Company review

CV Genius Review

An honest look at CV Genius's pricing, templates and ATS advice, and what ResumeFox does differently.

Published 2026-09-23Pricing verified 2026-09-23Reviewed by Steve Marcum
Pricing

What each one actually costs over twelve months

CV Genius's builder is free to use with unlimited plain-text downloads, so the honest comparison starts there. Premium unlocks PDF and Word downloads for a 14-day trial charge of £2.90 — but unlike ResumeFox, CV Genius does not publish one fixed renewal price anywhere on its own site, so what happens after the trial is read from real customer reports rather than a checkout screen.

CV Genius
Sonaga Tech Limited; sibling brand to Resume Genius
£0Free CV maker (TXT downloads)
Premium starts at £2.90 for 14 days; no fixed renewal price is published after that.
14-day trial
£2.90
Confirmed via real Trustpilot reviews and third-party pricing pages; some US visitors report an equivalent $2.95
Reported renewal, per month
£16.90 – £19.99
Not published by CV Genius itself — range seen across real, dated Trustpilot complaints; confirm on the live checkout
  • Free CV maker with unlimited TXT downloads and all 200+ templates, no card required
  • No published renewal price; multiple Trustpilot reviewers describe repeat charges and difficulty getting a refund
OUR PICK
ResumeFox
TopStack Resume
$2.95for 14 days
Then $23.95 every 4 weeks.
Every 4 weeks, uncancelled
≈ $314
13 charges of $23.95 plus the trial
Annual, paid once
$95.40
$7.95/month, billed annually
  • Standards from 80,000+ resumes written by real US career writers
  • Full Access adds tailoring, tracking and job sourcing, not just the document

CV Genius's trial price and refund terms are read directly from its own Terms of Use. Its recurring price is not published as one fixed figure anywhere on the company's own site, so the range shown is sourced to real, dated customer reviews rather than a checkout capture. Confirm the exact renewal amount on the live checkout screen before entering a card.

Feature by feature

The full side-by-side comparison

Grouped by what actually matters: where the writing comes from, whether the file survives the software, whether the resume gets aimed at the job you want, and what it costs to keep using.

Compared on
CV Genius
Sonaga Tech Limited; sibling brand to Resume Genius
ResumeFox
TopStack Resume
(this site)
Built on real resume-writing experience
Where the writing standards come from
An AI trained on job descriptions isn't the same as someone who has actually done this.
Partly. AI writing assistant trained on real job descriptions, with content reviewed by CPRW-certified in-house editors; not an individually staffed writing service
Yes. Standards drawn from 80,000+ resumes written by hand by 100+ CPRW-certified US writers and recruiters
Rewrites the resume you already have
Not importing it: rewriting it.
Partly. Upload an existing CV or start from scratch, then an AI Q&A flow writes personalised content per section as you go
Yes. Upload it and the AI rebuilds it section by section, against the same standards above
ATS readability check
What actually gets checked, not just a number.
Partly. Free CV Checker gives AI-powered formatting and rewriting suggestions; no numeric score or percentage is stated on its own page
Yes. 12 named problems checked against real parsing behavior, not a score out of 100
Templates that actually parse
Templates with sidebars, photos or skill graphics
CV Genius's own advice page agrees these hurt ATS parsing — its main gallery sells them anyway.
No. Most named templates (Inverness, Warwick, Worcester, Bangor, Glasgow, Newport, Leeds) are two-column with a sidebar, per CV Genius's own template descriptions; its own ATS advice page warns sidebars and skills tables "confuse parsers" and sets aside just 6 single-column templates instead. Photo templates are offered separately for international use.
Yes. None. No sidebar, no photo, no skills chart, anywhere
Number of templates
Choice for its own sake is cheap.
Yes. 200+ CV templates, plus 39+ cover letter templates and 155+ real CV examples
Partly. 10 designs plus a US federal layout
Targeting the job, not just building the resume
Tailoring to a specific job posting
One resume per application, without rebuilding it.
No. No feature to tailor a CV to a specific job posting; the builder produces one CV to reuse
Yes. Targeted version per posting; master resume stays untouched, every change reported
Cover letter for that same posting
Written from the posting and the tailored resume together.
Partly. AI Cover Letter Builder writes paragraphs from a Q&A flow and a bank of industry-specific phrases; not drafted from a pasted job posting and your CV together
Yes. Drafted from the posting and your targeted resume, with the reasoning behind it shown
Job search read against your resume
Matching, not a job board embed.
No. No job search or job-matching tool; CV Genius is a document builder plus advice content
Yes. Live postings from the major boards, with a fit check against your master resume; a stretch role is labeled a reach
Interview preparation
Company-specific, or a tips article.
No. No interview-prep tool; interview advice exists only as blog articles
Yes. Prep built from live research on the company and role, plus a browser mock interview; video never leaves your machine
LinkedIn optimization
Recruiter search terms differ from parser terms.
No. No LinkedIn rewrite or optimization tool found
Yes. Headline, About and experience rewritten from your master resume
Application tracker
One record per job, everything hanging off it.
No. No application tracker of any kind
Yes. An application tracker with one record per job, linking the targeted resume, cover letter, prep and offer notes
Billing and support
What it renews at
The number nobody puts in headline size.
No. Not published; real Trustpilot reviews report £16.90 to £19.99 a month after the £2.90 trial
Partly. $23.95 every 4 weeks, or $95.40 once a year
Support
Yes. Email (2 business days), live chat and a phone line, Mon–Fri 1pm–midnight UK time
Partly. Email; a person replies, usually within one business day
Try it free

