Acuity Scheduling vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Tutors
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.
Does Acuity Scheduling Fit Tutors? Our Read
What tutors need from their software, from sources outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa:
Tutor income follows the school year and test dates, so it swings from week to week. BLS says most tutors work part time with varying schedules, often evenings and weekends. Hours rise during the school year and before standardized test dates. Scheduling and income tracking need to handle uneven, seasonal hours. (bls.gov)
A self-employed tutor has no employer withholding. The IRS says self-employed people generally pay estimated taxes quarterly to cover income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and must file a return if net self-employment earnings are $400 or more. A tutor needs a running record of income and a way to set tax money aside. (irs.gov)
The self-employment tax rate is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare), and Schedule SE is required at $400 or more in net earnings. Tutors paid per session need to keep income and expense records to work out this tax each year. (irs.gov)
In some states, private tutoring comes with reporting and record duties. In Pennsylvania, according to a school district's guidance, tutors report the names and residences of tutored children (ages 6 to 18) to the district of residence. They report when they stop tutoring and notify the district of any child absent three days without lawful excuse. They must hold three criminal and child-abuse clearances, and the tutor or parent must keep portfolio-like documentation. Tutoring must be for a single family at a time. Client records need to cover these items. (pinerichland.org)
Sales tax on tutoring depends on the state and on what is sold. Connecticut's Department of Revenue Services ruled that online learning plans are generally not taxable, because the students' true object is education or training. Computer or software training that is not job-related may be taxed at 1% as a computer and data processing service. Tutors who sell materials or digital products need to track what they charge for. (portal.ct.gov)
Acuity Scheduling covers the booking side of tutoring well. Clients book themselves, time zones convert automatically, and intake forms collect student details. Packages, subscriptions and gift certificates suit prepaid session blocks. Text reminders and an appointment waitlist help when hours swing with the school year and test dates. Google Calendar and Apple Calendar integrations keep your calendar in one place. Payments run through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo. It does less on the money side. Nothing in its feature list tracks self-employment tax, sets tax money aside or keeps expense records, and a QuickBooks integration is the only bridge to bookkeeping. The Pennsylvania-style duties (child names and residences, clearances, absence notices) fall to its custom forms and your own records.
Nexa covers the record-keeping side that Acuity leaves open. It has income and expense tracking, bank reconciliation, profit and loss, 1099 summaries and sales tax tracking. It also has invoices, recurring invoices and payment plans, a public booking page with intake forms, and reschedule and cancel links. Clients pay by card through your own Stripe account. Its CRM holds tags and notes, but a client has no street-address field, which matters if a state wants student residences on file. Nexa has no text messages, no Google Calendar sync (calendar export is an .ics file), no waitlist and no recurring booking series. Standing weekly sessions and text reminders are common in tutoring. Its automated emails and reminders also send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices, and there is no hosted support desk.
Over three years, Acuity's $34 plan costs $408 a year, or $1,224. Nexa is $279 once (or 3 payments of $99). Adding Cloud Sync at $4.99/month for 36 months brings it to $458.64, and without Cloud Sync it runs on one device. If you already book through Acuity and rely on calendar sync, text reminders or a waitlist, stay and track taxes in a separate bookkeeping tool. Consider Nexa only if you mostly need invoicing and tax records, and can live without those scheduling features.
Our read for tutors: Stay with Acuity Scheduling if you rely on its calendar integrations, text reminders or waitlist, because Nexa lacks all three; Nexa is cheaper and stronger on tax and expense records.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Acuity Scheduling costs tutors $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 tutors: Stay with Acuity Scheduling if the needs in our read above apply to you. If they don't, Nexa covers the core invoicing, scheduling and books for $279 once against $1,224 for Acuity Scheduling over three years.
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?
You tutor 6 students today — SAT prep at 3pm, algebra at 4pm, chemistry at 5pm, and three more in the evening. Mom of your 4pm texts that little Timmy has soccer practice — can you reschedule? Your 5pm student's parents bought a 10-session package and you think this is session 7. Your 7pm is a new student and the parents want to observe the first session. You're using Calendly for scheduling, Venmo for payment, and a notebook for tracking sessions. Nothing talks to anything else.
