Zety is one of the most-used resume builders on the web and one of the most searched-for, partly because it ranks for almost every resume question and partly because of its pricing model, which is the thing people ask about most. The builder is good: a guided flow, 18+ templates in named styles, a phrase library by job title, a resume check that flags 30+ issues, matching cover letters and a job-match feed. The model is the same one used by its sister brands Resume Now, LiveCareer and MyPerfectResume: the free package lets you build and download a plain-text file only, and the PDF or Word file is sold as a 14-day trial that renews into a four-weekly subscription unless you cancel. The amount depends on where you open the page: $1.95 renewing at $25.95 every four weeks in the US, 2,70 € renewing at 23,70 € in the EU, when we checked both on 14 September 2026. This review covers the prices as displayed, what each package includes, which Zety templates parse well, and how to use the trial without paying for a year.
Key takeaways
- Free package builds a resume but downloads TXT only; PDF and Word need a paid package.
- The trial is $1.95 in the US and 2,70 € in the EU, then $25.95 / 23,70 € every four weeks unless you cancel.
- Annual is $71.40 a year, cheaper than three months of the four-weekly rate.
- Templates: pick Simple, Traditional, Professional or Corporate. The Creative and some Modern styles use side columns that parsers read badly.
- Best for: one conventional resume today, downloaded and cancelled the same week.
How this review was done
Verdict in one paragraph
Zety is a competent builder attached to a subscription you must manage. If you want a finished, conventional resume today, the trial is a cheap way to get a PDF and a Word file, provided you download both on day one and cancel before day 14. The templates are mostly safe for applicant tracking systems if you pick the single-column styles; the resume check is useful for catching missing sections and weak wording. Skip Zety if you want a genuinely free download (Kickresume and Canva have one), if you plan to iterate over several months, or if you want to test your file the way a parser reads it; building elsewhere and running a free file-level ATS check does both without a renewal date.
Zety pricing in the US and the EU (14 September 2026)
| Package | Price (US) | Price (EU) | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | Free | Resume and cover letter builders and templates, download in TXT format only, resume check, job matches |
| Pro | 14-day trial for $1.95, then auto-renews at $25.95 billed every 4 weeks; cancel anytime | 14-day trial for 2,70 €, then auto-renews at 23,70 € billed every 4 weeks; cancel anytime | Everything in Basic plus download in PDF, Word and TXT, unlimited downloads, prints and edits, Bold.Pro networking profile |
| Annual | $5.95 per month, paid as $71.40 at once ("save 79%"); auto-renews each year | 5,95 € per month, paid as 71,40 € at once ("save 77%"); auto-renews each year | Same as Pro |
The arithmetic is the same wherever you are: a small one-off for two weeks, then a charge every 28 days. In the US that is $25.95 every four weeks, about $337 a year if it keeps running, against $71.40 for the annual package. In the EU it is 23,70 € every four weeks, about 308 € a year, against 71,40 €. If you need one resume, take the trial, export PDF and Word immediately, and cancel from the account page the same day; the four-weekly charge is where the money goes, not the trial.
What Zety does well
- Guided builder with a phrase library. Job-title-specific bullet suggestions fill a blank page quickly; the flow is hard to get lost in.
- Named template styles. 18+ templates in styles labelled Professional, Modern, Simple, Creative, Elegant, Traditional and Corporate, each with colour variants, so choosing a conservative design is easy.
- Resume check. Flags 30+ issues such as missing sections, weak verbs and length before you download.
- Cover letters and job matches. Matching cover letter templates and a feed of jobs matched to the resume are included in every package.
Where it falls short
- Free means TXT. The free download is a plain-text file with no formatting; PDF and Word require the trial or the annual package.
- Auto-renewing trial. The 2,70 € trial converts to 23,70 € every four weeks unless cancelled; this is disclosed under the price and is still the most common complaint about the product.
- Generic phrase suggestions. The pre-written bullets contain no numbers; a resume built only from them reads like every other Zety resume. Replace each with your own verb and metric.
- Tailoring is basic. No keyword-gap analysis against a specific posting at the level dedicated tools provide; the resume check is generic.
Are Zety templates ATS-friendly?
The Simple, Traditional, Professional and Corporate styles are single-column with standard headings and export as text-based PDFs; they parse well. The Creative and some Modern and Elegant styles use side columns, coloured header bands and icons, which are the elements our parser data flags most often (two-column 8.8% of files, icons 48.9%, contact details in a header band 22.1%). Choose a single-column style, keep contact details in the body, and upload the exported PDF to the free ATS resume checker to read the extracted text before you apply through a portal.
What OwlApply does differently (and what it does not)
- •Be clear about our own paywall: OwlApply is not the free-download answer to Zety. Building, importing from LinkedIn, tracking applications and the free ATS resume checker are free and need no account; the PDF download sits on the paid plan.
- •The subscription buys a different thing. Zety’s renewal buys the document. OwlApply’s covers the whole search: unlimited AI rewriting, the cover letter builder, the job board that ranks openings against your resume, the autofill extension (it summarises the posting into ranked requirements, rates your resume against each line, then fills the form), the job tracker and 6 to 36 AI mock interview sessions depending on plan.
- •And it is cheaper per month. Zety renews at $25.95 every four weeks (about $337 a year). OwlApply is $17.49 monthly and $9.33 a month on the six-month plan, with the same "cancel anytime" terms; both are on our pricing page.
- •Where Zety wins: the phrase library. If you are starting from a blank page with nothing written, Zety’s job-title suggestions fill it faster than our bullet generator, which rewrites what you already wrote.
The other builders we tested the same way
We opened an account on each of these and checked the price it showed on the same day, so the numbers can be compared against one another: Resume Now (trial-then-subscription), Resume Genius (trial-then-subscription), Kickresume (free download tier), Enhancv (seven-day free plan), Canva (free design tool), Teal (free tracker plus builder), Resume Worded (feedback tool, not a builder).
Check the file before the renewal date arrives
Upload any PDF or DOCX and read the text a parser pulls out of it, with 17 file-level findings. Free, no account, deleted after 24 hours.
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