Why students pick Zelume
The download is actually free
Zety's free plan exports plain text, which strips your formatting, fonts, and layout. The formatted PDF is behind the paywall. Zelume's PDF export is free with every template and carries no watermark, because a resume you can't send isn't a resume.
No trial arithmetic
As of August 2026, Zety's $1.95 14-day trial converts to $25.95 every four weeks unless you cancel in time, and that renewal is the most common complaint in their reviews. Zelume has no trials: the free tier is free indefinitely, Pro is a flat $9.99 a month, and verified students pay $4.99. Cancel any time and keep every resume you made.
A job search tool, not just a document builder
Zety ends at the document. Zelume's free tier includes the application tracker, the Chrome extension that saves jobs from LinkedIn and Indeed, and AI tailoring against real postings, so the resume connects to the actual applications you're sending.
Related reading
What is an ATS, in plain English
How Workday, Greenhouse, and Lever screen your resume before a human ever sees it.
How to write a resume with no experience
Class projects, campus jobs, and side hustles into a resume that actually works.
Weak resume words to cut
The filler quietly diluting your page, and the stronger swaps for each one.
Frequently asked
Is Zety actually free?
The builder is free to use, but as of August 2026 the free plan only downloads your resume as plain text, without your formatting or design. Downloading the formatted PDF or Word file requires a paid plan, which starts with a $1.95 14-day trial that converts to $25.95 every four weeks unless cancelled. Zelume's formatted PDF download is free, with no card on file.
Is Zelume really free, or is the free tier a trap?
Free forever. Unlimited resume versions with every template, free PDF downloads with no watermark, 20 AI generations per day, the application tracker on 50 saved jobs, the Chrome extension, and ATS scoring. No card to start and no auto-upgrade.
Does Zety have more templates than Zelume?
Yes. Zety offers more template designs, and if you want maximum visual variety, that's a genuine point in their favor. Zelume ships 15 templates, and every one is built to parse cleanly through applicant tracking systems, because a beautiful template that Workday can't read gets filtered before a human sees it. We chose depth of parsing safety over breadth of design.
Can I move my Zety resume to Zelume?
Yes. If you have a paid Zety plan, download the PDF and upload it to Zelume; we extract the content and let you edit and tailor from there. On Zety's free plan, download the .txt export and paste it in, or rebuild in the editor, which most people finish in about 15 minutes.
Will my data be locked in?
No. Every resume, cover letter, and tracked application is exportable from Zelume: PDF for documents, CSV for the tracker, JSON for raw data. Leaving is a download away, which we consider a feature.