Acuity Scheduling vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Jugglers
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 Jugglers? Our Read
What jugglers need from their software, from sources outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa:
Jugglers need to track liability insurance per performer and per gig. The International Jugglers' Association offers a master liability policy to USA-domiciled members, covering jugglers, fire performers, magicians, clowns and comedians who juggle. It costs $150 a year for $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate, or $236 a year for $2M/$4M. Fire used during a performance inside any structure is excluded from coverage, so indoor fire acts need separate cover. (juggle.org)
Performers who work as employees for several bookers need to separate employee income from self-employed income and keep records of unreimbursed performing expenses. IRS Publication 529 lists four conditions for a 'qualified performing artist': work as an employee for at least two employers, wages of $200 or more from each of at least two of them, allowable performing-arts expenses over 10% of performing-arts gross income, and adjusted gross income of $16,000 or less before those expenses. (irs.gov)
Jugglers who are self-employed need to track net earnings and set aside money for estimated tax. The IRS says you must file a return if net self-employment earnings were $400 or more. It also says self-employed individuals generally pay estimated taxes quarterly. (irs.gov)
Street and public-space juggling often needs a local permit, and a council can require public liability insurance that names it as an interested party. For Queensland, Australia, the government's business licence service lists juggling among activities that commonly require a busker permit. It says the performer must take out public liability insurance for the amount the local council requires and name the council as an interested party. (ablis.business.gov.au)
Acuity Scheduling covers the booking side of juggling work well. Clients can self-schedule, pay a deposit, buy packages or gift certificates, fill in intake forms, and get time zones converted automatically. It also syncs with Google Calendar and offers text reminders and a waitlist on its higher plans. None of that helps with what the sourced needs describe: tracking liability insurance per performer and gig, separating employee income from self-employed income, and setting money aside for estimated tax. Acuity's own feature list has no bookkeeping or tax tools for those jobs.
Nexa covers the money side. It has invoices, estimates and quotes, payment plans, a client pay portal, expense tracking, profit and loss, 1099 summaries, and profit per job. That fits a self-employed juggler tracking net earnings, and a performer with several bookers can record unreimbursed expenses. It also has a public booking page with intake forms, group-class capacity, and reschedule and cancel links. It does not have text messages, a waitlist, recurring booking series, or Google Calendar sync (calendar export is an .ics file). Its automated emails, including reminders, send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. Card payments go only through your own Stripe account, and Nexa is software you run yourself, with no vendor-run onboarding or support desk.
Over three years Acuity Scheduling on the $34 plan costs $1,224 ($408 a year). Nexa costs $279 once, or $458.64 with Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month, which you need only to use more than one device. If your bookings depend on Google Calendar sync, text reminders or a waitlist, stay with Acuity Scheduling. If your main gap is invoicing, expenses and tax records, Nexa is cheaper and covers more of that. If you do both, you will be choosing which gap matters more. Neither tool is described as handling insurance certificates, so keep those on file separately.
Our read for jugglers: Stay with Acuity Scheduling if you rely on Google Calendar sync, text reminders or a waitlist; switch to Nexa if invoicing and tax records matter more, and accept that its automated emails send only while Nexa is open.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Acuity Scheduling costs jugglers $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 jugglers: 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 connect crm, scheduler 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?
The day starts tuning the set to the room. A morning kids' birthday needs the comedy version, lots of audience participation, a kid hauled up to 'help' and inevitably flub a club pass, big reactions, nothing over a few minutes. You pack the lighter clubs and the cigar boxes for that crowd. The gig itself is read-the-room work: you scan the ceiling height the second you walk in, because if it's a low rec-room ceiling your five-club cascade and the high ring pulls are out and you have to lean on contact juggling and ground-level material instead. You run the patter on a wireless mic so the parents can hear the jokes too, work in the drops as bits because recovery is the actual skill, and build to the unicycle finale if there's floor space. The afternoon flips to a corporate mixer that wants polish over slapstick, clean technical juggling, tighter patter, no kids on stage, so it's almost a different act with the same props. Between the two you're hauling the heavy prop case across town, and the schedule has to leave room to load in, warm up the hands, and not arrive cold. The day ends checking clubs for cracks, charging the PA, and re-sorting the case by which show is up next.
