pricing page or in the Terms, refunds are fault-based with no window in days, and two of three paid terms show no price at all.
7. VisualCV
Why it sits at 7 “Download Unlimited PDFs” is Not included on the free tier
VisualCV’s Free Account is “$0 — Always free, no hidden fees”, but the comparison table marks “Download Unlimited PDFs” as “Not included”, along with shareable links, the ATS-friendly template, the cover letter builder and analytics, and the plan stops at a first resume. What a free user can take away is unsettled: the pricing page offers only to “Preview your Resume’s Formatting”, while Terms of Use section 6 says a registered user cannot print or download a PDF without a watermark present.
A clean download therefore starts at $16USD Per Month (Billed quarterly) — the checkout link resolves to $48 charged per quarter — or $25USD Per Month billed monthly. No renewal figure is published: the Terms promise renewal at the same price unless you are notified of an increase, then reserve the right to change pricing at any time.
- The published rule is renewal at the same price unless the subscriber is notified of an increase beforehand.
- The pricing page’s 30-day “no strings attached” refund is contradicted by the binding Cancellation and Refund Policy: non-refundable once paid, and never refunded where the platform has been used.
8. Resume Genius
Why it sits at 8 $2.95 trial auto-renews at $23.95 billed every four weeks
Resume Genius is free to build and charges to export: the free plan’s resume downloads are “TXT format only”, stated twice on the pricing page. It is the only TXT-paywall builder here that gives you something in PDF for nothing, since free users can export cover letters in PDF, Word and TXT. Resume PDF and Word start with a 14-day trial at $2.95.
That trial “Auto renews after 14 days at $23.95 billed every four weeks”, which the vendor’s own page sets against an Annual Plan billed as “One time payment of $95.40 for 12 month access” and displayed as $7.95/ Month. The annual plan “Auto renews annually” with no amount restated, so the second year’s price is not published.
- The 14-day full refund runs exactly as long as the 14-day trial, and cancellation is offered by email, phone or dashboard rather than dashboard alone.
- The Annual Plan’s renewal amount is published nowhere, and the pricing page gives neither the support email nor the phone number for the cancellation routes it names.
9. Zety
Why it sits at 9 $1.70 trial auto-renews at $23.95 billed every 4 weeks
The brand you are leaving. Basic is free and builds resumes and cover letters, but the comparison table’s only textual difference between tiers is the export row: free is “TXT format only”, both paid tiers are “PDF, Word, and TXT”. PDF starts at a 14-day trial for $1.70, which then auto-renews at $23.95 billed every 4 weeks — thirteen charges a year rather than twelve.
The Annual Package’s “$5.95/month” is a display figure rather than a charge; the money taken is “Pay $71.40 at once”, auto-renewing each year at a rate that is never published. And there is no way back: no money-back window of any length is stated on the pricing page, and the Terms say the provider does not guarantee refunds.
- The 14-day trial window is twice as long as the seven-day trials elsewhere on this list, leaving more room to cancel before a charge lands.
- No refund window of any length is published, and the Terms contradict the free card by stating a registered user cannot edit, print or download documents without subscribing.
10. Resume.io
Why it sits at 10 $2.95 trial auto-renews to $29.95 billed every 4 weeks
Resume.io’s free plan is $0.00 and hard-capped: “Only one resume and cover letter”, “Downloads only in TXT format”, plus limited sharing and analytics. PDF export requires a paid plan, and the cheapest route is a 7-day trial at $2.95 listing unlimited PDF downloads — half Zety’s cancel window at nearly twice the entry price.
It renews highest of the three trial-based builders, and the vendor disagrees with itself about how high: the pricing page says the trial auto-renews to $29.95 billed every 4 weeks, while the Right of Withdrawal page states $24.95 for the same four-week period. No standalone monthly plan is sold, so $29.95 exists only as a renewal. Quarterly is $49.95, auto-renewing at $49.95.
- The quarterly plan states the same $49.95 on renewal as on purchase, and trial pricing is one-time per account so it cannot be re-entered by accident.
