What hvac duct cleaners need from their software, from sources outside Housecall Pro and outside Nexa:
We make Nexa, so weigh this read accordingly. We wrote it so that the verdict favors the tool with more of what duct cleaners rely on, and for most of them that tool is Housecall Pro. Duct work is quoted per system with itemized add-ons, and Housecall Pro has estimates, a price book, invoicing, online payments and flat-rate pricing that can hold a per-system line. It also has photo reports, which fit the EPA's advice that customers ask to see any claimed contamination and to see each component after the job. For crews running several houses a day it adds scheduling, dispatch, GPS, route tools and 'On My Way' texts, and it has live phone and chat support. Two limits apply. Photo reports and flat-rate pricing are listed on the Essentials plan, not the $79 monthly Basic plan, so the figure below understates what a photo-focused shop pays. And nothing on its feature list covers state license numbers, NADCA or ASCS certificates, or insurance proof with expiry reminders. Customers ask for all three, so you would track them elsewhere.
Nexa covers the quote-to-cash side well. Quotes, estimates and proposals convert to invoices, clients can sign estimates and pay by card through your own Stripe account, and jobs show costing and profit, so you can check whether a per-system price covered the hours. It also has a CRM with notes and tags, time tracking, bookkeeping with profit and loss and sales tax tracking, a Spanish interface and offline use. What we don't list is photo documentation stored against a client record, which is the evidence this trade is most often asked for. We also list no license or insurance expiry reminders, so that gap is the same as Housecall Pro's. Nexa has no GPS, dispatch board or route optimization, no text messages or calls, and no QuickBooks or Xero sync. Its payroll is a CSV of hours times rate, with no payroll taxes, pay stubs or direct deposit. Automated emails and reminders send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. It is software you run yourself, with no vendor onboarding or support desk.
Over three years, Housecall Pro at $79 a month is $948 a year, or $2,844. A move to a higher plan costs more, and Max is $329 monthly. Nexa is $279 once, or 3 payments of $99, and $458.64 over three years if you add Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month. Without Cloud Sync it runs on one device. That gap is real, but it mostly reflects what Nexa leaves out, not a better deal on the same work. Duct cleaners who dispatch crews, send arrival texts or show customers before-and-after photos should stay with Housecall Pro, and can test photo reports in the 14-day trial, which includes full Max access. A solo operator who quotes, invoices and keeps books from one computer, and who is comfortable keeping photos and credentials in a separate folder, could reasonably choose Nexa to save money.
Our read for hvac duct cleaners: Most duct cleaners should stay with Housecall Pro, because photo reports, dispatch and texting matter to this trade and Nexa lacks them.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Housecall Pro costs hvac duct cleaners $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.
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 hvac duct cleaners: 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.
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.
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.
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 | Housecall Pro | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| 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 access | Yes — 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.
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.
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.
Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every hvac duct cleaner: 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.
A lead, a call, a referral — and a quote or estimate that turns it into a booked job.
The part you actually get paid for — with the time, materials, add-ons, and tasks tracked as you go, not guessed at later.
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 actual work. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)
Housecall Pro plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
The median HVAC Duct Cleaner 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 hvac duct cleaners. You own it like you own your Truck-mounted or portable negative-air HEPA vacuum.
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
The honest fit: if you're a solo or small hvac duct cleaners 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.
Year-round construction in SoCal. Fire season (June-November) drives restoration demand. Drought impacts landscaping. Earthquake retrofitting is ongoing market.
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.
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.
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.
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.
First house is a post-renovation cleanout, which is the worst kind because drywall dust packs the supply runs like concrete, so I set up the negative-air machine on the main trunk and seal every register but one before I run the rotary brush. I shoot borescope video of a return before I start because customers literally cannot see a duct, and the only thing that separates me from the guy charging eighty bucks is proof. Mid-morning I find collapsed flex in a crawlspace that wasn't in the quote, so I stop, take a photo, and have the honest conversation about whether they want me to replace it now or just clean what's serviceable. Lunch is paperwork: the NADCA scope I promised, the photos, the line about why a real cleaning touches every supply and return, not one register by the front door. Afternoon job has a nervous customer with two cats, so before I fog any antimicrobial I walk her through exactly what it is and get the pets out of the house. I close up, hand her the after video on the same return I filmed first, and she finally relaxes because now she can see it. The job that books the next three referrals is always the one where they watched the camera.
Real hvac duct cleaners near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a hvac duct cleaner? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every hvac duct cleaner 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 $4,180–$22,030 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 hvac duct cleaner'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 hvac duct cleaner — 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 hvac duct cleaners 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.
Housecall Pro has features like Online booking for home services and GPS tracking that some businesses rely on. For most solo hvac duct cleaners, these aren't dealbreakers.
At $79/month, Nexa pays for itself in 3.5 months. After that: $948 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