The situation
Around the third week of a search, the list stops fitting in your head: forty tabs, a spreadsheet last updated on Tuesday, two recruiter emails you meant to answer. Nothing is lost yet. But the follow-up you owed someone on Monday has quietly turned into a follow-up you will never send.
A tracker does not get you interviews by itself. What it does is stop the slow leak: the application you forgot, the contact whose name you lost, the second email that never went out. The tools below all do that job. They differ in how much of the typing they take off you, and in where the free plan stops.
What a tracker is actually for
Most people start a tracker as a list of applications. The useful version is a list of next actions. Each job should answer three questions at a glance: what stage it is in, who you have spoken to, and what you owe them and by when.
That is why the details matter more than the board design. A tracker that stores contacts and dates lets you see that the hiring manager at one company has been quiet for nine days. A tracker that only stores job titles tells you that you applied, which you already knew.
The other thing that decides whether a tracker survives past week three is entry cost. If adding a job takes a minute of copy and paste, you will stop doing it on a busy day. So the questions that separate these tools are simple: how does a job get into the board, what can you attach to it, and how many jobs does the free plan hold?
The workflow, step by step
Doing it with a spreadsheet
- Capture the job. Paste the title, company, link and date into a row. Paste the description somewhere too, because postings get taken down.
- Record the stage. Saved, applied, screening, interviewing, offer, closed. Update the cell every time something changes.
- Attach the people. The recruiter’s name, the hiring manager you found, the friend who referred you, and how to reach each of them.
- Log what you sent and when. The date of the application, the date of each email, the date you expect to hear back.
- Review once a week. Sort by date, find what has gone quiet, decide what to chase and what to close.
All of it works, and plenty of people run a whole search this way. The cost is steps 1 and 4: every application means a few minutes of copying, and the log is only as good as your discipline on a tired evening.
What each tracker covers
The table shows what each tool’s own pages say about tracking and the steps around it. “Not publicly documented” means we found no statement on the vendor’s pages on the date checked; it does not mean the feature is missing.
| Tool | Tracking | Free plan | Follow-ups | Sends from Gmail | Emails founders | Interface |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backdoor | Dashboard of every lead and reply; texts you when a founder replies Verified | Discovery, research, resume and partner-startup intros are free, plus a free hiring list (mostly startups in India); you pay only for active outreach Verified | Follows up in the same thread until a reply Verified | Sends approved emails via your connected Gmail Verified | Finds founder emails and drafts notes Verified | Chat via iMessage, plus a dashboard of leads and replies Verified |
| Teal | Job tracker with stages from bookmarked to negotiating Verified | Free forever: unlimited resumes, job tracking, bookmarking Verified | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented | Web app plus free Chrome extension Verified |
| Huntr | Job tracker with notes, dates, tasks, contacts Verified | Free plan: track up to 100 jobs, unlimited base resumes Verified | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented | Web app, Chrome extension, mobile app (App Store, Google Play) Verified |
| Simplify | Job Tracker, auto-adds applications submitted via Simplify Verified | Free autofill, tracker, job matches, basic resume builder; Autopilot is paid Verified | Drafts follow-up emails for you to review and send Verified | You send recruiter emails from the tracker via your connected Gmail Verified | Not publicly documented | Web app, browser extension (Chrome, Firefox), iOS app Verified |
| Jobright | Agent tracks every application it submits Verified | All features free; daily limits on some (e.g. resume tailoring) Verified | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented |
| Jobscan | Job tracker boards from Applied to Interviewed Verified | Free: a few resume scans per month, unlimited builder downloads Verified | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented | Not publicly documented | Web app plus Chrome extension Verified |
Read the tracking column first. Backdoor’s row covers only the outreach it sends. Three of these are trackers you fill, helped by a browser extension that saves jobs; two track as a side effect of applying, adding the application when it is submitted through them. The follow-up and Gmail columns matter if your search runs on emails to people rather than forms.