A half-filled circle means the feature exists but with a real limitation, described in the cell.

Templates & ATS

More templates is not the same as more good templates

A large share of the designs these builders promote use two columns, a headshot slot, or skills drawn as dots and bars. Those choices are the reason a resume arrives shredded: the sidebar gets read straight across into the middle of your job history, and a skills graphic says nothing once the picture is gone.

ResumeFox ships 10 templates plus a US federal layout. Not one has a sidebar, a photo or a chart. They differ in typography and emphasis, never in whether they parse.

Single column, top to bottomContact details as plain textHeadings a parser recognizes
Check which of these your file trips over
12
deterministic readability checks, run free on your own file
  • Whether a parser reads your name, email, phone and dates
  • Whether anything is trapped in a table, column or image
  • Named problems, not a grade out of 100
Deep dive

What each one is genuinely good and bad at

CV Genius
4.2★ / 1,097
Sonaga Tech Limited · Lucerne, Switzerland · sibling brand to Resume Genius

A large, genuinely free CV and cover-letter builder aimed at the UK market, with the widest template library on this site's roster. Its own ATS advice contradicts its own default template gallery, and pricing after the trial is not published anywhere.

Strengths
  • Free CV maker with unlimited TXT downloads and all 200+ templates, no card required
  • Live chat and a phone line, not just email, Monday to Friday
  • 155+ real CV examples and a large advice library
  • A small, named set of 6 single-column templates built specifically for ATS parsing
Watch out for
  • Most named templates default to a two-column sidebar layout its own advice page warns against
  • No single published renewal price; real reviews report £16.90–£19.99 a month and describe difficulty getting refunds
  • No job search, tailoring, tracker, interview prep or LinkedIn tool of any kind
  • UK-centric advice and templates; a US applicant is not the primary audience
ResumeFox
4.8★ / 2.5k+
TopStack Resume · US writers, founded 2018

Built by a resume-writing firm rather than a template gallery. Every template is single-column by policy, the renewal price is published in full, and Full Access adds a complete job-targeting suite CV Genius does not have.

