The 10 Best CV builders in the UK

If you want to build an interview-winning CV quickly, then using a CV builder could be the perfect approach.

They have professional CV templates, pre-written content and a host of other features that take the time and stress out of writing your CV.

But with so many CV builders on the market, how do you choose the one that’s right for you?

To help you decide, here’s our round-up of the top 10 CV builders out there.

StandOut CV

Ok, so we’re a little biased here, but we truly believe that our CV builder provides the best way of creating an effective CV quickly.

It’s the only CV builder in the UK that has been created by former recruitment professionals and has attractive yet functional templates, and expert guidance to steer you through the process.

Overview

CV templates – A range of professional-looking CV templates designed by recruitment experts, which not only look good but provide recruiters with a seamless reading experience and highlight the most important details to them.
Personalisation – Every CV template can be customised by changing the font, text size colour scheme or even the option to add a photo, allowing users to create a truly unique CV design.
User interface – An intuitive and heavily guided interface which guides users at every step, ensuring that anybody can quickly create a CV without becoming overwhelmed or missing important steps.
Tips and guidance – Each stage of the CV builder has guidance on how and why each part of the CV should be filled out, and there are expert tips on how to make your CV more attractive to employers.
Pre-written content – Each section of the CV can be populated with pre-written expert content with one click, easily edited to reflect your own unique situation. There is pre-written content for every industry which has been written by recruitment professionals.
Editing and storing – You can store and update as many versions of your CV as you like within your account forever, and you can even tailor your CV on-the-go by accessing the mobile app.
Cost – It’s free to create your first CV – To download, store it and have continued access for editing and tailoring, it costs £2.70 for the first 14 days, and then £16.95 per month. Your subscription can be cancelled any time within your account or by emailing us.

MyPerfectCV

If you are going to use another CV builder, you might be considering MyPerfectCV. This tool is long standing CV maker app with a range of professionally designed templates.

Overview

CV templates – There is a selection of CV templates available that contain all the key components recruiters are looking for. That said, some of these designs feel a little old fashioned, so we suggest trying to find the more modern looking ones.
Personalisation – Once you’ve chosen a template and input your content, you can make changes to the formatting, such as changing the line height, font size, colour and white space.
User interface – The interface is simple to use and you will be guided through the writing process, with tips on how to add each of your roles, qualifications and more – although some of it does not seem to have been written by recruitment professionals.
Pre-written content – You have the option to choose from pre-written examples that match your industry, role or experience level. There is lots of it available and the quality is quite good.
Editing and storing – You can save your CV as you go and edit the content whenever you want by logging in to your account. You can also make multiple versions of your CV before downloading them.
Cost – You can download and edit some templates for free, but for premium templates, you need a subscription costing £16.95 a month. This can be cancelled at any time but just be aware that many people on TrustPilot claim to have been charged despite wanting to cancel the service, so stay on top of your account to avoid unwanted charges.

Resume.io

Setting aside the fact that it’s called Resume.io, you can still use this tool to create a professional-looking CV, with features and templates tested by recruiters and IT professionals.

Overview

CV templates – Resume.io offers a collection of professionally designed templates, ranging from minimalistic to modern. Though some designs can be a little more restrictive than others.
Personalisation – The templates are designed to be customisable, allowing you to change elements like the colour scheme and line spacing, but there are fewer customisation options than some other CV builders on this list.
User interface – All templates on the site are designed to be intuitive and as a general rule, the features are easy to use.
Tips and guidance – This CV builder comes with features like an AI-powered summary generator and sample sentences to guide you as you build your CV.
Pre-written content – These AI-powered tools can generate summaries for you, though be careful to edit these to make them feel more personal and human as they can appear slightly robotic, and not always professional sounding.
Editing and storing – You can log in and edit your templates whenever you want, before saving your CV as a Word doc or PDF.
Cost – It is advertised as free to create your first CV with the option to start a 7-day free trial. However, you have to provide your payment details in order to access the free trial, which auto-renews if you do not cancel in time. If you do want monthly access to this service, it’s £19.95, making this one of the more expensive tools on the market.

