What wig makers need from their software, from sources outside Wave and outside Nexa:
Medical or custom wigs need a physician's recommendation on file. IRS Publication 502 counts a wig bought on a physician's advice for a patient who has lost all their hair to disease as a medical expense. It is deductible only on Schedule A, and only for the part of total medical expenses above 7.5% of adjusted gross income. A wig maker therefore has to collect and keep the physician's note and a receipt for each client. (irs.gov)
Sales tax treatment can depend on a physician's order. In California, sales of wigs for hair loss from alopecia, burns, chemotherapy or radiation qualify for exemption when sold pursuant to a physician's order. The seller must keep a copy of the doctor's order to support the exemption on its sales and use tax returns. Wigs sold without such an order are taxable. A wig maker needs a way to flag exempt sales and attach the order to each one. (cdtfa.ca.gov)
Licensing of wig fitting varies by state and has to be tracked per location. Arkansas requires a demonstrator permit for an unlicensed person who demonstrates wigs as a regular part of the job. The rule defines a wig demonstrator as someone who fits and arranges a wig on a client's head for the sale of the wig. Demonstrators may handle only new wigs and may not reservice them. A licensed cosmetologist generally practices in a licensed beauty salon or wig salon. A wig maker who fits or services clients needs to record which licenses or permits apply. (law.cornell.edu)
Insurance and Medicare billing is not available for wigs today, but it may change. Bills before Congress (S.1922, 118th Congress, as introduced) would add cranial prostheses to Medicare's durable medical equipment definition. Coverage would require written certification of medical necessity from the patient's dermatologist, oncologist or attending physician, as part of a proposed course of rehabilitative treatment. I could not confirm from the page whether this or any later version became law. Wig makers who supply clients seeking reimbursement need records of physician certifications. (congress.gov)
Wave covers the paperwork side of this trade reasonably well, but only on the paid plan. Medical and custom wig sales depend on a physician's note per client, and in places like California the seller must keep the doctor's order to support a sales tax exemption. Wave's $19/month Pro plan ($228 a year) lets you attach files to invoices and estimates, so the note can sit with the sale it supports. It also adds receipt capture, bank import and late-payment reminders, and it is simple enough to run without an accountant. Wave has no field for tracking state fitting licenses or demonstrator permits, and nothing built for physician certifications if Medicare coverage for cranial prostheses ever passes. You would keep those records in a separate file.
Nexa covers the bookkeeping and client-management side: invoices and estimates, a client pay portal through your own Stripe account, a CRM with notes and tags, sales tax tracking, expenses, receipt scanning, and profit and loss. It works offline and is software you own. The facts I can confirm don't include attaching files to an invoice or estimate, so keeping a physician's order with each exempt sale would have to happen outside Nexa. It has no license or permit tracking either. There is also no hosted support desk or onboarding. If you use its automated emails or reminders, they send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices.
Over three years Wave Pro is $684 at $19 a month. Nexa is $279 once, or 3 payments of $99, which is $279 on a single device. Adding Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month brings it to $458.64. If you already attach physician orders to invoices in Wave Pro, stay, because the saving doesn't make up for losing that. If you don't need attachments, or you keep the orders in a separate file, and you like owning your software on one device, Nexa is the cheaper way to do the bookkeeping.
Our read for wig makers: Stay with Wave Pro if you attach physician orders to invoices, since that is the document-keeping this trade relies on and Nexa's confirmed features don't include it.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Wave costs wig makers $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.
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 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 wig makers: Stay with Wave 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 $684 for Wave over three years.
Choose Nexa if:
You're done paying monthly forever
You're a solo operator or small team (1-5)
You need invoicing, connect crm and task manager in one tool
You're tired of price increases
You want to own your tools like you own your equipment
Choose Wave if:
You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
You're deeply invested in Wave's specific workflow
You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet
Sound Familiar?
