QuickBooks vs Nexa
The Real Comparison for HVAC Duct Cleaners

QuickBooks
$38/mo ($456/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 7.3 months at QuickBooks's current price.

Does QuickBooks Fit HVAC Duct Cleaners? Our Read

What hvac duct cleaners need from their software, from sources outside QuickBooks and outside Nexa:

QuickBooks covers the money side of duct cleaning well. At $38 a month it offers invoicing, bank feed reconciliation, comprehensive reporting, 800+ app integrations, and the advantage that accountants already know it. It also has phone support with a paid plan. Its feature list doesn't cover the trade's field-side needs. Nothing in it describes before and after photos stored against a job, a per-system quote that converts into a contract, or tracking of state license numbers, NADCA or ASCS certificates and insurance expiry. Those would need a separate app or a spreadsheet.

Nexa covers more of the day-to-day job record. It has estimates, quotes and proposals that convert to invoices, which fits per-system pricing with itemized add-ons. Clients can sign estimates and pay by card through your own Stripe account. Jobs carry costing and profit, and you can take before, after and progress photos with the phone camera and keep them with the job record. There is also a CRM, crew assignment and bookkeeping with bank reconciliation and profit and loss. Its limits are that photos stay inside the job record, so no photo report goes to the customer. Automated emails send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. It has no hosted support desk, no sync or import with QuickBooks, and no app marketplace. It runs on one device unless you add optional Cloud Sync.

Over three years QuickBooks at $38 a month costs $1,368 ($456 a year). Nexa costs $279 once, or $458.64 with Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month. A small shop that wants quotes, invoices and job photos in one place, and doesn't depend on an accountant working inside QuickBooks, should switch. A shop whose accountant needs QuickBooks, or that relies on its integrations or phone support, should stay. Either way, keep license and certificate expiry dates in a separate reminder system.

Our read for hvac duct cleaners: Nexa fits a small duct-cleaning shop better on quotes and job photos and costs less over three years, but stay with QuickBooks if your accountant works inside it.

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

Bottom Line

QuickBooks costs hvac duct cleaners $456/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 7.3 months it has cost less than QuickBooks, 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 QuickBooks 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: QuickBooks is solid software, but at $38/month it costs $1,368 over 3 years. Nexa does most of what QuickBooks does for $279 once. For solo hvac duct cleaners and small teams, Nexa is the better deal.

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 QuickBooks if:

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

Sound Familiar?

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.

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. QuickBooks solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.

What QuickBooks Actually Costs HVAC Duct Cleaners

Today's list price is $38/month — $456 a year, from QuickBooks's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.

Three years at today's price

Year 1$456
Year 2$456
Year 3$456
Three years of QuickBooks$1,368

Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $1,089 less.

If QuickBooks 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.

What QuickBooks has actually done to its price

Today's sticker price only tells you what a subscription costs today. These are dated changes, each linked to the announcement or report it comes from. Tap one for the numbers.

Since launch Nexa — $279 once. No annual hike, no per-seat creep, no "your plan is changing" email.

Only changes we can link to a vendor announcement or a named publication are listed. Plans, add-ons and discounts vary, so check the vendor's current pricing page before you decide.

Feature-by-Feature

FeatureQuickBooksNexa
Invoicing✓✓
Scheduling✗✓
CRM✗✓
Time Tracking—✓
Full Accounting✓✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management✗✓
Works offline—✓
Price$38/mo$279 once
or 3 × $99
3-Year Total$1,368$279
You own it?No — stop paying, lose accessYes — forever

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

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

What QuickBooks Does Better

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

QuickBooks is the better call if you need industry standard - accountants know it specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.

What QuickBooks Is Built For

QuickBooks Online is aimed at freelancers and new businesses, small and mid-size businesses, product-based businesses, and nonprofits. Larger or more complex operations are pointed to Desktop Enterprise (up to 40 users) or Intuit Enterprise Suite (multi-entity). (quickbooks.intuit.com)

What people outside QuickBooks 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 hvac duct cleaner

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.

  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

QuickBooks plus whatever else you're paying for:

Email yourself this comparison?

