The 10 Best CV Builders in the UK

As an experienced CV writer and career counsellor, I know how much time it can take to write a good CV. That’s why many job seekers turn to CV builders to save time in the job application process.

Still, not all builders produce a CV of the same quality. To find out which ones are worth your time, I made my CV on 12 of the UK’s most popular builders to review each builder’s templates, features, and pricing plans.

1. CV Genius

Full disclosure: I work for CV Genius. But that doesn’t change the fact that our CV maker has clean, easy-to-use interface and solid writing support from start to finish.

While this isn’t the largest selection among builders featured on this list—and it doesn’t include infographic or editorial-style templates—the available options are clean, modern, and suitable for most standard job applications.

Once you’ve selected your template, the builder will guides you through each section and provides pre-written bullet point suggestions for your work experience and skills sections (a lifesaver if, like me, you struggle with writer’s block). The built-in AI writing assistant makes writing your personal statement easier by generating a concise summary of your strengths and achievements with a single click.

When you’re finished, you’ll need to pay to download your CV as a fully formatted PDF or DOCX, but the plain text version is free if you just need the content.

If you go with CV Genius Maker, you’ll also get access to their cover letter builder. The tool is a nice bonus which can help you quickly tailor your application to specific roles and show employers why you’re a great candidate.

Pros:

• Clean interface with helpful writing support and and an AI personal statement generator
• 30+ templates in 7 professional colours, with enough range to suit different roles and personal styles
• Free plain text (.txt) downloads of your CV content

Cons:

• Fewer visually creative template designs
• You need to sign up for a paid plan to export your CV as a PDF or Word document

Best pricing option: Pick the £2.90 subscription option for the first 2 weeks, and you’ll have access to unlimited CVs and cover letters while your subscription is active.

Final rating: ★★★★☆

2. LiveCareer

LiveCareer offers 41 templates in 25 colour variations. However, a few include bulky graphic elements that may distract from the content.

The builder is clear and fairly easy to use, although the interface text is tiny. Changes are previewed live, which is useful for checking your CV’s overall appearance as you build each section.

You can add work experience bullet points, CV skills, and content for your personal statement by either selecting from a drop-down menu of pre-written options or using the built-in AI writer. Although both use industry-specific language, the output is a bit vague without manual editing.

The education section is comprehensive, including options to add university degrees, A Levels, and various other certificates and diplomas. If you want to add GSCEs, you can do so by selecting ‘Other’ and bullet listing your individual qualifications in the text box below.

Pros:

• Clear interface with live preview
• Comprehensive education section

Cons:

• Some templates include distracting graphic elements
• Text is quite small while editing

Best pricing option: We suggest you pick the $2.85 (approx. £2.30) option, download your document, and set a reminder to cancel your subscription before it autorenews for $19.85 (~£16) a fortnight later.

Final rating: ★★★★☆

3. MyPerfectCV

MyPerfectCV has a library of 36 templates, each with 25 colours to choose from, so you’re certainly spoilt for choice.

The builder looks sharp, works smoothly and it’s easy to find your way around. When you first start, it asks a few quick questions to see what kind of help you need, which personalises the user experience.

A key feature of this builder is its AI-powered personal statement tool, which writes a concise summary of your skills and experience.

The work experience section doesn’t have AI support. Instead, you get a selection of thousands of prewritten bullet points that you can filter by job title, responsibilities, skills, or other keywords that reflect your achievement.

Also, you don’t get a live preview of your CV throughout the building process, which is a shame — personally I find live previews very helpful for optimising a CV’s length and level of detail. The final preview window does have some cool features though, allowing you to quickly adjust your CV’s font size and section, paragraph, and line spacing.

Pros:

• Huge selection of CV templates and colours
• Excellent tool for writing personal statements

Cons:

• AI support is patchy
• No live preview

Best pricing option: Pay £2.95 for 14 days of access to download your CV in PDF, TXT, or DOCX format. Cancel your subscription before it renews to the full monthly subscription (£16.95, billed every four weeks).