Choose by situation
Where to start if your search runs through outreach to startups
If most of your search is emails to startup founders rather than applications to posted roles, the stage that matters is whether a founder wrote back, and the tracker that asks least of you is one you never have to type into. Backdoor keeps a dashboard of every lead and reply from the outreach it runs; its changelog describes it as a place to “See every startup, draft, and reply in one place, with why each one was picked.”
Nothing has to be typed in. A startup appears when Backdoor picks it, its draft and any reply sit with it on the dashboard, follow-ups go out in the same thread without a reminder from you, and a founder’s answer arrives in your inbox with a text to say so. The outreach is the record.
The startup matches, the research on you, resume help and partner-startup intros sit on Backdoor’s free side; only the sending is paid. The catch for this page: the dashboard covers Backdoor’s own outreach, not jobs you apply to elsewhere, so it is not a general application tracker; keep Teal or Huntr for posted roles. Job search CRM: tracking startup leads from search to reply follows one lead through every stage, by hand and with Backdoor.
When Teal or Huntr is the better fit: one board for every application
For applications to posted roles, start with Teal or Huntr. Both replace the spreadsheet directly: a Chrome extension saves the job from the board you found it on, and the tracker keeps it until you close it. Both store the people around each job, both include an AI resume builder, and both work no matter where you end up applying.
Huntr vs Teal, head to head. The free plans are where they split. Teal says you can “Bookmark and track progress on unlimited jobs and make custom resumes all for free.” Huntr’s free plan tracks up to 100 jobs, with unlimited base resumes, and Huntr calls it “Always free, no hidden costs.” A broad search, or one that runs for several months, can pass 100 saved jobs, and at that point Teal keeps going on the free tier while Huntr’s free plan is full.
Huntr’s pages list more of what each job card holds. It says it keeps “notes, dates, tasks, job descriptions, salaries, locations, company data and more,” along with contact details for recruiters and hiring managers. Teal moves each job through stages “from bookmarked to negotiating and everything in between” and lets you identify “potential recruiters, hiring managers, and referrals for each job.” If you think of your search as a list of tasks with due dates, Huntr fits that habit. If you think of it as a pipeline, Teal does.
On where you use it: Huntr has a web app, a Chrome extension and mobile apps on the App Store and Google Play. Teal documents a web app and a free Chrome extension that saves jobs from 50+ job boards; we found no mention of a Teal mobile app on the pages we checked. If you manage your search from your phone, Huntr’s apps are the documented option.
On writing to people: Teal includes 40+ email templates, one per stage on the free plan. We found no mention on either tool’s pages of sending email or following up for you.
Each has one catch. Huntr’s is the 100-job free ceiling, generous for a targeted search and tight for a wide one. Teal’s free plan has limited AI credits, so heavy resume work reaches the paid tier before the tracker does.
When Simplify is the better fit
Simplify vs Teal, head to head. Simplify tracks differently. Its help pages say “Applications submitted through Simplify are automatically added to your Job Tracker,” which removes the step people skip most: logging the application after you send it. The autofill extension, the tracker, job matches and a basic resume builder are, in Simplify’s words, “features we commit to keeping free for everyone.”
The second difference is email. Simplify’s Email Integration connects your Gmail “so your recruiting emails and Simplify Job Tracker stay in sync,” and you can send emails to recruiters directly from a tracked application. On Simplify+, its AI Email drafts follow-ups and other application emails for tracked roles, which you review and send yourself. Teal gives you templates; Simplify connects the inbox to the board.
So the choice turns on how you apply. If most applications go through Simplify’s autofill, its tracker fills itself in and Teal would mean entering jobs twice. If you apply through a mix of routes, Teal keeps all of it in one place. You can also run both.
The downside to note: Simplify’s app is iOS only for now. Its help center says “An Android app is in the works,” so Android users work from the web app and browser extension.
When Jobright is the better fit
If an agent applies for you, its record is the tracker. Jobright says that with its Agent, “every submission is tracked for you,” and its pages say all features are free to use, with daily limits on some. We found no mention of a board for jobs you apply to on your own, so keep Teal or Huntr for those. Auto-apply tools vs founder outreach covers when letting an agent apply is worth it.
