Instructional Designers on FreshBooks pay $43/month — $516/year. Over three years, that's $1,548. Nexa is $279 once. Break-even runs about 6.5 months. The median Instructional Designer earns $45,000/year, so FreshBooks's annual cost is roughly 1.1% of typical revenue — every year, forever.
That's $1,548 gone. And you don't own anything. Stop paying, lose access.
You're not the only one who's had enough.
Instructional Designers face unique challenges: Clients say 'just put our slides online' when real e-learning needs objectives, interactions, scenarios, and assessment, not a PowerPoint dump. SCORM packages that pass on my machine fail to report completion or score back to the client's LMS, and I get blamed for 'broken' tracking. Subject-matter experts go silent for weeks then demand the storyboard be redone after I've already built the interactions in Storyline. Accessibility and 508/WCAG compliance get treated as a checkbox at the end instead of designed in from the first screen. On top of all that, FreshBooks charges $43/month ($516/year) — money that comes directly from your revenue. The median Instructional Designer earns $45,000/year. Software at $516/year is a meaningful percentage of that income, every year, forever. And you do not own anything.
Your Articulate Storyline 360 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 | — | ✓ |
| Works offline | — | ✓ |
| Price | $43/mo forever | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Cost | $1,548 | $279 |
| Stop paying? | Lose everything | Keep everything forever |
Most instructional 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 expenses from CSV.
Run both for 1-2 weeks. Re-create unpaid and recurring invoices in Nexa; keep the FreshBooks export as your invoice history.
Cancel subscription. Download a final data export for your records.
The day usually opens with a discovery call where a corporate L&D manager asks me to 'convert our compliance slides into an online course,' and my real first task is reframing that, because effective e-learning starts from learning objectives and a needs analysis, not a slide deck. I write measurable objectives, then storyboard the module in a doc so the SME can sign off on flow before I build anything expensive. Mid-morning I'm in Storyline turning passive content into interactions, a branching scenario where the learner makes a decision and sees the consequence, drag-and-drop knowledge checks, a final assessment that maps back to the objectives. The afternoon is the part that quietly eats hours: making it accessible, adding alt text, closed captions, keyboard navigation, and logical focus order so it passes WCAG, because retrofitting that later is a nightmare. Then comes the integration headache, I publish a SCORM package and test it in a sandbox LMS, and inevitably the completion status or quiz score won't report back correctly, so I debug the SCORM wrapper and the LMS settings. Late in the day the SME who vanished for two weeks resurfaces wanting a section rewritten, even though I've already built its interactions. Before I hand off, I run the package through one more LMS test and document the SCORM version and tracking settings so their administrator can load it without calling me at midnight.
Real instructional designers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you an instructional designer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every instructional 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 $43/month — that's $1,548 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 $2,280/year on software — and Instructional Designer face their own version of that math. FL state licensing requirements apply.
Numbers reflect typical solo operators in the Daytona Beach metro. Your situation will vary.
Specific gaps Instructional Designers run into with FreshBooks, and what Nexa does instead.
$1,548 over 3 years. Or $279 once (or 3 × $99). Own your tools.
Get Nexa — $279 Once