Acuity Scheduling vs Nexa The Real Comparison for CPR 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 CPR Instructors? Our Read
What cpr instructors need from their software, from sources outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa:
Instructors have to keep a record of the classes they teach. For AHA BLS and Heartsaver instructors, renewal comes every two years. One AHA training center requires four BLS or Heartsaver classes (including skills checks) taught in the two years before the card expires. It also requires proof of any AHA updates from that period and a copy of the current instructor card. Teaching records are therefore needed for renewal. (cprseattle.com)
Independent instructors work under an AHA training center and report to it. They upload class rosters and paperwork to the center, which issues the student eCards. The instructor pays for cards after submitting the roster. This means the instructor needs a roster record per class and a way to track card costs against what students paid. (cprseattle.com)
The start-up cost is large and recurring. One training center lists instructor training at about $700 to $750 including course materials. Instructors must also buy their own manikins, AED trainers and face shields. These purchases need tracking as business equipment and supplies. (cprseattle.com)
Manikin lungs are a per-class consumable. One supplier sells a 5-pack of standard PractiMan lungs for £10.00. Its listing says the lungs 'should be replaced after each training course', so supply stock has to be tracked and the cost counted for each class. This is a UK listing, so the price is not in dollars. (shop.sja.org.uk)
Demand from employers comes from rules that vary by industry. OSHA recommends CPR training as part of a first aid program. It requires first aid and CPR training only under certain standards: logging operations (1910.266), permit-required confined spaces (1910.146), and electric power generation, transmission and distribution (1910.269). Instructors who sell to employer clients may need to record which standard the employer's training is for. (osha.gov)
Acuity Scheduling covers the booking side of a CPR class well. It has class scheduling, packages, coupons, deposits, custom intake forms, cancelation policies, and payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo. The Standard plan adds text reminders and an appointment waitlist, and a QuickBooks integration can carry bookings into your books. Its listed features do not include per-class rosters kept for instructor renewal. They also do not include tracking card costs against what students paid, manikin lungs and other supplies, or equipment purchases. You would handle those somewhere else.
Nexa covers more of the record-keeping and cost side. It has a public booking page with intake forms, group-class capacity, and reschedule and cancel links. It also has jobs with costing and profit per job, expenses, receipt scanning, profit and loss, a simple stock count per product, and invoices that clients pay by card through your own Stripe account. Its email reminders and sequences send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. Nexa has no text messages, no waitlist, no Google Calendar sync (calendar export is an .ics file), and no QuickBooks sync. It also has no full inventory management, and it comes with no vendor-run support or onboarding.
Over three years Acuity Scheduling at $34/month costs $1,224. Nexa costs $279 once, or $458.64 with optional Cloud Sync at $4.99/month. If you rely on text reminders, a waitlist or Google Calendar sync, stay with Acuity Scheduling and track rosters and costs separately. If you mainly need class records, card and supply costs and equipment tracking in one place, and you can live with those gaps, Nexa is the cheaper fit.
Our read for cpr instructors: Stay with Acuity Scheduling if you need text reminders, a waitlist or Google Calendar sync; choose Nexa if class records and cost tracking matter more and its email reminders sending only while Nexa is open is acceptable.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Acuity Scheduling costs cpr 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 cpr instructors: Either can do the job, for the reasons in our read above. On price alone, that is $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?
You load the SUV before sunrise: a stack of adult manikins, a couple of infant ones, the AED trainers, and a tote of lung bags and wipes. First class is a daycare staff at 8, so you set the room up in a circle, lay the manikins out, and clip the rate metronome to your belt. You demo the head-tilt chin-lift, count compressions out loud, then walk twelve nervous aides through hands-only and full CPR while watching their hand placement and depth. Halfway through you swap lung bags because a student blew too hard. Skills check is one-on-one: each person gets the manikin and the AED trainer, and you sign their skills sheet. By noon you're wiping down two dozen faces with sani-wipes and counting heads against the sign-in roster so the eCards match. Afternoon is a private two-person class for a couple adopting an infant. Back home, you log into the AHA Atlas to issue completion cards, email the daycare director the roster, and check who's coming up on a two-year recert so you can nudge them. The manikins air out overnight; tomorrow's a construction crew.