Managing 15-30 recurring weekly students across different subjects and levels
Parents booking, rescheduling, and cancelling constantly
Tracking session packages and remaining prepaid sessions
Seasonal demand swings — slammed before exams, dead in summer
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 Tutors
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
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.
What "$279 Once" Does And Doesn't Buy
It buys the software, not a service contract. You install Nexa and it runs on your machine. There is no seat count, and nothing stops working if you stop paying, because there is nothing to stop paying.
Acuity Scheduling's monthly fee is not only rent. It pays for their hosting, their support desk, and their engineers shipping changes every week. If those matter to how you work, that is a real thing you would be giving up.
Cross-device sync is the one optional extra — $4.99/month if you want your data mirrored between machines. Skip it and Nexa still works; you just sync manually.
The honest risk of buying once: you are betting on us still being here to improve it. The honest risk of renting: the price is theirs to raise, and the graveyard section below is a record of tools that did exactly that.
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.
Intake forms
Package and subscription billing
Gift certificates
HIPAA compliance (Powerhouse)
Squarespace integration
A smaller bill up front: plans start at $20/month, against $279 paid once for Nexa.
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)
The Starter plan costs $16/month billed annually ($20 monthly) and includes 1 calendar, client self-scheduling, email reminders, custom client forms and automatic time zone conversion. (acuityscheduling.com)
Payments run through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo on all plans. The Standard plan ($27/month annual, up to 6 calendars) adds text reminders, an appointment waitlist, memberships and packages, and gift certificates. (acuityscheduling.com)
The Premium plan ($49/month annual, up to 36 calendars) adds an AI Booking Assistant, a Business Associate Agreement for HIPAA compliance, removal of the Acuity logo, multiple time zones for staff or locations, and custom API and CSS access. Unlimited calendars require the Enterprise team. (acuityscheduling.com)
All plans have a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. There is no free plan beyond the trial. (acuityscheduling.com)
The site lists 15 integrations, including Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Stripe, Square, PayPal, QuickBooks, Zoom, Google Meet, Zapier, Mailchimp and Squarespace. (acuityscheduling.com)
Named features include online booking, class scheduling, packages, subscriptions, gift certificates, coupons, deposits, custom intake forms, cancelation policies, a mobile app and a website builder. The site is offered in 6 languages. (acuityscheduling.com)
What people outside Acuity Scheduling and outside Nexa say:
Software Finder shows a 4.5 rating from 25 reviews, with category scores of 9/10 for ease of use, value for money, customer support and functionality. The most-cited strengths are ease of use, integrations, automated email and text reminders that reviewers credit with reducing no-shows, and customizable emails and calendar views. (softwarefinder.com)
Software Finder reviewers also raise drawbacks. Some small businesses find it expensive, and one reported unresolved booking issues and slow support replies. Booking form appearance is limited, and add-ons are checkboxes only, so customers can't choose quantities. Stripe refunds need a separate login to Stripe. One business said it lacked features as its staff and resources grew, and a healthcare reviewer said it isn't suited to HIPAA-regulated practices. (softwarefinder.com)
Secret's page has no user reviews. Its editorial text calls the product user-friendly, customizable and affordable. It also lists as cons that pricing may be expensive for tight budgets, advanced features are limited, and some third-party integrations may be lacking. (joinsecret.com)
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Where business tools fit — for a tutor
Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every tutor: 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.
1
Find the work
Land the client
↓
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed engagement — the terms and the retainer set.
CRM / contacts
Estimates & proposals
Booking / scheduling
then ↓
2
Manage the work
Do the work
↓
The work you're paid for — with the hours, tasks, and expenses tracked against the engagement instead of reconstructed at month-end.
Job / project tracking
Time tracking
Expenses, materials & add-ons
then ↓
3
Bill for it
Send the bill
↓
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
Get paid
Collect payment
↓
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 the actual work. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)
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 Tutors
The median tutor earns $35,000/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 tutors. You own it like you own your Whiteboard or digital annotation tools.
