What mediators need from their software, from sources outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa:
Acuity Scheduling covers the booking side of a mediation practice well. It has online booking, custom intake forms, deposits, cancelation policies, Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo payments, Google Calendar and Zoom integrations, and a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement on its Premium plan. A deposit and a cancelation policy are a reasonable fit for securing a date. The features listed for Acuity don't include an hourly rate that changes during the session, such as two hours at one rate and then the mediator's standard rate. They also don't include splitting one invoice between parties and tracking who owes what, charging late-cancellation or continuance fees by notice window, or setting retention and disposal rules per case.
Nexa covers the billing basics: invoices, estimates and proposals that convert to invoices, payment plans, time tracking, and a client pay portal that takes card payments through your own Stripe account. It also has a public booking page with intake forms and reschedule and cancel links, and a CRM. It does not offer a hosted support desk, QuickBooks or Xero sync, or Google Calendar sync (calendar export is an .ics file). If you use automated reminders or sequences, they send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. Nexa's facts say nothing about per-party invoice splitting, tiered hourly rates, or per-case retention rules, so we can't say it handles them.
Over three years Acuity at $34 a month is $408 a year, or $1,224. Nexa is $279 once, or $458.64 if you add Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month. Nexa is clearly cheaper, but price isn't the deciding factor. A mediator whose main need is splitting fees between parties, billing a changing hourly rate, and keeping files under their own retention rules shouldn't expect either product to do that. Keep Acuity if you only need booking, deposits and cancelation policies, and use a mediator practice-management tool for the billing and records.
Our read for mediators: Neither product shows per-party invoice splitting, tiered hourly billing, or per-case file retention, so a mediator needs case-management and billing software built for neutrals.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Acuity Scheduling costs mediators $408/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 8.2 months it has cost less than Acuity Scheduling, and you own it after that. What it is not: hosted-for-you software with a support desk and a roadmap you can lobby. That is the trade, and the rest of this page is the detail behind it.
Nexa is $279 once, about $23 a month over its first year. Its Drain Guard reads your expenses (from a linked bank, an imported statement, or ones you type in), finds the charges that repeat, and adds them up by the month. Keep or Cut then walks you through them one at a time. Cancel $23 a month of charges you'd forgotten about and Nexa has paid for itself inside the first year, before you count the Acuity Scheduling bill you'd stop paying.
It depends on what you find and what you cancel, so we don't promise a number. In our demo data, Drain Guard finds 5 subscriptions adding up to $110.13 a month. That is sample data, not a customer's.
The verdict for mediators: Neither Acuity Scheduling nor Nexa is the main system for this work; start with software built for it. Nexa only makes sense beside it, at $279 once against $1,224 for Acuity Scheduling over three years.
Scheduling, invoicing, client records and time tracking are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot and carry their own booking link, with no per-appointment cut. The sections below price both routes honestly.
None of that is a software problem you can buy your way out of in one click — it is why the tool you pick matters more than what it costs. Acuity Scheduling solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
Today's list price is $34/month — $408 a year, from Acuity Scheduling's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.
Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $945 less.
If Acuity Scheduling raises its price, the three-year cost goes up; if it cuts it, the cost comes down. We don't guess which. Add-ons, extra seats and card-processing fees are not included, on either side.
| Feature | Acuity Scheduling | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✗ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | ✗ | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Works offline | — | ✓ |
| Price | $34/mo | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Total | $1,224 | $279 |
| You own it? | No — stop paying, lose access | Yes — forever |
✓ and ✗ for Acuity Scheduling come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Acuity Scheduling lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.
Straight from Acuity Scheduling's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Acuity Scheduling is the better call if you need intake forms specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
Acuity says it is for "anyone in the business of time," from solo practitioners to multi-location teams. It lists beauty, business services (consulting, coaching), wellness, fitness, visual and performing arts, and education. (acuityscheduling.com)
What people outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa say:
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every mediator: find the work, manage it, bill for it, get paid. Each step has a tool — and the right single tool runs the whole loop, so the handoffs are automatic and you get back to the actual work. Tap a step to see what gets automated.
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed engagement — the terms and the retainer set.
The work you're paid for — with the hours, tasks, and expenses tracked against the engagement instead of reconstructed at month-end.
The work becomes the invoice — the hours, the add-ons, the materials, the deposit credited — totaled and sent, instead of re-typed at 9pm.
Paid by card or link, the deposit credited, and what's overdue chased — without you doing it by hand.
You can stitch four separate subscriptions across these four steps, or run one tool that does the whole flow so a booking becomes a job becomes an invoice becomes a payment without re-typing. Either way the goal is the same: less time on the business of the business, more on the actual work. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)
Acuity Scheduling plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
The median mediator earns $55,000/year. At $408/year, Acuity Scheduling is a recurring slice of that — paid again every year, whether the year was good or not. Owning the same jobs outright is $279 once, and the slice stops.
Nexa is $279 once. Invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, accounting — all connected, built for mediators. You own it like you own your Zoom (with separate breakout rooms for caucus sessions).
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
The honest fit: if you're a solo or small mediators business that owns its tools and is sick of renting software, Nexa replaces your whole stack for $279 once. If you're scaling into a large team with dedicated admin staff, a bigger platform may fit better — and we'd rather tell you that now than sell you the wrong thing.
Your people are already online — swapping real numbers, tool picks, and war stories. Here's where to find them.
Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.
Open on Reddit →Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.
Open on Reddit →Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.
Open on Reddit →Scheduling, invoicing, client records and time tracking are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot and carry their own booking link, with no per-appointment cut. The sections below price both routes honestly.
Most of my cases are divorces, business disputes and workplace conflicts, and the work begins before anyone is in the same room. I speak with each side separately to understand what's really at stake, which is often different from what they're arguing about, and I explain how mediation works: I don't decide anything, they do. Sessions can run a full day. I set ground rules, let each person be heard, and then work toward options, often moving between separate rooms when tension runs high, carrying proposals back and forth. My job is keeping the conversation productive, testing whether proposals are realistic, and noticing when someone has agreed out of exhaustion rather than conviction. When there's agreement, I draft a memorandum of understanding that their attorneys review before it becomes binding. Confidentiality protects the whole process. Many cases settle in one or two sessions; some need several. I charge an hourly rate split between the parties, with a retainer up front, and time for preparation and drafting is billed too.
Real mediators near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a mediator? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every mediator on Nexa →
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
You paid for these once because good tools last. That's the bar your software should clear too — priced like a tool you own, $279 once, not a subscription that costs more than your kit every year.
We build a mediator's guide the same way every time, and we'd rather you trust it than take it on faith. Nexa is our product, so the test we hold ourselves to is simple: a tool only "wins" a job here when it genuinely does that job better for a mediator — and where something free, open-source, or buy-once does it better, we say so and link you to it. Where Nexa falls short (payroll is the honest example), we name the alternative outright.
Found something out of date? Prices change and we don't catch every move the day it happens. This guide is published and maintained by the Nexa team; if a figure here is wrong, tell us and we'll fix it — getting it right matters more to us than the sale.
For solo mediators and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Acuity Scheduling may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
Acuity Scheduling has features like Intake forms and Package and subscription billing that some businesses rely on. For most solo mediators, these aren't dealbreakers.
At $34/month, Nexa pays for itself in 8.2 months. After that: $408 saved every year.
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.
Own your tools. Stop renting your software.
Get Nexa — $279 Once