Strengths
  • Standards drawn from 80,000+ hand-written resumes by 100+ CPRW-certified US writers and recruiters
  • Every template is single-column, table-free, with no sidebar and no photo
  • Full renewal price published up front: $23.95 every 4 weeks or $95.40 a year
  • A full job-targeting suite: tailoring, job sourcing, a tracker, interview prep and LinkedIn rewriting
Watch out for
  • 11 templates against CV Genius's 200+, deliberately, but it is far fewer
  • No phone or live chat; support is email only
  • No public CV example library the way CV Genius offers 155+
  • PDF and Word still need a paid plan, same restriction CV Genius applies to its own free tier
Built by a resume-writing firm

See your resume rebuilt against standards from 80,000+ real resumes

Upload the resume you already have. We rewrite it against the standards our writers built over 80,000 resumes, then help you target it, application by application, instead of leaving you with just a document.

Upload my resumeCheck my resume free
14-day money-back guarantee
FAQ

Questions people ask before they pick one

Still stuck? Email a human: someone answers, usually within one business day.

Is CV Genius legit?

Yes. It's operated by Sonaga Tech Limited (Lucerne, Switzerland), the same company behind Resume Genius, and independently holds a 4.2★ rating on Trustpilot from 1,097 reviews. Its free plan is real: unlimited TXT downloads and the full builder with no card required.

How much does CV Genius cost?

The CV maker is free with unlimited plain-text downloads. Premium, which unlocks PDF and Word downloads, starts with a 14-day trial for £2.90 (some US visitors report an equivalent $2.95). CV Genius does not publish a fixed renewal price; real customer reviews on Trustpilot report being charged £16.90 to £19.99 a month afterward, so check the live checkout screen before subscribing.

Is ResumeFox cheaper than CV Genius?

It's hard to say for certain, because CV Genius doesn't publish its renewal price. ResumeFox's full cost is public: $23.95 every 4 weeks (about $314/year if left running) or $95.40 paid once a year. Real CV Genius customers report monthly renewals in the £16.90–£19.99 range, which would land in a similar range annualized, but that figure isn't confirmed at the source the way ResumeFox's is.

Are CV Genius's templates ATS-safe?

Some are, some aren't, by CV Genius's own account. Its ATS advice page states that "CVs with sidebars and skills tables... often confuse parsers" and sets aside 6 single-column templates built for ATS. But most of the named templates in its main 200+ library, including popular ones like Inverness and Glasgow, are described on CV Genius's own site as two-column with a sidebar. ResumeFox's templates are single-column with no sidebar, across all 11, with no separate "ATS-safe" subset needed.

Does CV Genius do job tailoring or job search?

No. CV Genius is a CV and cover-letter builder plus an advice blog and example library. It has no job search, no per-posting tailoring, no application tracker, no interview prep and no LinkedIn tool. ResumeFox's Full Access includes all of these, built around one job record per application.

Does CV Genius give my CV a score?

Its free CV Checker gives AI-powered formatting and rewriting suggestions. No numeric score or percentage is stated on CV Genius's own description of the tool. ResumeFox never scores a resume either — it names specific, checkable problems on the readability half, and uses bands, never a number, on the fit-to-a-posting half.

What happens if I don't like it?

CV Genius's own Terms of Use say a full refund is available if you contact customer service before your 14-day trial ends; EU consumers separately have a statutory 14-day right to withdraw. ResumeFox carries a 14-day money-back guarantee.

How we compared these

Pricing is read from each provider's own checkout or pricing page. Feature claims are checked against each product's live interface. Where we could not confirm something ourselves, it is not on this page.

Where numbers disagree

Entry prices in this category differ across landing pages and promotions. Where that happens we give the observed range rather than one figure, and say so.

Our disclosure

This page is published by ResumeFox, one of the products compared. We have an obvious interest in your choosing it. That is why every claim about a competitor is one you can check on their own site, and why we name the rows they win.

Published 2026-09-23Pricing verified 2026-09-23Next review 2027-01-15Review scores shown for ResumeFox are TopStack Resume's
Sources

Building and editing your resume on ResumeFox is free. Full Access is $2.95 for your first 14 days, then $23.95 every 4 weeks until you cancel, or $95.40 once for a year. Cancel anytime. 14-day money-back guarantee.