Is Nexa actually right for a tutor?
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 200,000 tutors in the US who do, and you wear every hat.
You're tired of paying every month for acuity 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 Whiteboard or digital annotation tools.
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 tutors 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.
Tutors by the numbers — by place
What tutors charge, city by city
$74 /hravg local price
+48%vs national
highsaturation
~6,781operators
6%growth
$84 /hravg local price
+68%vs national
highsaturation
~4,308operators
6%growth
$67 /hravg local price
+34%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,959operators
4%growth
$66 /hravg local price
+32%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,909operators
6%growth
$63 /hravg local price
+26%vs national
highsaturation
~2,176operators
12%growth
Local rates and saturation vary widely — price for the city you serve, not a national average.
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 tutors actually deal with
Managing 15-30 recurring weekly students across different subjects and levels
Parents booking, rescheduling, and cancelling constantly
Tracking session packages and remaining prepaid sessions
Seasonal demand swings — slammed before exams, dead in summer
A day in the life of a tutor
You tutor 6 students today — SAT prep at 3pm, algebra at 4pm, chemistry at 5pm, and three more in the evening. Mom of your 4pm texts that little Timmy has soccer practice — can you reschedule? Your 5pm student's parents bought a 10-session package and you think this is session 7. Your 7pm is a new student and the parents want to observe the first session. You're using Calendly for scheduling, Venmo for payment, and a notebook for tracking sessions. Nothing talks to anything else.
calendly: $12/month for a booking link. Parents need more than a link — they need invoicing, session tracking, and progress updates.
square: Good for collecting payment but can't manage recurring weekly students or prepaid session packages.
Where tutors actually talk shop
r/tutoring (Reddit)
r/Tutor (Reddit)
r/SATprep (Reddit)
r/freelance (Reddit)
WyzAnt Tutor Forum (Forum)
Tutor.com Community (Forum)
The Tutor Coach (YouTube)
Organic Chemistry Tutor (YouTube)
Local tutors on Nexa
Real tutors near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a tutor? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every tutor on Nexa →
The kit a working tutor owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Whiteboard or digital annotation tools
Textbooks and curriculum materials
Laptop with video conferencing setup
Practice worksheets and assessment materials
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.
How To Read This Page
We make Nexa. It is one of the two options compared here, so read this with that in mind. We have tried to make Acuity Scheduling's case the way we would want ours made — their strengths above are their own published feature list, not our summary of it.
The prices are Acuity Scheduling's published list prices, checked on the date shown in the sources below. Plans change; check theirs before you decide.
No customer quotes appear on this page because we do not have any from tutors we can verify. For user testimony, read the independent reviews — Acuity Scheduling on G2 and on Capterra — where the reviewers are not selling you anything.
Check the price yourself:Acuity Scheduling's own pricing page is the source for every figure above, read on the date shown in the sources section below.
We are not neutral about subscriptions, and that is the argument, not a hidden assumption: software you pay for once is cheaper over three years than software you rent, unless you need something only the rented one does.
How we put this guide together
We build a tutor'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 tutor — 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
Vendor pricingAcuity Scheduling $408/yr, Calendly $144/yr, Square, QuickBooks $456/yr — taken from each company's published plans, last verified September 2026. Pricing moves; each name above links straight to that vendor’s own pricing page so you can confirm it before you decide.
Income contextThe $35,000 median we cite for the typical tutor is occupational median annual pay from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics), compiled April 2026. We use it only to show software spend as a share of real income — your own numbers will differ.
The field's own bodiesWe anchor what tutors actually need to the people who set the standards — NTA. We don't speak for them; we point you to them so you can weigh this guide against the profession's own.
Three-year mathMulti-year totals are today's list price multiplied by the number of years. No price rise is projected, so the figure can be checked against the vendor's own pricing page; if they raise it, the real cost is higher.
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 tutors 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 tutors, 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.