Most AI CV builder comparison articles list prices in dollars, bury the real monthly cost in the annual plan footnotes, and avoid mentioning that half the tools have paywalled templates. Here are the real prices in pounds, what each free tier actually unlocks, and which tool fits which job search.
One important distinction before the table: most of these tools are CV builders (you make a CV from scratch inside the tool). Sausage Dog is a tailoring tool (you bring your existing CV and it rewrites it to match each job advert). Both are useful. They solve different problems.
Disclosure: we built Sausage Dog. It is included in this comparison because it is genuinely the cheapest paid option and solves a different problem to the others. We have tried to be fair about where the others win.
All 10 tools compared
| Tool | Free tier | Monthly | Cheapest option | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sausage Dog | 3 tailors/day, no account | £9.99 | £9.99/mo (or free) | Per-advert tailoring for UK roles |
| Kickresume | Yes | ~£18/mo | ~£6/mo (annual) | Students and graduates |
| Zety | Limited | ~£19–22/mo | ~£6–8/mo (annual) | Guided CV building |
| Rezi | Yes | ~£21–22/mo | ~£110–115 lifetime | ATS optimisation |
| Resume.io | Limited | ~£20–24/mo | ~£8–10/mo (annual) | Beginners |
| Novorésumé | Limited | ~£18–22/mo | ~£8–10/mo (annual) | Modern templates |
| Enhancv | 7-day trial | ~£25/mo | ~£16/mo (quarterly) | Creative CVs |
| Teal | Yes | ~£40+/mo | No strong annual discount | Job tracking and AI tailoring |
| Jobscan | Limited | ~£37–38/mo | ~£22–23/mo (quarterly) | ATS match scoring |
| Resume Worded | Limited | ~£37–38/mo | ~£14/mo (annual) | CV scoring and feedback |
Prices correct June 2026. USD tools converted at approximate £1 = $1.27. Annual billing gives the cheapest monthly rate — monthly billing costs significantly more. Prices vary with promotions.
Tool-by-tool breakdown
Sausage Dog
£9.99/mo (or free) cheapest option. Best for: Per-advert tailoring for UK roles.
UK-native. Tailors your existing CV to each job advert specifically. Not a CV builder — focuses on matching your experience to the actual job description. Cheapest paid option in this list.
Kickresume
~£6/mo (annual) cheapest option. Best for: Students and graduates.
Best price-to-quality ratio. Good AI writing assistance, solid ATS-compatible templates, and the annual plan is genuinely cheap. Popular in graduate job hunting communities.
Zety
~£6–8/mo (annual) cheapest option. Best for: Guided CV building.
Step-by-step builder that works well if you are starting from scratch. Watch the trial pricing — several templates are paywalled until checkout.
Rezi
~£110–115 lifetime cheapest option. Best for: ATS optimisation.
Consistently ranked best for ATS keyword density and formatting. The lifetime option is worth considering if you expect to job hunt again within 3 years. Pricing is in USD.
Resume.io
~£8–10/mo (annual) cheapest option. Best for: Beginners.
Cleanest interface in this list. Good for first-time CV writers. Trial pricing auto-converts — read the small print before entering card details.
Novorésumé
~£8–10/mo (annual) cheapest option. Best for: Modern templates.
Strong visual templates. ATS compatibility is decent but secondary to design. Better for roles where presentation matters (design, marketing, creative).
Enhancv
~£16/mo (quarterly) cheapest option. Best for: Creative CVs.
Infographic-style layouts. Eye-catching but some templates do not parse cleanly through ATS. Use for roles where a hiring manager will see it directly, not roles with an applicant tracking system in front.
Teal
No strong annual discount cheapest option. Best for: Job tracking and AI tailoring.
Most expensive in this list at roughly £40 per month. Includes a full job application tracker alongside the CV builder. Only justifies the price if you are applying to 30 plus roles per month and want everything in one place.
Jobscan
~£22–23/mo (quarterly) cheapest option. Best for: ATS match scoring.
Pastes your CV and a job description, gives you a match score and keyword gaps. Excellent for understanding why a specific application did not pass screening. Too expensive to use for every application.
Resume Worded
~£14/mo (annual) cheapest option. Best for: CV scoring and feedback.
