What barbers need from their software, from sources outside Booksy and outside Nexa:
Booksy covers most of what a working barber does day to day. It has online booking around the clock, booking links for Instagram and Facebook, and Reserve with Google. Its marketplace listing is free, with 35M+ users. No-show protection includes free SMS reminders, deposits, cancellation fees and a waitlist. It also takes payments with Tap to Pay, a card reader and card-on-file, and it tracks commission and tips automatically. That last one matters because tips are a regular part of a barber's pay and need their own record. What its feature list doesn't show is self-employment bookkeeping, such as logging chair or booth rent as a business expense apart from service income. It also doesn't show state license renewal reminders. Those needs would be met somewhere else.
Nexa covers the bookkeeping side. It has expense tracking, receipt scanning, profit and loss, cash flow and 1099 summaries, which suit a sole proprietor who rents a chair. It also has a public booking page with reschedule and cancel links, time tracking, and a client pay portal that runs through your own Stripe account. It lacks several things a barbershop relies on. It has no card reader or point of sale, no text messages, no waitlist, no Google Calendar sync, and no marketplace that brings you new customers. Its automated emails and reminders also send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices, so a closed laptop means no reminder goes out.
Over three years Booksy costs $1,079.64 ($29.99 a month, $359.88 a year), before payment processing, hardware fees and per-seat charges for extra users. Nexa is $279 once, or 3 payments of $99. With optional Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month, three years comes to $458.64. Nexa is software you own and run yourself, with no hosted support desk. A barber who gets clients from the marketplace or Google, takes deposits, or needs text reminders should stay with Booksy. A barber with a full book of regulars, no need for a card reader or SMS, and a weak spot in expense records could pay for Nexa. Nexa would cover bookkeeping and basic booking, but it would not replace what Booksy does.
Our read for barbers: Stay with Booksy: its marketplace, SMS reminders, deposits, card reader and tip tracking are things barbers rely on that Nexa does not have.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Booksy costs barbers $359.88/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 9.3 months it has cost less than Booksy, 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 Booksy 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 barbers: Stay with Booksy 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 $1,079.64 for Booksy over three years.
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. Booksy solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
Today's list price is $29.99/month — $359.88 a year, from Booksy'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 $800.64 less.
If Booksy 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 | Booksy | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✓ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | ✗ | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Works offline | — | ✓ |
| Price | $29.99/mo | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Total | $1,079.64 | $279 |
| You own it? | No — stop paying, lose access | Yes — forever |
✓ and ✗ for Booksy come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Booksy lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.
Straight from Booksy's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Booksy is the better call if you need strong consumer marketplace (35m+ users) specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
Booksy's business site says it is for independent beauty and barber professionals and for salon and barbershop owners, including barbers, hair stylists, nail techs, brow and lash artists, braiders, massage and spas. It also says it supports multi-staff businesses. (biz.booksy.com)
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Software doesn't do your clients — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every barber: 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.
A new client finds you and books a time — no phone tag, no double-booking.
The session itself — with the client history, notes, packages, and add-ons right there instead of in three different places.
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 your clients. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)
This is the connection that makes the rest worth it. A barber'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.
You didn't write this invoice — the job did.
Booksy plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
The median barber earns $35,000/year. At $359.88/year, Booksy 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 barbers. You own it like you own your Clippers (multiple: Wahl, Andis, BaByliss).
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
The honest fit: if you're a solo or small barbers 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.
Local rates and saturation vary widely — price for the city you serve, not a national average.
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, 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.
I'm cutting from ten in the morning to seven at night, twenty to thirty minutes a cut, with walk-ins squeezed between appointments. Most of my chair is regulars on a two- or three-week cycle; I know their guard numbers, where their cowlick is, and what they want without asking. A fade is where the skill shows: blending from skin to length without a line, cleaning up the edges with a trimmer, and a straight-razor line-up. Beards are their own service, shaping and a hot towel. Between clients I'm sweeping, disinfecting combs and clippers, and swapping out guards. I rent my chair from the shop owner, so every week starts with a booth rent I owe no matter how busy I am, and everything after that is mine. Tips matter. A no-show in a prime Saturday slot is money gone, so I take deposits on my book for weekends. I post fresh cuts online because that's how new clients pick a barber, and I'm always keeping my clippers and blades in good shape.
Real barbers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a barber? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every barber 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 barber'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 barber — 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 barbers and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Booksy may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
Booksy has features like Strong consumer marketplace (35M+ users) and Mobile-first design that some businesses rely on. For most solo barbers, these aren't dealbreakers.
At $29.99/month, Nexa pays for itself in 9.3 months. After that: $359.88 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