Housecall Pro vs Nexa
The Real Comparison for Glass Installers

Housecall Pro
$79/mo ($948/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 3.5 months at Housecall Pro's current price.

Does Housecall Pro Fit Glass Installers? Our Read

What glass installers need from their software, from sources outside Housecall Pro and outside Nexa:

Housecall Pro covers the mobile, jobsite side of glass work well. It has scheduling and dispatching, vehicle GPS, 'On My Way' texts, route optimization on its top plan, estimates, a price book, invoicing, job costing, online payments and photo reports. Those matter for installers who travel between residential and commercial sites. It also has live phone and chat support and a 14-day trial with no card required. What it doesn't clearly cover is the trade's paperwork. Nothing in its feature list mentions tracking a TPA claim source, the payer, whether the required disclosures were given, or a glazing licence class and number. Those would need workarounds in either tool. Nothing in the list covers injury records or safety-equipment tracking either.

Nexa covers the office side: invoices and estimates, a client pay portal on the user's own Stripe account, a CRM with tags and notes, jobs with profit per job, crew assignment, time tracking, a payroll CSV, and bookkeeping with expenses, reports and sales tax tracking. It also works offline and has a Spanish interface. The tags and notes could hold claim-source or licence details, but that would be a manual habit, not a built-in feature. Nexa has no GPS, route optimization or dispatch board, no texts or calls, no accounting-software sync, and no street-address field on a client, which is a real gap for jobsite-based work. It doesn't run payroll, and 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 vendor support desk or onboarding.

Over three years Housecall Pro at $79 a month costs $948 a year, or $2,844. Nexa is $279 once (or 3 payments of $99). Adding optional Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month brings three years to $458.64. A shop that dispatches installers, texts customers and relies on GPS and routing should stay with Housecall Pro, since Nexa lacks all of those. A solo or very small shop that mostly needs invoicing, estimates and bookkeeping, and doesn't need dispatch or texting, could save money with Nexa, provided it accepts the manual handling of claim and licence records.

Our read for glass installers: Stay with Housecall Pro if you dispatch installers to jobsites, because Nexa has no GPS, routing, dispatch board or texting; only a mostly office-based solo shop should consider Nexa for the lower cost.

Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.

Bottom Line

Housecall Pro costs glass installers $948/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 3.5 months it has cost less than Housecall Pro, 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 Housecall Pro 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 glass installers: Stay with Housecall Pro 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 $2,844 for Housecall Pro over three years.

Choose Nexa if:

  • You're done paying monthly forever
  • You're a solo operator or small team (1-5)
  • You need time tracker, invoicing and task manager in one tool
  • You're tired of price increases
  • You want to own your tools like you own your equipment

Choose Housecall Pro if:

  • You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
  • You're deeply invested in Housecall Pro's specific workflow
  • You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet

Sound Familiar?

Everything you do hangs on a measurement you can't take back, because tempered glass is cut and heat-treated before it reaches you and there's no trimming it on site. Your morning is field measuring a storefront for a replacement after a break-in, and you measure twice, account for the frame reveal and setting blocks, and note whether it's tempered or an insulated unit, because the order you place commits real money to those exact numbers. From there you head to an install where the special-order IGU finally arrived after a two-week lead time that dictated when this job could even happen. You and your helper move the heavy pane off the A-frame rack with suction lifters, walking it carefully because one chip on the edge of a tempered panel and the whole piece is scrap. You set it on the blocks, bed it with glazing tape and silicone, and check it for square and even reveal before sealing. The storefront job is an insurance claim, so you're also keeping the adjuster and the property manager in the loop with photos and the work scope, not just the tenant. Cut-gloves and forearm guards stay on, because handling big glass all day is how people get hurt. You finish by cleaning the pane and hauling the old broken unit, and you confirm the measurements for tomorrow's order before you leave, knowing a single wrong number costs days and dollars.

Time tracking, invoicing, job tracking and the books are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot into something you buy once. 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. Housecall Pro solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.

What Housecall Pro Actually Costs Glass Installers

Today's list price is $79/month — $948 a year, from Housecall Pro's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.

Three years at today's price

Year 1$948
Year 2$948
Year 3$948
Three years of Housecall Pro$2,844

Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $2,565 less.

If Housecall Pro 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

FeatureHousecall ProNexa
Invoicing✓✓
Scheduling✓✓
CRM✓✓
Time Tracking—✓
Full Accounting—✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management—✓
Works offline—✓
Price$79/mo$279 once
or 3 × $99
3-Year Total$2,844$279
You own it?No — stop paying, lose accessYes — forever

✓ and ✗ for Housecall Pro come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Housecall Pro lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.

What "$279 Once" Does And Doesn't Buy

What Housecall Pro Does Better

Straight from Housecall Pro's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.

Housecall Pro is the better call if you need online booking for home services specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.

What Housecall Pro Is Built For

Housecall Pro describes itself as 'Tailored for teams of 1 to 100+' and aimed at home service pros across 50+ industries, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, lawn care and pest control. (housecallpro.com)

What people outside Housecall Pro and outside Nexa say:

Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.

Where business tools fit — for a glass installer

Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every glass installer: 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 actual work. Tap a step to see what gets automated.

  1. 1
    Find the work

    Win the job

    ↓

    A lead, a call, a referral — and a quote or estimate that turns it into a booked job.

    • CRM / contacts
    • Estimates & proposals
    • Booking / scheduling
    then ↓
  2. 2

    The part you actually get paid for — with the time, materials, add-ons, and tasks tracked as you go, not guessed at later.

