Acuity Scheduling vs Nexa
The Real Comparison for Personal Trainers

Acuity Scheduling
$34/mo ($408/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 8.2 months at Acuity Scheduling's current price.

Bottom Line

Acuity Scheduling costs personal trainers $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.

Can it pay for itself?

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 personal trainers: Acuity Scheduling is solid software, but at $34/month it costs $1,224 over 3 years. Nexa does most of what Acuity Scheduling does for $279 once. For solo personal trainers and small teams, Nexa is the better deal.

Choose Nexa if:

  • You're done paying monthly forever
  • You're a solo operator or small team (1-5)
  • You need scheduler, connect crm and invoicing in one tool
  • You're tired of price increases
  • You want to own your tools like you own your equipment

Choose Acuity Scheduling if:

  • You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
  • You're deeply invested in Acuity Scheduling's specific workflow
  • You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet

Sound Familiar?

My first client is at 5:30 in the morning, and before she's done warming up I already know how the session goes, because I read her last three workouts on the drive in. Programming is the job people don't see. Every client is on a block, usually four to six weeks, and each week I'm adjusting loads off what they actually lifted, not what the plan said they would. If someone's squat stalled, I'm deciding whether it's sleep, technique or just a bad week before I add weight. In session I'm coaching the rep in front of me: bracing, bar path, the knee that caves on the way up. Between clients I'm answering form-check videos and meal questions, which is unpaid work that keeps people from quitting. Most of my income is packages of ten or twenty sessions, so my week lives or dies on renewals and on cancellations; a late cancel at 6 a.m. is an hour I can't sell again. I rent floor time at a gym, so I pay for the space whether the client shows or not. By evening I'm on the next block for three people and following up with the two whose packages run out next week.

Scheduling, client records and invoicing 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.

What Acuity Scheduling Actually Costs Personal Trainers

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.

Three years at today's price

Year 1$408
Year 2$408
Year 3$408
Three years of Acuity Scheduling$1,224

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-by-Feature

FeatureAcuity SchedulingNexa
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 accessYes — 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.

What "$279 Once" Does And Doesn't Buy

What Acuity Scheduling Does Better

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.

What Acuity Scheduling Is Built For

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.

Where business tools fit — for a personal trainer

Software doesn't do your clients — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every personal trainer: 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 your clients. Tap a step to see what gets automated.

  1. 1
    Find the work

    Get booked

    ↓

    A new client finds you and books a time — no phone tag, no double-booking.

    • CRM / contacts
    • Estimates & proposals
    • Booking / scheduling
    then ↓
  2. 2

    The session itself — with the client history, notes, packages, and add-ons right there instead of in three different places.

    • Job / project tracking
    • Time tracking
    • Expenses, materials & add-ons
    then ↓
  3. 3

    The work becomes the invoice — the hours, the add-ons, the materials, the deposit credited — totaled and sent, instead of re-typed at 9pm.

    • Invoicing
    • Deposits & credits
    then ↓
  4. 4

    Paid by card or link, the deposit credited, and what's overdue chased — without you doing it by hand.

    • Card / online payments
    • Automatic reminders

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 your clients. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)

Watch a job become an invoice

This is the connection that makes the rest worth it. A personal trainer's job already holds the services, the hours, the add-ons, and the materials — so the invoice builds itself from the work instead of you re-typing it at 9pm. Toggle an add-on or nudge the hours and watch it recompute.

The job 10-session training package
Service Personal training sessions (60 min) 10 × $70 $700
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$790
Deposit credited−$350
Invoice total$440

You didn't write this invoice — the job did.

Calculate Your Full Stack

Acuity Scheduling plus whatever else you're paying for:

Email yourself this comparison?

Switching from Acuity Scheduling

1
Export your data — Go to Settings → Export. Download your client list and appointment history.
2
Set up Nexa Scheduler — 15-minute setup. Import clients and recreate your appointment types.
3
Update your links — Replace your Acuity booking link everywhere — website, email, social.
4
Cancel Acuity — Cancel Squarespace subscription. Download a final backup of your data.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.

