Export
The download button is not a paywall.
PDF in A4 or Letter, DOCX for Word. No watermark, no branding baked into the file, no card taken to release it. This is the whole reason the page exists, and it holds on the Free plan.
Zety alternative
Is Zety resume free? Free to build. Not free to download.
Zety is free to build a resume with, but it is not free to download one. As of 11 July 2026 its published plans put the formatted PDF and Word export behind a paid plan, which is why so many people reach the download button and stop. Folio is the alternative that reverses the trade: on the Folio Free plan the resume export is completely ungated, so you download a real PDF in A4 or Letter, or a DOCX, with no card, no watermark and no upgrade screen, and every resume layout is included. Free is honest about what it does not give you: zero custom domains, Folio branding on your hosted site, and 10 AI drafting generations a month. The file itself is never the thing we charge for.
Build the resume, then actually download it.
The export is ungated on Free: a PDF in A4 or Letter, or a DOCX, with nothing stamped on it and no card taken. What Free withholds is the custom domain, the full theme gallery, and unlimited AI drafts, never the file you came for.
- to download your finished resume
- $0
- PDF and DOCX on the Free plan, no card
The short answer
Free to build. Paid to download.
The confusion is deliberate on this part of the internet, so here is the plain version. Zety lets you use the builder, pick a template, and write your whole resume without paying anything. The bill arrives at the end, at the download. As of 11 July 2026, getting the formatted PDF or Word file out of Zety requires a paid plan, and the export you can take for free is plain text, which throws away the layout you just spent an hour on. That is what people mean when they ask whether Zety charges for a resume. It does, at the exact moment the resume becomes useful.
None of that makes Zety a scam. It is a long-running, real product from a real company, and the writing guidance inside it is genuinely good. The complaints you find when you search for whether Zety is legit are almost never about fraud. They are about a subscription that renewed when someone thought they had bought a single file, and about learning at the download button that the work was not free after all.
We are not going to quote a price at you, because prices and trial terms move and a stale number is worse than no number. Check zety.com/pricing yourself. The structure of the deal is the part that matters, and the structure is: build for nothing, pay to leave with the file.
How Folio works
From a paste to a downloaded file, without a card.
Four steps. The last one is the one that costs money everywhere else.
01
Paste what you already have.
An old resume, the text of your LinkedIn profile, or a few honest bullet points about your roles. Folio drafts a structured first version from it, and you edit every field. There is no blank page and no wizard that hides your content from you.
02
Pick any layout you like.
Every resume layout family and preset is available on the Free plan, because the resume builder carries no plan gating at all. The layout you choose is the layout you get to export, which is not a sentence most builders can write.
03
Read the ATS score before you send it.
Folio scores the resume it built for you from 0 to 100 across 7 weighted criteria, and tells you which one is costing you points. The ATS-friendly badge appears at 90 and above. You fix the resume while you can still fix it, not after a rejection.
04
Download it.
Export a PDF in A4 or Letter, or a DOCX for the recruiter who insists on Word. No watermark, no card on record, no plan to buy first. If you later want your content out of Folio entirely, one click gives you the whole thing.
What free means here
The export is free. Here is what is not.
Any page that only tells you the good half is selling you something. Both halves, in one place.
Layouts
No layout is held back for payers.
Folio does not keep its good resume designs behind a plan and show you the plain ones for free. Every family and preset renders and exports on Free, so the resume you previewed is the resume you download.
ATS
A score you can see before you export.
Seven weighted criteria out of 100: structure is worth 30, headings 18, selectable text 16, contact details 12, length 10, contrast 8, risky elements 6. It runs on the resume Folio built, deterministically, so the same resume always scores the same.
Honest limits
Zero custom domains on Free.
Your hosted site lives at portfolio.wrxstack.com/yourname and shows Made with Folio branding. A custom domain and branding removal are Pro. AI drafting is capped at 10 generations a month on Free, and the full 60-theme gallery is Pro. The resume export is not on that list.
No card
Nothing to unsubscribe from.
Free does not take payment details, so there is no trial that quietly converts and no cancellation buried in a settings page. If you never upgrade, nothing ever happens. Pro is Rs 599 or $9 a month, and it is a choice, not an ambush at the download.
Your data
One click and you have everything.
Full data export whenever you want it. Your writing is not collateral for a subscription, and leaving is a decision you make rather than a negotiation you have.
Free tier vs free tier
Which of these actually lets you leave with the file.
