Acuity Scheduling vs Nexa
The Real Comparison for Aerial Silks Instructors

Acuity Scheduling
$34/mo ($408/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 8.2 months at Acuity Scheduling's current price.

Does Acuity Scheduling Fit Aerial Silks Instructors? Our Read

What aerial silks instructors need from their software, from sources outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa:

Acuity Scheduling covers the booking side of an aerial studio well. Its features include class scheduling, packages, subscriptions, gift certificates, custom intake forms, cancelation policies, deposits, a mobile app, and payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo. The plan that does the core job is $34/month. Higher plans add text reminders and a waitlist. It does not cover the safety need that is specific to this trade. The manufacturer's guidance calls for per-item purchase and retirement dates for each silk, hammock and sling. It also calls for inspection reminders and a written log of dated inspections with inspector names, defects and photos of connection points. Nothing in Acuity's feature list is an equipment record of that kind.

Nexa handles the booking side too. It has a public booking page with intake forms, group-class capacity, and reschedule and cancel links. Clients can pay by card through your own Stripe account, and it works offline. It can attach phone-camera photos to a job record, and its notes can be checklists linked to a client or contact. It has no waitlist, no recurring booking series and no text messages. It has no Google Calendar sync either, only an .ics export. Its automated emails and reminders send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. It is software you own and run yourself, with no hosted support desk or vendor-run onboarding.

Over three years Acuity at $34/month costs $408 a year, or $1,224. Nexa is $279 once, or 3 payments of $99. With optional Cloud Sync at $4.99/month it comes to $458.64 over three years. If you rely on Acuity's text reminders, waitlist or calendar sync, stay with it. Switching only to save money would cost you those. Either way, neither one is where your rigging inspection log belongs. Keep that in a dedicated equipment inspection and asset-tracking tool, or a disciplined written log. Choose your scheduler on its booking merits.

Our read for aerial silks instructors: Neither tool is built for the age, inspection and retirement records that silks and rigging need, so keep your scheduler for bookings and use a dedicated equipment inspection log for safety.

Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.

Bottom Line

Acuity Scheduling costs aerial silks instructors $408/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 8.2 months it has cost less than Acuity Scheduling, and you own it after that. What it is not: hosted-for-you software with a support desk and a roadmap you can lobby. That is the trade, and the rest of this page is the detail behind it.

Can it pay for itself?

Nexa is $279 once, about $23 a month over its first year. Its Drain Guard reads your expenses (from a linked bank, an imported statement, or ones you type in), finds the charges that repeat, and adds them up by the month. Keep or Cut then walks you through them one at a time. Cancel $23 a month of charges you'd forgotten about and Nexa has paid for itself inside the first year, before you count the Acuity Scheduling bill you'd stop paying.

It depends on what you find and what you cancel, so we don't promise a number. In our demo data, Drain Guard finds 5 subscriptions adding up to $110.13 a month. That is sample data, not a customer's.

The verdict for aerial silks instructors: Neither Acuity Scheduling nor Nexa is the main system for this work; start with software built for it. Nexa only makes sense beside it, at $279 once against $1,224 for Acuity Scheduling over three years.

Choose Nexa if:

  • You're done paying monthly forever
  • You're a solo operator or small team (1-5)
  • You need scheduler, connect crm and invoicing in one tool
  • You're tired of price increases
  • You want to own your tools like you own your equipment

Choose Acuity Scheduling if:

  • You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
  • You're deeply invested in Acuity Scheduling's specific workflow
  • You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet

Sound Familiar?

Rigging first, always. I check the figure-8, the swivels, the rescue-rated carabiners, and the load points, because silks work happens at height and there is no margin for a hardware I didn't inspect. I lay the crash mats under each fabric. Class is small by necessity, one student per silk, so the warm-up is also a strength check: pull-ups, hollow body, foot-locks at floor level. We climb, and I'm at the base of every new climber's fabric the first time they leave the ground. The drops are the dangerous, beautiful part, and before anyone wraps for a drop I confirm they've drilled the lock-off and earned it, because a drop done with a sloppy wrap is the injury that ends a season. I demo the wrap slow, walk them through every layer, and I will not let someone drop until the pose is clean and held. Conditioning takes a real chunk of class because silks is brutal on the grip and shoulders. After class I lower and inspect every fabric for wear and snags, re-check the rig points, and reset mats. Then I'm answering the usual: who's ready to move up, who wants a private to nail their drop, and the waitlist for the climbing class I never quite get to.

