TopStack Resume Reviews: Ratings & User Feedback

If you don’t have much experience creating resumes and you need to land a new job fast, you're first thought might be to hire a professional resume writer. TopStack Resume is one of the most recognizable resume-writing services on the market. 

However, you’re likely on a budget, in a time crunch, and trying to send out several resumes a day. Resume writing services offer just one to two hand-written resumes. You’ve heard that AI resume builders can help you make several tailored resumes on your own.

So the question is, which is best? A resume writing service that takes care of one resume creation or creating several personalized resumes with the help of AI? This article analyzes user reviews of TopStack Resume to help you decide.

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What is TopStack Resume?

TopStack Resume is a resume writing service that employs a collaborative writing process between customers and their professional resume writers. Many believe having a resume written by skilled writers can increase the likelihood of landing a job interview.

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The collaborative process involves five steps designed to coax out the details of your career history and experience in order to craft a compelling resume.

Those five steps appear rather simple and straightforward, walking you through an order form, order assignment, collaborative writing process, payment, and additional hiring documents.

The bonus service seems to be your choice of either LinkedIn profile updates or professionally written cover letters.

On the collaboration side, email or phone communication are the only two options listed. But this gives you direct access to your resume writer, so you can ask questions about the process and they can get all the details of your employment history.

While resume writing is TopStack Resume's core service, they also offer a few others. Here’s a quick rundown of their offerings:

• Resume writing: Resume writing from a professional resume writer that works with you on a collaborative basis.
• Cover letter writing: While TopStack Resume does offer this, it is more of an add-on service at the end of your resume writing. There’s very little emphasis on this option.
• LinkedIn profile optimization: Again, this is an add-on service at the end of your resume writing. There’s little detail available publicly on the process or the level of editing they offer.
• Personal recruiting: TopStack Resume offers a dedicated personal recruiter to take over your job search for you, handling every aspect of finding the right job and getting you through the door.

That last core offering is where TopStack Resume stands out from their competitors. In addition to resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile writing, they’ll also provide you with:

• Job sourcing
• Career consulting services
• Application filing
• Targeted follow ups
• Interview preparation
• Offer negotiation
• Networking

Of course, a career consultant and recruiting services don’t come without significant additional costs. If you’re on a budget, you can just purchase their resume writing services.

That’s the focus of the reviews below. With this breakdown, you will be able to see how well their writing service stacks up against a more affordable AI resume builder like Teal.

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TopStack Resume reviews

Most reviewers appear satisfied with the resumes provided by TopStack Resume, often mentioning the level of customization to their job and industry, attention to detail, and an understanding of best practices. Customers also assert that the resume writers are responsive and open to feedback. 

However, this doesn’t seem to be the case for every customer. Some have described delays in receiving their bonus LinkedIn profile sheet or cover letter. Others mention their writers were unresponsive once paid.

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TopStack Resume reviews on TrustPilot

4.8/ 5 ⭐️

On TrustPilot, TopStack Resume has a score of 4.8 with 1,991 reviews. That's an impressive rating considering the volume of reviews.

Overall, customers are satisfied with their resumes, stating they’ve walked away feeling confident with their resume.

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On the opposing side, some customers felt they’d been scammed and that the writers didn’t have a technical understanding of the industry. Some felt their writers relied too heavily on AI to write the resume.

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TopStack Resume reviews on Sitejabber

2.6 / 5 ⭐️

There are only sixty-six reviews of TopStack Resume on SiteJabber but they are all fairly negative, giving them an overall score of just 2.6 stars.

On the positive end of those reviews, customers reported that the service was fast and the writers were attentive and efficient. Some customers even mentioned they saw an uptick in profile views and employer interest after their LinkedIn profiles were overhauled by TopStack Resume. Additionally, some users highlighted the benefit of having their resume written by skilled professionals.

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On the negative end, several customers complained that their finished resumes contained grammatical errors and typos, and were generally poorly written. Part of this was grounded in the fact that the writer didn’t have technical knowledge of the customers’ industry and didn’t understand how to apply their work history to the resume.

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Some resumes were improperly formatted, causing them not to pass Application Tracking Systems (ATS). There were also a couple mentions of delays in receiving their resumes as well. This creates a general consensus of dissatisfaction with TopStack Resume.

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TopStack Resume reviews on the Better Business Bureau

2 / 5 ⭐️

There are only seven reviews of TopStack Resume on the Better Business Bureau website. But of those seven reviews, the majority are rather scalding. 

On the positive side, two of the reviewers give TopStack Resume five stars, stating that the resume writer helped them build confidence for interviews and even offered some coaching. Another reviewer stated the writer was timely, receptive, and engaging.

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However, the majority of the reviews were negative, giving TopStack Resume just one star. The biggest gripes were around the poor quality. Some even had grammatical errors. A few of the writers failed to highlight some of the most important details of the customers' work experiences and accomplishments. 

Perhaps the worst infraction mentioned too often was the lack of communication.

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A few of the reviewers were so disappointed they questioned the legitimacy of the writing service.

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TopStack Resume writing services pricing reviews

TopStack Resume does something unique with their pricing—delaying payment requests until after they’ve delivered your resume. They also allow you to use Affirm to make monthly payments rather than paying in one lump sum. 

Because they’re a professional writing service, employing hundreds of writers, their services are more costly compared to other professional services (particularly those using AI). Their cheapest package is $139 for one resume and email communication between you and your writer. Phone conversations aren’t an option until you upgrade to their Professional Package, which costs $279. At this price point, you also get a guarantee that you’ll receive an interview within sixty days of resume delivery.

