Acuity Scheduling vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Triathlon Coaches
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 Triathlon Coaches? Our Read
What triathlon coaches need from their software, from sources outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa:
Coaches certified by USA Triathlon (USAT) have to track several credential deadlines. SafeSport training must be renewed every year. A clear background check is required every two years. Coaching registration is renewed every two years and needs 8 USAT CEUs plus 4 adjunct or institutional CEUs. The page warns that a lapse could void insurance coverage. (usatriathlon.org)
USAT insurance coverage depends on keeping the certification valid. USAT states that a coach has no USAT coach insurance if the certification is not valid. It also says there is no grace period when SafeSport training lapses. The renewal application costs $95, with a $50 late fee if more than 30 days late. A coach whose certification has lapsed must complete 12 CEUs, pay the $95 fee, and pay the $50 late fee. That makes renewal dates, fees and insurance status things to record for each coach. (usatriathlon.org)
Triathlon coaching is commonly billed as a recurring monthly fee per athlete, and the fee varies with how customized the plan is and how much contact the athlete gets. In one practitioner forum thread, posters reported $85, $100, $130, $150, $165, $200 and $300 per month. One coach there said they charge $99 to $260 depending on how detailed the plan is and how often they communicate. Another coach said they bill $150 per month for their time rather than through packages. Coaches therefore need recurring billing with different price tiers for each athlete. (forum.slowtwitch.com)
Acuity Scheduling covers the booking side of triathlon coaching well. It has online booking, intake forms, package and subscription billing, memberships, deposits, cancelation policies and payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo. That fits a coach who bills each athlete a recurring monthly fee. It also offers text reminders, and its integrations include Google Calendar and QuickBooks. What it does not list is any way to record the credential details a USAT coach has to watch: SafeSport renewal, the two-year background check, CEU progress, registration renewal and insurance status. Those would have to live somewhere else.
Nexa covers the recurring-fee side with recurring invoices, payment plans and a client pay portal. Clients pay by card through your own Stripe account, so each athlete can have their own price. It also has a CRM with tags and notes, a public booking page with intake forms, and email reminders. Nexa lacks text messaging, Google Calendar sync (calendar export is an .ics file) and QuickBooks sync, and it has no waitlist or recurring booking series. Its automated emails, including reminders and drip sequences, send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. It is software you own and run yourself, with no hosted support desk or vendor onboarding. PayPal is only a label for a manual payment.
Over three years Acuity Scheduling at $34 a month comes to $408 a year, or $1,224. Nexa is $279 once, or 3 payments of $99. With optional Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month, three years comes to $458.64. Without Cloud Sync, Nexa runs on one device. A coach who bills athletes monthly, works from one computer and doesn't need texts or calendar sync can save money with Nexa. A coach whose athletes book sessions through a calendar they already sync, or who relies on text reminders or QuickBooks, should stay with Acuity Scheduling. Neither tool is built to track USAT renewal dates and insurance status, so plan to keep those in a separate record either way.
Our read for triathlon coaches: Both handle recurring monthly athlete billing; stay with Acuity Scheduling if you rely on text reminders, Google Calendar or QuickBooks, and consider Nexa if you want a lower three-year cost and can live with emails that send only while it's open.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Acuity Scheduling costs triathlon coaches $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 triathlon coaches: 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're on the pool deck before sunrise with a pace clock, running a swim group through a threshold set, watching strokes break down as they fatigue and reminding the back lane that form holds the pace, not effort. After the swim you head to the studio where a couple of athletes are on bike trainers for a power test; you watch the numbers, call the intervals, and note who's holding their threshold and who's fading early. The hard part of your day is the desk work: building training plans that juggle three sports, brick workouts, and recovery for people who are also holding down jobs and families, so a single skipped Tuesday swim has to be re-slotted without wrecking the weekend long ride. You review last night's uploads across three platforms, trying to tell whether an athlete is adapting or quietly digging into a hole. An age-grouper texts about her first half-distance race, and you walk her through transition layout, what to eat on the bike, and how not to blow up on the run. You run a lunchtime run session, coaching pacing off the bike so it doesn't feel like running on stilts. Afternoon is plan-writing and answering a steady stream of logistics questions, then sketching tomorrow's swim set before you finally close the laptop.
Building a plan across three sports plus brick workouts and recovery is exponentially more complex than coaching one discipline
Athletes balance triathlon training around full-time jobs and a missed session cascades through the whole week's plan
Race logistics for a long-course event, transition setup, nutrition timing, pacing, generate endless questions
Pulling swim, bike, and run data from three different sources to see if an athlete is actually adapting or just tired
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 Triathlon Coaches
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 triathlon coach
Software doesn't do your clients — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every triathlon coach: 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 triathlon coach'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 12-week 70.3 training block, 1-on-1
Service1-on-1 coaching (monthly)3 × $225$675
ServiceBike power (FTP) test session1 × $75$75
→
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$845
Invoice total$845
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 Triathlon Coaches
The median triathlon coach 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 triathlon coaches. You own it like you own your A pool deck setup with a pace clock for swim sessions.
Is Nexa actually right for a triathlon coach?
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 triathlon coaches 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 A pool deck setup with a pace clock for swim sessions.
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 triathlon coaches 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 triathlon coaches actually deal with
Building a plan across three sports plus brick workouts and recovery is exponentially more complex than coaching one discipline
Athletes balance triathlon training around full-time jobs and a missed session cascades through the whole week's plan
Race logistics for a long-course event, transition setup, nutrition timing, pacing, generate endless questions
Pulling swim, bike, and run data from three different sources to see if an athlete is actually adapting or just tired
A day in the life of a triathlon coach
You're on the pool deck before sunrise with a pace clock, running a swim group through a threshold set, watching strokes break down as they fatigue and reminding the back lane that form holds the pace, not effort. After the swim you head to the studio where a couple of athletes are on bike trainers for a power test; you watch the numbers, call the intervals, and note who's holding their threshold and who's fading early. The hard part of your day is the desk work: building training plans that juggle three sports, brick workouts, and recovery for people who are also holding down jobs and families, so a single skipped Tuesday swim has to be re-slotted without wrecking the weekend long ride. You review last night's uploads across three platforms, trying to tell whether an athlete is adapting or quietly digging into a hole. An age-grouper texts about her first half-distance race, and you walk her through transition layout, what to eat on the bike, and how not to blow up on the run. You run a lunchtime run session, coaching pacing off the bike so it doesn't feel like running on stilts. Afternoon is plan-writing and answering a steady stream of logistics questions, then sketching tomorrow's swim set before you finally close the laptop.
The tools a working triathlon coach actually owns
A pool deck setup with a pace clock for swim sessions
A bike trainer and power meter for indoor threshold testing
USAT or Ironman-recognized coaching certification
Training-platform access (TrainingPeaks-style) for building three-sport plans
A GPS multisport watch for analyzing swim, bike, and run files
Transition mats and gear to drill the swim-to-bike and bike-to-run changeovers
Local triathlon coaches on Nexa
Real triathlon coaches near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a triathlon coach? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every triathlon coach on Nexa →
The kit a working triathlon coach owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
A pool deck setup with a pace clock for swim sessions
A bike trainer and power meter for indoor threshold testing
USAT or Ironman-recognized coaching certification
Training-platform access (TrainingPeaks-style) for building three-sport plans
A GPS multisport watch for analyzing swim, bike, and run files
Transition mats and gear to drill the swim-to-bike and bike-to-run changeovers
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 triathlon coaches 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 triathlon coach'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 triathlon coach — 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 triathlon coach 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 triathlon coaches 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 triathlon coaches, 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.