Scheduling, client records and invoicing are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot and carry their own booking link, with no per-appointment cut. The sections below price both routes honestly.

None of that is a software problem you can buy your way out of in one click — it is why the tool you pick matters more than what it costs. Acuity Scheduling solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.

What Acuity Scheduling Actually Costs Aerial Silks Instructors

Today's list price is $34/month — $408 a year, from Acuity Scheduling's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.

Three years at today's price

Year 1$408
Year 2$408
Year 3$408
Three years of Acuity Scheduling$1,224

Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $945 less.

If Acuity Scheduling raises its price, the three-year cost goes up; if it cuts it, the cost comes down. We don't guess which. Add-ons, extra seats and card-processing fees are not included, on either side.

Feature-by-Feature

FeatureAcuity SchedulingNexa
Invoicing✗✓
Scheduling✓✓
CRM✗✓
Time Tracking✗✓
Full Accounting✗✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management✗✓
Works offline—✓
Price$34/mo$279 once
or 3 × $99
3-Year Total$1,224$279
You own it?No — stop paying, lose accessYes — forever

✓ and ✗ for Acuity Scheduling come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Acuity Scheduling lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.

What "$279 Once" Does And Doesn't Buy

What Acuity Scheduling Does Better

Straight from Acuity Scheduling's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.

Acuity Scheduling is the better call if you need intake forms specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.

What Acuity Scheduling Is Built For

Acuity says it is for "anyone in the business of time," from solo practitioners to multi-location teams. It lists beauty, business services (consulting, coaching), wellness, fitness, visual and performing arts, and education. (acuityscheduling.com)

What people outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa say:

Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.

Where business tools fit — for an aerial silks instructor

Software doesn't do your clients — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every aerial silks instructor: find the work, manage it, bill for it, get paid. Each step has a tool — and the right single tool runs the whole loop, so the handoffs are automatic and you get back to your clients. Tap a step to see what gets automated.

  1. 1
    Find the work

    Get booked

    ↓

    A new client finds you and books a time — no phone tag, no double-booking.

    • CRM / contacts
    • Estimates & proposals
    • Booking / scheduling
    then ↓
  2. 2

    The session itself — with the client history, notes, packages, and add-ons right there instead of in three different places.

    • Job / project tracking
    • Time tracking
    • Expenses, materials & add-ons
    then ↓
  3. 3

    The work becomes the invoice — the hours, the add-ons, the materials, the deposit credited — totaled and sent, instead of re-typed at 9pm.

    • Invoicing
    • Deposits & credits
    then ↓
  4. 4

    Paid by card or link, the deposit credited, and what's overdue chased — without you doing it by hand.

    • Card / online payments
    • Automatic reminders

You can stitch four separate subscriptions across these four steps, or run one tool that does the whole flow so a booking becomes a job becomes an invoice becomes a payment without re-typing. Either way the goal is the same: less time on the business of the business, more on your clients. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)

Calculate Your Full Stack

Acuity Scheduling plus whatever else you're paying for:

Email yourself this comparison?

Switching from Acuity Scheduling

1
Export your data — Go to Settings → Export. Download your client list and appointment history.
2
Set up Nexa Scheduler — 15-minute setup. Import clients and recreate your appointment types.
3
Update your links — Replace your Acuity booking link everywhere — website, email, social.
4
Cancel Acuity — Cancel Squarespace subscription. Download a final backup of your data.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.

What This Means for Aerial Silks Instructors

The median Aerial Silks Instructor earns $40,000/year. At $408/year, Acuity Scheduling is a recurring slice of that — paid again every year, whether the year was good or not. Owning the same jobs outright is $279 once, and the slice stops.

Nexa is $279 once. Invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, accounting — all connected, built for aerial silks instructors. You own it like you own your Aerial silks / tissu fabric sets.

Is Nexa actually right for an aerial silks instructor?

An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.

Right for you if

  • You run solo or a small team — like the 12,000 aerial silks instructors in the US who do, and you wear every hat.
  • You're tired of paying every month for a monthly subscription stack and a pile of apps that don't talk to each other.
  • You want invoicing, scheduling, and client tracking in one place — not scattered across five apps.
  • You'd rather own your software once, the way you own your Aerial silks / tissu fabric sets.

