Acuity Scheduling vs Nexa
The Real Comparison for Equine Dentists

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 Equine Dentists? Our Read

What equine dentists need from their software, from sources outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa:

Acuity Scheduling covers the booking side of an equine dental practice well. Its intake forms, custom client forms, packages, deposits, cancelation policies and payment options (Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo) all suit a mobile practice, and the Standard plan adds text reminders and a waitlist. The needs this trade is regulated on are a different matter. These are a yearly renewal calendar, continuing-education hours tracked by type with certificates kept for audit, and per-horse procedure records held for a set period. Nothing in Acuity's feature list is built for them. Intake forms could hold some client details, but not a certificate store or a retention rule.

Nexa covers more of the record-keeping around the work. It has a CRM with notes and tags, jobs with before and after photos kept in the job record, recurring jobs, checklist notes linked to a client, and invoices and estimates paid through your own Stripe account. It also has a public booking page with intake forms and reschedule and cancel links, plus bookkeeping and 1099 summaries. It does not have a CE-hour tracker or a certificate vault. There is no street-address field on a client, which matters for a traveling practitioner. There is also no text messaging, no Google Calendar sync (calendar export is an .ics file), and no QuickBooks sync. If you use its automated emails, they send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices.

Over three years, Acuity on the $34 plan costs $408 a year, or $1,224. Nexa costs $279 once, or $458.64 with optional Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month. Without Cloud Sync it runs on one device. If Acuity's text reminders, waitlist or calendar sync keep your schedule full, keep it. If you mainly want invoicing, job records and bookkeeping in one owned tool, Nexa is cheaper. Neither tracks CE hours or retains procedure records for audit, so plan to keep those in a dedicated credential-and-records tracker whichever you choose.

Our read for equine dentists: Neither tool is built to track CE hours, store certificates for audit or keep per-horse procedure records, so add a dedicated credential and records tracker alongside whichever you use.

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

Bottom Line

Acuity Scheduling costs equine dentists $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 equine dentists: 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?

Like the farrier, you work out of a truck on a route, but your patient outweighs you by a thousand pounds and the work happens inside its mouth. At each barn the horse is sedated, usually with a vet's involvement, then you slip on the dental halter and rig the head to an overhead support so it's steady and at the right height. The full-mouth speculum goes in to hold the jaws open, and with a headlamp and mirror you examine all the way back, because a horse's cheek teeth grow continuously and wear into sharp enamel points and hooks that cut the cheeks and tongue. Floating is the core job, rasping those points smooth and balancing the arcades, by hand for light work or with the power float for heavier correction, and the back molars are both the most important and the hardest to reach. Sometimes there's a retained cap or a wolf tooth to elevate and remove. Throughout, you're feeling and watching a sedated animal that can still shift its weight or wake faster than expected, so safety is constant. Between farms it's windshield time and gentle education: an owner whose horse 'eats fine' often doesn't see why annual dentistry matters, and a lot of the job is explaining that quidding, weight loss, and bit resistance all start in a mouth they never look inside.

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 Equine Dentists

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 equine dentist

Software doesn't do your clients — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every equine dentist: 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.)

Watch a job become an invoice

This is the connection that makes the rest worth it. A equine dentist's job already holds the services, the hours, the add-ons, and the materials — so the invoice builds itself from the work instead of you re-typing it at 9pm. Toggle an add-on or nudge the hours and watch it recompute.

The job Routine float for two horses at one barn
Service Routine dental float 2 × $150 $300
Service Barn call / trip fee 1 × $50 $50
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$435
Invoice total$435

You didn't write this invoice — the job did.

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 Equine Dentists

The median Equine Dentist earns $32,000/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 equine dentists. You own it like you own your Manual hand floats and a motorized power float for reducing sharp enamel points.

Is Nexa actually right for an equine dentist?

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 15,000 equine dentists 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 Manual hand floats and a motorized power float for reducing sharp enamel points.

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 equine dentists 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.

Equine Dentists 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 equine dentists actually deal with

A day in the life of a equine dentist

Like the farrier, you work out of a truck on a route, but your patient outweighs you by a thousand pounds and the work happens inside its mouth. At each barn the horse is sedated, usually with a vet's involvement, then you slip on the dental halter and rig the head to an overhead support so it's steady and at the right height. The full-mouth speculum goes in to hold the jaws open, and with a headlamp and mirror you examine all the way back, because a horse's cheek teeth grow continuously and wear into sharp enamel points and hooks that cut the cheeks and tongue. Floating is the core job, rasping those points smooth and balancing the arcades, by hand for light work or with the power float for heavier correction, and the back molars are both the most important and the hardest to reach. Sometimes there's a retained cap or a wolf tooth to elevate and remove. Throughout, you're feeling and watching a sedated animal that can still shift its weight or wake faster than expected, so safety is constant. Between farms it's windshield time and gentle education: an owner whose horse 'eats fine' often doesn't see why annual dentistry matters, and a lot of the job is explaining that quidding, weight loss, and bit resistance all start in a mouth they never look inside.

The tools a working equine dentist actually owns

Local equine dentists on Nexa

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

The kit a working equine dentist owns

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

Core kitEssential

Motorized power float

$2,000–$9,000
Core kitEssential

Manual hand floats

$200–$900
Core kitEssential

Full-mouth speculum

$300–$1,500
Core kitEssential

Head stand and support

$300–$1,500
Core kitEssential

Headlamp and intraoral mirror

$80–$400
Core kitEssential

Dental picks and probes

$60–$300
Core kitEssential

Portable power and generator

$500–$1,500
Upgrade

Intraoral camera

$1,500–$8,000
The core kit, bought once $3,440–$15,100

Here's the bar that matters: you spent $3,440–$15,100 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 equine dentist'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 equine dentist — 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 equine dentists 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 equine dentists, 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

More Comparisons for Equine Dentists