Chocolate Makers on FreshBooks pay $33/month — $396/year. Over three years, that's $1,329. Nexa is $279 once. Break-even runs about 8.5 months. The median chocolate maker earns $35,000/year, so FreshBooks's annual cost is roughly 1.1% of typical revenue — every year, forever.
That's $1,329 gone. And you don't own anything. Stop paying, lose access.
You're not the only one who's had enough.
Chocolate Makers face unique challenges: Tempering is unforgiving, so a humid kitchen or a few degrees off ruins the shine and snap and the whole batch has to be re-melted. Chocolate hates heat and refrigeration, so summer deliveries and shipping risk bloom and melt that customers blame on the maker. Filled bonbons have short shelf lives from fresh ganache, so orders have to be timed tightly against pickup instead of made ahead. Corporate and wedding favor orders come in big quantities with hard deadlines, but molding and hand-finishing is slow piece-by-piece work. On top of all that, FreshBooks charges $33/month ($396/year) — money that comes directly from your revenue. The median chocolate maker earns $35,000/year. Software at $396/year is a meaningful percentage of that income, every year, forever. And you do not own anything.
Your tempering machine or marble slab is yours. You bought it once. Nexa works the same way — $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, and full accounting. All connected. All offline-capable. You own it like you own your tools.
FreshBooks is just one piece. What else are you losing money on?
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Your exact FreshBooks cost, full stack total, and what switching saves. 10 seconds.
| Feature | FreshBooks | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✗ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | ✗ | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price | $33/mo forever | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Cost | $1,329 | $279 |
| Stop paying? | Lose everything | Keep everything forever |
Most chocolate makers are fully switched before the weekend.
Go to Settings → Export Data. Download clients, invoices, expenses, and time entries.
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The day starts with checking the temper from yesterday's shells, tapping a bonbon to hear the snap and looking for streaks that mean the cocoa butter crystallized wrong. If the molds passed, she fills them: piping ganache to just below the rim so there's room to cap, then letting it set before she backs them with more tempered chocolate. Tempering itself rules the schedule, since the chocolate has to be brought up, cooled, and held in a narrow window, and the kitchen's humidity is the enemy of a clean release. She airbrushes colored cocoa butter into empty molds for a wedding order's marbled look, waits for it to set, then casts shells over it. Between sets she's hand-dipping caramels with a fork, tapping off the excess, and dragging the tine across the top to mark the flavor. A corporate order of two hundred favors looms, and she does the math on how many mold cycles fit before the deadline. She packages finished pieces in cushioned boxes, knowing chocolate can't ride in a hot car or sit in a fridge that'll bloom it. The afternoon is reconciling who ordered what, which ganache flavors are aging out of their shelf window, and confirming a pickup that has to happen before the weekend heat hits.
Real chocolate makers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a chocolate maker? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every chocolate maker on Nexa →
For solo operators and small teams (1-5), yes. Nexa includes invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting. FreshBooks may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
It's $7.75/month over 3 years. FreshBooks is $33/month — that's $1,329 over 3 years. Which is more? And if you'd rather split it, Nexa is also available as 3 payments of $99.
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.
30-day money-back guarantee. Full refund. If Nexa doesn't save you $500 in year one, you get every penny back.
Export your data from FreshBooks as CSV, import into Nexa in about 5 minutes.
The average solo operator there spends about $2,520/year on software — and chocolate maker face their own version of that math. NV state licensing requirements apply.
Numbers reflect typical solo operators in the Henderson metro. Your situation will vary.
Specific gaps Chocolate Makers run into with FreshBooks, and what Nexa does instead.
$1,329 over 3 years. Or $279 once (or 3 × $99). Own your tools.
Get Nexa — $279 Once