    • Job / project tracking
    • Time tracking
    • Expenses, materials & add-ons
    then ↓
  3. 3

    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. 4

    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 actual work. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)

Calculate Your Full Stack

Housecall Pro plus whatever else you're paying for:

Email yourself this comparison?

Switching from Housecall Pro

1
Export your data — Go to Settings → export customers, job history, and invoices as CSV files.
2
Set up Nexa — 15-minute setup. Import your customer list by CSV; re-enter your core services.
3
Parallel run — Run both for 2 weeks. Transition dispatching and booking to Nexa.
4
Cancel Housecall Pro — Cancel subscription (check for early termination fees). Download all records.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.

What This Means for Glass Installers

The median glass installer earns $55,000/year. At $948/year, Housecall Pro 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 glass installers. You own it like you own your vacuum suction cup lifters.

Is Nexa actually right for a glass installer?

An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.

Right for you if

  • You run solo or a small crew — like the 15,000 glass installers 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 to invoice, schedule, and track from the field — not from a back office.
  • You'd rather own your software once, the way you own your vacuum suction cup lifters.

Look elsewhere if

  • You run a 20+ glass installer fleet that needs enterprise dispatch and multi-crew routing — Nexa is built for 1–5, and a fleet 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 glass installers business that owns its tools and is sick of renting software, Nexa replaces your whole stack for $279 once. If you're scaling past a handful of crews, a fleet platform may fit better — and we'd rather tell you that now than sell you the wrong thing.

Glass Installers by the numbers — by place

Tax, licensing & seasonality where you operate

1-13.3%income tax
CSLB (Contractors State License Board)licensing

Year-round construction in SoCal. Fire season (June-November) drives restoration demand. Drought impacts landscaping. Earthquake retrofitting is ongoing market.

Register a business in California →

Noneincome tax
TDLR (Texas Dept of Licensing and Regulation)licensing

Extreme summer heat drives HVAC demand. Hurricane risk on Gulf Coast. Year-round construction. Rapid population growth in DFW, Austin, Houston, San Antonio creates sustained demand. Freeze events (like 2021) create emergency plumbing/HVAC surge.

Register a business in Texas →

Noneincome tax
DBPR (Dept of Business and Professional Regulation)licensing

Hurricane season June-November creates massive restoration demand. Snowbird season November-March boosts service volume 30-40%. Year-round construction. Pool service is year-round industry. Pest control peaks in summer humidity.

Register a business in Florida →

4-10.9%income tax
NYC DCA + NYS DOS + specialty boardslicensing

Harsh winters in upstate, moderate in NYC. Construction limited in winter upstate. NYC market is enormous but hypercompetitive. Brownstone/pre-war building maintenance is specialized trade. NYC licensing is notoriously complex.

Register a business in New York →

Time tracking, invoicing, job tracking and the books are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot into something you buy once. The sections below price both routes honestly.

What glass installers actually deal with

A day in the life of a glass installer

Everything you do hangs on a measurement you can't take back, because tempered glass is cut and heat-treated before it reaches you and there's no trimming it on site. Your morning is field measuring a storefront for a replacement after a break-in, and you measure twice, account for the frame reveal and setting blocks, and note whether it's tempered or an insulated unit, because the order you place commits real money to those exact numbers. From there you head to an install where the special-order IGU finally arrived after a two-week lead time that dictated when this job could even happen. You and your helper move the heavy pane off the A-frame rack with suction lifters, walking it carefully because one chip on the edge of a tempered panel and the whole piece is scrap. You set it on the blocks, bed it with glazing tape and silicone, and check it for square and even reveal before sealing. The storefront job is an insurance claim, so you're also keeping the adjuster and the property manager in the loop with photos and the work scope, not just the tenant. Cut-gloves and forearm guards stay on, because handling big glass all day is how people get hurt. You finish by cleaning the pane and hauling the old broken unit, and you confirm the measurements for tomorrow's order before you leave, knowing a single wrong number costs days and dollars.

The tools a working glass installer actually owns

Local glass installers on Nexa

Real glass installers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a glass installer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every glass installer on Nexa →

The kit a working glass installer owns

The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.

Core kitEssential

Vacuum suction cup lifters

$100–$600
Core kitEssential

Glass cutter and running pliers

$40–$200
Core kitEssential

Glazier's putty knives and setting tools

$40–$180
Core kitEssential

Cut-resistant gloves and forearm guards

$40–$200
Core kitEssential

A-frame transport rack

$400–$2,500
Core kitEssential

Caulk guns and silicone tools

$40–$180
Core kitEssential

Laser distance measure and levels

$60–$300
Core kitEssential

Edge seaming stone and deburring tools

$20–$100
Upgrade

Powered vacuum lifter for large lites

$2,000–$10,000
The core kit, bought once $740–$4,260

Here's the bar that matters: you spent $740–$4,260 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.

How To Read This Page

How we put this guide together

We build a glass installer'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 glass installer — 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

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 Housecall Pro replacement?

For solo glass installers and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Housecall Pro may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.

What does Housecall Pro do that Nexa doesn't?

Housecall Pro has features like Online booking for home services and GPS tracking that some businesses rely on. For most solo glass installers, these aren't dealbreakers.

How fast does Nexa pay for itself?

At $79/month, Nexa pays for itself in 3.5 months. After that: $948 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.

$2,844 Over 3 Years. Or $279 Once (or 3 × $99).

Own your tools. Stop renting your software.

Get Nexa — $279 Once
or 3 payments of $99
✓ 30-day money-back — save $500 or full refund

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