# The Tools We Actually Recommend (2026) **Updated July 2026** ## Quick answer For most students, start free: Teal's free tier covers a job tracker plus per-listing resume tailoring, and Rezi's free plan covers ATS-optimized resumes. Pay only when a specific bottleneck shows up. We keep this list short on purpose — a tool is only here if we'd use it ourselves. ## How this page works Every guide on this site points here instead of scattering product links across forty pages. That's deliberate: recommendations change — tools get worse, pricing changes, reputations sour — and when that happens we update one page, not forty. What's listed below is current as of the date stamp above. The links pay us a commission; they don't change what you pay, and they don't change what we say. When a tool has a problem, the problem is listed next to the link. Anything that stops being recommendable gets removed — check this page rather than trusting a months-old screenshot. ## Get the interview The assessments and proof work covered across our guides are what get you hired — no tool substitutes for them. These cover the part after that: applying at volume without sending the same generic resume everywhere. **[Teal](/go/teal) — our first pick for most people.** A job tracker plus resume builder with an unusually generous free tier: unlimited resume versions, a Chrome extension that saves listings from 40-plus boards, and side-by-side tailoring of your resume against a job description's keywords. For many students the free tier is all you ever need. Teal+ runs about $9/week billed monthly if you want the extras. There's no auto-apply — you still send each application yourself. **[Rezi](/go/rezi) — if your one goal is beating the ATS.** The specialist for automated screeners: keyword targeting, a resume score, clean ATS-safe formatting, plus AI interview practice. Free plan with no card required; Pro is about $29/month or a one-time $149 lifetime. Goes deeper than the others on making a single resume survive the software most companies run before a human reads anything. ## Build the proof For most entry-level AI roles, one shipped project outweighs a polished resume. Covered in depth in [AI jobs with no experience](/ai-jobs-no-experience/): **[Lovable](/go/lovable) — fastest path from idea to a live URL.** Describe an app in plain English and it builds a working, deployable version you keep editing by chatting with it. The point isn't the app — it's having a real link to put in an application. If you want to actually see and learn the code, Cursor is the step up; better when you're aiming at a technical role and the artifact needs to show you understand what you shipped. ## FAQ **What's the best free setup?** Teal free for tracking and tailoring, Rezi free for the ATS resume. That combination covers everything a small, targeted batch of applications needs, at zero cost. Add paid tools only when you hit a real bottleneck — usually volume. **Do these tools actually get you hired faster?** They compress the mechanical part, nothing more. Tailored applications convert to interviews better than untailored ones (roughly 5.8% vs 3.7% in one 2025 study), and these tools make tailoring at volume practical. What they never fix is thin proof — that's what the rest of this site is about. **Why is this list so short?** Because it only includes tools we'd use ourselves. When something stops being recommendable it comes off the page, and when something better shows up it gets added. A short list that's current beats a long one that isn't. ## Related guides - [AI jobs with no experience](/ai-jobs-no-experience/) — where the proof-building approach these tools support is laid out. - [AIApply review](/aiapply-review/) — our review of a popular auto-apply tool. - [Entry-level AI jobs](/entry-level-ai-jobs/) — the hub for roles worth applying to first.