--- title: "Best Free Job Application Trackers in 2026 (Spreadsheet vs App vs AI)" description: "Free job application trackers compared honestly. Spreadsheets, browser extensions, kanban apps, and AI follow-up tools. Which one fits your workflow?" canonical: "https://mortit.com/blog/best-free-job-application-trackers" --- Job Search # Best Free Job Application Trackers in 2026 Spreadsheet vs app vs AI. We compared the free tiers honestly so you can pick the one that fits your search instead of the one with the loudest landing page. 10 min read Updated May 2026 TL;DR **Truly free for low volume:** Google Sheets or Excel templates, Notion free tier.**Free with AI follow-up reminders:** MORT's free tier (kanban tracking is uncapped; AI-generated follow-ups draw from the 3 daily AI Assistant credits, 1 credit per follow-up).**Free with browser-extension capture:** Teal free tier, Huntr free tier.**Avoid:** trackers that cap free use at five applications, or that lock the data you save behind a paid tier. MORT's tracker lives on the homepage as your workbench, combining the match dashboard and the kanban application tracker into a single surface. That consolidated workbench is the differentiator vs spreadsheets, Notion, Teal, and Huntr, and it is where the AI-suggested follow-up messages get sent if forgetting to follow up is the thing costing you offers. ## The "Free Job Application Tracker" Problem Job application trackers fail in a specific, frustrating way. The tracker itself is usually free. The thing you actually need from a tracker, which is a system that nudges you to follow up at the right moment, is paywalled or absent. The pattern is consistent across the category: 1. You sign up for a "free" tracker that ranks well for the search. 2. You import or capture a few roles. The kanban looks tidy. 3. A week later, three of those roles have stalled, and the tracker has not said anything about it. 4. You realise the tracker is a list, not a system. The follow-ups are still on you. We covered the same shape of problem in our [free resume builders roundup](https://mortit.com/blog/best-free-resume-builders) and the [free cover letter generators](https://mortit.com/blog/best-free-cover-letter-generators) post: free to start, paywalled or hollow at the moment that matters. With trackers, the moment that matters is somewhere around day six after you applied, when the application is going to die unless someone reminds you to nudge it. We looked at five options that show up most often when people search for free job application trackers: a Google Sheets or Excel template, Notion's free tier, MORT's application tracker, Teal's free tier, and Huntr's free tier. Two of them are genuinely free and manual. One of them adds AI follow-up reminders on the free tier. Two of them are kanban trackers with browser-extension capture and no AI follow-up. The rest of this post is which is which. ## Quick Comparison: Free Job Application Trackers | Tool | Free? | Browser Extension? | AI Follow-Up? | Best For | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Google Sheets / Excel template** | Yes (unlimited) | No | No | Low-volume searches, full control | | **Notion free tier** | Yes (personal) | Web clipper only | No | People who already use Notion | | **MORT** | Yes (uncapped tracking) | No (in-app capture) | Yes (uses 3 daily AI credits) | Active searches with follow-ups | | **Teal** | Yes (paywall creep) | Yes | No | Cross-site job capture | | **Huntr** | Yes (limited) | Yes | No | Simple kanban with capture | The two columns that decide whether a tracker actually moves your search forward are Browser Extension? and AI Follow-Up?. Capture saves you from manual entry. Follow-up automation saves you from forgetting. A tracker that fails both is a list, and a list does not need its own product. ## The Five Options Reviewed ### Google Sheets / Excel Template Free The classic. Free, fully customisable, no signup, you own the data. Manual everything, which is the trade-off you accept for the simplicity. How it works Create a sheet with columns for company, role, date applied, source, status, contact name, and notes. Add a row each time you apply. Filter by status to see what is in flight, sort by date applied to see what needs a follow-up. Pros Completely free, no signup, fully customisable, you own the data, exports easily to CSV or PDF, works offline, shareable with a mentor or coach who is reviewing your search. Cons Manual entry for every application, no follow-up reminders, no automation, no integration with job sites, scales badly past 30 to 40 applications when the sheet starts to feel like a second job. Best for Low-volume searches, structured thinkers, people who already live in Sheets or Excel and do not want another tool. Especially good as a backup view of your search even if you also use a more automated tracker. Price Free ### Notion (Free Tier) Free Database-style tracker with friendly UX. Free for personal use, customisable, can attach notes and documents to each role. The trade-off is the setup time and that nothing is job-specific. How it works Create a Notion database with properties for company, role, date applied, status, contact, link, and