The Workplacea free plan is one resume, one tailored variant, the complete editor, the full score with every check visible, and watermark-free PDF export. That's the entire sentence — no asterisk expanding into a paywall at download time, no "free" that turns out to mean "free to type". This page itemizes what's included, states what isn't just as plainly, and explains where paid begins and why we drew the line there.
The free plan, itemized
What you can do without paying, in full:
- Build one resume with every section type — summary, experience, education, skills, projects, certifications, and custom sections — with full reordering and per-bullet control.
- Keep one tailored variant alongside it: paste a job posting, review the suggested edits, and use "Save as variant" to keep a job-specific copy linked to your base resume.
- See your full score, always. The 0–100 total, all four categories (Content, Match, Format, Completeness), every individual pass/fail check in plain language, and the ranked "next 3 fixes". Nothing in the score report is blurred, truncated, or held for ransom — the rubric is published and the whole point is that you can read it. Details in your resume score explained.
- Use the AI features. Rewrite (Improve, Shorten, Add metrics) with redline diffs, evidence questions instead of invented numbers, job description analysis, and the tailoring queue.
- Use all four templates — Standard, Meridian, Carbon, and Sterling — with every accent, density, and paper-size option. There are no locked "premium templates".
- Export watermark-free PDFs, unlimited times. The Download button produces the same print-true, selectable-text PDF on free as on any plan. See the export guide.
- Use the free checker with no account at all — it runs entirely in your browser at /checker.
Guest mode (no account) includes all of the above too, saved to your browser; signing in adds cloud sync across devices, as covered in account and sync.
What free does not include
Stated as plainly as the list above:
- More than one resume. A second base resume requires deleting the first or upgrading.
- More than one tailored variant. You can delete a variant and save a new one for the next application, but only one exists at a time.
That's the list. The limits are on quantity, not quality: nothing about the editor, score, AI, templates, or export gets worse on free.
Why this isn't a bait-and-switch — and how to hold us to it
The resume builder industry's signature move is the download-time paywall: invest an hour typing, click download, meet the pricing page. It works commercially precisely because your sunk cost is at its maximum. We think it's a rotten trade to build a product on, so our free plan is designed around a simple test you can run before typing a word:
The download-button test. Open any resume builder, add two minutes of dummy content, and press download. If you get a clean, watermark-free file, the tool is honest about "free". If you get a watermark, a locked PDF, or a checkout page, you've learned what the next hour would have cost. Run it on us first — Workplacea passes in guest mode, no account required.
Hold us to it: if you ever hit a surprise charge point that this page didn't disclose, that's a broken promise, and we want to know at contact@workplacea.com. For the wider landscape of what "free" means across tools, see free AI resume builder.
The paid plan: what you're actually paying for
Paid removes the quantity caps — multiple base resumes and multiple tailored variants at once. That's valuable in exactly one situation: an active, parallel job search, where you're maintaining several distinct positionings (say, a PM resume and a data resume) and a variant per live application. If that's you, the caps are a real constraint and paying removes real friction.
If you're maintaining one resume and applying occasionally, free is genuinely sufficient, and we'd rather say so here than let ambiguity do the upselling. The one-at-a-time variant workflow — tailor, apply, export, delete, repeat — is entirely workable for a sequential search; it just requires you to export the PDF before deleting a variant you might want to reference later.
Downgrading, refunds, and keeping your data
Principles we commit to, so there are no surprises at the exits:
- Downgrading never deletes your work. If you drop from paid to free while holding more resumes than the free cap, nothing is destroyed — you keep access to your content and export any of it, and the caps apply to creating new resumes, not to reading or downloading existing ones. Bring yourself under the caps by deleting what you no longer need, on your own schedule.
- Export is always free. PDF export never gates on plan, so your data is never hostage to a subscription.
- Deletion is real. Deleting resumes or your account removes the data, full stop — covered in privacy and your data.
- Billing questions get a human. Refund requests and billing problems go to contact@workplacea.com, and we err toward the user when something's ambiguous.
Frequently asked questions
Is the PDF really watermark-free on the free plan?
Yes. Free exports are identical to paid exports: same templates, same print-true rendering, same selectable text, no watermark, no footer branding on your document. Test it in guest mode before creating an account if you'd like proof.
Is the score limited on free?
No. The full report — total, all four categories, every check, and the ranked fixes — is always visible. Hiding half a score and selling the rest is score-as-marketing, which is the thing our published rubric exists to oppose.
Do I need a credit card to start?
No card, and not even an account — guest mode runs the full product with your work saved in your browser. An account (still free) adds cloud sync across devices.
What happens to my second variant if I'm on free?
You can't hold two at once, so the workflow is sequential: export the PDF of the current variant for your records, delete it, and save the next one. Your base resume is never touched by any of this.
See for yourself
The fastest verification is the product itself: open the editor in guest mode and run the download-button test in under five minutes, or start with the free checker. Anything about pricing this page left unclear, email contact@workplacea.com and we'll answer it straight.