The act has to flex for the room, a kids' birthday wants comedy and audience kids on stage, a corporate gig wants polished skill and clean patter, so the same show has to be re-tuned per booking
Indoor venues with low ceilings kill the high club and ring tosses, so the performance space height has to be confirmed or the best material is cut
Drops are inevitable and the skill is recovering with a joke, but a green client thinks a single drop means the act failed, so expectations need managing up front
Bookings cluster on weekends and travel between gigs with a heavy prop case eats time, so back-to-back scheduling has to leave room for load-in and a warm-up
Client records, scheduling 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 Jugglers
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 juggler
Software doesn't do the creative work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every juggler: 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 creative work. Tap a step to see what gets automated.
1
Find the work
Land the project
↓
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed project — with the scope and the deposit locked in.
CRM / contacts
Estimates & proposals
Booking / scheduling
then ↓
2
Manage the work
Do the work
↓
The work itself — tracked against the project: hours, milestones, revisions, and expenses, so nothing bills late or goes uncounted.
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 creative 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 Jugglers
The median Juggler 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 jugglers. You own it like you own your Stage balls, clubs, and rings in graded weights.
Is Nexa actually right for a juggler?
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 10,000 jugglers 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 Stage balls, clubs, and rings in graded weights.
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 jugglers 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.
Client records, scheduling 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 jugglers actually deal with
The act has to flex for the room, a kids' birthday wants comedy and audience kids on stage, a corporate gig wants polished skill and clean patter, so the same show has to be re-tuned per booking
Indoor venues with low ceilings kill the high club and ring tosses, so the performance space height has to be confirmed or the best material is cut
Drops are inevitable and the skill is recovering with a joke, but a green client thinks a single drop means the act failed, so expectations need managing up front
Bookings cluster on weekends and travel between gigs with a heavy prop case eats time, so back-to-back scheduling has to leave room for load-in and a warm-up
A day in the life of a juggler
The day starts tuning the set to the room. A morning kids' birthday needs the comedy version, lots of audience participation, a kid hauled up to 'help' and inevitably flub a club pass, big reactions, nothing over a few minutes. You pack the lighter clubs and the cigar boxes for that crowd. The gig itself is read-the-room work: you scan the ceiling height the second you walk in, because if it's a low rec-room ceiling your five-club cascade and the high ring pulls are out and you have to lean on contact juggling and ground-level material instead. You run the patter on a wireless mic so the parents can hear the jokes too, work in the drops as bits because recovery is the actual skill, and build to the unicycle finale if there's floor space. The afternoon flips to a corporate mixer that wants polish over slapstick, clean technical juggling, tighter patter, no kids on stage, so it's almost a different act with the same props. Between the two you're hauling the heavy prop case across town, and the schedule has to leave room to load in, warm up the hands, and not arrive cold. The day ends checking clubs for cracks, charging the PA, and re-sorting the case by which show is up next.
The tools a working juggler actually owns
Stage balls, clubs, and rings in graded weights
Cigar boxes and contact-juggling acrylics
Portable PA and wireless mic for the patter
Unicycle or rola-bola for the finale
Prop case and quick-load performance vest
Card reader for booking deposits
Local jugglers on Nexa
Real jugglers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a juggler? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every juggler on Nexa →
The kit a working juggler owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Stage balls, clubs, and rings in graded weights
Cigar boxes and contact-juggling acrylics
Portable PA and wireless mic for the patter
Unicycle or rola-bola for the finale
Prop case and quick-load performance vest
Card reader for booking deposits
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 jugglers 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 juggler'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 juggler — 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 pricingHoneyBook $432/yr, Acuity Scheduling $408/yr, FreshBooks $516/yr, Square — 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 juggler 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 jugglers 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 jugglers, 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.