What cafeterías need from their software, from sources outside Alegra and outside Nexa:
Alegra covers a lot of what a cafetería's back office needs. It has a point-of-sale module that runs on a tablet, laptop or phone, with cash-register closing and low-stock alerts. It also has bank reconciliation, electronic payroll sent to the DIAN, and DIAN-authorized invoicing for Colombian cafés. Support is free and available 24/7, and there is a migration guide. For a US café with tipped counter staff, the page doesn't list tip-credit tracking, tip reports or Form 8027 allocation. Those rules need a point of sale that records gross receipts and tips separately, plus payroll that withholds tax on reported tips and puts them on the W-2. Alegra's POS is the closest part of its feature list to that need, but check how it handles tips before you rely on it.
Nexa covers invoicing, a CRM, bookkeeping (expenses, bank reconciliation, profit and loss, sales tax tracking, receipt scanning), time tracking, a payroll CSV that totals hours x rate, a simple stock count per product, and a Spanish interface that works offline. It has no point-of-sale or card reader. It does not run payroll, so there are no payroll taxes or pay stubs. It has no full inventory management and no Colombian DIAN e-invoicing. If you use its automated emails, they 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-run onboarding.
Over three years Alegra costs $1,440 at $40 a month ($480 a year). Nexa costs $279 once, or $458.64 with optional Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month. Without Cloud Sync it runs on one device. A café that works at the counter and already uses Alegra's POS, payroll or DIAN invoicing should stay, because Nexa has no POS and does not run payroll. A café that needs only invoices, client follow-up and bookkeeping, and does not need a register, could save money with Nexa. Either way, tip-credit records and Form 8027 need a POS and payroll that handle tips, so check that before you choose.
Our read for cafeterías: Stay with Alegra if you rely on its POS module, payroll or DIAN invoicing, since Nexa has no point-of-sale and does not run payroll.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Alegra costs cafeterías $480/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 7.0 months it has cost less than Alegra, 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.
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 Alegra 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 cafeterías: Stay with Alegra 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 $1,440 for Alegra over three years.
Invoicing, inventory, expenses and scheduling 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. Alegra solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
Today's list price is $40/month — $480 a year, from Alegra's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.
Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $1,161 less.
If Alegra 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 | Alegra | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✗ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | — | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Works offline | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price | $40/mo | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Total | $1,440 | $279 |
| You own it? | No — stop paying, lose access | Yes — forever |
✓ and ✗ for Alegra come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Alegra lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.
Straight from Alegra's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Alegra is the better call if you need market leader in colombia and 12 latam countries specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
Alegra says it is for entrepreneurs and small and medium businesses that need to organise sales, expenses, customers and inventory. It also names retail and restaurant businesses, growing teams, accountants and accounting firms, e-commerce, workshops and warehouses, and the health sector. (alegra.com)
What people outside Alegra and outside Nexa say:
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Software doesn't do the creative work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every cafetero: 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.
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed project — with the scope and the deposit locked in.
The work itself — tracked against the project: hours, milestones, revisions, and expenses, so nothing bills late or goes uncounted.
The work becomes the invoice — the hours, the add-ons, the materials, the deposit credited — totaled and sent, instead of re-typed at 9pm.
Paid by card or link, the deposit credited, and what's overdue chased — without you doing it by hand.
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.)
This is the connection that makes the rest worth it. A cafetero'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.
You didn't write this invoice — the job did.
Alegra plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
The median cafetero earns $18,000/year. At $480/year, Alegra 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 cafeterías. You own it like you own your máquina de espresso.
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
The honest fit: if you're a solo or small cafeterías 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.
Invoicing, inventory, expenses and scheduling 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.
I'm in at 5:30 to turn on the espresso machine and grinders, dial in the house espresso by weighing an 18-gram dose and pulling for a 36-gram shot in about 28 seconds, then adjusting the grind until it tastes right. The pastries come in from the bakery at 6, and I set out croissants, muffins and conchas and open the doors. The morning rush runs till 10: flat whites, oat-milk lattes, iced cortados, cold brew, people who want an extra shot and half-sweet vanilla, and I steam milk and pour while my barista rings orders and runs the drip. The office on the corner has a coffee and pastry order for twenty-five at 9, so I brew two carriers of drip, pack cups, lids, sugar and creamer, box two dozen pastries, and send someone to drop it off. Between 10 and 2 it's steady; I restock the milk fridge, clean the steam wands, backflush the machine and check how much of the single-origin is left, because it costs twice as much as the house blend. The afternoon is slow, which is when I count pastries that didn't sell and decide what goes to the staff and what goes out as a discount, and I adjust tomorrow's bakery order. I close at 6, wipe down, run the cleaning cycle on the espresso machine, count the till, write next week's schedule so I've got two on the bar for the morning rush, and send the office their invoice for the catering order.
Real cafeterías near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a cafetero? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every cafetero on Nexa →
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
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.
We build a cafetero'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 cafetero — 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.
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.
For solo cafeterías and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Alegra may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
Alegra has features like Market leader in Colombia and 12 LATAM countries and DIAN-authorized electronic invoicing (Colombia) that some businesses rely on. For most solo cafeterías, these aren't dealbreakers.
At $40/month, Nexa pays for itself in 7.0 months. After that: $480 saved every year.
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.
Own your tools. Stop renting your software.
Get Nexa — $279 Once