The next step up from that is their personal recruiting package, which is a jump in price (to $1,149) but for good reason. A personal recruiter who spends time coaching you and helping you land your dream job doesn’t come cheap.

For the most part though, customers aren’t complaining about the pricing. In fact, most feel the price is reasonable considering what it gets you if the resume is good. One customer even comments that it’s the best money you could spend.

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Searching through the negative reviews, there’s only one that mentions dissatisfaction related to pricing. But it’s less about the cost of the resume and more about the resume being subpar in relation to what they paid. The customer felt they’d essentially paid for better formatting of their resume and nothing else. 

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Luckily for TopStack Resume, that was the only negative review about their pricing. Every other comment mentioning cost was positive and expressed it was worth the money.

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TopStack Resume review pros

Though Sitejabber and BBB show low overall scores for TopStack Resume, the reviews on TrustPilot are largely complimentary. The three biggest positives across the board include:

• Quality of the delivered resume: Most reviewers felt their resume had been transformed, finally displaying their skills and experience properly and professionally. 
• Responsiveness and attentiveness: Having a direct and open line of communication with their resume writer made a huge difference for most customers. In general, they felt they were able to give all the right details and feedback. It made for a more collaborative process. 
• Expertise and professionalism: Several customers felt they were in capable hands, with their resume writer demonstrating a full understanding of their industry and role.

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TopStack Resume review cons

While the majority of the reviews were positive for TopStack Resume, there were still several negatives given by the customers.

• Inconsistent quality: Across the three review sites, there were a few spelling and grammar mistake complaints. 
• Lack of responsiveness: Perhaps one of the biggest complaints of TopStack  Resume was unresponsiveness from the writers, especially after they’d paid for the first draft. 
• Reformatting issues: Some reviewers mentioned that the resumes seemed hastily put together, or that the writer mostly just moved things around and added a few words here and there. 
• Use of AI: One reviewer questioned whether or not the writer used AI to put their resume together. 
• Delays: Several reviewers mentioned delay, either in receiving their first draft or receiving their bonus cover letter or LinkedIn profile revisions.

It’s worth noting that the negative reviews, across TrustPilot at least, are outweighed by the positives. That said, it appears the quality of the output depends on the writer and is therefore inconsistent.

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Who is TopStack Resume best for?

TopStack Resume appeals to all job seekers, including candidates with years of experience across a variety of industries. However, if your industry or role is more niche than mainstream, you might have a harder time landing a writer with the right knowledge to build a standout resume. 

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Teal reviews vs TopStack Resume reviews

Similar to TopStack Resume, Teal has a high quantity of high-quality reviews. Teal actually rates a bit higher with a higher volume of reviews: 4.9-star rating from nearly 3,000 reviews in the Google Chrome Web Store. 

There are certain areas where TopStack Resume can’t compete with Teal’s AI resume builder. For instance, reviewers of TopStack Resume consistently complained about the quality of the resumes writers create. 

Teal uses AI to score your resume based on how well it aligns with best practices and each job description. It then guides you through optimizing each resume for a given job.

While it doesn't pair you with a resume writer, it uses AI to rewrite your resume bullet points based on sentence structures proven to capture attention and highlight results. The quality for each resume is consistent because it uses formulas designed to highlight all the best parts of your work history and accomplishments.

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One of the biggest praises for Teal across those reviews is the various features you can take advantage of, such as the resume templates, AI cover letter generator, and job search email templates.

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Teal also compares your resume to each job you’re considering. It’ll judge how well your resume currently matches the job in question, and offers keywords and suggestions to help create a resume that is well-optimized for the role. 

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So, instead of receiving what could be a generic resume without knowledge of the specific jobs you’re applying for, you get a customized resume with all the right keywords to get you to the next hiring round. 

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Why job seekers prefer Teal

TopStack Resume appeals to job seekers who don’t feel confident they can craft a compelling resume, even with a wealth of tools. 

Teal, on the other hand, appeals to job seekers that need to create several resumes and want the ability to easily optimize each resume to each job application. Additionally, Teal is preferred by job seekers that are on a budget but looking for a more complete, end-to-end solution to their job search. 

Speaking of budget, Teal offers a very generous free plan along with:

• Flexible payment options (weekly, monthly, or quarterly billing)
• Simple and easy cancellations 
• A Teal+ option with unlimited AI credits and additional features, still at a reasonable price

If you’re after more than Teal’s free plan, Teal plus is just $9 per week or $29 per month and you can cancel at anytime. 

TopStack Resume will cost you at least $139 for their most basic plan with only email communications with your writer. You’ll also only get one resume with that payment. 

With Teal, you can tailor make as many resumes as you’d like, matching them with the jobs you intend to apply for. 

TopStack Resume does offer professional interview preparation and coaching alongside their resume and cover letter writing services. However, it comes at a significant cost.

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Create your best resume yet with Teal

In short, Teal offers a holistic job search platform that includes a resume builder, rather than a one-off resume refresh.

That means you get features like:

• AI to enhance your resume writing
• A chrome extension to save the job descriptions and applications you find across the internet
• A job search CRM to keep track of your applications and status updates
• Resume analysis, match scoring, and keyword suggestions to make sure your resume contains all the words it needs to stand out
• Email follow-up templates, so you’re never left guessing what to say

Whether you’re trying to keep track of the dozens of resumes you send out, or want to customize your resume for each job application, Teal can help at every stage. Sign up for Teal to try it for free.