5 Best Website Builders for Online CVs and Resumes (2020)

To catch the eye of recruiters and HR managers, you need more than just a basic resume site that looks nice. You need useful features – like a contact form that really works and the ability to let your visitors download files. Depending on your field, you may need even more advanced features like interactive image/video galleries or a one-click appointment scheduler.

As a freelance writer who basically survives on my online presence, I get it. And I’m not just compiling a list from other internet lists – I’ve personally tested dozens of website builders and am sharing detailed information, screenshots, and pro tips from my own experience with these tools.

You don’t want to waste time creating your new resume website only to realize that your site builder is too restrictive, too complicated, or too expensive for you. Job hunting is stressful and time-consuming enough…so start here to set yourself up for success.

What I Look For in the Best CV and Resume Website Builders

While you’ve been searching for the perfect job, I’ve been searching for the perfect CV website builder. Out of the top website builders out there, I’ve chosen five tools based on four important criteria:

• Resume-specific templates: The fastest and simplest way to create a resume website? Use a website builder with ready-made templates specifically designed for resumes and CVs.
• Design flexibility: These tools will allow you to personalize your online resume, whether you want a simple, single-page CV or a more decked-out professional portfolio.
• Ease of use: None of these website builders will require more than a few minutes to understand how to use them.
• Low-cost plans: If you’re searching for a job, you probably don’t have tons of cash to waste. These website builders have affordable pricing, and some even offer free plans.

1.  Wix – All-Around Winner for Resume Templates and Design Flexibility

Click here to view all Wix’s Portfolio & CV templates

The main purpose of any resume website is the same: to showcase your background, experience, and talent and convince HR that you’re the right hire. Beyond that, though, the details vary. A photographer will need a very different website than an engineer, web developer, or salesperson.

That’s why users like Wix so much. You’ll find one of the largest selections of resume templates on Wix, giving you ready-made resume layouts that can fit virtually any industry. Because the most important sections are already there (e.g., skills, work experience, education, portfolio, and so on), all you have to do is fill in the blanks.

Even better, if you want more personalization, you can do that, too. With a drag-and-drop editor, Wix gives you very fine control over your website’s design. You can edit images, buttons, and text, or you can keep it quick by using the options built into the resume template.

Heads up: Before you build your site, be sure you’ve chosen the right template. Once you’ve started editing, you won’t be able to switch templates without starting over.

Another stand-out feature of Wix is the Wix App Market, which will help you customize your resume website to your specific job market and industry. (Some apps are paid, some are free, and some are paid but offer a free trial.)

For a resume or portfolio website, you might like these apps in particular:

• Galleries – Add professional image galleries to showcase your photography, fashion designs, 3D renderings, or other media-focused work.
• Scheduling apps – Allow recruiters to directly schedule an interview on your calendar.
• Contact forms – Make it easy for companies and headhunters to contact you directly.
• File downloads – Use Document by Wix (shown below) to allow site visitors to download your resume, degree verification, or professional certificates.

Along with these apps, you can add plenty of functionality directly from the Wix editor. You can create a blog (great for aspiring journalists or content writers), include buttons for LinkedIn or other social media, or add pre-designed testimonial strips.

Wix does offer a free plan, but like all free plans, it’s more limited than the paid options. You’ll be stuck with a Wix domain, your site will display Wix branding, and you’ll get just 500 MB of bandwidth and storage. To look more professional, it’s worth the low cost to upgrade.

If you want to create your website even quicker, you can also take advantage of Wix ADI (artificial design intelligence). By answering a few questions, Wix ADI will generate a personalized website for you. You can learn more about it in our in-depth Wix ADI review.

The bottom line: Wix is a great CV website builder for job seekers in any industry (and with any level of design/computer experience). It not only has the largest selection of templates, but it also provides some of the most precise customization options through its drag-and-drop editor. The vast App Market is a great addition.

2.  Site123 – A Nice Balance of Beginner-Friendly and Feature-Rich

See all Site123’s CV & Resume templates

Site123 offers fewer resume templates and fewer customization options than Wix – however, this platform lets you create your online resume very quickly. That’s one of the main reasons Site123 got such a high ranking when I recently reviewed it.

You can choose from eight resume/CV-specific templates, each of which has different preset pages for skills, work experience, contact information, and so on. You can add new pages or change the design of existing pages from the editing bar on the left side of the screen.

All Site123’s templates are mobile-responsive, so busy recruiters and hiring teams will always see an optimized version of your website – even on the go. You can make a few surface-level edits to your mobile site (like changing the menu color or text alignment), but the options here are less robust than what Wix’s mobile editor offers.

Just like with Wix, you can either keep the basic setup of your resume template or customize it to suit you. Through the Site123 App Market, plugin library, or editing bar, you can add features like:

• Calendars to display your upcoming events or accept bookings for interviews
• Galleries to showcase photographs of your work
• Buttons to your LinkedIn profile or other professional social media
• Ready-made content blocks for testimonials from clients or previous employers

Another great feature for a resume or CV site is the timeline page. Instead of typing out dates in a regular text box, you can showcase your relevant experience in a clear, visually engaging way (without having to design anything yourself).

Similar to Wix, Site123 offers a free plan with a Site123 domain, Site123 ads, and restricted storage and bandwidth. It’s worth upgrading to a paid plan because free users are much more limited. For example, you won’t be able to install apps/plugins or make certain website edits, even to relatively basic features like colors and fonts.