Roster cards and course-completion eCards have to be issued through the AHA Atlas or Red Cross portal within a tight window or students' certifications stall
Group sizes shift the night before, so manikin-to-student ratios (and how many helper hands you bring) keep changing
Daycares, gyms, and contractors all want a signed certificate and the instructor's training-center ID on file before they'll let staff work
Recert reminders fall through the cracks because cards expire on a two-year clock and nobody tracks who's due
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 CPR 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
Feature
Acuity Scheduling
Nexa
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 access
Yes — 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
It buys the software, not a service contract. You install Nexa and it runs on your machine. There is no seat count, and nothing stops working if you stop paying, because there is nothing to stop paying.
Acuity Scheduling's monthly fee is not only rent. It pays for their hosting, their support desk, and their engineers shipping changes every week. If those matter to how you work, that is a real thing you would be giving up.
Cross-device sync is the one optional extra — $4.99/month if you want your data mirrored between machines. Skip it and Nexa still works; you just sync manually.
The honest risk of buying once: you are betting on us still being here to improve it. The honest risk of renting: the price is theirs to raise, and the graveyard section below is a record of tools that did exactly that.
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.
Intake forms
Package and subscription billing
Gift certificates
HIPAA compliance (Powerhouse)
Squarespace integration
A smaller bill up front: plans start at $20/month, against $279 paid once for Nexa.
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)
The Starter plan costs $16/month billed annually ($20 monthly) and includes 1 calendar, client self-scheduling, email reminders, custom client forms and automatic time zone conversion. (acuityscheduling.com)
Payments run through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo on all plans. The Standard plan ($27/month annual, up to 6 calendars) adds text reminders, an appointment waitlist, memberships and packages, and gift certificates. (acuityscheduling.com)
The Premium plan ($49/month annual, up to 36 calendars) adds an AI Booking Assistant, a Business Associate Agreement for HIPAA compliance, removal of the Acuity logo, multiple time zones for staff or locations, and custom API and CSS access. Unlimited calendars require the Enterprise team. (acuityscheduling.com)
All plans have a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. There is no free plan beyond the trial. (acuityscheduling.com)
The site lists 15 integrations, including Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Stripe, Square, PayPal, QuickBooks, Zoom, Google Meet, Zapier, Mailchimp and Squarespace. (acuityscheduling.com)
Named features include online booking, class scheduling, packages, subscriptions, gift certificates, coupons, deposits, custom intake forms, cancelation policies, a mobile app and a website builder. The site is offered in 6 languages. (acuityscheduling.com)
What people outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa say:
Software Finder shows a 4.5 rating from 25 reviews, with category scores of 9/10 for ease of use, value for money, customer support and functionality. The most-cited strengths are ease of use, integrations, automated email and text reminders that reviewers credit with reducing no-shows, and customizable emails and calendar views. (softwarefinder.com)
Software Finder reviewers also raise drawbacks. Some small businesses find it expensive, and one reported unresolved booking issues and slow support replies. Booking form appearance is limited, and add-ons are checkboxes only, so customers can't choose quantities. Stripe refunds need a separate login to Stripe. One business said it lacked features as its staff and resources grew, and a healthcare reviewer said it isn't suited to HIPAA-regulated practices. (softwarefinder.com)
Secret's page has no user reviews. Its editorial text calls the product user-friendly, customizable and affordable. It also lists as cons that pricing may be expensive for tight budgets, advanced features are limited, and some third-party integrations may be lacking. (joinsecret.com)
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Where business tools fit — for a cpr instructor
Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every cpr 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 the actual work. Tap a step to see what gets automated.
1
Find the work
Land the client
↓
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed engagement — the terms and the retainer set.
CRM / contacts
Estimates & proposals
Booking / scheduling
then ↓
2
Manage the work
Do the work
↓
The work you're paid for — with the hours, tasks, and expenses tracked against the engagement instead of reconstructed at month-end.
Job / project tracking
Time tracking
Expenses, materials & add-ons
then ↓
3
Bill for it
Send the bill
↓
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
Get paid
Collect payment
↓
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 the actual work. (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 CPR Instructors
The median CPR Instructor earns $42,000/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 cpr instructors. You own it like you own your adult and infant CPR manikins with feedback clickers.
