Toggl Track vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Trade Show Designers
Toggl Track
$12/mo ($144/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 23.3 months at Toggl Track's current price.
Does Toggl Track Fit Trade Show Designers? Our Read
What trade show designers need from their software, from sources outside Toggl Track and outside Nexa:
Sales tax treatment of exhibit work needs tracking per job. A Virginia Tax Commissioner ruling on a firm that designs, fabricates and installs exhibits found that traveling and trade show exhibits are temporary and built to be taken apart, so they are retail sales of tangible personal property. That differs from work that permanently improves real property, where the contractor is treated as the consumer of the materials. Materials that become part of items sold at retail can qualify for the resale exemption. That requires giving suppliers a resale exemption certificate (Virginia Form ST-10), so software has to store certificates and tag each job as retail or real-property work. The ruling is Virginia-specific, so other states differ. (tax.virginia.gov)
Invoices need to show marked-up pass-through costs: subcontracted labor, show services, and installation and dismantle (I&D) labor. Exhibitor magazine reports that an Exhibit Designers & Producers Association economic survey found subcontracted labor marked up an average of 52 percent, and both trade show services and I&D labor marked up 26 percent on average. The article is about why exhibit-house invoices come out higher than clients expect. Estimates and final invoices therefore need to be compared line by line, with cost and markup tracked for each vendor line. (exhibitoronline.com)
Exhibit builders have to track insurance certificates for each show. Show-site contractors working for an exhibitor (exhibitor-appointed contractors) must submit a certificate of insurance 30 days before show start. One show's requirements were $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate general liability, $1M auto liability, $1M umbrella, and workers' compensation with $1M employers liability. They also required the show organizer, the official service provider and the venue to be named as additional insureds. Software needs to hold the policy dates and endorsements and flag deadlines per show. Requirements vary by show, and this page is from the 2020 show listing. (ordering.ges.com)
Toggl Track covers the time side of exhibit work well. It has project-based tracking, estimated vs. actual time, billable rates, invoicing, and profitability reports by project or client, plus apps on every platform. That helps with labor on a build. It doesn't cover the trade's harder needs. The page lists nothing for storing resale exemption certificates, tagging a job as retail or real-property work for sales tax, tracking cost and markup per vendor line for subcontracted labor, show services and I&D, or holding insurance certificates with policy dates, endorsements and 30-day deadlines for each show.
Nexa covers more of the money side. It has estimates that convert to invoices, jobs with costing and profit per job, expenses, purchase orders, sales tax tracking, receipt scanning, and time tracking. That fits comparing an estimate with a final invoice and following costs on each job. Nothing in its feature list covers storing exemption certificates, tracking insurance certificates or show deadlines, or syncing with QuickBooks or Xero. It has no integration library. It is software you own and run yourself, with no vendor-run onboarding, and without the optional Cloud Sync it runs on one device. Toggl Track's Gantt charts, workload planning and integrations are things Nexa doesn't offer.
Over three years Toggl Track at the $12 plan costs $432 ($144 a year). Nexa costs $279 once, or 3 payments of $99, or $458.64 with Cloud Sync at $4.99/month. Neither tool handles certificates or per-show compliance, so keep a separate system for those whichever you pick. A shop that mainly needs time tracking and scheduling can stay on Toggl Track. A shop that wants estimates, invoices and job profit in one place can add Nexa, but it should expect to track certificates elsewhere.
Our read for trade show designers: Neither tool stores resale exemption certificates or tracks per-show insurance certificates and deadlines, so look for job-costing and project-accounting software built around documents and compliance tracking.
What fits the core need in trade show designers
Neither product on this page is built for it. These kinds of software are. The examples are not ours and these are plain links, not affiliate links; each goes to the product's own page for that capability.