I sit down at the wig block by 8 with a custom lace front that's about halfway ventilated. I'm tying single knots along the hairline with a fine ventilating needle, one or two hairs at a time so the hairline looks like it's growing out of the scalp, and switching to double knots further back where it needs strength. It's a 20-hour wig and I lose track of time. Mid-morning I stop to bleach the knots on a unit I finished yesterday and tint the lace to match the client's skin. The hair for this one cost $250 in bundles and the cap $30, and I charge $800, so every order in progress is money I've already spent. At 11 I have a consultation with a medical client who needs a cranial prosthesis. I take measurements, circumference, front to nape, ear to ear, temple to temple, make a plastic-wrap template of her head, match her color from older photos, and explain the prescription and itemized receipt she'll need for her insurance claim. After lunch I style and pack three ready-made wigs that sold on Etsy: wash, condition, blow out, flat-iron, pin curls on one, then into boxes with a wig cap and care card. While the curls set I sew wefts onto a new cap for stock. At night I update my order notebook, write up the paperwork for the medical client, reorder lace and bundles, and message a client waiting to hear when her custom unit ships.
Hair bundle costs ($100-400 per wig) tie up cash
Custom wigs take 8-40 hours to make
Client measurements and color matching for custom orders
Invoicing, client records, 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. Wave solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
What Wave Actually Costs Wig Makers
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.
Three years at today's price
Year 1$228
Year 2$228
Year 3$228
Three years of Wave$684
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-by-Feature
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.
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.
Wave'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 Wave Does Better
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.
Free plan covering unlimited invoices and bookkeeping
Bank transaction import on Pro
Receipt capture
Late payment reminders
Simple enough to run without an accountant
A free plan to start on (with limits), so you can use Wave before paying anything.
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.
What Wave Is Built For
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)
The Starter plan costs $0 and includes unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records. (waveapps.com)
Pro costs $19 USD a month or $190 USD a year. It adds automatic bank transaction import (for banks Plaid supports), automatic merging and categorizing of bank transactions, and automated late-payment reminders at 3, 7 and 14 days after the due date. (waveapps.com)
Pro lets you put your logo and brand colors on invoices, remove Wave branding from footers, and attach files to invoices and estimates. It also adds user roles (admin, editor, viewer), and the payroll manager and Block Advisors tax pro roles are free. (waveapps.com)
Online card payments on Starter cost 2.9% + $0.60 (Amex 3.4% + $0.60). On Pro the first 10 transactions each month are 2.9% + $0, then 2.9% + $0.60. (waveapps.com)
Wave Advisors starts at $149 a month and includes a dedicated bookkeeper and monthly financial statements. Payroll is an add-on starting at $25 a month in one region and $40 in the other; the page does not say which price applies where. (waveapps.com)
Wave lists a mobile app for invoices, expenses and receipts, and 256-bit SSL encryption with PCI-DSS Level 1 certification. Live chat and email support runs Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 4:45 PM Eastern, and is tied to optional add-ons. (waveapps.com)
What people outside Wave and outside Nexa say:
NerdWallet lists a free plan and straightforward invoicing as pros. Its cons are no built-in third-party integrations, no advanced features such as mileage, time tracking or inventory, no live support unless you pay, and no audit trails. (nerdwallet.com)
NerdWallet says "An overwhelming number of Wave reviewers criticize its customer support." It adds that the paid plan "doesn't address Wave users' biggest complaint: customer service." (nerdwallet.com)
Tech.co praises the free tier, affordable add-ons and the way Wave "does the basics well." It concludes "Wave is definitely worth it" for side businesses that don't need specialist accounting features. (tech.co)
Tech.co criticizes Wave for lacking advanced features such as budgeting, cash flow projections, stock handling and project accounting, and for struggling to scale with growing businesses. It also says phone and live chat support come at a premium. (tech.co)
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Where business tools fit — for a wig maker
Software doesn't do your clients — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every wig maker: 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 your clients. Tap a step to see what gets automated.
1
Find the work
Get booked
↓
A new client finds you and books a time — no phone tag, no double-booking.
CRM / contacts
Estimates & proposals
Booking / scheduling
then ↓
2
Manage the work
Deliver the service
↓
The session itself — with the client history, notes, packages, and add-ons right there instead of in three different places.
