The download nobody gates.
Export a print-quality PDF as often as you like. No plan check, no credit counter, no "upgrade to remove the sample text" step in between you and the file.
Free resume builder
A free resume builder where the download is free too.
Folio is a free resume builder whose PDF and DOCX download is also free. There is no plan check at the export button, no watermark on the file, and no cap on how many times you download it, so the resume you build is the resume you keep. A Folio account is required and it costs nothing, takes no card, and every resume layout is open on the free plan, with a 0 to 100 ATS score shown before you export.
Build it free. Download it free. Twice on Tuesday if you want.
Sign up with an email address, write the resume, press export, and the file lands in your downloads folder with nothing held back for a paid tier. No card at signup, no trial clock, no subscription waiting to be cancelled.
- to download your resume
- $0
- PDF and DOCX, unwatermarked, on every plan including Free
The short answer
Free until the download, then a paywall. That is the trick.
The pattern is always the same. You answer the questions, you pick the template, you watch a resume take shape, and then you reach for the download and a plan picker appears. An hour of your work is now hostage to a subscription you did not plan on, and half the people searching for a resume builder are really searching for the one that does not do this.
Folio does not do this. The export route that produces your PDF checks that you are signed in and that the resume belongs to you, and it checks nothing else. There is no entitlement flag on it, no quota counter, and no watermark step. Download the file on the free plan, download it again tomorrow after you fix a bullet, download the DOCX as well. Nothing about that button changes if you never pay us.
What we ask in exchange is an account. Your resume is a document that lives in your workspace so you can come back and edit it, which means there is something to sign in to. That is the whole cost of entry, and there is no card field on the signup form.
What free gets you
Everything that touches the resume file.
Not a trial of the resume builder. The resume builder, with the export attached.
DOCX
A Word file, when the portal demands one.
Some application portals still insist on .docx, and some recruiters still redline in Word. Folio exports both formats from the same resume, and both are free.
Clean
No watermark, no badge, no trace of us.
The file that reaches a hiring manager carries your name and nothing else. There is no watermark layer in the export pipeline and no "made with" line stamped into the footer of your resume.
Layouts
Every layout, not the three cheap ones.
Free does not mean the leftover templates. Every resume layout family and every preset is selectable on the free plan, because Folio puts no plan gate on the resume designs at all.
ATS
A score before you export, not a surprise after.
Folio scores the resume it is about to render, from 0 to 100, across 7 weighted criteria. Structure alone is worth 30 points. You see the number and the fixes before the PDF exists.
Edits
Come back in March and change one line.
The resume stays in your workspace. Edit a bullet, swap the layout, re-export. There is no per-download charge and no version that expires, so a resume you wrote once keeps working.
How it works
From nothing to a downloaded PDF.
Four steps, and none of them ends at a payment wall.
01
Make the account.
Email, Google, or a passkey. No card, no trial timer starting in the background. This is the only thing free asks of you.
02
Fill the resume, or paste one in.
Type it, or paste text from a resume you already have and let AI drafting shape a first pass. Drafting is capped at 10 generations a month on Free, and typing your own bullets is unlimited and always will be.
03
Read the ATS score, fix what it flags.
The score is deterministic and runs on your machine-readable content, not on a vibe. It names the specific problem, a missing contact field, a heading a parser will not recognize, a layout risk, and the badge appears at 90 or above.
04
Download it. Then download it again.
Press export and pick PDF or DOCX. The file is yours, unwatermarked, and you can come back and pull a fresh copy any time you change a line.
Which one is actually free
The question is never the builder. It is the button.
Read this as a map of where each tool puts its wall, not as a scoreboard. Verify current terms on any vendor pricing page before you commit an hour to it.
| Capability | Folio | Zety | Resume.io | Kickresume | Canva |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download the PDF on the free tier | Yes, unlimited | Paid plan required | Paid plan required | Restricted on free | Yes |
| Download a DOCX | Yes, free | On a paid plan | On a paid plan | On a paid plan | Yes, but not a resume-native file |
| Watermark or branding on the free file | None | Free preview is limited | Free preview is limited | Branding on some free exports | None on the PDF |
| All templates available for free | Every layout and preset | Premium templates are paid | Premium templates are paid | Premium templates are paid | Pro templates are paid |
| ATS score before you export | 0 to 100, across 7 criteria | Separate checker | Separate checker | Basic check | Not offered |
| Subscription to cancel later | None, if you stay on Free | Recurring plan after the intro period | Recurring plan after the intro period | Recurring plan | Recurring plan for Pro |
Competitor rows describe the shape of each vendor's published free and paid tiers, which vendors change often. No prices are quoted here on purpose. Check each pricing page yourself, and treat any builder that will not tell you the download price up front as one that intends to surprise you.