Site123’s website is available in nine languages, with options to display your site in hundreds more. If you’re looking for work globally, this multilingual option could make your resume really stand out.

The bottom line: Site123 makes it quick and easy to create your resume or CV website. You won’t get as many templates or editing options as with some website builders, but in exchange, you can really speed through your website-building process.

3.  Squarespace – The Best Aesthetic for Portfolios or Other Visual Resumes

Squarespace has long been a favorite among the design crowd, as its templates are modern, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. With a focus on large, high-resolution photography, Squarespace is a great resume website builder if you’re looking for a job in the creative arts, like graphic design, fashion, or photography.

Squarespace has 15+ dedicated resume/CV/portfolio templates, each of which comes with various key features ready for you to customize, including:

• Testimonial blocks
• Image galleries
• Embedded videos
• Blog-style writing portfolios
• Resumes (both as on-page text and downloadable files)
• Contact forms

Squarespace’s website editor is intuitive, with all the possible actions shown at the top and left-hand bars. You can’t drag individual components (like a header or paragraph), but you can drag entire content blocks to reorder them on the page.

Instead of adding a button to your site, you can connect your Squarespace website to your LinkedIn profile, which will automatically publish your blog posts, images, videos, and events to LinkedIn. If you happen to be looking for a music production job, you can even push audio tracks.

Another terrific feature of Squarespace is that you can switch templates at any time – even if your website is already live, without having to start from scratch. You’ll be able to preview your new template before going live, too, ensuring that nothing gets messed up.

Unlike Wix and Site123, Squarespace does not have an app market, but it does have built-in integrations with many external apps. Depending on your industry, you can choose to:

• Display your recent Twitter posts
• Showcase your recent Instagram posts
• Sync with Acuity Scheduling for appointments/interviews

Although Squarespace has no free plan, you can start with a 14-day free trial. If you want to publish your site, though, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid subscription. Good news for job seekers still in school: You can get a 50% discount if you sign up with your academic email address.

The bottom line: Squarespace has an easy-to-use interface, modern website templates, and built-in integrations to make your resume website better. You won’t get as many fine editing capabilities as Wix or as many preset page styles as Site123, but you’ll likely get more than enough functionality, all in a visually striking package.

Check out our expert review of Squarespace for more pros and cons.

Beginner-Friendly?	Yes
Number of Templates	15+ for resumes/CVs and portfolios
Mobile-Responsive Templates?	Yes – and you can make limited changes to the mobile version (on certain templates)
Free Plan Available?	No, but there’s a 14-day free trial

‌TRY SQUARESPACE FOR FREE

4.  Weebly – The Cheapest Option for a Custom Domain

Weebly has fewer resume-specific themes than most of the other website builders on this list, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The themes are equally useful for creating your resume or CV website, and their clean, modern appearance rivals Squarespace.

Weebly uses a drag-and-drop editor that’s similar to Wix, though you can’t place elements anywhere on the page like you can with Wix. Instead, you can drag elements to reorder them on the page or place them within other elements.

Also shown in the screenshot above is the editing bar at the left, which is packed with built-in features to improve your resume website. By dragging any of the 25+ elements in the toolbar onto your page, you can easily add:

• Downloadable files (great for your resume, degree, certifications, etc.)
• Contact forms for recruiters and hiring managers to reach out
• Social icons to LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Dribbble, and more
• Scribd documents
• Embedded videos
• Image galleries

Pro Tip: Before linking your CV site to your social media, double-check to make sure everything on there is appropriate for potential employers to see.

Weebly also has an app store to add even more functionality to your site. Some apps are free, and some are paid. A couple of notable apps include Accordion to condense your website into well-organized tabs, or Testimonials to display recommendations from past employers in an engaging way.

Weebly’s free plan comes with 500 MB storage and includes Weebly branding and a Weebly domain. Like with the other free website builders, it’s worth paying more to get a custom domain – making you look much more serious as a job candidate.

If you do want to upgrade, Weebly offers the cheapest plan with a custom domain, making it extremely popular among Weebly’s users. (This Personal plan does still include Weebly branding, though. To remove those, you’d have to purchase the next-higher plan, which is comparable in price to others.)

The bottom line: Weebly’s websites aren’t quite as customizable as Wix, but the themes are attractive and offer plenty of bells and whistles for a professional portfolio or online resume. Whether you’re a writer, graphic designer, or marketer, you won’t need any experience to create an online resume with Weebly.

Beginner-Friendly?	Yes
Number of Templates	7 for resumes/CVs
Mobile-Responsive Templates?	Yes – but you can’t edit the mobile version independently
Free Plan Available?	Yes – includes Weebly domain, Weebly ads, and 500 MB storage

‌TRY WEEBLY FOR FREE

5.  SimpleSite – The Easiest Website Building Experience for Total Beginners

SimpleSite works differently than the other four website builders on this list. Instead of browsing templates and choosing one to customize, you’ll enter several basic pieces of information (including your website type and name). Then SimpleSite will generate a website layout for you to customize.

Although you’ll have much less control over your website theme, all SimpleSite themes are mobile responsive, so you won’t have to worry about making changes for devices of different sizes.

In terms of website builders, SimpleSite is as basic as it gets. In the editing screen, you can make limited edits to your site’s design – for example, by choosing from preset layouts and font pairs or setting a new background color, image, or animation.

Pro Tip: If you want your website to appear serious to potential employers, a background animation probably isn’t your best choice – try a clean background that’s not too busy, so it doesn’t distract from the important information you want them to read.