Acuity Scheduling vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Jiu Jitsu 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 Jiu Jitsu Instructors? Our Read
What jiu jitsu instructors need from their software, from sources outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa:
Liability insurance and waivers need to be tracked per member. Practitioners on a forum say a signed waiver is 'far from any guarantee' of protection and can be undermined if negligence or unqualified instruction is shown, but they still recommend collecting one. They also say some policies require protective gear, and failing to follow that can void coverage. Some policies don't cover every martial art, and shared or satellite classes need coverage confirmed. A school needs signed waivers stored per student, and records of which classes and venues each policy covers. One poster reports quotes of $650-2000. (martialtalk.com)
Instructors and landlords may require proof of insurance. Forum posters say commercial landlords commonly require tenants to carry business liability, and that business liability covers the school, not a student's training injuries. They say martial arts policies often exclude sparring and mat work. They advise asking for proof of insurance and what it covers before signing. A school needs certificates, policy limits and exclusions on file. (martialtalk.com)
Membership billing comes in several types, and each type has its own rules. One academy (Atos, San Diego) sells monthly, commitment-term, yearly auto-renewal, limited-term and prepaid memberships. Monthly members can request a one-month courtesy freeze. Extended freezes are allowed for medical reasons, relocation or military deployment. There is a 3-day cooling-off refund (5 days in CA and HI). Commitment memberships can't be cancelled during the commitment period except for listed reasons. Yearly renewals terminate automatically if not paid within a 30-day notice. Add-on family members must each be cancelled separately or they keep being billed. Billing records need to track the plan type, freeze dates, renewal notices and add-on members. (atosjiujitsuhq.com)
Sales tax on dues can apply in some states, and a school needs to know its state's rule. In Washington, a 6.5 percent retail tax on physical fitness centers took effect in 2016 and covered martial arts studios. Studios reported losing students afterward. One academy lost about 25 of 110 students, and another saw membership fall from 202 to 166. A bill to reclassify the studios as services was pending when the article was published in February 2017, and the article doesn't report the outcome. Invoicing and bookkeeping need to handle tax on dues, with current rules checked per state. (seattleglobalist.com)
Acuity Scheduling covers class scheduling and recurring-dues billing well. It lists class scheduling, memberships and packages, subscriptions, custom intake forms, cancelation policies, and payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo. The Standard plan adds text reminders and an appointment waitlist, both useful when a popular class fills up. Its limits are on the record-keeping side. Intake and client forms can collect waiver details, but nothing in its feature list covers storing signed waivers per student, insurance certificates, policy limits or exclusions, or sales tax on dues. A school would still need a separate place for those.
Nexa covers more of the paperwork and money side. It has a public booking page with intake forms, group-class capacity, and reschedule and cancel links. It also has recurring invoices, payment plans, a client pay portal through your own Stripe account, notes linked to a client, and sales tax tracking, plus expenses, profit and loss, and bank reconciliation. It has no waitlist, no text messages, and no Google Calendar sync (calendar export is an .ics file). It also has no QuickBooks sync. Its automated emails and reminders send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices, and it is software you run yourself, with no vendor-run onboarding or support desk.
Over three years Acuity at $34 a month costs $1,224 ($408 a year). Nexa is $279 once, or $458.64 with optional Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month, so it is clearly cheaper. If your students rely on text reminders, a class waitlist or calendar sync, stay with Acuity. If you mainly bill dues, track sales tax and keep client notes, and can live with email-only reminders sent while the app is open, Nexa is worth a look. Neither tool is built to hold insurance certificates and signed waivers, so keep those in a separate file system either way.
Our read for jiu jitsu instructors: Stay with Acuity Scheduling if your classes depend on text reminders, a waitlist or calendar sync, which Nexa lacks; Nexa's lower cost only wins if you can do without them.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Acuity Scheduling costs jiu jitsu 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 jiu jitsu instructors: Stay with Acuity Scheduling if the needs in our read above apply to you. If they don't, Nexa covers the core invoicing, scheduling and books for $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?
