Animation Freelancers on HoneyBook pay $36/month — $432/year. Over three years, that's $1,296. Nexa is $279 once. Break-even runs about 7.8 months. The median Animation Freelancer earns $45,000/year, so HoneyBook's annual cost is roughly 1.0% of typical revenue — every year, forever.
That's $1,296 gone. And you don't own anything. Stop paying, lose access.
You're not the only one who's had enough.
Animation Freelancers face unique challenges: Clients requesting 'just one small change' to an approved scene that means re-animating dozens of in-between frames. Quoting by the second of finished animation when one second can be 12 to 24 hand-drawn frames. Scope creep from 'can we add a character' after the storyboard and animatic were already locked. Render times and file handoffs that eat a whole night and stall the delivery schedule. On top of all that, HoneyBook charges $36/month ($432/year) — money that comes directly from your revenue. The median Animation Freelancer earns $45,000/year. Software at $432/year is a meaningful percentage of that income, every year, forever. And you do not own anything.
Your Toon Boom Harmony or Adobe Animate 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.
HoneyBook is just one piece. What else are you losing money on?
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Your exact HoneyBook cost, full stack total, and what switching saves. 10 seconds.
| Feature | HoneyBook | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✓ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | — | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | — | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | — | ✓ |
| Works offline | — | ✓ |
| Price | $36/mo forever | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Cost | $1,296 | $279 |
| Stop paying? | Lose everything | Keep everything forever |
Most animation freelancers are fully switched before the weekend.
Go to Company Settings → export contacts and projects. Download templates separately.
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Animation time is measured in frames, not hours, so the day is a quiet grind toward seconds of finished footage that most people will watch in a blink. You start where you left off, usually on a scene's rough pass, blocking key poses on the Cintiq and checking the timing against the dope sheet so the action reads before you commit to clean line work. There's a rhythm to it: pose, in-between, flip through frames to test the motion, scrub it back, fix the one frame where the arm pops. Clients live in a different world, so when a message comes in asking to 'just nudge the logo and change the wave to a thumbs up,' you have to translate that into the reality that it touches 18 frames and a re-render. Midday you export a low-res preview for approval, because animating ahead of a sign-off is how you end up redoing whole sequences. The afternoon is clean-up and color, then compositing in After Effects, layering the background and effects. Evenings often belong to the render queue, which means you set it going, watch the first few frames for glitches, and let the workstation churn overnight. Before bed you back the project up to an external drive, because a corrupted file at frame 400 is a special kind of heartbreak.
Real animation freelancers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you an animation freelancer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every animation freelancer on Nexa →
For solo operators and small teams (1-5), yes. Nexa includes invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting. HoneyBook may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
It's $7.75/month over 3 years. HoneyBook is $36/month — that's $1,296 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 HoneyBook as CSV, import into Nexa in about 5 minutes.
The average solo operator there spends about $2,280/year on software — and Animation Freelancer 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 Animation Freelancers run into with HoneyBook, and what Nexa does instead.
$1,296 over 3 years. Or $279 once (or 3 × $99). Own your tools.
Get Nexa — $279 Once