notes. Switch between table view, kanban view, or calendar view. Use a template from the Notion gallery if you do not want to build it from scratch. Pros Free for personal use, very customisable, multiple views (table, board, calendar) over the same data, attach interview notes and documents to each role, friendly UX once it is set up, web clipper extension for saving job pages. Cons Setup time investment up front, not job-specific so there is no built-in follow-up logic, no AI follow-up automation, can get complicated as you add fields, the system is only as good as the template you build. Best for People who already live in Notion and want their job search inside the same workspace as the rest of their life. Less ideal for people who want a tool that ships with opinions about how a job search should be tracked. Price Free ### MORT Application Tracker Our Pick Disclosure: this is our tool. Kanban tracker with AI-suggested follow-up reminders on the free tier, integrated with the rest of MORT's resume and cover letter tools. How it works MORT's tracker lives on the homepage as your workbench, combining the match dashboard with a kanban application tracker on the same surface. Add roles as you apply, either manually or pulled from the rest of MORT when you generate a tailored resume or cover letter. Move cards across stages: New, Viewed, Saved, Applied, Interview. Time-based automation reminds you to follow up or move stalled jobs based on how long they have been sitting in a lane, and MORT can suggest a follow-up message with the recruiter's name and the role pre-filled at the right moment. Pros Kanban application tracker is unlimited on the free tier. Lives on the homepage as your workbench (combining match dashboard and pipeline tracker). Time-based automation reminds you to follow up or move stalled jobs. AI-suggested follow-up messages draw from the 3 daily AI Assistant credits, so you can compose personalised follow-ups quickly without manual writing. Cons AI-generated follow-up messages count against the same 3 daily AI Assistant credits as resume tailoring and cover letter generation. The tracker itself is uncapped on free, but heavy AI follow-up users will need PRO. Locked to the MORT ecosystem (no browser extension to capture jobs from other sites). Best for Active job seekers who have lost offers because they forgot to follow up, or who want their resume, cover letter, and tracker in one place. Especially useful if the bottleneck in your search is consistent follow-ups rather than raw application volume. Price Free tier (uncapped tracking; AI follow-ups draw from 3 daily AI credits); PRO from £3.99/week (unlimited) ### Teal (Free Tier) Free Kanban tracker with a browser extension. Capture roles from any job site with one click. The catch is that paywalled features creep over time, and there is no AI follow-up on the free tier. How it works Install the browser extension, click to save a job from LinkedIn, Indeed, or any company careers page. Roles land in your Teal tracker as kanban cards. Move them across stages as you progress. Pros Free tier with a working tracker, browser-extension capture from any site is the strongest feature in the category, kanban interface that handles stage tracking cleanly, polished UI, useful for cross-site searches where the jobs are scattered. Cons Paywalled features creep over time as the product expands, the free tier today may not be the free tier tomorrow, mostly tracking-focused without AI follow-up reminders, the resume and matching features behind the paywall are the up-sell rather than the tracker itself. Best for Job seekers searching across many sites who want one-click capture and do not need follow-up automation. Strong if your bottleneck is saving roles efficiently rather than following up consistently. Price Free tier with paywall on advanced features ### Huntr (Free Tier) Free Simple kanban tracker with a browser extension. Clean, focused, free to start. The trade-off is that the free tier is limited and there is no AI follow-up. How it works Sign up, install the browser extension, click to save a job from any site. Roles appear in your kanban with status columns. Add notes, contacts, and dates manually as you go. Pros Free tier covers the basics, simple kanban that is fast to set up, browser extension captures from major job sites, less feature bloat than larger trackers, easy to learn and start using on day one. Cons Free tier features are limited compared to paid plans, no AI follow-up reminders, basic notes rather than structured fields, fewer integrations than the bigger trackers, the up-sell to paid plans appears at the points where you want richer features. Best for Job seekers who want a simple, focused tracker without setting up a Notion database, and who are happy to handle their own follow-up cadence. Good for early-search use before deciding whether to pay for a heavier tool. Price Free tier with paid upgrades When MORT is the right pick If you are losing offers because you forgot to follow up, MORT's free tier pairs unlimited application tracking with AI-suggested follow-up messages. Each AI-generated follow-up uses 1 of your 3 daily AI Assistant credits, so the tracker itself stays uncapped while the AI helpers are predictably priced. [See how it works →](https://mortit.com/features/application-tracker) ## Tools That Look Free But Aren't Trackers repeat the same paywall patterns as resume and cover letter builders, just shaped around the application step. Here is how to spot them before you spend a week building a system inside one. - **Trackers that cap free use at five applications.