Course Designers 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 Course Designer earns $45,000/year, so FreshBooks's annual cost is roughly 0.9% 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.
Course Designers face unique challenges: Subject-matter-expert clients dump everything they know in random order and call it 'the course,' with no learning arc or modules. Students don't finish, so I'm constantly fighting for the completion rate by re-pacing lessons and adding quizzes and checkpoints. Recording, editing, and captioning video lessons takes far longer than clients ever imagine when they pay 'per course'. Platform limits keep biting me, drip schedules, quiz logic, and upload caps that don't match what the client wanted. On top of all that, FreshBooks charges $33/month ($396/year) — money that comes directly from your revenue. The median Course Designer earns $45,000/year. Software at $396/year is a meaningful percentage of that income, every year, forever. And you do not own anything.
Your a course platform (Teachable, Kajabi, or Thinkific) 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 course designers are fully switched before the weekend.
Go to Settings → Export Data. Download clients, invoices, expenses, and time entries.
15-minute setup. Import your client list and expense categories from CSV.
Run both for 1-2 weeks. Verify invoice history and recurring invoices.
Cancel subscription. Download a final data export for your records.
A client who is a brilliant nutritionist hands me eleven hours of rambling Zoom recordings and a Google Doc and says 'turn this into my signature course.' My first job is curriculum architecture, not editing: I map a real learning arc, group the content into modules, and define what a student should be able to do at the end of each one. By mid-morning I'm scripting tighter lessons because the raw recordings ramble, and I storyboard the slides that will carry the on-screen teaching. Then I record or re-record the cleaner takes, fighting my microphone and the dog barking next door. The afternoon is the time sink nobody budgets for: editing video, cutting the dead air and 'ums,' adding captions because accessibility and silent-watchers both demand it, and exporting at sizes the platform will actually accept. I build the course inside Teachable, set up the drip schedule so lessons unlock weekly, and wire up quizzes and a completion certificate, then immediately hit a platform limit on quiz branching that forces a workaround. Late in the day I design the downloadable workbook that makes the lessons stick, and I do a full student-side run-through, enrolling as a test learner to catch the broken video and the quiz that won't submit before the client's launch.
Real course designers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a course designer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every course designer 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 $2,352/year on software — and Course Designer face their own version of that math. WA state licensing requirements apply.
Numbers reflect typical solo operators in the Spokane metro. Your situation will vary.
Specific gaps Course Designers 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