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 your clients. (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 wig maker'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 Custom hand-ventilated lace front wig
ServiceCustom lace front wig (hand-ventilated)1 × $800$800
ServiceHead measurement and fitting1 × $50$50
MaterialsHuman hair bundles$250
MaterialsLace cap$30
→
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$1,205
Deposit credited−$400
Invoice total$805
You didn't write this invoice — the job did.
Calculate Your Full Stack
Wave plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
Switching from Wave
1
Export your data — Go to Settings → Data Export. Download customers, invoices, transactions, and accounts.
2
Set up Nexa — 15-minute setup. Import your client list and bank transactions from CSV.
3
Parallel run — Run both for 1-2 weeks. Re-create recurring invoices in Nexa and check your bank imports.
4
Cancel Wave — Cancel paid features. Your free account data stays accessible for records.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.
What This Means for Wig Makers
The median wig maker earns $40,000/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 wig makers. You own it like you own your Wig caps and lace frontal supplies.
Is Nexa actually right for a wig maker?
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 12,000 wig makers in the US who do, and you wear every hat.
You're tired of paying every month for honeybook 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 Wig caps and lace frontal supplies.
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 wig makers 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.
Invoicing, client records, 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 wig makers actually deal with
Hair bundle costs ($100-400 per wig) tie up cash
Custom wigs take 8-40 hours to make
Client measurements and color matching for custom orders
I sit down at the wig block by 8 with a custom lace front that's about halfway ventilated. I'm tying single knots along the hairline with a fine ventilating needle, one or two hairs at a time so the hairline looks like it's growing out of the scalp, and switching to double knots further back where it needs strength. It's a 20-hour wig and I lose track of time. Mid-morning I stop to bleach the knots on a unit I finished yesterday and tint the lace to match the client's skin. The hair for this one cost $250 in bundles and the cap $30, and I charge $800, so every order in progress is money I've already spent. At 11 I have a consultation with a medical client who needs a cranial prosthesis. I take measurements, circumference, front to nape, ear to ear, temple to temple, make a plastic-wrap template of her head, match her color from older photos, and explain the prescription and itemized receipt she'll need for her insurance claim. After lunch I style and pack three ready-made wigs that sold on Etsy: wash, condition, blow out, flat-iron, pin curls on one, then into boxes with a wig cap and care card. While the curls set I sew wefts onto a new cap for stock. At night I update my order notebook, write up the paperwork for the medical client, reorder lace and bundles, and message a client waiting to hear when her custom unit ships.
The tools a working wig maker actually owns
Wig caps and lace frontal supplies
Human hair bundles inventory
Ventilating needle and holder
Styling tools and mannequin heads
Why wig makers leave the big platforms
honeybook: $39/month for managing wig orders. Built for photographers, not craftspeople with inventory and multi-day production cycles.
wave: Free but can't track per-wig material costs or differentiate custom vs. ready-made economics.
Where wig makers actually talk shop
r/Wigs (Reddit)
r/BlackHair (Reddit)
r/HairExtensions (Reddit)
Wig Talk Forum (Forum)
My Natural Sistas (YouTube)
Wig Making Academy (YouTube)
Local wig makers on Nexa
Real wig makers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a wig maker? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every wig maker on Nexa →
The kit a working wig maker owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Wig caps and lace frontal supplies
Human hair bundles inventory
Ventilating needle and holder
Styling tools and mannequin heads
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.
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 Wave'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 Wave'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 wig makers we can verify. For user testimony, read the independent reviews — Wave on G2 and on Capterra — where the reviewers are not selling you anything.
Check the price yourself:Wave'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 wig maker'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 wig maker — 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, Wave $228/yr, Square — 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 $40,000 median we cite for the typical wig maker 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 Wave replacement?
For solo wig makers 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.
What does Wave do that Nexa doesn't?
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 wig makers, these aren't dealbreakers.
How fast does Nexa pay for itself?
At $19/month, Nexa pays for itself in 14.7 months. After that: $228 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.