Look elsewhere if

  • You have a large team that needs enterprise seats, granular roles, and dedicated admin staff — Nexa is built for solo and small operators (1–5), and a bigger platform will serve you better.
  • You need full payroll for a large team or deep, SKU-level inventory — that's not what Nexa is for.
  • You're genuinely happy paying monthly and don't mind stitching tools together. No tool fixes a workflow you already like.

The honest fit: if you're a solo or small aerial silks instructors business that owns its tools and is sick of renting software, Nexa replaces your whole stack for $279 once. If you're scaling into a large team with dedicated admin staff, a bigger platform may fit better — and we'd rather tell you that now than sell you the wrong thing.

Aerial Silks Instructors by the numbers — by place

Tax & registration where you operate

Scheduling, client records and invoicing are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot and carry their own booking link, with no per-appointment cut. The sections below price both routes honestly.

What aerial silks instructors actually deal with

A day in the life of a aerial silks instructor

Rigging first, always. I check the figure-8, the swivels, the rescue-rated carabiners, and the load points, because silks work happens at height and there is no margin for a hardware I didn't inspect. I lay the crash mats under each fabric. Class is small by necessity, one student per silk, so the warm-up is also a strength check: pull-ups, hollow body, foot-locks at floor level. We climb, and I'm at the base of every new climber's fabric the first time they leave the ground. The drops are the dangerous, beautiful part, and before anyone wraps for a drop I confirm they've drilled the lock-off and earned it, because a drop done with a sloppy wrap is the injury that ends a season. I demo the wrap slow, walk them through every layer, and I will not let someone drop until the pose is clean and held. Conditioning takes a real chunk of class because silks is brutal on the grip and shoulders. After class I lower and inspect every fabric for wear and snags, re-check the rig points, and reset mats. Then I'm answering the usual: who's ready to move up, who wants a private to nail their drop, and the waitlist for the climbing class I never quite get to.

The tools a working aerial silks instructor actually owns

Local aerial silks instructors on Nexa

Real aerial silks instructors near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you an aerial silks instructor? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every aerial silks instructor on Nexa →

The kit a working aerial silks instructor owns

The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.

Core kitEssential

Aerial silks fabric sets

$300–$1,200
Core kitEssential

Rigging hardware: figure-8, swivels

$300–$1,200
Core kitEssential

Crash mats

$400–$1,800
Core kitEssential

Rigging point or portable rig

$2,000–$8,000
Core kitEssential

Load cell and inspection tools

$200–$900
Upgrade

Lyra hoop and trapeze

$200–$900
Upgrade

Sound system and mirrors

$150–$600
The core kit, bought once $3,200–$13,100

Here's the bar that matters: you spent $3,200–$13,100 on tools that last for years, and never thought twice. So why should the software cost more than your whole kit — every single year? Hold it to the same standard as a good tool: $279, once.

How To Read This Page

How we put this guide together

We build an aerial silks instructor's guide the same way every time, and we'd rather you trust it than take it on faith. Nexa is our product, so the test we hold ourselves to is simple: a tool only "wins" a job here when it genuinely does that job better for an aerial silks instructor — and where something free, open-source, or buy-once does it better, we say so and link you to it. Where Nexa falls short (payroll is the honest example), we name the alternative outright.

Where the numbers come from

Found something out of date? Prices change and we don't catch every move the day it happens. This guide is published and maintained by the Nexa team; if a figure here is wrong, tell us and we'll fix it — getting it right matters more to us than the sale.

FAQ

Is Nexa really a Acuity Scheduling replacement?

For solo aerial silks instructors and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Acuity Scheduling may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.

What does Acuity Scheduling do that Nexa doesn't?

Acuity Scheduling has features like Intake forms and Package and subscription billing that some businesses rely on. For most solo aerial silks instructors, these aren't dealbreakers.

How fast does Nexa pay for itself?

At $34/month, Nexa pays for itself in 8.2 months. After that: $408 saved every year.

Can I pay in installments?

Yes. Nexa is $279 as a one-time payment, or 3 payments of $99 ($297 total). Either way it's a one-time purchase — no subscription, no recurring fees ever.

$1,224 Over 3 Years. Or $279 Once (or 3 × $99).

Own your tools. Stop renting your software.

Get Nexa — $279 Once
or 3 payments of $99
✓ 30-day money-back — save $500 or full refund

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