HoneyBook vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Concept Artists
HoneyBook
$36/mo ($432/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 7.8 months at HoneyBook's current price.
Bottom Line
HoneyBook costs concept artists $432/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so it pays for itself in 7.8 months 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.
The verdict for concept artists: HoneyBook is solid software, but at $36/month it costs $1,296 over 3 years. Nexa does most of what HoneyBook does for $279 once. For solo concept artists 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 time-tracker, Invoicing, Connect CRM in one purchase in one tool
You're tired of price increases
You want to own your tools like you own your equipment
Choose HoneyBook if:
You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
You're deeply invested in HoneyBook's specific workflow
You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet
What HoneyBook Actually Costs Concept Artists
Today's list price is $36/month — $432 a year, from HoneyBook's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.
Three years at today's price
Year 1$432
Year 2$432
Year 3$432
Three years of HoneyBook$1,296
Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $1,017 less.
If HoneyBook 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
HoneyBook
Nexa
Invoicing
—
✓
Scheduling
—
✓
CRM
—
✓
Time Tracking
—
✓
Full Accounting
—
✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management
—
✓
Works offline
—
✓
Price
$36/mo
$279 once or 3 × $99
3-Year Total
$1,296
$279
You own it?
No — stop paying, lose access
Yes — forever
✓ and ✗ for HoneyBook come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as HoneyBook 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.
HoneyBook'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 HoneyBook Does Better
Straight from HoneyBook's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Beautiful proposals and contracts
Client portal
Workflow automation
Professional templates
All-in-one for creatives
A smaller bill up front: plans start at $36/month, against $279 paid once for Nexa.
HoneyBook is the better call if you need beautiful proposals and contracts specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
Where business tools fit — for a concept artist
Software doesn't do the creative work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every concept artist: 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.
1
Find the work
Land the project
↓
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed project — with the scope and the deposit locked in.
CRM / contacts
Estimates & proposals
Booking / scheduling
then ↓
2
Manage the work
Do the work
↓
The work itself — tracked against the project: hours, milestones, revisions, and expenses, so nothing bills late or goes uncounted.
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 creative work. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)
Calculate Your Full Stack
HoneyBook plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
Switching from HoneyBook
1
Export your data — Go to Company Settings → export contacts and projects. Download templates separately.
2
Set up Nexa — 15-minute setup. Import your contacts and recreate your key templates.
3
Parallel run — Run both for 1-2 weeks. Transition active projects after they complete.
4
Cancel HoneyBook — Cancel before renewal. Save any contract templates as PDFs.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.
Sound Familiar?
You start by rebuilding the reference board in PureRef, dragging in screenshots, photos of real machinery, and color studies for the alien marketplace the art director wants explored. The brief says 'environment, sci-fi, lived-in,' which means the first hour is silhouettes and value thumbnails in Photoshop, twenty tiny compositions to find the strong read. You send three thumbnails by midday and the art director circles one but asks to see it 'a little more golden hour.' That's a lighting pass, so you build a quick Blender basemesh of the main structure, render a flat clay pass, and paint over it to keep the perspective honest. Afternoon is the chosen keyframe: blocking color, then detail passes on the foreground stalls and hanging cables, then a final polish so the materials read. Around three the producer emails asking whether the design can also go on a poster, which is a licensing question nobody scoped, and you flag it to discuss. You finish by exporting layered PSDs and flats, naming them with the version and date, then update your tracker with the revision round you just completed so the flat fee doesn't quietly turn into unpaid overtime.
Art directors request 'a few quick exploration thumbnails' that balloon into ten finished keyframes, and the scope creep is invisible until you compare the brief to what you actually delivered
Clients want full buyout of concept art for merch and marketing but only budgeted a single-use design fee, and the licensing conversation always happens after the work is done
Paint-overs and revision rounds are 'free' in the client's mind, so round four and round five eat into a flat project rate with no mechanism to bill them
Game and film studios sign you to NDAs that forbid showing the work, so your portfolio lags two years behind your actual output and new leads dry up
Time tracking, invoicing, client records and scheduling 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. HoneyBook solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
What This Means for Concept Artists
The median Concept Artist earns $45,000/year. At $432/year, HoneyBook 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 concept artists. You own it like you own your Photoshop with a Kyle brush set.
Is Nexa actually right for a concept artist?
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 25,000 concept artists in the US who do, and you wear every hat.
You're tired of paying every month for a monthly subscription stack 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 Photoshop with a Kyle brush set.
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 concept artists 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.