What This Means for Personal Trainers

The median personal trainer earns $42,000/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 personal trainers. You own it like you own your Resistance bands and TRX straps.

Is Nexa actually right for a personal trainer?

An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.

Right for you if

  • You run solo or a small team — like the 300,000 personal trainers in the US who do, and you wear every hat.
  • You're tired of paying every month for mindbody and a pile of apps that don't talk to each other.
  • You want invoicing, scheduling, and client tracking in one place — not scattered across five apps.
  • You'd rather own your software once, the way you own your Resistance bands and TRX straps.

Look elsewhere if

  • You have a large team that needs enterprise seats, granular roles, and dedicated admin staff — Nexa is built for solo and small operators (1–5), and a bigger platform will serve you better.
  • You need full payroll for a large team or deep, SKU-level inventory — that's not what Nexa is for.
  • You're genuinely happy paying monthly and don't mind stitching tools together. No tool fixes a workflow you already like.

The honest fit: if you're a solo or small personal trainers 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.

Personal Trainers by the numbers — by place

What personal trainers charge, city by city

$113 /sessionavg local price
+51%vs national
moderatesaturation
~4,157operators
8%growth
$128 /sessionavg local price
+71%vs national
moderatesaturation
~2,573operators
5%growth
$95 /sessionavg local price
+27%vs national
highsaturation
~2,925operators
6%growth
$97 /sessionavg local price
+29%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,991operators
8%growth
$106 /sessionavg local price
+41%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,864operators
9%growth

Local rates and saturation vary widely — price for the city you serve, not a national average.

Tax & registration where you operate

1-13.3%income tax

Register a business in California →

Noneincome tax

Register a business in Texas →

Noneincome tax

Register a business in Florida →

4-10.9%income tax

Register a business in New York →

Where personal trainers actually talk shop

Your people are already online — swapping real numbers, tool picks, and war stories. Here's where to find them.

Recent in r/sweatystartup · Where solo service businesses swap real numbers and hard-won lessons.
Quit my six-figure corporate sales job to buy a home service franchise. On pace to do $2M+ this year. AMA. Three years ago I posted about starting a company with no construction experience. Here's what I've learned since. I run my business — it doesn't run me. I think AI search is about to change how local service businesses get found. Anyone else seeing this? Update: $12k/mo revenue after 1.5 years. What I'd do differently from day one.

Subreddits worth your time

r/personaltraining

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →
r/fitness

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →
r/fitnessindustry

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →
r/ACE_PersonalTraining

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →

Facebook groups to join

Personal Trainers & Online Coaches NASM Personal Trainers Independent Personal Trainers Fitness Business Builders
YouTube
▶ Jeff Nippard▶ NASM▶ Mind Pump TV▶ National Academy of Sports Medicine
TikTok
#personaltrainer#fitnessbusiness#ptlife#personaltrainerlife#onlinecoach
Podcasts
🎧 Mind Pump🎧 The PTDC Podcast🎧 Fitness Business Podcast
Forums
T-Nation ForumsBodyBuilding.com Forums

Scheduling, client records and invoicing 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.

What personal trainers actually deal with

A day in the life of a personal trainer

My first client is at 5:30 in the morning, and before she's done warming up I already know how the session goes, because I read her last three workouts on the drive in. Programming is the job people don't see. Every client is on a block, usually four to six weeks, and each week I'm adjusting loads off what they actually lifted, not what the plan said they would. If someone's squat stalled, I'm deciding whether it's sleep, technique or just a bad week before I add weight. In session I'm coaching the rep in front of me: bracing, bar path, the knee that caves on the way up. Between clients I'm answering form-check videos and meal questions, which is unpaid work that keeps people from quitting. Most of my income is packages of ten or twenty sessions, so my week lives or dies on renewals and on cancellations; a late cancel at 6 a.m. is an hour I can't sell again. I rent floor time at a gym, so I pay for the space whether the client shows or not. By evening I'm on the next block for three people and following up with the two whose packages run out next week.

