Guide
Free job advert debiasing tools: an honest comparison
Four free ways to check a job advert before it goes live — what each one catches, what it misses, and how to combine them.
Short answer: use a wording checker and a whole-advert checker together. Gender Decoder and the Totaljobs Gender Bias Decoder catch masculine- and feminine-coded language. Plain-language guidance clears jargon and acronyms. Neuromine reads the whole advert — pay disclosure, hidden requirements, interview format, adjustments information and intensity-culture language — which is where most exclusion actually happens. All four are free and none need an account.
At a glance
| Tool | Checks | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Gender Decoder | Gender-coded wording | Free |
| Totaljobs Gender Bias Decoder | Gender-coded wording, with alternatives | Free |
| Plain-language checklists | Jargon, acronyms, readability (manual) | Free |
| Neuromine | Pay, hidden requirements, interview format, adjustments, culture language, wording | Free |
Gender Decoder (Kat Matfield)
Free, no sign-up · Best for: A fast check on masculine- and feminine-coded wording
What it does well
- Built on the Gaucher, Friesen and Kay (2011) word lists, so the flags trace back to published research rather than opinion.
- Instant: paste the text, get a coded-word breakdown and an overall lean in seconds.
- Shows you the exact words it matched, which makes it easy to learn from rather than just obey.
Where it stops
- Scope is deliberately narrow — gendered wording only. It does not look at pay, structure, requirements or process.
- Word-list matching has no sense of context, so a legitimate use of a flagged word still shows up.
Totaljobs Gender Bias Decoder
Free, no sign-up · Best for: Gendered wording with suggested alternatives, aimed at recruiters
What it does well
- Suggests replacement wording rather than only flagging, which is quicker for someone drafting at speed.
- Presented in a recruiter-facing context with UK examples.
Where it stops
- Same category of check as Gender Decoder — language only.
- Suggestions are generic; you still need judgement about whether the replacement fits the role.
Plain-language checklists (GOV.UK style guide, Plain English Campaign)
Free guidance, not a tool · Best for: Clearing jargon, acronyms and unnecessary complexity
What it does well
- Addresses the barrier that shuts out the most people: adverts written in internal shorthand.
- Authoritative and widely accepted, so it is easy to justify internally.
Where it stops
- Manual — nothing is automated, and it takes a careful read to apply.
- Written for public-sector content generally, not for recruitment specifically.
Visit Plain-language checklists (GOV.UK style guide, Plain English Campaign)
Neuromine job advert analyser
Free, no sign-up · Best for: A whole-advert read, including the things wording checks cannot see
What it does well
- Goes past wording: pay disclosure, hidden requirements buried in prose, interview format disclosure, adjustments and accessibility information, intensity-culture language and how specific 'flexible' or 'hybrid' actually is.
- Built around neuroinclusion — the barriers ADHD and autistic candidates report most — and anchored in EHRC, Acas, CIPD, Disability Confident and Buckland Review guidance.
- Written from the candidate's side, so it explains what each finding means for someone deciding whether to apply.
- Deterministic detectors do the factual work (pay, hours, process); the language model only explains what was found and cannot invent findings.
Where it stops
- UK-anchored. The legal and guidance framing assumes UK employment context.
- It reports findings, it does not score or grade an employer, so it will not give you a single number to report upwards.
- It reads the advert only. It cannot tell you what an employer is actually like to work for.
A workable order to use them in
- Draft the advert with the structure right first: salary range, a short essential-criteria list, the interview stages, and a named contact for adjustments.
- Run it through a whole-advert bias checker to see what is missing rather than only what is worded badly.
- Run the text through a gender-coded wording checker and review each flag in context.
- Read it once more against plain-language guidance: cut acronyms, cut internal shorthand, shorten sentences.
- Have one person outside the hiring team read it cold and tell you what they think the job is.
For the underlying detail on each pattern, see job advert red flags and how to write inclusive job adverts. For a direct comparison with the best-known wording tool, see the Gender Decoder alternative page.
Common questions
What is the best free tool for debiasing a job advert?
It depends what you are checking. For masculine- and feminine-coded wording, Gender Decoder and the Totaljobs Gender Bias Decoder are the established free options. For a whole-advert read that also covers pay transparency, hidden requirements, interview format and adjustments information, use Neuromine. Most people get the best result by running a draft through a wording checker and a whole-advert checker, because they catch different things.
Do these tools replace human review?
No. Every tool on this page is a prompt for a decision, not the decision. Automated checks miss context, and a flagged word is sometimes exactly the right word. Treat the output as a checklist for a human read, ideally including someone from the group the advert is meant to reach.
Is gendered language the main source of bias in job adverts?
It is one source and the most studied one. In practice, the barriers candidates report most often are structural rather than lexical: no salary, a long list of essential criteria that are really desirable, no statement of how many interview stages there are, and no mention of adjustments. Wording checkers do not look at any of those.
Are these tools free?
Yes — every tool listed here is free to use and none of them require an account.
Can I use these tools on a job advert I did not write?
Yes. Candidates commonly run an advert they are considering applying to, to see what the employer left out before deciding whether to apply or what to ask at interview.
Check a real advert
Neuromine's free analyser reads a job advert against every pattern on this page and tells you what it found — no sign-up, no employer score.
Written by Theo, who runs Neurodiversity at Work and builds Neuromine.
Theo's speaking and training practice works with UK employers on neuroinclusive hiring.