Exhibit-fabrication ERP (estimating, job costing and vendor management for exhibit houses): Builds line-item estimates with vendor costs and markup, compares estimated and actual costs per job, and keeps vendor profiles that hold certificates. This covers the estimate-versus-invoice markup tracking and part of the vendor certificate need. The page does not mention sales tax treatment or per-show insurance deadlines. Examples: ExhibitPower.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Toggl Track costs trade show designers $144/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 23.3 months it has cost less than Toggl Track, 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 Toggl Track 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 trade show designers: Neither Toggl Track nor Nexa is the main system for this work; start with the specialist software above. Nexa only makes sense beside it, at $279 once against $432 for Toggl Track 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 connect crm in one tool
You're tired of price increases
You want to own your tools like you own your equipment
Choose Toggl Track if:
You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
You're deeply invested in Toggl Track's specific workflow
You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet
Sound Familiar?
I start by pulling the hardware spec for whoever's exhibiting next — a 20-foot tension-fabric backwall prints to a completely different template than a retractable banner stand, and the SEG bleed has to wrap into the silicone edge or you get a white line on the seam. I lay out the graphics thinking in viewing distance: the headline has to land from across a 10-foot aisle, the product shot has to survive being half-blocked by a demo counter, and the logo has to read up on the hanging sign. Midday I'm cross-checking the venue's exhibitor manual — this convention center caps hanging-sign height and requires fire-rated fabric, and the rigging points aren't where the last show's were. I build a quick 3D mockup so the client can see the booth in space before we commit to print, because nobody can read a flat 20-foot file on a laptop. Afternoon is the deadline math: the printer needs files three days before the booth ships to make drayage, which means my client sign-off is really due tomorrow, not next week. I send a proof with the print-ship date in bold. Then a kickoff for a medical-device company's first show, and we talk traffic flow and what the booth has to make a passerby stop.
Designing booth graphics to exact hardware templates — tension-fabric SEG, pop-up walls, hanging signs — where bleed and safe zones differ for every system
The show's drayage and install deadline is fixed, so files missing the print-ship date means the booth arrives blank
Accounting for sight lines and viewing distance — headline legible from across an aisle, logo readable from the show floor, not just on a monitor
Exhibitor manuals and venue rules (hanging-sign height limits, fire-rated materials, rigging points) change per show and per convention center
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. Toggl Track solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
What Toggl Track Actually Costs Trade Show Designers
Today's list price is $12/month — $144 a year, from Toggl Track's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.
Three years at today's price
Year 1$144
Year 2$144
Year 3$144
Three years of Toggl Track$432
Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $153 less.
If Toggl Track 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
Feature
Toggl Track
Nexa
Invoicing
✗
✓
Scheduling
✗
✓
CRM
✗
✓
Time Tracking
✓
✓
Full Accounting
✗
✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management
✗
✓
Works offline
—
✓
Price
$12/mo
$279 once or 3 × $99
3-Year Total
$432
$279
You own it?
No — stop paying, lose access
Yes — forever
✓ and ✗ for Toggl Track come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Toggl Track lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.
What "$279 Once" Does And Doesn't Buy
It buys the software, not a service contract. You install Nexa and it runs on your machine. There is no seat count, and nothing stops working if you stop paying, because there is nothing to stop paying.
Toggl Track's monthly fee is not only rent. It pays for their hosting, their support desk, and their engineers shipping changes every week. If those matter to how you work, that is a real thing you would be giving up.
Cross-device sync is the one optional extra — $4.99/month if you want your data mirrored between machines. Skip it and Nexa still works; you just sync manually.
The honest risk of buying once: you are betting on us still being here to improve it. The honest risk of renting: the price is theirs to raise, and the graveyard section below is a record of tools that did exactly that.
What Toggl Track Does Better
Straight from Toggl Track's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Simple time tracking
Desktop and mobile apps
Pomodoro timer
Project-based tracking
Good free tier
A free plan to start on (with limits), so you can use Toggl Track before paying anything.