The tools a working personal trainer actually owns

Why personal trainers leave the big platforms

Where personal trainers actually talk shop

Local personal trainers on Nexa

Real personal trainers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a personal trainer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every personal trainer on Nexa →

The kit a working personal trainer owns

The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.

Core kitEssential

Adjustable dumbbells

$300–$900
Core kitEssential

Kettlebell set

$200–$900
Core kitEssential

Resistance band set

$40–$200
Core kitEssential

Suspension trainer

$100–$300
Core kitEssential

Exercise mats and foam rollers

$60–$250
Core kitEssential

Body-composition tools: tape, calipers, scale

$30–$150
Core kitEssential

Agility ladder, cones and hurdles

$40–$180
Core kitEssential

Plyo box and med balls

$150–$700
Core kitEssential

Sled and battle rope

$200–$900
Upgrade

Squat rack and barbell for a home studio

$800–$3,500
The core kit, bought once $1,120–$4,480

Here's the bar that matters: you spent $1,120–$4,480 on tools that last for years, and never thought twice. So why should the software cost more than your whole kit — every single year? Hold it to the same standard as a good tool: $279, once.

Where Nexa wins for a personal trainer — and where it doesn't

The honest version. Nexa was built to beat the rented stack on the jobs that matter most to a personal trainer — here's where it wins, where the integration wins it anyway, and the things it genuinely doesn't do, with who to use instead. (No tool is best at everything; a guide that pretends otherwise is just an ad.)

Compare the essential business tools for personal trainers

The usual subscriptions vs. Nexa, side by side. Drag the time slider — every year you keep renting, the gap widens. Nexa is $279, one time.

The jobThe usual rentalThe verdict
The whole connected stack 3 subscriptions · ~$900/yr Nexa wins big One tool, $279 once — Each session decrements the package on the client record, the schedule moves when they switch in-person to virtual, and the invoice fires when the pack runs out, so you replace mindbody at $279 once instead of $139-plus a month built for gyms. without re-typing. That handoff is the part separate tools can't buy at any price.
Scheduling & booking Calendly → Nexa wins Training six clients across three locations, you see the whole day on one calendar, so when your 9am wants to switch from in-person to virtual this week you move the session instead of losing track of where you need to be.
CRM & clients HubSpot → Nexa wins Your 7am client's 10-pack lives on her record with sessions counted, so you know it is session 8 for sure and your noon client's expired package surfaces before you train them for free.
Invoicing FreshBooks → Nexa wins When the package expires you invoice straight off that client's record, so the renewal bills from the session count instead of you reconstructing it, unlike mindbody which is built for gyms not independent trainers at $139-plus a month.
If you run real payroll for a team — Not Nexa Use Gusto → — it's better at that, and we'd rather tell you than pretend.
If you run big email campaigns & automations — Not Nexa Use ConvertKit → — it's better at that, and we'd rather tell you than pretend.

Prefer to own a piece outright instead of renting? Free and open-source tools (GnuCash, Invoice Ninja and the like) each handle one job if you'll self-host them — a real option, listed because it's true.

Competitor pricing verified 2026-06-12.

How To Read This Page

How we put this guide together

We build a personal trainer'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 personal trainer — 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.

Where the numbers come from

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.

FAQ

Is Nexa really a Acuity Scheduling replacement?

For solo personal trainers 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.

What does Acuity Scheduling do that Nexa doesn't?

Acuity Scheduling has features like Intake forms and Package and subscription billing that some businesses rely on. For most solo personal trainers, these aren't dealbreakers.

How fast does Nexa pay for itself?

At $34/month, Nexa pays for itself in 8.2 months. After that: $408 saved every year.

Can I pay in installments?

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.

$1,224 Over 3 Years. Or $279 Once (or 3 × $99).

Own your tools. Stop renting your software.

Get Nexa — $279 Once
or 3 payments of $99
✓ 30-day money-back — save $500 or full refund

More Comparisons for Personal Trainers

Calendly vs Nexa for Personal TrainersMindbody vs Nexa for Personal TrainersLeaving Acuity Scheduling: the full guideAll Software for Personal TrainersSaaS Graveyard
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