CV Maker

The next tool on our list is CV Maker, which offers a range of professional CV templates that have been reviewed by industry experts.

Overview

CV templates – You can choose from a range of over 20 CV templates. These have been categorised into four types; creative, modern, professional and simple.
Personalisation – It’s easy to customise and change the layout of your chosen template, as well as switch between designs if you change your mind.
User interface – This is a relatively straightforward tool that allows you to either upload an existing CV, choose from pre-written examples or start from scratch.
Tips and guidance – There is a career blog for tips and advice on the CV Maker platform, as well as the aforementioned CV examples – it’s not clear if these have been written by recruitment professionals.
Pre-written content – While you can use these example CVs to inspire your own content, you cannot select from a drop-down menu of pre-written content. You have to edit or create this yourself.
Editing and storing – You can save your CV to your online account and download these as a PDF whenever you want.
Cost – It’s free to create an account and make a CV which you can save but you cannot download unless you pay. You can pay a promotional price of £0.99 for 7 days, after which your subscription will auto-renew for £19.99 a month. Although you can cancel your account at any time, the T&Cs are a little grey and many on TrustPilot have complained of being unfairly charged, so just be aware.

EnhanCV

Enhancv

EnhanCV can help you create a professional CV with a choice of templates available to those who sign up.

Overview

CV templates – You can choose from a range of ATS-friendly CV templates, categorised by industry, seniority level and company culture. They look good, but aren’t all functionally effective for landing interviews.
Personalisation – The tailoring feature allows you to change the design of your template, rearrange the sections and change the font. That said, some of the designs and fonts are limited in this builder and some of the AI features feel quite clunky.
User interface – The builder does, however, offer drag-and-drop functionality so you can change your layout and move the sections around to prioritise the content that is most important to you.
Tips and guidance – The website has a blog and career coach that offer tips and advice on writing your CV and you can also set up live prompts. Just be aware that the built-in spellchecker doesn’t always pick up on spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, something which can be very damaging on your CV, so always double check this.
Pre-written content – The tool offers content suggestions and you can choose from a series of bullet-pointed suggestions depending on your job and seniority level.
Editing and storing – If you don’t want to start from scratch, you can upload an old CV or add a LinkedIn profile to extract all the standard sections. That, or you can create and save a new CV as you go.
Cost – You can use the builder free for 7 days and in that time you can build two resumes and cover letters. If you subscribe for more features and downloads it costs £16 a month.

CV-Library

CV-Library is a popular job site and as part of their service, they offer a basic CV builder to help you on your job search.

Overview

CV templates – The CV builder has been created to be very simple to use, but this means that the template and layout are also very simple and the design options are limited.
Personalisation – You can personalise the content, but in terms of layout and design, you don’t have multiple templates to choose from.
User interface – The CV builder guides you through each of the key sections, giving a brief explanation of what each section should contain so you don’t miss out on any key information.
Tips and guidance – As well as offering these explanations, there is also a career advice blog on their website to give you more tips and guidance on the writing process.
Pre-written content – When entering your details, you can choose from pre-written summaries and responsibilities. However, some sections like ‘training and certificates’ haven’t been populated with any pre-written content, so you’ll have to fill these in yourself.
Editing and storing – You can edit and store your CV in your CV-Library account and this can also be accessed through the app.
Cost – The CV builder is free to use, though you will need to sign up for a CV-Library account to access and edit your CV. This is perhaps why the design options and features are far more limited than in some of the other builders.

Reed

Following on from the above, Reed is another popular job site that has a simple and easy-to-use CV builder to help you with your job search.