The only question that matters when you are at the download button. Prices are deliberately absent from this table; the shape of the deal is what you need.
| Capability | Folio | Zety | Enhancv | Kickresume |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build and edit without paying | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Formatted PDF download without paying | Yes, A4 or Letter | Paid plan required | Paid plan required once the free window ends | Restricted on the free tier, verify current terms |
| DOCX download without paying | Yes | Paid plan required | Paid plan required once the free window ends | Restricted on the free tier, verify current terms |
| Every layout usable on the free tier | Yes, no resume design is gated | Templates are free to use, the download is not | Templates are free to use, the download is not | Some templates are premium, verify current terms |
| Card needed to get the file | No | Yes | Yes, after the free window | Yes, for premium formats |
Competitor columns describe each service published free tier as of 11 July 2026 and quote no prices on purpose, because trial terms and rates change and a stale figure would mislead you. Kickresume free download formats have changed more than once, so treat those cells as a prompt to check rather than a promise. Confirm the current terms on zety.com, enhancv.com and kickresume.com before you decide anything.
The numbers on this page
First-party facts only.
Every figure below is something in the product, not a statistic we found somewhere convenient.
$0
to export the resume
PDF and DOCX, Free plan, no card
7
weighted criteria in the ATS score
Structure alone is worth 30 of the 100
0
custom domains on the Free plan
You get portfolio.wrxstack.com/yourname
10
AI drafting generations a month on Free
Analysis and scoring are unlimited
The principle
Charge for the platform, not for the door.
A resume builder that paywalls the export is charging you for the one thing that was always yours. You wrote the words. You lived the jobs. Holding the PDF until a card clears is a business model built on the worst hour of a job search, and it works precisely because you are tired and the application closes tonight.
Folio takes money for the platform instead: the custom domain, the full theme gallery, the branding removal, unlimited AI drafting. Those are real things that cost real money to run, and you can look at the price and say no. The resume file is not one of them. Build it, score it, download it, and never come back if you do not want to. That is the deal, and it is the same deal on the day you sign up as on the day you leave.
FAQ
Honest answers.
Is Zety free to download a resume from?
No. Zety is free to build and edit with, and the formatted PDF or Word download requires a paid plan as of 11 July 2026. The export you can take without paying is plain text, which drops the design you just chose. Check zety.com/pricing for the current terms, because they change. On Folio the same download costs nothing on the Free plan and takes no card.
Is Zety legit, or is it a scam?
It is legitimate. Zety is an established resume builder with solid writing guidance inside it, and the people complaining online are usually not alleging fraud. They are annoyed that the download was gated after they had done the work, or that a subscription kept billing after they thought they had bought a single file. That is a pricing design people dislike, not a scam.
How do I cancel or unsubscribe from Zety?
Only Zety can cancel a Zety subscription, so do it from your account settings there or by contacting their support, and keep the confirmation email. We mention it because half the searches around this topic are people trying to stop a charge. Folio Free never takes a card, so there is nothing to cancel here in the first place.
Is Enhancv free, and can I download my CV from it for free?
Enhancv is free to build with and gives new accounts a limited free window, after which downloading requires a paid plan. So the honest answer to the download question is that you can get the file free only inside that window, and confirm the terms on enhancv.com before you rely on it. Folio does not run a countdown on the export at all.
Is Kickresume free? Is Rezi free?
Both publish a free tier and a paid tier, and both restrict something at the point of export or on the better templates, though the exact limits have moved over time. Verify on their own pricing pages rather than trusting any comparison article, including this one. The difference worth knowing is structural: Folio has no export entitlement to buy, so the free tier cannot be tightened at the download button.
What exactly is not free on Folio?
The custom domain is not free. On Free you get zero of them, your site lives at portfolio.wrxstack.com/yourname, and it carries Made with Folio branding. Free also meters AI drafting at 10 generations each month and keeps the 60-theme portfolio gallery for Pro, which is Rs 599 or $9 monthly. Permanently free, with no card: the resume builder itself, every layout in it, the ATS score, and the PDF and DOCX you download.
Can Folio score a resume I already made in Zety or Canva?
No, and we would rather say so than let you find out later. The ATS score runs on the resume Folio builds, using its own layout, theme and content model, so it cannot read a PDF you upload from somewhere else. What it does instead is build the resume in layouts where the parsing rules cannot be broken, then show you the score before you export. Rebuild it here in a few minutes and you get both the score and the file.
Keep going
Explore the rest of Folio.
AI resume builderDraft a full resume from a paste, edit every field, and export it on the Free plan.ATS resume checkerThe 7 weighted criteria behind the 0 to 100 score, and what each one is worth.PricingWhat Free includes, what Pro adds, and why the export is on neither list.How ATS screening worksWhat the software actually reads, and the formatting that quietly breaks it.Start freeBuild a resume and download the file today. No card, no watermark, no trial clock.Jobscan alternativeWhat Folio does for "is jobscan free", and where the free plan stops.Adobe Portfolio alternativeWhat Folio does for "is adobe portfolio free", and where the free plan stops.Linktree alternativeWhat Folio does for "linktree alternative", and where the free plan stops.Canva resumes and ATSWhere Folio helps with "are canva resumes ats friendly", and what the free plan leaves out.The Folio ATS Score standardThe full rubric, published: 7 weighted criteria, the bands, and what the score cannot do.