I sweep and mop the mats before anyone arrives, because in jiu-jitsu hygiene isn't optional — staph or ringworm spreads on the tatami and word travels. Morning no-gi class is smaller, more advanced, so I teach a leg-lock entry and let them flow-roll. I'm watching technique, correcting a guard retention detail, and keeping a mental tally of who's been showing up, because promotions in this art come from mat time, not a test, and people watch their stripes closely. Midday I run a fundamentals class — lots of white belts who just started, and I'm careful not to throw them into live rolling against a blue belt before they know how to tap and stay safe. I drill the same hip escape twenty times because reps are the whole game. After class a three-week white belt looks discouraged; I know the first few months wash most beginners out, and a word from me might keep him. Afternoon I update my attendance notes and think about who's earned a stripe — it's all on a clipboard and in my head, and I hate that someone's promotion depends on my memory. Evening gi class is the big one, the full academy, gis everywhere, hard rolls at the end. I disinfect the mats again after, check who paid their monthly dues versus who's lapsed, and remember I owe two new students a follow-up before they drift away like white belts do.
Belt and stripe promotions ride on attendance and mat time I track loosely on a clipboard
Gi and no-gi classes draw different crowds, and beginners get thrown into rolling before they're ready
Mat hygiene is non-negotiable — one ringworm or staph case can scare off half the academy
White belts quit in the first three months at brutal rates, and I lose them before they ever feel progress
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 Jiu Jitsu 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 jiu jitsu instructor
Software doesn't do your clients — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every jiu jitsu 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
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
Manage the work
Deliver the service
↓
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
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 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 jiu jitsu instructor'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 Private lessons, 5-pack, guard fundamentals
ServicePrivate lesson (60 min)5 × $90$450
→
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$490
Invoice total$490
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 Jiu Jitsu Instructors
The median Jiu Jitsu 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 jiu jitsu instructors. You own it like you own your Grappling mats (tatami).
Is Nexa actually right for a jiu jitsu 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 jiu jitsu 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 Grappling mats (tatami).
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 jiu jitsu 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 jiu jitsu instructors actually deal with
Belt and stripe promotions ride on attendance and mat time I track loosely on a clipboard
Gi and no-gi classes draw different crowds, and beginners get thrown into rolling before they're ready
Mat hygiene is non-negotiable — one ringworm or staph case can scare off half the academy
White belts quit in the first three months at brutal rates, and I lose them before they ever feel progress
A day in the life of a jiu jitsu instructor
I sweep and mop the mats before anyone arrives, because in jiu-jitsu hygiene isn't optional — staph or ringworm spreads on the tatami and word travels. Morning no-gi class is smaller, more advanced, so I teach a leg-lock entry and let them flow-roll. I'm watching technique, correcting a guard retention detail, and keeping a mental tally of who's been showing up, because promotions in this art come from mat time, not a test, and people watch their stripes closely. Midday I run a fundamentals class — lots of white belts who just started, and I'm careful not to throw them into live rolling against a blue belt before they know how to tap and stay safe. I drill the same hip escape twenty times because reps are the whole game. After class a three-week white belt looks discouraged; I know the first few months wash most beginners out, and a word from me might keep him. Afternoon I update my attendance notes and think about who's earned a stripe — it's all on a clipboard and in my head, and I hate that someone's promotion depends on my memory. Evening gi class is the big one, the full academy, gis everywhere, hard rolls at the end. I disinfect the mats again after, check who paid their monthly dues versus who's lapsed, and remember I owe two new students a follow-up before they drift away like white belts do.
The tools a working jiu jitsu instructor actually owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Grappling mats (tatami)
Gi and no-gi training gear
Belts and stripe tape for rank
Grappling dummy for drilling
Round timer and mat cleaner
Whiteboard for position diagrams
You paid for these once because good tools last. That's the bar your software should clear too — priced like a tool you own, $279 once, not a subscription that costs more than your kit every year.
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 jiu jitsu 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 jiu jitsu 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 jiu jitsu 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 pricingAcuity Scheduling $408/yr, Vagaro $600/yr, Square, Calendly $144/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 $40,000 median we cite for the typical jiu jitsu 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 jiu jitsu 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 jiu jitsu 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.