Honest comparison · Updated 2026-08-05
Tailored vs Teal: tracker-first vs tailoring-first
Teal is the best job-search organiser in the category and its free tier is unusually generous. We go deeper on the CV itself — what each bullet is worth, what a recruiter sees first, and what the AI is allowed to claim. Here's the honest comparison.
Feature comparison
Based on Teal's publicly documented features as of 2026-08-05. Products change — if you spot something out of date here, tell us and we'll correct it.
| Feature | Tailored | Teal |
|---|---|---|
Chrome extension to save jobs from LinkedIn/Indeed One-click capture of title, company and requirements | ✗ | ✓ |
Application Kanban tracker | ✓ | ✓ |
Job-description match score without paying Teal gates the numeric match score behind Teal+ | ✓ | ✗ |
AI rewriting per job description | ✓ | ✓ |
Per-bullet impact scoring | ✓ | ✗ |
Recruiter heatmap simulator | ✓ | ✗ |
Deterministic anti-fabrication guard on AI edits | ✓ | ✗ |
Version history with diff viewer | ✓ | Partial |
Interview questions generated from your CV + the posting | ✓ | ✗ |
One-time payment option Teal is subscription-only | ✓ | ✗ |
When you should choose Teal
If the hardest part of your search is staying organised rather than writing, Teal is the better tool and it isn't close. The Chrome extension saves a posting from LinkedIn, Indeed or Glassdoor in one click and pulls the title, company and requirements across with it. We have a job-URL fetcher, but you have to go and paste the URL — which means you have to already be in our app, and that is a real difference in daily use.
Teal's free tier is more generous than almost anything in this category: unlimited job tracking, the extension, a working resume builder. If you want to run a whole search without paying anyone, start there.
And if you are applying to a very high volume of roles where speed of capture matters more than depth per CV, Teal's workflow is built for exactly that shape of search.
When you should choose Tailored
When you want the numbers before you pay. Our match score, per-bullet impact scoring, recruiter heatmap and interview prep are free for everyone — the credits buy AI generation and tailoring. Teal puts the match score itself behind Teal+, which means the one number that tells you whether to bother applying is the thing you have to subscribe to see.
When you care what the AI is allowed to say about you. Every proposed edit passes a deterministic guard that rejects invented dates, invented metrics and invented company names before you ever see it. That is not a prompt instruction, it is a post-check on the model's output, and nobody else in this comparison advertises one.
When you want to know what changed. Every save snapshots the previous state, and the diff viewer shows exactly what moved between any two versions — so a tailored CV is something you can audit rather than a file you overwrote.
Frequently asked
- Does Teal have a free plan?
- Yes, and it is a good one — unlimited job tracking, the Chrome extension and a basic resume builder cost nothing. The AI features, including the numeric match score, the AI rewriter and the cover letter generator, are part of the paid Teal+ tier.
- Do you have a Chrome extension?
- Not yet, and it is the clearest thing Teal has that we don't. You can paste a job URL and we'll fetch the posting, which covers the same ground with an extra step. If one-click capture from a job board is central to how you work, that is a real reason to prefer Teal today.
- What does Tailored cost?
- Five AI credits free. After that, credit packs from $0.99 as a one-time purchase that never expires, or Pro at $19/month or $149/year for unlimited use. Teal is subscription-only, so if you want to pay once and stop thinking about it, that option only exists here.
- Can I use both?
- Plenty of people would be sensible to. Teal for capturing and tracking postings, us for the CV itself and the interview that follows. Nothing about either tool assumes exclusivity.
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