the free and open-source resume builder you know and love!
This little side project of mine launched all the way back in 2021, at the height of the pandemic, and while I counted it to good timing back then, it wouldn't have lasted this long if there wasn't a real need from the community.
Since then, Reactive Resume has helped almost 1 million users create resumes, helped them get the careers they wanted and helped students jump-start their applications.
This new version has been in the making for months, I try to get time to work on it whenever there's a weekend, whenever I can physically pull an all-nighter after work. It's a culmination of everything I've learned over the years, fixing all the bugs and feature requests I've gotten through GitHub and my emails.
For those of you who are unaware of this project, and nor should you be, Reactive Resume is a free and open-source resume builder that focuses on completely free and untethered access to a tool most people need at some point in their life, without giving up your privacy and money. In a nutshell, it’s just a resume builder, nothing fancy, but no corners have been cut in providing the best user experience possible for the end user.
Here are some features I thought were worth highlighting:
Improved user experience, now easier than ever to keep your resume up-to-date.
Great for single page or multi-page resumes, or even long-form PDFs.
Easier self-hosting with examples on how to set it up on your server.
Immensely better documentation, to help guide users on how to use the project.
There’s some AI in there too, where you bring your own key, no subscriptions or paywalls. There's also an agent skill for those who want to try it out on their own.
Improved account security using 2FA or Passkeys, also add your own OAuth2/SSO provider (no more SSO tax!).
13 resume templates, and many more to come. If you know React/Tailwind CSS, it’s very easy to build you own templates as well. Also supports Custom CSS, so you can make any template look exactly the way you like it to.
Available in multiple languages. If you know a second language and would love to help contribute translations, please head over to the docs to learn more.
Did I mention it’s free?
I sincerely hope you enjoy using the brand new edition of Reactive Resume almost as much as I had fun building it. Head over to https://rxresu.me and check it out right now.
Note: I do expect a lot of traffic on launch day and I don’t have the most powerful of servers, so if the app is slow or doesn’t load for you right now, please check back in later or the next day.
The ability to export in PDF and JSON formats is highly practical, meeting both application needs and the requirements for data backup and migration[reference:5]. When generating a PDF, can I quickly create versions with custom filenames for different job applications to facilitate file management?
The variety of clean templates allows for one-click style changes to resumes, which is incredibly convenient[reference:4]. If I need to make minor tweaks to details like fonts and spacing for a specific template, is a more visual method supported – without having to edit JSON or CSS code?
I really appreciate the local data storage design, which gives me the confidence that my resume information is fully under my control with no privacy concerns[reference:0]. However, I’d like to know: if I edit my resume on multiple computers, besides the optional sync feature, is there a more convenient way to manually merge changes made across different devices?
Interesting project! You could also add AI features to optimize resumes for specific companies, so that for each job posting an optimized resume highlights the requirements of that vacancy. This would greatly increase the chances of getting the job. Speaking as an employer 🙂
The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode, with editing on the left and real-time preview on the right, makes adjusting content extremely intuitive and efficient[reference:3]. For structured sections like project experience, does the tool provide writing prompts or examples to help users better showcase their achievements?
With the move to V5, is there a legacy import tool for users who have their data in V4 to ensure a smooth transition?
I love that it focuses on making updates and sharing easier, since my resume is always a work in progress. I wonder if it saves my data locally in the browser so I don't have to create yet another account just to fix a single typo.
Was excited to try this against my existing PDF resume, but I'm unable to enable AI. I've tried entering API keys for both OpenAI and Gemini Pro.
Resumes are rarely one-and-done: people tailor per job, maintain multiple versions, and sometimes need different export formats for different application portals. What does an “ideal” repeat workflow look like in Reactive Resume v5 (versioning, variants, sharing links, exports), and where do you still see friction?
Hello there! I have been very satisfied with XResume and have prepared many CVs using this platform. However, currently I am unable to download my resume as a PDF. The system gives an error during the PDF export process. I hope this issue can be resolved soon, as the platform is otherwise very useful and reliable. Can you help me please
@amruthpillai — Hitting ~1M users on an OSS resume builder is awesome; the scale pain is PDF rendering consistency + template safety (no layout drift) while keeping privacy-first defaults.
Best-practice: server-side queue for exports (idempotent jobs) + deterministic render pipeline (Playwright/Puppeteer) + strict template schema + automated visual-regression on every template change.
Open Q: are you planning an ATS-safe mode (fonts/spacing/semantic sections) and how do you sandbox community templates/custom CSS to prevent injection in shared resumes?
Introducing the all-new Reactive Resume v5,
the free and open-source resume builder you know and love!
This little side project of mine launched all the way back in 2021, at the height of the pandemic, and while I counted it to good timing back then, it wouldn't have lasted this long if there wasn't a real need from the community.
Since then, Reactive Resume has helped almost 1 million users create resumes, helped them get the careers they wanted and helped students jump-start their applications.
This new version has been in the making for months, I try to get time to work on it whenever there's a weekend, whenever I can physically pull an all-nighter after work. It's a culmination of everything I've learned over the years, fixing all the bugs and feature requests I've gotten through GitHub and my emails.
For those of you who are unaware of this project, and nor should you be, Reactive Resume is a free and open-source resume builder that focuses on completely free and untethered access to a tool most people need at some point in their life, without giving up your privacy and money. In a nutshell, it’s just a resume builder, nothing fancy, but no corners have been cut in providing the best user experience possible for the end user.
Here are some features I thought were worth highlighting:
Improved user experience, now easier than ever to keep your resume up-to-date.
Great for single page or multi-page resumes, or even long-form PDFs.
Easier self-hosting with examples on how to set it up on your server.
Immensely better documentation, to help guide users on how to use the project.
There’s some AI in there too, where you bring your own key, no subscriptions or paywalls. There's also an agent skill for those who want to try it out on their own.
Improved account security using 2FA or Passkeys, also add your own OAuth2/SSO provider (no more SSO tax!).
13 resume templates, and many more to come. If you know React/Tailwind CSS, it’s very easy to build you own templates as well. Also supports Custom CSS, so you can make any template look exactly the way you like it to.
Available in multiple languages. If you know a second language and would love to help contribute translations, please head over to the docs to learn more.
Did I mention it’s free?
I sincerely hope you enjoy using the brand new edition of Reactive Resume almost as much as I had fun building it. Head over to https://rxresu.me and check it out right now.
If you’d like to know more about the app, head over to the docs at https://docs.rxresu.me/ or if you’d like to take a peek at the code, the GitHub Repository is at https://github.com/amruthpillai/reactive-resume.
Note: I do expect a lot of traffic on launch day and I don’t have the most powerful of servers, so if the app is slow or doesn’t load for you right now, please check back in later or the next day.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.