Final rating: ★★★★☆

4. Resume.io

Despite the name and the technical difference between CVs and resumes, Resume.io is a perfectly suitable platform for creating job applications in the UK.

This well-rounded tool has a number of additional features that can help you in your job search, including an integrated job board and interview preparation help.

The Resume.io builder is neatly organised into a single page view with sections arranged in a vertical panel on the left and a live document preview displayed on the right. That said, some of the builder’s features were difficult to find because of the builder’s trendy minimalist design.

For example, I almost missed Resume.io’s 31 templates, which are hidden behind a discreet ‘Customize’ button at the top of the editor. I’d say it’s worth clicking around the interface to make sure you don’t miss any important features, but when you’re on a deadline, digging around for tools isn’t exactly ideal.

Overall, the builder’s workflow was smooth, and I appreciated how quickly I could create a CV using the AI-powered content suggestions. However, the limited file format options at export were a letdown.

You can only download your CV as a PDF, which means you’ll need an open subscription to edit it. I’d suggest finding a CV maker that supports DOCX downloads so you can tailor your CV to different jobs and update your qualifications periodically.

Pros:

• Can see changes to your CV in real time
• No hidden subscription tricks

Cons:

• Limited DOCX compatibility
• Not fully localised for the UK

Best pricing option: $2.95 (around £2.30) for 7 days of access, during which you can download your resume as a PDF and make use of Resume.io’s other job application tools. After 7 days your plan will autorenew to $24.95 (about £19.30), billed monthly.

Final rating: ★★★★☆

5. CV Template

Extremely simple and easy to use, CV Template combines the familiar interface of a traditional word processor with convenient AI writing features.

Users can choose between a dozen clean and modern designs, all of which use the chronological CV format employers are most familiar with. You can also choose between 7 colour schemes and 4 ATS-appropriate fonts, giving you plenty of control over your CV’s final appearance.

You build out your CV from the template view by clicking on the CV sections and entering your content in the sidebar editor.

Selecting the Tips toggle pulls up a list of ha

ndy insights that can help you write each section professionally, including examples and recommendations on section length.

Meanwhile, the AI Writing Assistant is a great tool to leverage if you struggle to put words on the page. Simply enter the skills or achievements you want to highlight to generate professionally written content. You will have to do some manual editing through. I found the output wordy and often inaccurate.

Overall, we found the template selector and editor to be very clean and easy to use, but it was a bit sparse in places. For example, you don’t get much help choosing templates which is a shame because some CV templates are more suitable for some purposes than others. It’s also only possible to download your CV in PDF format, so you’ll have to keep your subscription open to update your CV or make edits.

Pros:

• Easy-to-use word processor layout
• Variety of clean, modern templates
• AI features are great for overcoming writer’s block

Cons:

• The interface is a bit sparse and it’s not always clear which templates you should use or how you should write each section
• AI-generated content can be overly long and require manual editing
• Only supports PDF format CVs

Best pricing option: Choose the free seven-day trial and cancel before your subscription autorenews — CV Template charges £20 every four weeks.

Final rating: ★★★★☆

Reasoning: CV Template’s AI features and simple interface make it a great choice if you need to quickly put together an application for one or two jobs. However, its pricy monthly subscription and uneditable output make it slightly expensive for long-term use.

6. Zety

Zety offers a straightforward CV builder that guides you through each step of the CV writing process.

While there are only 18 templates to choose from, the designs are clean and modern, keeping focus on your qualifications. With 25 colour options, you’ve got room to personalise. Just to be safe, I’d go with one of the more muted shades.

Each stage of the builder is functional and easy to navigate. You build sections by choosing between pre-written text segments or writing your own content in the text editor. While the builder’s suggestions are precise and well-written, there’s no AI support to help you with edits. Still, I liked how the professional summary section highlights variables in bold so you immediately know which details to tweak.

You can also add extra sections like hobbies and interests and software skills to present yourself as a more rounded candidate, which is a really helpful feature if you don’t have much work experience yet.

