What grant writers need from their software, from sources outside FreshBooks and outside Nexa:
FreshBooks covers most of what a solo grant writer needs. On the plan that does the core job, $43 a month, it has proposals, retainers, time tracking, professional invoice templates, a client portal, expense and financial reports, receipt scanning and accountant access. That covers deliverable-based or retainer billing and a record of income and expenses from the business's own books. The BLS says its wage data leave out self-employed workers, so those books are the only record a one-person practice has. FreshBooks also offers free phone and email support during the trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and its higher plans add onboarding and a dedicated account manager. It does not decide how you price. Nothing in it keeps you from billing as a percentage of an award or contingent on a win, and the AFP code and funder norms rule that out. A scope-of-work agreement covering ownership, funder contact, response times and termination also has to be written outside the tool. The lowest plan covers only 5 billable clients, and archived clients count toward that limit.
Nexa covers the same billing core. It has quotes and proposals that convert to invoices, recurring invoices for retainers, and payment plans for a split such as an up-front portion and a balance. Clients can pay by card through your own Stripe account and sign estimates in a pay portal. It also has time tracking, expenses, bank reconciliation, profit and loss, a balance sheet, cash flow and 1099 summaries, plus receipt scanning. What it lacks matters for some writers. There is no sync or import with QuickBooks or Xero, and no hosted support desk or vendor-run onboarding, because it is software you own and run yourself. Without the optional Cloud Sync it runs on one device. Its automated emails, such as reminders and sequences, send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices, so a payment reminder can be late if the app is closed. Like FreshBooks, it will not stop you from writing contingent or percentage terms into a contract.
Over three years, FreshBooks at the figures given comes to $1,548 ($516 a year). Nexa is $279 once, or $458.64 with Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month for 36 months. Writers who bill a handful of clients by project or retainer, work from one device, and are comfortable doing their own setup can save money with Nexa. Writers who want vendor-run support, a hosted service, or a bookkeeper working inside the same system should stay with FreshBooks. Keep a signed agreement in place with either tool, and bill for drafting and submitting the proposal, not for the funding decision.
Our read for grant writers: Both handle fixed-fee, retainer and hourly billing with expense tracking, so choose Nexa to cut three-year cost if you can run it yourself, and stay with FreshBooks if you want hosted support and accountant access.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
FreshBooks costs grant writers $516/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 6.5 months it has cost less than FreshBooks, 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 FreshBooks 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 grant writers: Either can do the job, for the reasons in our read above. On price alone, that is $279 once against $1,548 for FreshBooks over three years.
Invoicing, client records, job tracking and time tracking are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot into something you buy once. 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. FreshBooks solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
Today's list price is $43/month — $516 a year, from FreshBooks'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 $1,269 less.
If FreshBooks 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 | FreshBooks | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✗ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | ✓ | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | — | ✓ |
| Works offline | — | ✓ |
| Price | $43/mo | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Total | $1,548 | $279 |
| You own it? | No — stop paying, lose access | Yes — forever |
✓ and ✗ for FreshBooks come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as FreshBooks lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.
Straight from FreshBooks's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
FreshBooks is the better call if you need very user-friendly for non-accountants specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
FreshBooks says it is "perfect for everyone from self-employed professionals to growing business owners." It lists four audiences: freelancers, solopreneurs, businesses with employees, and businesses with contractors. (freshbooks.com)
What people outside FreshBooks 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 creative work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every grant writer: 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 creative work. Tap a step to see what gets automated.
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed project — with the scope and the deposit locked in.
The work itself — tracked against the project: hours, milestones, revisions, and expenses, so nothing bills late or goes uncounted.
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 creative work. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)
FreshBooks plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
The median grant writer earns $52,000/year. At $516/year, FreshBooks 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 grant writers. You own it like you own your Grant research databases.
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
The honest fit: if you're a solo or small grant writers 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 →Invoicing, client records, job tracking and time tracking are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot into something you buy once. The sections below price both routes honestly.
You're managing 5 active grants across 3 clients. Two federal grants due in 10 days. One foundation grant in review. Two state grants in research phase. The federal grants need budget narratives, logic models, and 15-page proposals. You charge $5,000 per federal grant and $2,000 per state grant. Research takes 20 hours per grant but you quoted flat rate. One client wants a success fee arrangement (5% of award). Your deadline tracker is a wall calendar.
Real grant writers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a grant writer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every grant writer 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 grant writer'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 grant writer — 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 grant writers and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. FreshBooks may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
FreshBooks has features like Very user-friendly for non-accountants and Built-in time tracking that some businesses rely on. For most solo grant writers, these aren't dealbreakers.
At $43/month, Nexa pays for itself in 6.5 months. After that: $516 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