- The 7-day money-back guarantee is narrowed by the help centre to the first 7 days of account creation, so it expires at the same moment the trial converts and the $29.95 charge lands.
Which one fits your situation
Kickresume or Teal. Both export finished resumes on the free plan, neither asks for a card, and neither runs a trial that converts into a charge. The free tier is enough — do not buy anything yet.
Take the free TXT copy the Basic Package allows, cancel inside the 14 days, and rebuild in a builder where export is free. Zety publishes no refund window, so the cancellation has to happen before the charge rather than after it.
Resume Genius or Zety on a paid tier, both of which list PDF, Word and TXT. Kickresume names PDF and DOCX but does not say which formats the free plan produces, so confirm that on the free plan before paying anyone.
Novorésumé, at 21.99 USD for a month, 39.99 USD for a quarter or 149.99 USD for a year, with the vendor stating there is no automatic subscription. Or Rezi’s $149 Lifetime, one payment with a 30-day money-back guarantee attached.
Kickresume. Its pricing page and FAQ state students and teachers can get up to 180 days of full Premium access free, verified through ISIC, ITIC or UNiDAYS — the only published route on this list to paid-tier templates at no cost.
TopCV. Free accounts get 6 CVs and a PDF download with a 5-second wait and the ©topcv.vn mark; Pro VIP at 50,000 VNĐ for one month removes both. Buy only the term you need, because completed transactions are not refunded.
What this market gets people for
- Reading “$23.95 billed every 4 weeks” as a monthly price. Zety’s renewal, Resume Genius’s renewal and Resume.io’s $29.95 all run on a four-week cycle, not a calendar month. That is thirteen charges a year rather than twelve — an extra billing period that never appears in the headline figure.
- Treating a per-month headline as the amount that leaves your account. Zety’s Annual Package displays $5.95/month but charges “Pay $71.40 at once”. Resume Genius’s $7.95/ Month is “One time payment of $95.40 for 12 month access”. VisualCV’s $16USD Per Month is billed quarterly, with a checkout link that resolves to $48 a quarter. Enhancv’s per-month line sits beside “$13.52 billed every 3 months”.
- Assuming a cheap trial can be refunded once it converts. Zety publishes no money-back window and its Terms state refunds are not guaranteed. Resume.io’s 7-day guarantee is narrowed by its help centre to the first 7 days of account creation, so it expires exactly when the 7-day trial charges. VisualCV’s binding policy makes subscriptions non-refundable once paid, and never refundable once the platform has been used.
- Paying only to move a file out of the builder. Kickresume’s free plan lists unlimited downloads, Teal’s Free Forever exports unlimited resumes, and Rezi’s free plan includes 3 PDF downloads. At Zety, Resume.io and Resume Genius a free export genuinely exists but is TXT-only — the money buys the file format, not the resume you already wrote.
Questions buyers ask
Is there a genuinely free way to download a finished resume?
At five of the ten. Kickresume’s $0 / month plan lists unlimited downloads with no export paywall. Teal’s Free Forever plan lets free users edit and export unlimited resumes. Rezi’s free plan includes 3 PDF downloads, no card. TopCV’s free accounts download a PDF carrying the ©topcv.vn mark. Novorésumé’s Basic account downloads a single one-page version using no Premium features. At Zety, Resume.io and Resume Genius the free resume export is TXT only.
What does Zety’s $1.70 trial actually cost after 14 days?
It auto-renews at $23.95 billed every 4 weeks. Because the cycle is four weeks rather than a calendar month, that is thirteen charges a year rather than twelve. Zety publishes no money-back window of any length, and its Terms of Use state the provider does not guarantee refunds, so the charge is not something you can expect to reverse afterwards.
Which of these never auto-renews?
Novorésumé states “Pay once. No recurring billing.” and repeats “There Is No Automatic Subscription” at checkout, selling 21.99 USD, 39.99 USD and 149.99 USD one-off terms. TopCV sells fixed 1 tháng and 1 năm blocks with no renewal price and no auto-renew notice published. Rezi’s $149 Lifetime is a single payment. Kickresume, Teal, Enhancv, VisualCV, Resume Genius, Resume.io and Zety all renew by default.