** A real job search produces 50 to 150 applications across a cycle. A cap at five is a free trial of a paid tracker, not a free tier. The cap exists to convert you the moment your search gets serious. - **Browser extensions that capture for free, then lock the saved data behind a paid tier.** If the extension saves a role into your account and the only way to view your saved jobs is a paid plan, the capture was bait. The data is paywalled the moment it leaves the extension. - **"Free trial" trackers that expire after a week or two.** A trial is a paid product with a sample. Useful for evaluating, not viable for a search that lasts months. - **Trackers that paywall the kanban view.** If the only free view is a list and the board view is paid, you are not on a free tracker. You are on a paid tracker with a stripped-down preview. - **Reminder features paywalled even though the tracking is free.** Reminders are the most useful feature of a tracker. A tool that ships free tracking and paid reminders is selling the only part that actually moves your search forward. - **Credit card required at signup.** A real free tier does not need a card. Anything that asks for one before you have tracked your first role is a paid product in disguise. The honest test: try to track 30 applications, view them on a board, and see a follow-up reminder, all without paying. If any of those three steps requires a card or an upgrade, the tracker is not free in any way that matters for an active search. ## Making the Most of Free Trackers ### Track Every Application, Even the Rejections The rejections are the data. If you only track the roles that look promising, you cannot see the patterns: which sources convert, which role types reject you fastest, where you are stalling. Track every application, including the ones you assume will go nowhere. Patterns only show up when the data is complete. ### Record the Date Applied So You Know When to Follow Up The single most useful field in any tracker is the date you applied. Five to ten business days is the sweet spot for the first follow-up if you have not heard back. Earlier looks impatient, later and the role is usually filled. If your tracker does not have a date column, add one before you do anything else. ### Record the Contact Name for Personalised Follow-Ups A follow-up message addressed to "Hi there" reads like a templated nudge and gets archived. A message addressed to the recruiter or hiring manager by name, referencing the specific role, reads like a real candidate. Capture the contact name when you apply. If the posting does not show one, spend two minutes on LinkedIn finding the recruiter or someone on the team. The follow-up is twice as effective when it lands in a named inbox. ### Review Weekly to Find Stalled Applications Block 30 minutes once a week to review the tracker. Filter to anything older than seven days that has not moved. These are the roles that need a follow-up or a status update. Without a weekly review, applications go stale silently and you find out three weeks later that you missed the window. Weekly review is the single habit that separates a tracker that helps from a tracker that exists. ### Do Not Let the Tracker Become a Procrastination Tool The application matters more than the colour of the kanban card. It is very easy to spend an hour grooming columns, picking icons, and reorganising a Notion database, and feel like you have done job search work. You have not. The tracker is a tool to support the search, not a substitute for it. If you are tweaking your tracker more than you are applying or following up, close the tracker and apply to two more roles. ## Free vs. Paid Job Application Trackers Honest answer: for most job seekers, a free option is enough. The category divides cleanly into two kinds of free. There is the manual free (Sheets, Notion) where you own the system and run the cadence yourself. And there is the assisted free (MORT's free tier with AI follow-ups, Teal and Huntr with browser-extension capture) where the tool removes a specific friction. **Free is enough if:** - You are running a focused search with fewer than 50 active applications - You can stick to a weekly review habit without nudges from a tool - You are happy to do manual entry for the trade-off of zero cost - You only need follow-up reminders for a handful of high-priority roles **Paid tools start to be worth it if:** - You are running an intensive search with hundreds of applications - You want unlimited tracked applications without a cap - You want AI-driven follow-up automation across every role rather than just the priority ones - You need integrations with email, calendar, or CRM-style workflows The thing paid tools really sell is throughput and removed friction. If your bottleneck