What 3d modelers need from their software, from sources outside HoneyBook and outside Nexa:
HoneyBook covers the paperwork side of 3D modeling well. Commissioned models only count as work made for hire if both sides sign a written agreement. Otherwise the modeler keeps the copyright. So contracts need to say who owns the work and what usage license the client gets. HoneyBook's contracts, proposals and client portal are built for that, and every plan includes them. Most modelers are self-employed, so they also need invoices, payments and tidy records for self-employment tax and quarterly estimated payments. HoneyBook includes invoices and payments, and its higher plans connect to QuickBooks Online. It does not give a modeler a portfolio tool, and what it says about tax tracking is limited to that accounting connection.
Nexa covers the business-running side. It has invoices, estimates and proposals that convert to invoices, and payment plans. Clients pay by card through your own Stripe account and can sign estimates in the pay portal. It also has a CRM with a public lead form, time tracking, and bookkeeping with expenses, profit and loss, and 1099 summaries. It does not sync or import with QuickBooks or Xero, and it has no Google Calendar sync. If you use automation, its automated emails send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. It is software you own and run yourself, so there is no hosted support desk or vendor-run onboarding. This page doesn't list a contract feature for Nexa, so check that signing an estimate is enough to record your ownership and licensing terms before relying on it.
Over three years HoneyBook at $36 a month comes to $1,296 ($432 a year). Nexa is $279 once, or three payments of $99. Adding optional Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month brings it to $458.64 over the same period, and without Cloud Sync it runs on one device. If you rely on HoneyBook's contracts and client portal to settle ownership and licensing, stay put. If you mainly need invoicing, card payments and bookkeeping at a lower cost, and can handle contract wording elsewhere, Nexa is worth a look.
Our read for 3d modelers: Stay with HoneyBook if signed contracts that settle ownership and licensing are central to your work. Nexa suits you only if you mostly need invoicing and bookkeeping at a lower cost.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
HoneyBook costs 3d modelers $432/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 7.8 months it has cost less than HoneyBook, 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 HoneyBook 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 3d modelers: Stay with HoneyBook 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 $1,296 for HoneyBook over three years.
Time tracking, invoicing, client records 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. HoneyBook solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
Today's list price is $36/month — $432 a year, from HoneyBook'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 $1,017 less.
If HoneyBook 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 | HoneyBook | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✓ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | — | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | — | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | — | ✓ |
| Works offline | — | ✓ |
| Price | $36/mo | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Total | $1,296 | $279 |
| You own it? | No — stop paying, lose access | Yes — forever |
✓ and ✗ for HoneyBook come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as HoneyBook lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.
Straight from HoneyBook's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
HoneyBook is the better call if you need beautiful proposals and contracts specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
HoneyBook describes itself as built for anyone with clients, aimed at small businesses that work with clients. Its categories are event services, marketing, design and creative, professional services, personal services, and home and real estate. (honeybook.com)
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 3d modeler: 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 3d modeler'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.
HoneyBook plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
The median 3D Modeler earns $45,000/year. At $432/year, HoneyBook 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 3d modelers. You own it like you own your Maya or Blender.
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
The honest fit: if you're a solo or small 3d modelers 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.
Time tracking, invoicing, client records 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.
The day opens checking overnight bakes in Marmoset to see whether the normal map caught any nasty seams or skewing, and one of the cavity bakes did, so you fix the cage and re-fire it. Morning proper is blockout on a new prop, a piece of sci-fi machinery the client referenced from a single concept sheet. You sculpt the high-poly in ZBrush, chasing the silhouette first, then panel lines and damage. Around eleven the client messages that the engine target moved from offline render to real-time, which changes everything: the poly budget just dropped by eighty percent and you now need clean retopo and tight UVs. You note the spec change. Afternoon is the retopo grind in Maya, laying edge loops so the mesh deforms and reads at the new triangle count, then unwrapping in RizomUV and packing the islands. Late afternoon you bake the high-poly detail down onto the low-poly and start texturing in Substance, building smart materials so the metal and rust read at the target resolution. Before logging off you set up a turntable render, name the export with the version and date, and update the project tracker noting that the engine-target change added a retopo pass that wasn't in the original scope.
Real 3d modelers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a 3d modeler? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every 3d modeler on Nexa →
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Here's the bar that matters: you spent $2,900–$12,600 on tools that last for years, and never thought twice. So why should the software cost more than your whole kit — every single year? Hold it to the same standard as a good tool: $279, once.
We build a 3d modeler'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 3d modeler — 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 3d modelers and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. HoneyBook may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
HoneyBook has features like Beautiful proposals and contracts and Client portal that some businesses rely on. For most solo 3d modelers, these aren't dealbreakers.
At $36/month, Nexa pays for itself in 7.8 months. After that: $432 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