The limits, in plain sight
Where Free stops. Read this before you sign up, not after.
A page that calls out a paywall and then hides its own is worth nothing, so here is the whole free plan. The resume, its layouts, and its PDF and DOCX exports are free with no asterisk. The limits are everywhere else.
You get 0 custom domains on Free. Your portfolio lives at portfolio.wrxstack.com/yourname, not at a domain you own, and pointing your own name at it is a Pro feature. The free portfolio also shows a "Published with Folio" badge and draws from 10 of the 60 designs. That badge is on the website, never on the resume file you download.
AI drafting is capped at 10 generations a month on Free, and the first draft is generated by an external model, which we say plainly on our AI privacy page. The ATS score, the job-description match, and the keyword gap analysis are the native deterministic parts, and they are not capped. Media storage is 512 MB. Pro is $9 a month if you want the domain, the full design gallery, and the badge gone, and if you never buy it, nothing about your resume export changes.
The numbers, all first-party
What is free, and what is capped.
Both columns of the ledger, because you will find the second one eventually anyway.
$0
to export, forever
PDF and DOCX, no watermark, no quota
7
weighted ATS criteria
structure 30, headings 18, selectable text 16, contact 12
10
AI drafts a month on Free
writing your own bullets is uncapped
0
custom domains on Free
a Folio subdomain, and a domain of your own on Pro
FAQ
Honest answers.
Is Folio actually free, or is there a charge at the download?
There is no charge at the download. The route that renders your PDF verifies that you are signed in and that the document is yours, and then it renders the file. It does not consult your plan, because there is no plan flag on it to consult. People ask this so often because most builders answer it the other way, quietly, at minute fifty-nine of the hour you spent writing.
Do I have to give a credit card or start a trial?
No. Signup takes an email address, a Google login, or a passkey, and the form has no payment field on it. Nothing begins counting down and nothing renews, so there is no subscription for you to hunt through a settings menu to cancel later. If you want Pro one day you buy it deliberately, and until then you are on Free with the export switched on.
Is there a watermark on the free resume PDF?
No watermark, and no branding line either. Our export pipeline has no step that stamps anything onto your document, so what a recruiter opens is your resume, unmarked. The only place Folio puts its name on free output is the badge on a published portfolio website, which is a separate thing from the file you download.
Should I send my resume as a PDF or a DOCX?
Send a PDF unless the posting specifically asks for a Word file, and some employer portals still do. A PDF preserves your layout on any machine, and a well-built one keeps its text selectable so a parser can read it. Folio exports both from the same content, so when a portal insists on .docx you switch format instead of rebuilding the resume.
Can I upload my old resume and have Folio score it?
Not a file, no. You can paste the text of an existing resume in as a starting point, and Folio will structure it, but the scoring engine reads Folio layouts and content rather than an arbitrary PDF someone uploads. That is a deliberate trade: instead of grading a document it cannot control, Folio builds yours in a layout where the parsing rules hold by construction, and shows you the score before you export.
Can I edit the resume later and download it again for free?
Yes, as many times as you like. The document stays in your workspace, so six months from now you can rewrite a bullet for a different role, switch the layout, and pull a fresh PDF. Re-exporting is not metered, and a resume you built on Free does not get locked behind a plan later.
Which resume templates do I get on the free plan?
All of them. Folio applies no plan gating to resume layouts at all, so every layout family and every preset is selectable while you are paying nothing. The design gallery that Free does limit is for the portfolio website, where 10 of the 60 themes are open, and that limit has nothing to do with your resume.
Keep going
Explore the rest of Folio.
Start freeMake the account, build the resume, download the PDF. No card required.AI resume builderDraft the resume from a paste, then get the cover letter and portfolio from it.ATS resume checkerHow the 0 to 100 score works, and what each of the 7 criteria is worth.PricingExactly what Free includes, and the two things Pro adds that Free does not.How to format a resumeThe formatting choices that decide whether a parser can read your file.Free CV makerWhat Folio does for "cv maker", and where the free plan stops.Resume websiteWhat Folio does for "how to build a resume website", and where the free plan stops.LinkedIn to resumeWhat Folio does for "linkedin profile to resume converter", and where the free plan stops.The Folio ATS Score standardThe full rubric, published: 7 weighted criteria, the bands, and what the score cannot do.