Mastering Engineers 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 Mastering Engineer 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.
Mastering Engineers face unique challenges: Clients send a mix that's already brick-walled and crushed, then expect you to make it 'louder and punchier' from a file with no headroom left. Per-platform deliverables multiply (streaming LUFS, vinyl pre-master, CD DDP, instrumental, clean radio edit) and each gets quoted as one 'master'. Tracking attended vs. unattended sessions and the revision recall fee separately. Album projects where the label keeps adding bonus tracks after the per-song rate was locked. On top of all that, HoneyBook charges $39/month ($468/year) — money that comes directly from your revenue. The median Mastering Engineer 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 a calibrated mastering room with full-range monitors (PMC or ATC) 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 mastering engineers 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.
First thing, you reference the room: same track, same volume, listening for whether your ears or the monitors have drifted overnight. The day's first project is a single that arrived already squashed to -6 LUFS, and the artist wants it louder; you spend the first stretch politely explaining that there's no dynamic range left to work with and asking for a mix with headroom. Once a good mix comes in, the work is surgical: a half-dB tilt here, gentle bus compression, catching a harsh sibilant the mix engineer missed, dialing the limiter so it hits streaming targets without pumping. You print a streaming master, then a separate louder version for the artist's car test, then a vinyl pre-master with the lows tucked to mono and the limiter off entirely. The label emails: two bonus tracks just got added to the EP you quoted at five songs. You make the masters, generate a DDP for the duplicator, export instrumentals for sync, and bounce a clean radio edit. Every deliverable is its own file with its own spec, and at the end of the day you're not sure the quote ever accounted for half of them. You archive the session, log the recall fee for last week's revision, and update the project total.
Real mastering engineers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a mastering engineer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every mastering engineer 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 $2,400/year on software — and Mastering Engineer face their own version of that math. Georgia income tax recently moved to a 5.49% flat rate. No city income tax in Atlanta but Fulton County has high property taxes. Georgia requires occupation tax certificates at the county level. Contractors need state licensing for projects over $2,500.
Numbers reflect typical solo operators in the Atlanta metro. Your situation will vary.
Specific gaps Mastering Engineers 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