Time tracking, invoicing, client records and scheduling 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 concept artists actually deal with
Art directors request 'a few quick exploration thumbnails' that balloon into ten finished keyframes, and the scope creep is invisible until you compare the brief to what you actually delivered
Clients want full buyout of concept art for merch and marketing but only budgeted a single-use design fee, and the licensing conversation always happens after the work is done
Paint-overs and revision rounds are 'free' in the client's mind, so round four and round five eat into a flat project rate with no mechanism to bill them
Game and film studios sign you to NDAs that forbid showing the work, so your portfolio lags two years behind your actual output and new leads dry up
A day in the life of a concept artist
You start by rebuilding the reference board in PureRef, dragging in screenshots, photos of real machinery, and color studies for the alien marketplace the art director wants explored. The brief says 'environment, sci-fi, lived-in,' which means the first hour is silhouettes and value thumbnails in Photoshop, twenty tiny compositions to find the strong read. You send three thumbnails by midday and the art director circles one but asks to see it 'a little more golden hour.' That's a lighting pass, so you build a quick Blender basemesh of the main structure, render a flat clay pass, and paint over it to keep the perspective honest. Afternoon is the chosen keyframe: blocking color, then detail passes on the foreground stalls and hanging cables, then a final polish so the materials read. Around three the producer emails asking whether the design can also go on a poster, which is a licensing question nobody scoped, and you flag it to discuss. You finish by exporting layered PSDs and flats, naming them with the version and date, then update your tracker with the revision round you just completed so the flat fee doesn't quietly turn into unpaid overtime.
The tools a working concept artist actually owns
Photoshop with a Kyle brush set
Wacom Cintiq or iPad Pro with Procreate
Blender for kitbashing and basemeshes
PureRef for reference boards
Gumroad library of custom brushes and 3D kits
Local concept artists on Nexa
Real concept artists near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a concept artist? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every concept artist on Nexa →
The kit a working concept artist owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Core kitEssential
Pen display or iPad Pro
$400–$2,500
Core kitEssential
Workstation or high-spec laptop
$1,500–$5,000
Core kitEssential
Colour-accurate monitor
$300–$1,200
Core kitEssential
Monitor calibrator
$150–$400
Core kitEssential
Reference and art book library
$100–$500
Core kitEssential
Ergonomic chair and desk
$300–$1,500
Core kitEssential
Fast storage and backup
$150–$600
Upgrade
3D blockout software licence
$400–$2,500
The core kit, bought once$2,900–$11,700
Here's the bar that matters: you spent $2,900–$11,700 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 concept artist — and where it doesn't
The honest version. Nexa was built to beat the rented stack on the jobs that matter most to a concept artist — 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 concept artists
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 stack4 subscriptions · ~$1,032/yrNexa wins big One tool, $279 once — From the reference board to the keyframe deliverables to the revision rounds to the buyout invoice, each piece flows through one record, so every extra keyframe and licensing term is captured where it gets billed. without re-typing. That handoff is the part separate tools can't buy at any price.
Job & project trackingJobber →Nexa wins When three exploration thumbnails balloon into ten finished keyframes, Nexa tracks each piece against the original brief on the job, so the scope creep that is invisible until delivery becomes a visible, billable record.
InvoicingFreshBooks →Nexa wins Paint-over rounds four and five that the client treats as free attach to the job and flow into the invoice, so the extra revisions eat into the line items instead of silently eating your flat project rate.
CRM & clientsHubSpot →Nexa wins The art director, their lived-in sci-fi brief, and the unspoken buyout-for-merch expectation stay on that client's record, so the licensing conversation is grounded in what was actually agreed instead of remembered after the work is done.
Scheduling & bookingCalendly →Nexa wins The overnight bake check and the blockout on the new prop sit on the same board as the job, so when a deadline shifts you are not re-entering it into a separate calendar.
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.
If you design graphics & marketing assets—Not Nexa Use Canva → — 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.
These are affiliate links — if you sign up through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We list them because they're the honest best pick for the job, Nexa included. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Competitor pricing verified 2026-06-12.
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 HoneyBook'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 HoneyBook'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 concept artists we can verify. For user testimony, read the independent reviews — HoneyBook on G2 and on Capterra — where the reviewers are not selling you anything.
Some links on this page earn us money. Tool links may be affiliate links paying us a commission at no extra cost to you, including links to HoneyBook itself. We list a tool when it is the honest pick for the job, not because of the payout.
Check the price yourself:HoneyBook'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 concept artist'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 concept artist — 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 pricingHoneyBook $432/yr, FreshBooks $516/yr, Toggl Track $144/yr, Harvest $132/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 $45,000 median we cite for the typical concept artist 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.
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 HoneyBook replacement?
For solo concept artists and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. HoneyBook may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
What does HoneyBook do that Nexa doesn't?
HoneyBook has features like Beautiful proposals and contracts and Client portal that some businesses rely on. For most solo concept artists, these aren't dealbreakers.
How fast does Nexa pay for itself?
At $36/month, Nexa pays for itself in 7.8 months. After that: $432 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.