is the volume of follow-ups you are managing, a paid tier with no cap pays back quickly. If you only have 20 active applications and you can run a weekly review yourself, free is the right call. ## Try MORT's Free Application Tracker Kanban-style application tracking with AI-suggested follow-up reminders on the free tier. Integrated with the resume and cover letter tools so a single job posting flows into one tracked application. No credit card required. [Learn More](https://mortit.com/features/application-tracker) [Track Free](https://app.mortit.com/signup) ## Related Resources ### [Best Free Resume Builders](https://mortit.com/blog/best-free-resume-builders) Free resume builders to feed your tracker ### [Best AI Job Search Tools](https://mortit.com/blog/best-ai-job-search-tools) AI tools that find the jobs you track ### [Complete Job Search Guide](https://mortit.com/blog/job-search-guide) The full job search workflow ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the best free job application tracker? It depends on how many roles you are tracking and whether you want help with follow-ups. A Google Sheets template is the most reliably free option for fewer than 30 to 40 applications. For an active search where forgetting to follow up costs offers, MORT's free tier is the only option in this list that sends AI-suggested follow-up messages on a schedule. Teal and Huntr both offer browser-extension capture on free tiers but do not handle follow-up automation. ### Should I use a spreadsheet to track job applications? A spreadsheet is fine for low-volume searches. It is free, fully customisable, you own the data, and there is no signup. The trade-off is that everything is manual: no reminders, no follow-up nudges, no automatic capture from job sites. Past 30 to 40 applications, a spreadsheet starts to feel like a second job, and that is when most people switch to a kanban tracker or an app with reminders. ### Is Notion good for tracking job applications? Notion works well for tracking applications if you already use Notion and enjoy customising databases. The free personal tier is generous, you can attach notes, links, and documents to each role, and the database view can be filtered like a spreadsheet or grouped like a kanban. The downsides are setup time and that Notion is not job-specific: there is no follow-up automation, no application capture from job sites, and the system is only as good as the template you build. ### What is the difference between Teal and Huntr? Both are kanban-style job trackers with browser extensions and free tiers. Teal has a slightly broader feature set including resume tools and a polished UI, with paywalled features that creep over time. Huntr is the simpler of the two: a clean kanban with browser-extension capture, fewer extra features, and a free tier that is genuinely usable for tracking. Neither offers AI-driven follow-up reminders on the free tier; both are tracking-focused. ### How does AI help with job application tracking? The most useful AI feature in a tracker is follow-up automation. The tool watches the date you applied, the stage you are at, and whether you have heard back, and suggests a follow-up message at the right moment with the recruiter's name and the role baked in. Time-based automation also moves jobs through stages or flags them for follow-up based on how long they have been sitting in a lane. In MORT specifically, each AI-generated follow-up message uses 1 of your 3 daily AI Assistant credits on the free tier, so the kanban tracking itself stays uncapped while the AI helpers are predictably priced. Follow-up timing is the place AI saves real offers. ### How many applications should I be tracking? Track every application you send, including the ones you expect to be rejected from. The point of tracking is not just remembering where you applied, it is spotting patterns: which roles are progressing, which sources convert, where you are stalling. For a serious search you should expect to be tracking 50 to 150 active applications across the cycle. If your tracker caps free use at five applications, it is not built for an active search. ### When should I follow up on a job application? Five to ten business days after you apply is the sweet spot for the first follow-up if you have not heard back. Earlier than five looks impatient. Later than two weeks and the role is usually filled or stalled. After an interview, send a thank-you note within 24 hours and a check-in five to seven business days after that if you have not heard. The pattern matters more than the exact day: consistent, polite follow-ups separate candidates who get hired from candidates who get forgotten. ### Is the MORT application tracker really free? Yes. Kanban tracking is unlimited on the free tier. The tracker lives on the homepage as your workbench, combining the match dashboard with a kanban application tracker across the New, Viewed, Saved, Applied, and Interview stages. AI-generated follow-up messages count against the 3 daily AI Assistant credits (1 credit per follow-up), shared with resume tailoring and cover letter generation. PRO removes the AI credit cap. No credit card is required for the free tier.