Pros

• Clean, modern templates that emphasise your skills and achievements
• Straightforward, step-by-step builder with clear prompts and navigation

Cons

• Lack of AI support means you have to make manual edits to make your CV precise and personal

Best pricing option: Downloading your CV as a PDF or DOCX file costs $1.70 (around £1.30) for a 14-day trial. The plan auto-renews at $23.70 every 4 weeks, so cancel within two weeks if needed.

Final rating: ★★★☆☆

7. CV Library

With thousands of job ads, CV Library is a powerful resource for job seekers who are ready to send in their applications. However, the site’s free CV builder is not a particularly strong resource. There’s just one template and no colour choices, which means your CV could look exactly like everyone else’s. That might be a problem, given CV Library’s popularity across the UK.

CV Library shows your CV updating in real-time. You enter details on the left, and your draft appears on the right. This layout helps you see how your CV is shaping up. Still, it’d be better if you could try out different templates to optimise your CV’s layout and presentation.

Despite its user-friendly interface, the CV Library builder lacks flexibility in a key area. You can’t edit the suggested work history bullet points, which leaves you with either the generic text or the task of writing everything yourself. This frustrating limitation makes it harder to stand out and undermines the tool’s value as a CV builder.

Pros:

• Unique interface
• Downloadable PDF available

Cons:

• Only one template available
• Limited library of pre-written content, especially for less common jobs

Access options: CV Library is free, but you can only download your CV as a PDF.

Final rating: ★★☆☆☆

8. Adobe Express CV Maker

This CV Maker is a built-in feature of Adobe’s online graphic design software, Adobe Express. It is a template editor with built-in AI features.

Being an Adobe product, it offers a wide variety of eye-catching free CV templates, as well as a suite of easy-to-use editing features. It also places more emphasis on graphic design than CV content. While this means we were able to create a visually stunning job application for my job application, we were left wanting more help with professional CV writing.

But let’s talk about these templates. Adobe features a wide range of memorable designs with a lot of opportunities for personalisation. You can change the document colour and tweak the font size and text formatting.

The editor is much easier to use than Adobe’s other graphic design products, and there’s not much of a learning curve, though in my opinion, you might find the choice overwhelming if you don’t have a background in graphic design.

Somewhere I wish the Adobe CV Maker could have been better was its AI writing software. Unlike most builders on this list, Adobe can’t generate content for you using keywords, nor does it suggest content for you if you’re not sure where to start.

The features are really limited to an AI editor that can adjust the tone and conciseness of your writing, which is nice but nothing you can’t get from a Grammarly plug-in or general-purpose AI tools like Gemini or ChatGPT.

Pros:

• Wide variety of visually appealing templates with strong customisation options (colours, text size, formatting)
• Built-in AI writer can adjust tone and length, useful for tailoring content
• Free version available with limited features and AI credits

Cons:

• Templates are pretty rather than practical and often unsuitable for AI recruitment software
• Requires an Adobe Express subscription to access premium templates or make edits later
• AI features are basic, not tailored to job seekers and offer limited credits for rewrites

Best pricing options: Adobe Express Premium is £9.98 per month. A free plan is also available, but this restricts your use of the AI editor to 10 edits a month. At that point, you’d be better off just writing your CV with ChatGPT.

Final rating: ★★☆☆☆

9. Student Job

The Student Job builder is available in several European languages, including French, Spanish, German, Swedish, or Dutch. This unique feature makes the builder a useful tool for applying to jobs in Europe.

You need to sign up and create a profile on Student Job to use the builder. Despite this being an added step, you can later create new CVs from your profile information, which speeds up the process of creating a CV from scratch.

Unfortunately, the builder doesn’t offer much in the way of templates or customisation. My finished CV looked practical, but it didn’t have the sleek and professional polish that I got from some of the other CV builders. I wish I could have seen how my information looked a few additional styles.

One downside is that Student Job gives you no CV writing tips while you build your document. You’re largely left to figure things out independently, which can make the building process time consuming if you’re not a confident writer.

Like other free CV builders, Student Job does not include pre-written content. If you’re happy to write your CV on your own, it might actually be easier to grab a free blank CV template instead.