More of a feedback tool than a builder. Scores your CV and gives line-by-line suggestions. Good for a one-off audit, expensive as an ongoing subscription.
The three tiers in practice
Under £10 per month (Kickresume, Zety on annual, Sausage Dog)
This is the right tier for most UK job seekers. Kickresume and Zety both have strong enough AI writing to build a good CV from scratch. Sausage Dog handles the piece those tools do not: re-tailoring your CV to each specific role without rebuilding it every time.
£15 to £25 per month (Rezi, Resume.io, Novorésumé, Enhancv)
Rezi justifies its price with ATS scoring that is genuinely better than cheaper alternatives. Resume.io and Novorésumé are easier to use but the quality gap over the £6 to £10 tools is smaller than the price gap. Enhancv is for creative roles only.
Over £30 per month (Teal, Jobscan, Huntr, Resume Worded)
Hard to justify unless you are applying to 30 plus roles per month and want application tracking built in. Teal and Huntr both include job trackers that replace a spreadsheet. Jobscan is genuinely excellent for ATS keyword gap analysis but too expensive for routine use on every application.
What UK job seekers actually need
Most UK job search advice is built around US conventions. UK CVs are two pages, no photo, no date of birth, no objective statement, and tailored per role. The tools above mostly know this, but check the default templates before committing. Several default to US resume style (one page, objective at the top) and need manual adjustment for UK applications.
The biggest mistake UK job seekers make with AI CV tools is building one strong CV and submitting it to 40 roles without tailoring. Every job advert has a slightly different keyword set. A CV that scores 60% keyword match against the job description gets filtered before a human reads it. The tools that solve this specifically (Jobscan, Rezi, Sausage Dog) are worth the extra step.
Cheapest effective setup for a UK job search
- Build your base CV once using Kickresume free tier or a clean Word template
- Use Sausage Dog free tier (3 tailors/day) to match it to each job advert
- If you are applying to more than 3 roles per day, upgrade to £9.99/month
- If you want to audit your base CV against ATS, run it through Rezi or Jobscan once
Sausage Dog tailors your CV to any UK job advert in under a minute. Paste the job description, upload your CV, get a tailored version that matches the exact keywords the role is screening for. Free tier is 3 tailors per day.
Try Sausage Dog freeHidden costs to watch for
- Resume.io: trial pricing converts automatically to the full monthly rate. Set a calendar reminder before you enter card details.
- Zety: several templates are locked until checkout. The price you see at the start is not always the price you pay.
- Enhancv: 7-day trial is genuinely free but moves to £25/month automatically.
- Teal: free tier is useful but the AI tailoring features are mostly behind the paid plan despite the tool marketing itself as free.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest AI CV builder in the UK?
Kickresume and Zety both drop to around £6 to £8 per month on annual billing, making them the cheapest paid options. Sausage Dog offers 3 free tailors per day with no account required, then £9.99 per month for unlimited. Canva has a free CV builder with no AI tailoring.
Which AI CV builder is best for ATS in the UK?
Rezi and Jobscan are consistently ranked highest for ATS optimisation in recruiter communities. Rezi checks keyword density and formatting against ATS parsers. Jobscan matches your CV against a specific job description. Sausage Dog tailors your CV per advert using the actual job description text.
Are these AI CV tools worth paying for?
It depends on how many applications you send. For 5 to 10 applications a month, a free tier plus one tailored rewrite is usually enough. For 20 plus applications, a subscription that re-tailors per advert pays back quickly in time saved. One-off lifetime purchases (Rezi at around £110) can be good value if you expect to job hunt again within 3 years.
Do UK recruiters care which CV tool you used?
No. UK recruiters see the output document, not the tool. What they do care about is whether the CV is two pages, clearly formatted, has no photos or dates of birth, and is tailored to the role. The tool is irrelevant as long as the output meets those conventions.
Is there a free AI CV builder for UK job seekers?
Several tools have genuinely useful free tiers: Teal, Kickresume, and Rezi all let you build a CV for free. Sausage Dog lets you tailor your existing CV to any job advert 3 times per day for free, without an account. Canva has free CV templates but no AI tailoring on the free tier.