Overview

CV templates – This is a basic CV builder which means that the template and layout are very simple. You’ll get the option to add the standard sections, but you cannot choose from a range of attractive templates like you can with other tools.
Personalisation – Unless you upload a template rather than using the step-by-step CV builder, there is no option to personalise the design features like font or colour scheme. It is also not possible to add additional sections like hobbies and interests if you want to include these.
User interface – The interface is simple to use but fields like the job description sections don’t allow for formatting, such as adding bullet points. This is something which is usually a key feature in most CVs, making it harder for you to organise your information and increase readability.
Tips and guidance – Reed has a career advice blog, though the builder itself does not provide guidance as you generate your CV. This can be tricky for first-time (or relatively new) job hunters as it doesn’t offer much support.
Pre-written content – There are several drop-down suggestions when entering your key information, but these are not very detailed.
Editing and storing – You can save your progress as you go and access this through your account. When it’s complete, you can download it as a Word document.
Cost – Like CV-Library, this CV builder is free to use but you need to sign up for a Reed account in order to access and download it.

Zety

The Zety CV builder can help you create a professional CV either by uploading an existing CV or by building one from scratch.

Overview

CV templates – Zety offers around 18 ATS-optimised CV designs for you to choose from that can be edited and tailored.
Personalisation – Once you’ve chosen your template you can personalise this by adding or changing some of the colours, switching the sections around and editing other design features.
User interface – The CV builder guides you through each stage of the writing process and makes things simple with drag-and-drop functionality.
Tips and guidance – Zety offers what it calls an ‘intuitive wizard’ to guide you through the CV-writing process. You will also receive a CV score to show you what’s wrong (or right) with your CV as you go. This seems OK but it doesn’t seem to be provided by recruitment professionals
Pre-written content – Users can pick from built-in content suggestions and ready-made phrases from industry professionals.
Editing and storing – As your CV is saved in the Cloud, you can save and edit your CV as required from any device.
Cost – It is free to create a CV and download this in a TXT format but if you want to download your CV as a PDF or Word doc, you’ll have to pay. You can start a free two-week trial, after which you’ll be billed monthly at around £18 making it one of the most expensive CV builders out there.

Canva

Canva is a little different to some of the other CV builders we have on this list in that it is a graphic design tool rather than a dedicated career or job site.

Overview

CV templates – With Canva, you can choose from hundreds of free and designer-made CV templates. Just be aware that some of the more interesting templates with lots of design elements are less ATS-friendly.
Personalisation – You can easily customise these templates, changing colour schemes, fonts, icons and other graphic design elements.
User interface – Canva is more complex than other CV builders as it is a graphic design tool. But even beginners should be able to grasp the basics like changing the colour or font.
Tips and guidance – As this is not a dedicated career site, it does not offer any tips or guidance when writing your CV.
Pre-written content – Again, this is not a career site so the templates don’t offer any pre-written content for you to choose from.
Editing and storing – Once you’ve got an account, the site automatically saves your designs as you create them. You can save as many designs as you like.
Cost – It is free to use Canva and many of the templates can be edited and downloaded for free. But if you want to access some of the premium designs and features, you need to subscribe to Canva Pro for £12.99 a month.

Novoresume

As the name suggests, this is another resume platform but the same rules apply when creating your CV.

Overview

CV templates – There is a choice of around 8 free CV templates but you have to pay to use the premium designs. All templates have been created with real people and ATSs in mind.
Personalisation – You can change design features like the font and colour scheme, however, you can’t add paragraphs or your own sections. You are also limited to 10 bullet points per section, which won’t be a problem in most cases but can limit you when going into detail about your latest role.
User interface – The CV builder is easy to use and guides you through what content should be included in each section.
Tips and guidance – As well as a detailed CV writing guide, you will also receive tips and tricks built-in to the CV builder.
Pre-written content – There is an AI assistant that can help you by generating tailored content and examples. However, there is a limited number of times you can use this feature for free before you have to buy more tokens to access this help feature.
Editing and storing – You can save your CV in the documents folder on your account and edit these whenever you need.
Cost – Novoresume offers both free and premium templates, but the distinction between the free and premium features isn’t always clear, and in some cases, it’s not that impressive any way.