Switching from QuickBooks

1
Export your data — Go to Reports → export to CSV. Download clients, invoices, expenses.
2
Set up Nexa — 15-minute setup. Import your clients and expenses by CSV; re-enter your main services.
3
Parallel run — Run both for 1-2 weeks. Verify everything transferred.
4
Cancel QuickBooks — Cancel subscription. Download final backup. You're done.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.

What This Means for HVAC Duct Cleaners

The median HVAC Duct Cleaner earns $55,000/year. At $456/year, QuickBooks 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.

Is Nexa actually right for a hvac duct cleaner?

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 hvac duct cleaners 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 Truck-mounted or portable negative-air HEPA vacuum.

Look elsewhere if

  • You run a 20+ hvac duct cleaner 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 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.

HVAC Duct Cleaners 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 hvac duct cleaners actually deal with

A day in the life of a hvac duct cleaner

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.

The tools a working hvac duct cleaner actually owns

Local hvac duct cleaners on Nexa

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 kit a working hvac duct cleaner owns

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

Core kitEssential

Negative-air HEPA vacuum, truck or portable

$1,500–$8,000
Core kitEssential

Rotary brush whip system with air heads

$1,500–$8,000
Core kitEssential

Borescope or duct camera

$200–$1,200
Core kitEssential

Air compressor for whip heads

$500–$2,500
Core kitEssential

Access-door cutting tool and panel covers

$150–$700
Core kitEssential

Fogger for antimicrobial application

$150–$800
Core kitEssential

Register and grille driver set

$40–$180
Core kitEssential

Containment poly and drop cloths

$100–$450
Core kitEssential

Dryer vent cleaning rod kit

$40–$200
The core kit, bought once $4,180–$22,030

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.

Where Nexa wins for a hvac duct cleaner — and where it doesn't

The honest version. Nexa was built to beat the rented stack on the jobs that matter most to a hvac duct cleaner — here's where it wins, where the integration wins it anyway, and the things it genuinely doesn't do, with who to use instead. (No tool is best at everything; a guide that pretends otherwise is just an ad.)

Compare the essential business tools for hvac duct cleaners

The usual subscriptions vs. Nexa, side by side. Drag the time slider — every year you keep renting, the gap widens. Nexa is $279, one time.

The jobThe usual rentalThe verdict
The whole connected stack 3 subscriptions · ~$1,044/yr Nexa wins big One tool, $279 once — From the before-and-after borescope footage to the invoice to the books, one record follows each house so the proof that you cleaned the whole system rides with the job instead of a separate camera app. without re-typing. That handoff is the part separate tools can't buy at any price.
Job & project tracking Jobber → Nexa wins The borescope footage of the return packed with drywall dust, shot before and after on the same run, attaches to the job record so the honest proof customers need lives with the negative-air, full-system NADCA cleanout.
Invoicing FreshBooks → Nexa wins When you hit collapsed flex duct or asbestos tape behind a wall and have to re-quote mid-job, that revised scope flows from the job into the invoice without re-keying everything you already cleaned.
Books & accounting QuickBooks → Nexa wins Because the whole-system cleans that cost triple the blow-out-one-register competitors flow from job to invoice to your books, you can show the price difference is real work, not markup.
If you run real payroll for a team — Not Nexa Use Gusto → — it's better at that, and we'd rather tell you than pretend.
If you run big email campaigns & automations — Not Nexa Use ConvertKit → — it's better at that, and we'd rather tell you than pretend.

Prefer to own a piece outright instead of renting? Free and open-source tools (GnuCash, Invoice Ninja and the like) each handle one job if you'll self-host them — a real option, listed because it's true.

Competitor pricing verified 2026-06-12.

How To Read This Page

How we put this guide together

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.

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 QuickBooks replacement?

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

What does QuickBooks do that Nexa doesn't?

QuickBooks has features like Industry standard - accountants know it and 800+ app integrations that some businesses rely on. For most solo hvac duct cleaners, these aren't dealbreakers.

How fast does Nexa pay for itself?

At $38/month, Nexa pays for itself in 7.3 months. After that: $456 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.

$1,368 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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