We found no sourced list of what craft vendors need, so this read rests on what each tool does, not on a confirmed trade requirement. Wave covers the invoicing and bookkeeping basics well. Its free plan includes unlimited invoices and bookkeeping records, and Pro ($19 a month) adds bank transaction import, receipt capture, late-payment reminders, and your own logo and colors on invoices. It runs in the browser and is simple enough to use without an accountant. Phone and email support is available on weekdays, tied to optional add-ons. Wave's own list says nothing about product stock, bookings or a customer list, so a vendor who needs those would have to get them elsewhere.
Nexa covers more of the day-to-day. It has invoices, estimates and quotes, recurring invoices and payment plans, and a client pay portal that takes card payments through your own Stripe account. It also has a simple CRM, a public booking page for classes or appointments, jobs with profit per job, a simple stock count per product, expense tracking, receipt scanning, bank reconciliation, sales tax tracking and profit and loss reports. It works offline and has a Spanish interface. It has no point-of-sale or card reader, no text messaging, no QuickBooks or Xero sync, and no Google Calendar sync. It does not run payroll (no payroll taxes, pay stubs or direct deposit), and its stock count is not full inventory management. Its automated emails, such as reminders, sequences and workflows, send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. Nexa is software you own and run yourself, so there is no hosted support desk or vendor-run onboarding. Without the optional Cloud Sync it runs on one device.
Over three years, Wave Pro comes to $684 ($228 a year). Nexa is $279 once, or 3 payments of $99, and $458.64 with Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month. If you already use Wave's free plan and it does what you need, there is no reason to move. Stay with Wave if you rely on reminders that go out without you opening anything, on payroll, or on hosted support. Consider Nexa if you want one purchase instead of a subscription, and also want booking, a customer pipeline, stock counts and job costing in the same place.
Our read for craft vendors: Without a confirmed core need for craft vendors, this is close: stay with Wave if you need hosted reminders, payroll or support, and choose Nexa if you want a one-time purchase with booking, stock counts and job costing.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Wave costs craft vendors $228/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 14.7 months it has cost less than Wave, 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 Wave 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 craft vendors: Either can do the job, for the reasons in our read above. On price alone, that is $279 once against $684 for Wave over three years.
The books, invoicing and job tracking 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. Wave solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
Today's list price is $19/month — $228 a year, from Wave'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 $405 less.
If Wave 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 | Wave | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✗ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | ✓ | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Works offline | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price | $19/mo | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Total | $684 | $279 |
| You own it? | No — stop paying, lose access | Yes — forever |
✓ and ✗ for Wave come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Wave lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.
Straight from Wave's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Wave is the better call if you need free plan covering unlimited invoices and bookkeeping specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
Wave says it is built for small business owners and solopreneurs at every stage, not accountants. Its page names freelancers, contractors and consultants. (waveapps.com)
What people outside Wave 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 craft vendor: 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.)
This is the connection that makes the rest worth it. A craft vendor'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.
Wave plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
The median craft vendor earns $25,000/year. At $228/year, Wave 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 craft vendors. You own it like you own your Display setup (tables, racks, signage).
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
The honest fit: if you're a solo or small craft vendors 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.
Your people are already online — swapping real numbers, tool picks, and war stories. Here's where to find them.
Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.
Open on Reddit →Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.
Open on Reddit →Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.
Open on Reddit →Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.
Open on Reddit →The books, invoicing and job tracking 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.
Most weekends I'm at a market or a craft fair, and the week is spent making enough to fill the table. Production happens in batches, because making one piece at a time never covers the booth fee; I'm working through my best-sellers, testing a new design or two, and pricing every item so the materials, my hours and the fees all fit. Before an event I'm pulling inventory, packing display pieces, signage, a float of change, bags and my card reader, and loading the car the night before. Show days are long: setup at dawn, eight hours of talking to people, and teardown. Booth fees range from twenty dollars at a local market to several hundred at a juried show, and some shows take a cut of sales too, so I track which events actually pay. In between shows I sell online and take custom orders, which need a clear quote and a deposit. Applications for the big seasonal shows open months ahead, and the holiday season can be a third of my year, so I plan inventory from the summer.
Real craft vendors near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a craft vendor? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every craft vendor on Nexa →
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
You paid for these once because good tools last. That's the bar your software should clear too — priced like a tool you own, $279 once, not a subscription that costs more than your kit every year.
We build a craft vendor'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 craft vendor — 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 craft vendors and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Wave may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
Wave has features like Free plan covering unlimited invoices and bookkeeping and Bank transaction import on Pro that some businesses rely on. For most solo craft vendors, these aren't dealbreakers.
At $19/month, Nexa pays for itself in 14.7 months. After that: $228 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