Here’s a look at this builder’s interface:

Pros:

• Interface and CV building available in several languages
• Targeted to first-time job writers

Cons:

• No DOCX support
• Clunky, slow interface

Access options: Like CV Library, Student Jobs is free, but you’re limited to a PDF download.

Final rating: ★★☆☆☆

10. Barclays

The Barclays CV builder states that it takes 60–90 minutes to build your CV using their software. After testing the tool, I’m not surprised that they made this claim. There’s no auto-generated content or AI support and relatively little guidance to help you through the writing process.

The tool lets you link Facebook and Instagram to fill in basic details, which is a timesaver if your socail media content is accurate and professional. The builder also supports adding a photo to your CV, though we recommend avoiding it unless required. The education builder works well—you can list GCSEs, A-Levels, and degrees with grades.

Pros:

• Designed with career starters and inexperienced applicants in mind
• Perfect education section builder for UK users

Cons:

• You need to do all the writing yourself
• Makes the CV creation process long and repetitive

Access options: Barclays’ builder is free, but you’re limited to a DOCX file. There’s no PDF available, although it’s simple to save a DOCX file as a PDF.

Final rating: ★★☆☆☆

11. Reed

Reed offers a basic CV maker. As this is a job search website like CV Library, it’s understandable that their CV builder is a secondary concern.

Unlike its competitors, there are no pre-written bullet points from which you can build your work experience section. You must also write your own personal statement from scratch. In my opinion, the Reed CV builder features are professional, but not hugely helpful for inexperienced job applicants or those who struggle to describe themselves in writing.

In contrast to other CV builders, Reed lets you download your CV as a DOCX file, so you can download it and edit it to your heart’s content.

Pros:

• CV available in Microsoft Word format for free
• Provides guidance on filling out CV sections

Cons:

• No pre-written content available
• Basic black-and-white template won’t help you stand out

Access options: The Reed builder CV is free, but you’ll only have access to a DOCX file.

Final rating: ★★☆☆☆

12. CV Maker

CV Maker offers a straightforward builder with the ability to make a CV in eight languages. The templates (nine in total) are well laid out and professional, and each comes in five different colours.

My good faith impression is that this builder was designed to accommodate a wide range of users. Sections can be easily reorganised using drag-and-drop, and the education and work experience fields are simple enough to support any qualification or job type. However, I wish the builder gave you clearer guidance on adding professional information.

Which leads me to a significant drawback of the builder: its weak user experience. There is no AI support or pre-written content, and you get very little instruction on how to write your CV professionally. For that reason, trialling this builder felt pretty similar to writing my CV from scratch. A ‘Tips’ button at the bottom of the education and work experience sections offers basic advice, but otherwise you’re on your own.

Furthermore, the builder’s quality is undermined by basic grammar mistakes. One example is the mis-capitalisation of ‘San francisco’ as the default city. Another is the poorly worded button in the education section labelled ‘Add another education’.

And one last thing—I wasn’t a fan of the subscription model. You pay $1.95 to start, and the payment screen says it auto-renews in 7 days. What it doesn’t tell you is that it jumps to $24.95 a month after that. While full-price charges after a trial period are common among CV builders (including CV Genius), CV Maker was the only tool I tested that failed to make this cost clear in the payment screen — which is misleading to users.

Pros:

• Nine templates
• Simple, uncluttered design

Cons:

• Misleading pricing plan
• No pre-written content
• Grammar errors

Best pricing option: CV Maker charges you $1.95 (~£1.60) for the first 7 days, after which you pay $24.95 (~£19.33) per month if you haven’t cancelled your trial subscription.

Final rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Paid vs. free CV builders: the summary

As you can see, paid apps occupy the top spots among the UK’s top 12 CV builders. Although some of the free builders offer some powerful features, the paid apps have the best features, the most pre-written content, and the most customisable templates.

With a little savvy manipulation of the subscription deals, you can download a great CV — and potentially boost your job hunt — for just a couple of quid, less than a cup of coffee.