Acuity Scheduling vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Taekwondo 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 Taekwondo Instructors? Our Read
What taekwondo instructors need from their software, from sources outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa:
Dan (black belt) testing for Kukkiwon-affiliated schools needs its own fee tracking, separate from monthly tuition. Instructors in one forum thread report a $30 to $70 gup (colored belt) test, a first-Dan total of $720 for one school, and a Kukkiwon 1st Dan fee of about $300. One Grand Master adds $100 to the stated Kukkiwon fees. Dan testing can also bundle a uniform, an embroidered belt and private lessons. Some schools instead sell a flat prepaid black belt plan (one poster cites about $4k), so software has to handle one-off exam fees, pass-through organization fees and prepaid packages. (martialtalk.com)
Instructors who join USA Taekwondo need to track membership compliance. Coaches, referees, instructors and club owners must pass a background check before membership can be renewed. The check is valid for two years and takes 5 to 10 business days. Members over 18 must complete SafeSport training. A lapsed membership means the person cannot register for events. A school with several coaches needs to record these expiry dates for each person. (usatkd.org)
Schools need liability insurance records and landlord-required proof of coverage. In a school-owner forum thread, one member says martial arts policies can exclude most contact such as sparring or mat work, and another says business liability insurance does not cover participants injured in training. Another poster notes that commercial landlords often require tenants to carry minimum liability coverage. Schools should therefore keep policy details and certificates on file alongside signed student waivers. (martialtalk.com)
A school that uses assistant instructors has to decide whether each one is an employee or an independent contractor. The IRS decides this by weighing behavioral control, financial control and the type of relationship, and no single factor settles it. Records of who sets the class schedule, who supplies equipment and whether there is a written contract support that decision, and so do payroll or 1099 records. (irs.gov)
Acuity Scheduling covers the booking side of a taekwondo school well. It has class scheduling, intake forms, package and subscription billing, gift certificates, deposits and custom client forms, and it takes payment through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo. Packages and deposits can handle a flat prepaid black belt plan or a test-fee deposit. Its listed features don't include dedicated tracking for pass-through Kukkiwon fees, USA Taekwondo background-check and SafeSport expiry dates for each coach, insurance certificates, or records on whether an assistant instructor is an employee or a contractor. Those would have to live elsewhere.
Nexa covers more of the money and records side. Invoices, payment plans and a client pay portal (card payments go through your own Stripe account) can handle one-off exam fees and prepaid packages. Time tracking, a payroll CSV and 1099 summaries help with assistant-instructor records, and its public booking page offers intake forms and group-class capacity. It has no waitlist, no text messages, and no Google Calendar sync (calendar export is an .ics file). Its automated emails and reminders send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. You own and run it yourself, with no hosted support desk or vendor onboarding. Nexa's listed features don't mention credential-expiry tracking or insurance certificates either.
Over three years Acuity at $34 a month comes to $1,224. Nexa is $279 once (or 3 payments of $99), or $458.64 with the optional $4.99 a month Cloud Sync for the same period. A school that relies on a waitlist, text reminders or calendar sync should stay with Acuity. A school whose main pain is fee tracking, payment plans and contractor records, and that is happy on one device, can switch to Nexa and save money. Either way, keep USA Taekwondo expiry dates, insurance certificates and signed waivers in a separate compliance or records system.
Our read for taekwondo instructors: Acuity suits schools that need a waitlist, texts and calendar sync, while Nexa suits schools that want cheaper fee, payment-plan and contractor tracking, and neither one clearly handles credential and insurance records.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Acuity Scheduling costs taekwondo 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 taekwondo 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?
I open the dojang, bow in, and prep the paddles and breaking boards for the day. The afternoon kids' classes are the heart of it — after-school enrollment pays the rent, so the dojang fills with little ones in doboks. I drill front kicks and roundhouse on the paddles, run them through their poomsae forms, and let the higher ranks try a board break, which always gets a cheer. I'm tracking each kid against the curriculum: who's learned the form for their next belt, who's still sloppy on their kicks, who's eligible for the next test cycle. Parents line the wall and I'm fielding questions about belt tests, tuition, and whether their daughter can join the sparring team. The competition team trains harder — Olympic-style sparring with the electronic hogu, so I'm making sure the chest protectors register hits and the kids are in the right weight class for the upcoming tournament. That tournament means registrations, weight check-ins, and travel logistics for a whole team of families, and I'm collecting it piecemeal. Evening I run an adult class, more forms and controlled sparring. Behind it all is the admin grind: tuition autopay with a couple of expired cards, test fees, new-student waivers, gear orders for kids who've outgrown their doboks. I notice a blue belt's been absent and make a note to call home before another family decides they've gotten what they came for.
Belt promotions and poomsae forms run on a strict curriculum I track by hand for dozens of students
Kids and competition sparring teams require waivers, gear sizing, and electronic hogu I maintain
Olympic-style sparring tournaments mean travel, weight classes, and registrations for a whole team
After-school kid enrollment is the engine, so tuition autopay and parent communication eat my admin time
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 Taekwondo 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 taekwondo instructor
Software doesn't do your clients — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every taekwondo 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 taekwondo 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 Kids' after-school taekwondo, 3-month enrollment
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 Taekwondo Instructors
The median Taekwondo 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 taekwondo instructors. You own it like you own your Dobok uniform and belt set.
Is Nexa actually right for a taekwondo 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 taekwondo 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 Dobok uniform and belt set.
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 taekwondo 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 taekwondo instructors actually deal with
Belt promotions and poomsae forms run on a strict curriculum I track by hand for dozens of students
Kids and competition sparring teams require waivers, gear sizing, and electronic hogu I maintain
Olympic-style sparring tournaments mean travel, weight classes, and registrations for a whole team
After-school kid enrollment is the engine, so tuition autopay and parent communication eat my admin time
A day in the life of a taekwondo instructor
I open the dojang, bow in, and prep the paddles and breaking boards for the day. The afternoon kids' classes are the heart of it — after-school enrollment pays the rent, so the dojang fills with little ones in doboks. I drill front kicks and roundhouse on the paddles, run them through their poomsae forms, and let the higher ranks try a board break, which always gets a cheer. I'm tracking each kid against the curriculum: who's learned the form for their next belt, who's still sloppy on their kicks, who's eligible for the next test cycle. Parents line the wall and I'm fielding questions about belt tests, tuition, and whether their daughter can join the sparring team. The competition team trains harder — Olympic-style sparring with the electronic hogu, so I'm making sure the chest protectors register hits and the kids are in the right weight class for the upcoming tournament. That tournament means registrations, weight check-ins, and travel logistics for a whole team of families, and I'm collecting it piecemeal. Evening I run an adult class, more forms and controlled sparring. Behind it all is the admin grind: tuition autopay with a couple of expired cards, test fees, new-student waivers, gear orders for kids who've outgrown their doboks. I notice a blue belt's been absent and make a note to call home before another family decides they've gotten what they came for.
The tools a working taekwondo instructor actually owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Dobok uniform and belt set
Kicking paddles and target mitts
Breaking boards (rebreakable)
Chest protectors and electronic hogu for sparring
Poomsae reference charts
Mats and dojang training space
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 taekwondo 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 taekwondo 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 taekwondo 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 taekwondo 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 taekwondo 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 taekwondo 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.