TL;DR
Most "free" job trackers are free to track and paywalled where it counts — the AI that tailors your resume, writes cover letters, and preps you for interviews sits behind a monthly subscription. This roundup is honest about which is which.
- Best free tracker where the AI isn't a subscription: Resumap — free unlimited tracking, and the AI (tailored CV, cover letter, ATS score, interview prep, follow-ups) is pay-as-you-go, attached to each job automatically.
- Best mature all-rounder: Teal — free uncapped tracking and a great Chrome extension; the heavy AI is behind Teal+ (billed weekly by default).
- Best autofill: Simplify — free forever tracking + Copilot autofill; resume-tailoring AI is behind Simplify+.
- Best kanban: Huntr — clean board and clipper, but the free tier caps at ~100 jobs and the AI is behind Pro.
- Free-forever DIY: Notion, Trello, Google Sheets — zero cost, zero automation.
Prices below reflect what was public as of July 2026. Vendor pricing changes often — check each site for current numbers.
What makes a tracker actually worth using
A tracker is only useful if you keep using it. The ones people abandon are the ones that make you do all the data entry by hand. When comparing, look past "is the board free?" (almost all are) and ask:
- Is tracking capped? Some free tiers limit how many jobs you can save.
- Is the AI free or subscription-gated? Tailoring, cover letters and unlimited generations are usually where the paywall lives.
- Does your resume work attach to the job automatically, or do you re-link it by hand every time?
- Does it help after you apply — follow-up reminders, interview prep — or just store rows?
The comparison
| Tool | Free tracking | AI included on the free tier | Where the paywall is | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resumap | Unlimited | ATS score, tailoring, cover letters, interview prep, follow-ups — pay-as-you-go, no subscription | Per-artifact credits (never expire) | Free tracking + AI without a monthly bill |
| Teal | Unlimited | Capped AI credits, top-5 keyword match | Teal+ (~$13/wk or ~$29/mo) | Mature Chrome extension + builder |
| Simplify | Unlimited | Autofill, job matching, ATS scoring | Simplify+ (~$39.99/mo) for tailoring/letters | Autofilling applications fast |
| Huntr | Capped ~100 jobs | 2 tailored resumes + a few credits | Pro (~$40/mo) | Visual kanban + clipper |
| Notion | Unlimited (template) | None | — (it's a doc) | DIY, fully customizable |
| Trello | Unlimited (board) | None | — | DIY kanban |
| Google Sheets | Unlimited | None | — | DIY, total control |
1. Resumap — free tracking, AI without a subscription
Resumap's tracker is free and unlimited, and it's the one built around a specific idea: your work should attach itself. When you run an ATS scan, tailor your CV, or write a cover letter for a posting, that artifact links to the job's card automatically — matched by the job description, no copy-pasting. Move a card to "interviewing" and you can generate an interview-prep pack grounded in your real CV bullets; set a reminder and a follow-up email gets drafted from your experience.
The pricing is the differentiator: tracking, editing and PDF export are free, and the AI actions are pay-as-you-go credits ($1 = 100 credits) that never expire — no subscription. It's EU-native and GDPR-first. What it doesn't do: browser autofill and a Chrome clipper (import a job by URL or paste instead).
Free: unlimited tracking, statuses, reminders, notes, unwatermarked PDF export. Paid: per-artifact credits for AI. → Job application tracker
2. Teal — the mature all-rounder
Teal is one of the most established tools: free, uncapped tracking, a genuinely good Chrome extension that saves jobs from 50+ boards, and a full resume builder. It's a great free organizer. The catch is the AI — unlimited generations, the full keyword-match list, advanced analysis — is behind Teal+, whose most-prominent price is billed weekly (~$13/week), which annualizes well above the ~$29/month plan. If you subscribe, pick the monthly or quarterly cadence. → Full Teal comparison
3. Simplify — the autofill specialist
Simplify's Copilot autofills application forms across a huge range of boards, and unlimited tracking + autofill are free forever. If your bottleneck is filling out form after form, it's genuinely the best at that. Two honest notes: the resume-tailoring AI and cover letters are behind Simplify+ (~$39.99/mo, per third-party reviews — there's no public pricing page), and despite the "AI Agent" branding it's autofill, not auto-apply — you still click Submit yourself. → Full Simplify comparison
4. Huntr — the kanban board
Huntr has the cleanest visual pipeline of the group — a kanban board, a Chrome clipper, contact management, and application autofill. The limits: the free board caps at about 100 tracked jobs, and the AI (unlimited tailored resumes, cover letters, reviews) is behind Pro (~$40/mo) — the free tier gives you two tailored resumes. Great if you love a board and track under ~100 roles at a time. → Full Huntr comparison
5. Notion — the DIY database
A Notion template turns tracking into a customizable database — statuses, dates, notes, whatever fields you want, free. The trade-off is that it does exactly nothing automatically: no scanning, no tailoring, no reminders that chase you. It's the right pick if you love building your own system and don't want any tool making decisions for you.
6. Trello — the DIY kanban
Trello gives you a free kanban board with cards you drag between columns (Saved → Applied → Interviewing → Offer). It's simple and pleasant, and like Notion it's entirely manual — the automation and integrations that make it powerful mostly sit on paid tiers, and none of them tailor a resume.
7. Google Sheets — the classic
A spreadsheet is free, universal, and completely under your control. It's also the thing most people abandon by week two, because every row is hand-typed and it never does anything for you. If you want zero learning curve and total ownership of your data, it works — just expect to maintain it yourself.
How to choose
- You want tracking plus AI without a subscription → Resumap.
- You want a mature extension + builder and will pay for AI → Teal.
- Your bottleneck is filling out forms → Simplify (often alongside a tracker).
- You love a visual kanban and track under ~100 jobs → Huntr.
- You want to build your own system and want no automation → Notion, Trello, or Sheets.
There's no rule against using two — plenty of people pair an autofill tool for speed with a tracker that handles the resume work.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best completely free job application tracker?
For tracking alone, Teal, Simplify, and a Notion/Sheets template are all free with no catch. The harder question is the AI: tailoring, cover letters and interview prep are usually subscription-gated (Teal+, Huntr Pro, Simplify+). Resumap keeps tracking free and the AI pay-as-you-go with credits that never expire, so there's no monthly bill even for the AI features.
Do any free trackers include AI resume tailoring?
Most gate it. Teal, Huntr and Simplify all put unlimited AI tailoring and cover letters behind a monthly subscription, and free tiers usually offer only a couple of tailored resumes or a handful of credits. Resumap charges per artifact (pay-as-you-go credits, no subscription), so you only pay when you actually tailor a CV or write a letter.
Does Huntr limit how many jobs I can track for free?
Yes — Huntr's free board caps at about 100 tracked jobs; unlimited tracking requires Pro (~$40/month as of July 2026). Teal, Simplify and Resumap don't cap free tracking.
Do these tools auto-apply to jobs for me?
No. Simplify and Huntr offer autofill (they populate the form, but you click Submit), and Teal and Resumap don't autofill at all. None of them truly auto-applies — and genuine auto-apply tools tend to violate job-board terms of service and get flagged, so the honest tools stop at making you faster, not automatic.
Why do people abandon their job tracker?
Almost always because it's all manual. A spreadsheet or blank Notion database needs every row typed by hand, so it goes stale by week two. Trackers that fill themselves in — pulling job details from a link and attaching your scans and tailored resumes automatically — are the ones people actually keep using.