UK job search tools · updated 8 September 2026
The best UK job search tools in 2026, including the ones that aren't ours.
Most "best job sites" lists are written by whoever is selling one. This is ours, and we sell one, so here's the deal: the free boards come first, we say what each tool is for, and Flint only appears where it wins. Prices checked by hand on 8 September 2026.
Short version: run a Reed alert and an Indeed alert, use the official board if you're in health, government or teaching, track applications in Teal or Huntr's free tier, and pay for a tool only when it does a job the free boards can't.
Free boards, in the order I'd set them up
These are where the jobs are. Everything else on this page sits on top of them.
Indeed UK
FreeThe biggest UK aggregator by volume. Everything, including a lot of agency reposts.
Verdict: Use it for coverage, not for signal. Set one alert, ignore the rest.
Reed
FreeThe largest UK-native board. Employers post here directly and Reed nags them for a salary, so 65% of listings show one.
Verdict: The best free board for salary transparency. Listings live about 35 days.
Old-guard UK boards with heavy recruiter-agency inventory. Totaljobs is now part of StepStone.
Verdict: Worth an alert if you're outside London or in trades, logistics, admin or hospitality.
LinkedIn Jobs
Free (Premium Career £29.99/mo)Good for tech, finance, marketing and anything where the hiring manager posts personally. 'Easy Apply' roles get hundreds of applicants.
Verdict: Use the free tier. We ran the numbers on Premium Career and it rarely pays back for a normal search.
Curated startup and scale-up roles, mostly London tech and product. Small, clean, no agencies.
Verdict: If you want a Series A to C company in London, start here.
The official boards for health, government and teaching. Pay bands published, fixed closing dates.
Verdict: If you're in one of those sectors, these are the source. Everything else is a mirror.
Paid tools, and what each one is actually for
None of these replaces a board. They do one step of the search each: pass an ATS filter, track applications, or score the jobs against your CV.
Jobscan
$49.95/mo, cheaper quarterly and annuallyPaste one job description and your CV, get an ATS keyword match score and a rewrite. US-first.
Verdict: Good if you've already picked the job and want to pass the filter. Expensive for a UK search.
Teal
Free tier; Teal+ from about $29/moCV builder plus a job tracker with a Chrome extension. The free tracker is genuinely useful.
Verdict: Use the free tier for tracking. The paid tier is mostly CV-writing help.
Huntr
Free tier; Pro from about $20/mo on annual billingKanban-style application tracker with autofill and AI cover letters.
Verdict: A nicer tracker than a spreadsheet. Doesn't find jobs for you.
Simplify
Free extension; Simplify+ $39.99/moAutofills applications through a Chrome extension. Very US-heavy inventory.
Verdict: Fine for autofill. Pass on the paid tier unless you're applying in the US.
Flint
Free for your top 10 matches; Pro £12.99/mo or £99.99/yrUpload your CV once. Flint pulls every live UK listing from 100+ boards and ATS feeds twice a day, scores each one against your CV across six dimensions, and shows you the ones worth opening. Cover letters and a CV review on Pro.
Verdict: Ours, so read the rest of this page with that in mind. It's for the 'which of these 50,000 jobs is actually mine' problem, not for rewriting a CV or tracking applications.
What to skip
- ✕Anything that auto-submits applications on your behalf. Recruiters can tell, and a 40-application afternoon produces the same reply rate as four good ones. We wrote up why Flint doesn't do it.
- ✕Paying for LinkedIn Premium Career for a normal search. The InMail credits mostly go unread and the 'Top Applicant' badge is shown to you, not to the recruiter.
- ✕Trusting aggregator salary estimates. Every Adzuna salary in our pool is flagged by Adzuna itself as an estimate; Reed's are real. Check whether the employer wrote the number.
- ✕CV 'ATS scanners' as your first step. Score the job against your CV first, then spend the hour tailoring for the one that fits.
The salary and listing-age numbers above come from Flint's live UK pool. The full breakdown is in the best-paid UK jobs are the ones that won't tell you the salary. The LinkedIn Premium maths is in is LinkedIn Premium Career worth £29.99 a month.
Why this list exists
I built Flint because I was running six of these at once.
Two board alerts, a spreadsheet, an ATS scanner, LinkedIn Premium for a month I regret, and a folder of cover letters. The boards found the jobs. Nothing told me which ones were mine.
So Flint does that one step. It pulls every live UK listing from the boards on this page, plus the employer ATS feeds most of them miss, and scores each against your CV. You still apply through the board. You still track it wherever you like. You just open 25 jobs instead of 500.
Think a tool on this list is described unfairly? Email chris@getflint.work. I'll fix it.
Chris, founder
Frequently asked
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