Is Nexa actually right for a cpr 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 18,000 cpr 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 adult and infant CPR manikins with feedback clickers.
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 cpr 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.
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 cpr instructors actually deal with
Roster cards and course-completion eCards have to be issued through the AHA Atlas or Red Cross portal within a tight window or students' certifications stall
Group sizes shift the night before, so manikin-to-student ratios (and how many helper hands you bring) keep changing
Daycares, gyms, and contractors all want a signed certificate and the instructor's training-center ID on file before they'll let staff work
Recert reminders fall through the cracks because cards expire on a two-year clock and nobody tracks who's due
A day in the life of a cpr instructor
You load the SUV before sunrise: a stack of adult manikins, a couple of infant ones, the AED trainers, and a tote of lung bags and wipes. First class is a daycare staff at 8, so you set the room up in a circle, lay the manikins out, and clip the rate metronome to your belt. You demo the head-tilt chin-lift, count compressions out loud, then walk twelve nervous aides through hands-only and full CPR while watching their hand placement and depth. Halfway through you swap lung bags because a student blew too hard. Skills check is one-on-one: each person gets the manikin and the AED trainer, and you sign their skills sheet. By noon you're wiping down two dozen faces with sani-wipes and counting heads against the sign-in roster so the eCards match. Afternoon is a private two-person class for a couple adopting an infant. Back home, you log into the AHA Atlas to issue completion cards, email the daycare director the roster, and check who's coming up on a two-year recert so you can nudge them. The manikins air out overnight; tomorrow's a construction crew.
The tools a working cpr instructor actually owns
adult and infant CPR manikins with feedback clickers
AED training units with simulated shock pads
bag-valve masks and pocket-mask barrier devices for practice
manikin lung-bag refills and sani-wipes for cleaning faces between students
American Heart Association / Red Cross instructor materials and skills checklists
two-rescuer scenario props and a metronome for the 100-120 compression rate
Local cpr instructors on Nexa
Real cpr instructors near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a cpr instructor? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every cpr instructor on Nexa →
The kit a working cpr instructor owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Core kitEssential
Adult and infant CPR manikins
$600–$3,000
Core kitEssential
AED training units
$200–$900
Core kitEssential
Feedback devices and clickers
$100–$500
Core kitEssential
Projector and screen
$200–$800
Core kitEssential
Training mats and kneeling pads
$80–$350
Core kitEssential
Transport cases and cart
$100–$400
Upgrade
Choking and first-aid trainers
$200–$900
The core kit, bought once$1,280–$5,950
Here's the bar that matters: you spent $1,280–$5,950 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
We make Nexa. It is one of the two options compared here, so read this with that in mind. We have tried to make Acuity Scheduling's case the way we would want ours made — their strengths above are their own published feature list, not our summary of it.
The prices are Acuity Scheduling's published list prices, checked on the date shown in the sources below. Plans change; check theirs before you decide.
No customer quotes appear on this page because we do not have any from cpr instructors we can verify. For user testimony, read the independent reviews — Acuity Scheduling on G2 and on Capterra — where the reviewers are not selling you anything.
Check the price yourself:Acuity Scheduling's own pricing page is the source for every figure above, read on the date shown in the sources section below.
We are not neutral about subscriptions, and that is the argument, not a hidden assumption: software you pay for once is cheaper over three years than software you rent, unless you need something only the rented one does.
How we put this guide together
We build a cpr 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 a cpr 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
Vendor pricingCalendly $144/yr, Acuity Scheduling $408/yr, HoneyBook $432/yr, FreshBooks $516/yr — taken from each company's published plans, last verified September 2026. Pricing moves; each name above links straight to that vendor’s own pricing page so you can confirm it before you decide.
Income contextThe $42,000 median we cite for the typical cpr instructor is occupational median annual pay from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics), compiled April 2026. We use it only to show software spend as a share of real income — your own numbers will differ.
Three-year mathMulti-year totals are today's list price multiplied by the number of years. No price rise is projected, so the figure can be checked against the vendor's own pricing page; if they raise it, the real cost is higher.
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 cpr 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 cpr 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.