Character Designers on HoneyBook pay $39/month — $468/year. Over three years, that's $1,570. Nexa is $279 once. Break-even runs about 7.2 months. The median Character Designer earns $45,000/year, so HoneyBook's annual cost is roughly 1.0% of typical revenue — every year, forever.
That's $1,570 gone. And you don't own anything. Stop paying, lose access.
You're not the only one who's had enough.
Character Designers face unique challenges: Clients fall in love with a rejected early sketch and want it revived after you've already developed a different direction, with no record of which designs were killed and why. A design approved as a single illustration quietly becomes a brand mascot needing turnarounds, expressions, and a style guide, all of which were never quoted. Costume and color variations are requested one at a time ('can we also see her in red?') until a one-character job is secretly five outfits deep. Merch and animation licensing is assumed to be included, so a design sold as concept art ends up on plushies with no licensing fee ever negotiated. On top of all that, HoneyBook charges $39/month ($468/year) — money that comes directly from your revenue. The median Character Designer earns $45,000/year. Software at $468/year is a meaningful percentage of that income, every year, forever. And you do not own anything.
Your Clip Studio Paint 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 | ✗ | ✓ |
| Price | $39/mo forever | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Cost | $1,570 | $279 |
| Stop paying? | Lose everything | Keep everything forever |
Most character designers are fully switched before the weekend.
Go to Company Settings → export contacts and projects. Download templates separately.
15-minute setup. Import your contacts and recreate your key templates.
Run both for 1-2 weeks. Transition active projects after they complete.
Cancel before renewal. Save any contract templates as PDFs.
You begin with the brief and the client's mood board, pulling additional reference into PureRef so the silhouette language is consistent, then spend the first hour on silhouette thumbnails because a character has to read in black before it reads in color. The client wants 'approachable but a little mischievous,' so you push the shape language toward rounder forms with one sharp accent. Mid-morning you develop three rough character options at full body, each with a distinct read, and send them off. The client circles option two but asks to see option one's hair on option two's outfit, which is a recombination pass. Afternoon is refining the chosen design: cleaning the line, locking proportions on a turnaround so the character is drawable from any angle, then a flat color pass and a couple of palette options. Around three the client mentions, almost in passing, that they'd like a few expressions for social media, which is an expression sheet nobody scoped. You flag it. Late day is polishing the front-view hero illustration, exporting layered files and flats labeled with version and date, then updating the tracker with the recombination pass and the expression-sheet request so the single-illustration quote doesn't silently grow into a full character package.
Real character designers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a character designer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every character designer 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 $39/month — that's $1,570 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 $1,968/year on software — and Character Designer face their own version of that math. WV state licensing requirements apply.
Numbers reflect typical solo operators in the Charleston metro. Your situation will vary.
Specific gaps Character Designers run into with HoneyBook, and what Nexa does instead.
$1,570 over 3 years. Or $279 once (or 3 × $99). Own your tools.
Get Nexa — $279 Once