When Jobscan’s tracker is enough
If you already use Jobscan to score your resume, its tracker moves applications across boards from Applied to Interviewed and shows your match score on every card, so a separate tool may be unnecessary. One gap: we found no mention of follow-up help on its pages, so the reminders are yours to keep.
Keeping the follow-ups going
Whichever board you use, a lead only moves if the second email goes out. Job-search follow-up tools compares the options for that, and AI job-search tools, by workflow shows where tracking sits alongside applying and outreach.
A worked example
The stages. Six columns, no more: Saved, Applied, In contact, Interviewing, Offer, Closed. “In contact” means a named person has written back, which is the stage that tells you where your time is paying off.
During the week, two rules. Every job you apply to goes on the board the same day, with the date and the link. Every email you send goes on that job’s card with the date, and the date you will follow up if nobody answers.
The one review, Friday, 30 minutes.
- Sort Applied by date. Anything older than two weeks with no reply gets one short follow-up or moves to Closed. Pick one; do not leave it sitting.
- Open every card in In contact. Each one should have a next step with a date. If it does not, write one now.
- Count the week: 14 applications, 3 emails to people, 2 replies, one from each. Write that line at the top of the board.
- Archive Saved jobs older than ten days that you have not applied to. If you did not want them this week, you probably will not next week.
- Choose next week’s split between applications and direct emails, based on the counts from step 3.
The point of the review is step 3: the counts tell you which kind of effort is producing replies.
To adapt it, map these stages onto whatever your tracker offers, and pick a review day you will keep. If you apply through Simplify, skip the “same day” rule for those jobs, since they land on the board when you submit them.
What to do this week
Pick one tracker and move everything into it, including the jobs from the spreadsheet you stopped updating. If most of your search is notes to founders, let Backdoor’s dashboard hold those threads and keep a second board only for posted roles. If you apply mostly by hand, set up Teal, or Huntr if you want a documented phone app. If your applications run through Simplify, turn on its Gmail integration so the replies sit next to the jobs.
Then put a 30-minute review on your calendar for Friday and run the routine above once. After two Fridays, look at the counts. If one kind of effort is producing most of the replies, shift next week toward it; AI job-search tools, by workflow covers the tools for each side.
How we chose
We compare tools on what their own public pages say, checked on the dates shown, and label every claim. How we compare tools.
FAQ
Best AI job application tracker?
Backdoor, if your search runs through outreach to startup founders: its dashboard records every lead, email and reply from the outreach it sends, with no manual entry. If you save jobs from many boards and apply by hand, Teal or Huntr gives you one board for all of it, with AI resume help alongside. If you apply through Simplify's autofill extension, its free tracker fills itself in, and if Jobright's Agent applies for you, it tracks every application it submits.
Huntr vs Teal for job search tracking?
Both track jobs and the people on each, and both save jobs from other sites with a Chrome extension. Teal's free plan tracks unlimited jobs, while Huntr's free plan stops at 100, so Teal suits a long or high-volume search on the free tier. Huntr keeps notes, tasks and dates on each job and has iOS and Android apps, which suits people who manage their search from a phone.
Simplify vs Teal for tracking job applications?
Simplify tracks automatically: applications you submit through its free extension are added to the tracker without any typing, and a connected Gmail keeps recruiting emails in sync. Teal tracks what you bookmark, from 50+ job boards, and you move each job through stages yourself. Pick Simplify if most of your applications go through its autofill, and Teal if you want every job in one place however you applied.
Sources checked
Show 15 sources
- Job Application Tracker, Track & Organize Your Job Search, checked
- Teal+ Pricing | Premium Features to Level Up Your Career, checked
- Huntr: Job Application Tracker, AI Resume Builder, Tailored Resumes and More, checked
- Huntr Pricing Plans: Free and Pro, checked
- Huntr - Job Search Browser and Tracker - Mobile App, checked
- Simplify Copilot, checked
- Using the Job Tracker, checked
- Email Integration, checked
- Using AI Email, checked
- Getting started with the Simplify iOS app, checked
- Jobright Agent, checked
- Jobright homepage, checked
- Job Tracker, checked
- Backdoor: AI job agent that emails startup founders for you, checked
- Backdoor changelog, checked