Which vendor gives the longest window to get money back?
Rezi: a 100% money-back guarantee within 30 days of purchase, covering both Pro and the one-time Lifetime plan — though it appears only in a pricing-page FAQ, not in any binding terms. Then 14 days at Kickresume (applies only once to the same user), Novorésumé and Resume Genius. Resume.io’s 7 days run from account creation. Teal’s are 2, 7 or 14 days by plan and discretionary. Zety and TopCV publish none.
Can I get a Word (.docx) file, not just a PDF?
Zety’s two paid tiers and Resume Genius’s trial and annual plans both list PDF, Word and TXT. Kickresume names PDF and DOCX but never breaks the formats down by plan. Rezi’s Pro adds DOCX and Google Drive export, though its pricing table and its help article disagree on whether the free plan has them. Teal, Novorésumé and VisualCV name PDF only, and Enhancv offers PDF and TXT, framing the absence of Word as a design-fidelity choice.
Do students have a cheaper route?
Kickresume publishes one: its pricing page carries a student and teacher block, and its FAQ confirms students and teachers can get up to 180 days of full Premium access free, verified through ISIC, ITIC or UNiDAYS, or by contacting support with proof of enrollment. Novorésumé labels its free Basic tier “Ideal for students”, but that tier is still capped at a single one-page version with the builder’s branding.
What none of them publish
These are the questions a buyer would want settled that no vendor on this page answers in public. If one of them decides your purchase, ask the vendor and hold them to the answer.
- Whether a free export is watermarked. Kickresume, Zety, Teal and Resume.io never state it. Novorésumé’s branding is only inferable from “No Watermark/Branding” being a Premium line. Enhancv lists “Enhancv branding” on the free card but never says whether it appears on the downloaded file or only in the editor.
- What anything renews at, at four vendors. Kickresume, Rezi, Enhancv and VisualCV publish no renewal figure anywhere. Zety and Resume Genius publish no renewal amount for their annual plans, despite both stating the annual plan auto-renews.
- The price of a single one-off download. TopCV sells a no-logo download but prices it only inside the logged-in CV list. Zety’s Terms name individual resume downloads, prints or emails as a purchase type without publishing a price. Resume.io, Teal, Enhancv and VisualCV publish no pay-per-export option at all.
- Enhancv’s Pro Monthly and Pro Semiannual prices, which are offered as toggle options but render no figure, and the size of the discount behind the “SAVE” badge that never resolves to a number.
- Rezi’s quarterly plan. The vendor’s own help article says the in-app upgrade screen offers monthly, quarterly or lifetime billing, but the quarterly tier and its price appear nowhere on the public site.
- Whether cancelling Rezi ends access immediately or at the end of the paid period — two Rezi help articles state opposite answers, and the /legal page contains no cancellation clause at all.
- How long before a trial converts you must cancel. Zety publishes no cut-off time for its 14-day trial and Resume Genius publishes none for its 14-day trial.
- What these plans cost outside the United States. Resume.io states rates vary per country but publishes no country list. Enhancv’s pricing block is geo-localised and API-driven and disagrees with the vendor’s own USD structured data. TopCV publishes VNĐ only, with no currency switcher.
- Whether VisualCV’s free tier can download a watermarked PDF at all. The Terms imply it can, the pricing page offers only a formatting preview, and the two are never reconciled on any public page.
- Whether the free plans cap downloads by number. Zety and Teal both describe free downloads as unlimited with no hard figure attached, so no ceiling can be checked before signing up.
- What happens to Premium-formatted Novorésumé documents once the paid term expires — only account data retention is addressed, not export rights.
- Which formats each free tier can actually produce. Kickresume names PDF and DOCX without breaking them down by plan, and VisualCV’s builder page advertises PDF, Word and text while its pricing table names only PDF.
Reading this from the other direction? ATS Friendly Resume Builder: What Each One Actually Publishes covers the same market against a different rule.