Toggl Track is the better call if you need simple time tracking specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
What Toggl Track Is Built For
Toggl Track's product page lists agencies and professional services teams, software and IT teams, law firms, and accounting and finance teams. It also names three sizes of customer: freelancers and solo users, growing teams, and large organizations. (toggl.com)
The product page lists cross-platform tracking on web, desktop (Windows, Mac), mobile (iOS, Android) and browser extensions. It also lists automated background tracking and a one-click timer. (toggl.com)
The product page lists timesheet and detailed time reports grouped by project, client or team. It also lists financial reports on project, client and team profitability, and estimated vs. actual time tracking. (toggl.com)
The product page lists billable rates, including 6-minute increments for law firms, and invoicing. (toggl.com)
The product page lists Boards, Gantt charts and a calendar planner. It also lists utilization and workload reports, and automatic planning around PTO and public holidays. (toggl.com)
The product page lists integrations with Jira, Asana, Notion and Slack, among others. It also lists an API and an MCP server, which can connect to Claude, Cursor and Codex. (toggl.com)
The pricing page shows a Free plan, with a stated limit of up to 3 users in its FAQ. Starter is $9 per user per month on annual billing, and Premium is $16 per user per month on annual billing. Enterprise is priced through sales. Paid plans and add-ons come with a 30-day trial. (toggl.com)
The product page says it does no screenshots, keystroke logging or webcam monitoring. It also states SOC Type 2 and ISO 27001 compliance and 99.99% uptime. It offers a free 30-day trial of all features with no credit card required. (toggl.com)
What people outside Toggl Track and outside Nexa say:
The Business Dive gives Toggl Track 4.4/5. It calls the interface "beautiful and straightforward" and says offline time tracking is supported. It also says the free version "includes all the basic features they need" for individuals and freelancers, and that invoicing is "quite valuable for agencies and consultancies." (thebusinessdive.com)
The Business Dive criticises the lack of GPS tracking, which it says rules Toggl Track out for construction, real estate and other location-dependent work. It also says "some advanced reporting and analytics tools are locked behind the more expensive plans." (thebusinessdive.com)
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Where business tools fit — for a trade show designer
Software doesn't do the creative work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every trade show designer: 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.
1
Find the work
Land the project
↓
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed project — with the scope and the deposit locked in.
CRM / contacts
Estimates & proposals
Booking / scheduling
then ↓
2
Manage the work
Do the work
↓
The work itself — tracked against the project: hours, milestones, revisions, and expenses, so nothing bills late or goes uncounted.
Job / project tracking
Time tracking
Expenses, materials & add-ons
then ↓
3
Bill for it
Send the bill
↓
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
Get paid
Collect payment
↓
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 creative work. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)
Watch a job become an invoice
This is the connection that makes the rest worth it. A trade show designer'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.
The job 10x20 booth graphics: SEG backwall and banners
Service20 ft tension-fabric backwall layout1 × $650$650
ServiceRetractable banner stand artwork2 × $175$350
TimeLabor — tracked on the job
10 hrs× $90/hr$900
→
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$2,000
Deposit credited−$700
Invoice total$1,300
You didn't write this invoice — the job did.
Calculate Your Full Stack
Toggl Track plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
Switching from Toggl Track
1
Export your data — Go to Reports → Detailed → Export as CSV. Download your full time entry history.
2
Set up Nexa — 10-minute setup. Import your client list by CSV, then set up your projects.
3
Start tracking in Nexa — Use Nexa time tracker for new entries. Import historical data if needed.
4
Cancel Toggl — Cancel subscription. Download a final export for your records.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.
What This Means for Trade Show Designers
The median Trade Show Designer earns $45,000/year. At $144/year, Toggl Track 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 trade show designers. You own it like you own your Adobe Illustrator.
Is Nexa actually right for a trade show designer?
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
Right for you if
You run solo or a small team — like the 25,000 trade show designers 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 invoicing, scheduling, and client tracking in one place — not scattered across five apps.
You'd rather own your software once, the way you own your Adobe Illustrator.
Look elsewhere if
You have a large team that needs enterprise seats, granular roles, and dedicated admin staff — Nexa is built for solo and small operators (1–5), and a bigger 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 trade show designers 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.
