Aquarium Maintenance on QuickBooks pay $38/month — $456/year. Over three years, that's $1,368. Nexa is $279 once. Break-even runs about 7.3 months. The median Aquarium Maintenance Technician earns $38,000/year, so QuickBooks's annual cost is roughly 1.2% of typical revenue — every year, forever.
That's $1,368 gone. And you don't own anything. Stop paying, lose access.
See the full history of QuickBooks price changes in the SaaS Graveyard →
You're not the only one who's had enough.
Aquarium Maintenance face unique challenges: A heater sticks on over a holiday weekend and cooks a tank of clownfish before anyone notices. Hauling forty gallons of pre-mixed saltwater up three flights for a penthouse reef every single visit. A client overfeeds between visits and the tank crashes with an ammonia spike that wasn't there last week. Sourcing a replacement protein skimmer or a specific coral the client demanded the day before. On top of all that, QuickBooks charges $38/month ($456/year) — money that comes directly from your revenue. The median Aquarium Maintenance Technician earns $38,000/year. Software at $456/year is a meaningful percentage of that income, every year, forever. And you do not own anything.
Your Python siphon gravel vacuum and water-change pump 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.
QuickBooks is just one piece. What else are you losing money on?
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Your exact QuickBooks cost, full stack total, and what switching saves. 10 seconds.
| Feature | QuickBooks | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✗ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | — | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | ✓ | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Works offline | — | ✓ |
| Price | $38/mo forever | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Cost | $1,368 | $279 |
| Stop paying? | Lose everything | Keep everything forever |
Most aquarium maintenance are fully switched before the weekend.
Go to Reports → export to CSV. Download clients, invoices, expenses.
15-minute setup. Import your clients and expenses by CSV; re-enter your main services.
Run both for 1-2 weeks. Verify everything transferred.
Cancel subscription. Download final backup. You're done.
The first stop is a 90-gallon reef in a dentist's lobby, and before touching anything I dip a refractometer to check salinity, then run the API kit for nitrate and phosphate because nuisance algae has been creeping up the back glass. I scrape the panels with a magnetic cleaner, siphon detritus out of the rockwork, and swap twelve gallons with RO/DI saltwater I mixed and heated in the van overnight. The protein skimmer cup is overflowing again, so I rinse it and dial the air back. Next is a betta tank in a daycare where the kids have been dropping too much food, so it's a heavy gravel vac and a filter-floss change. After lunch a frantic call: a client's African cichlid tank has gone cloudy. I find the heater failed open and the temp hit 86, so I do an emergency water change, add fresh dechlorinator, and tell them to watch for stressed fish. The last visit is a quarantine setup where I'm dosing copper for a new fish, checking the level carefully so I don't overdose. I log every parameter for every tank because next month I need to know what changed.
Real aquarium maintenance near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you an aquarium maintenance technician? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every aquarium maintenance technician on Nexa →
For solo operators and small teams (1-5), yes. Nexa includes invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting. QuickBooks may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
It's $7.75/month over 3 years. QuickBooks is $38/month — that's $1,368 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 QuickBooks as CSV, import into Nexa in about 5 minutes.
The average solo operator there spends about $3,120/year on software — and Aquarium Maintenance Technician face their own version of that math. CA state licensing requirements apply.
Numbers reflect typical solo operators in the Santa Rosa metro. Your situation will vary.
Specific gaps Aquarium Maintenance run into with QuickBooks, and what Nexa does instead.
Recent threads from Reddit and Hacker News mentioning QuickBooks. Sentiment scored automatically — click through to read the full thread.
If you want to compare notes or see how other aquarium maintenance are running their tools, here's where the conversation happens.
$1,368 over 3 years. Or $279 once (or 3 × $99). Own your tools.
Get Nexa — $279 Once