What trade show designers actually deal with
Designing booth graphics to exact hardware templates — tension-fabric SEG, pop-up walls, hanging signs — where bleed and safe zones differ for every system
The show's drayage and install deadline is fixed, so files missing the print-ship date means the booth arrives blank
Accounting for sight lines and viewing distance — headline legible from across an aisle, logo readable from the show floor, not just on a monitor
Exhibitor manuals and venue rules (hanging-sign height limits, fire-rated materials, rigging points) change per show and per convention center
A day in the life of a trade show designer
I start by pulling the hardware spec for whoever's exhibiting next — a 20-foot tension-fabric backwall prints to a completely different template than a retractable banner stand, and the SEG bleed has to wrap into the silicone edge or you get a white line on the seam. I lay out the graphics thinking in viewing distance: the headline has to land from across a 10-foot aisle, the product shot has to survive being half-blocked by a demo counter, and the logo has to read up on the hanging sign. Midday I'm cross-checking the venue's exhibitor manual — this convention center caps hanging-sign height and requires fire-rated fabric, and the rigging points aren't where the last show's were. I build a quick 3D mockup so the client can see the booth in space before we commit to print, because nobody can read a flat 20-foot file on a laptop. Afternoon is the deadline math: the printer needs files three days before the booth ships to make drayage, which means my client sign-off is really due tomorrow, not next week. I send a proof with the print-ship date in bold. Then a kickoff for a medical-device company's first show, and we talk traffic flow and what the booth has to make a passerby stop.
The tools a working trade show designer actually owns
Real trade show designers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a trade show designer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every trade show designer on Nexa →
The kit a working trade show designer owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Core kitEssential
Workstation or high-spec laptop
$1,500–$4,000
Core kitEssential
Large colour-accurate monitor
$400–$1,500
Core kitEssential
Monitor calibrator
$150–$400
Core kitEssential
3D booth modelling software
$400–$2,000
Core kitEssential
Laser measure and site tools
$50–$200
Core kitEssential
Wide-format proofing printer
$500–$3,000
Core kitEssential
Ergonomic chair and desk
$300–$1,500
Upgrade
VR headset for walkthroughs
$300–$1,200
The core kit, bought once$3,300–$12,600
Here's the bar that matters: you spent $3,300–$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.
How To Read This Page
We make Nexa. It is one of the two options compared here, so read this with that in mind. We have tried to make Toggl Track's case the way we would want ours made — their strengths above are their own published feature list, not our summary of it.
The prices are Toggl Track's published list prices, checked on the date shown in the sources below. Plans change; check theirs before you decide.
No customer quotes appear on this page because we do not have any from trade show designers we can verify. For user testimony, read the independent reviews — Toggl Track on G2 and on Capterra — where the reviewers are not selling you anything.
Check the price yourself:Toggl Track's own pricing page is the source for every figure above, read on the date shown in the sources section below.
We are not neutral about subscriptions, and that is the argument, not a hidden assumption: software you pay for once is cheaper over three years than software you rent, unless you need something only the rented one does.
How we put this guide together
We build a trade show designer'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 trade show designer — 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
Vendor pricingHoneyBook $432/yr, FreshBooks $516/yr, Toggl Track $144/yr, Harvest $132/yr — taken from each company's published plans, last verified September 2026. Pricing moves; each name above links straight to that vendor’s own pricing page so you can confirm it before you decide.
Income contextThe $45,000 median we cite for the typical trade show designer is occupational median annual pay from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics), compiled April 2026. We use it only to show software spend as a share of real income — your own numbers will differ.
Three-year mathMulti-year totals are today's list price multiplied by the number of years. No price rise is projected, so the figure can be checked against the vendor's own pricing page; if they raise it, the real cost is higher.
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 Toggl Track replacement?
For solo trade show designers and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Toggl Track may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
What does Toggl Track do that Nexa doesn't?
Toggl Track has features like Simple time tracking and Desktop and mobile apps that some businesses rely on. For most solo trade show designers, these aren't dealbreakers.
How fast does Nexa pay for itself?
At $12/month, Nexa pays for itself in 23.3 months. After that: $144 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.