What mortgage brokers need from their software, from sources outside HoneyBook and outside Nexa:
HoneyBook handles the client-facing paperwork of a small broker practice well. It includes proposals, contracts, a client portal, invoices and payments, templates, and a QuickBooks Online integration on Essentials and Premium. Its listed features are aimed at creatives and don't include the trade's regulatory needs. Those are tracking annual NMLS continuing education (the 8 hours and their subject mix), keeping compensation records tied to their agreements for three years, and keeping dated records of when an application was received and when the Loan Estimate was sent. You could keep documents in the portal, but nothing on its list is built to track those items.
Nexa covers the business side of a small shop. It has a CRM with a pipeline board and notes, notes that can be checklists linked to a client, invoices and estimates that clients can sign and pay through the broker's own Stripe account, expense and profit-and-loss bookkeeping, and offline use. It does not sync with QuickBooks or Xero, has no Google Calendar sync, and has no hosted support desk or vendor-run onboarding, because you own and run the software yourself. Its automated emails send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. Nothing in the facts we hold says Nexa tracks continuing-education hours, compensation-to-agreement records or Loan Estimate dates, so it should not be assumed to.
Over three years HoneyBook at $36 a month costs $1,296. Nexa costs $279 once, or $458.64 with optional Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month for the same period. If you already use HoneyBook for proposals, contracts and its QuickBooks link, staying is reasonable, and switching would save money mainly on the invoicing and bookkeeping side. Either way, the licensing and disclosure records need a separate compliance or loan-origination tool built for mortgage work, and neither product replaces it.
Our read for mortgage brokers: Neither HoneyBook nor Nexa is built for a broker's core needs (continuing-education tracking, three-year compensation records, dated Loan Estimate records), so pair whichever you prefer with a mortgage compliance or loan-origination system.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
HoneyBook costs mortgage brokers $432/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 7.8 months it has cost less than HoneyBook, 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 HoneyBook 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 mortgage brokers: Neither HoneyBook nor Nexa is the main system for this work; start with software built for it. Nexa only makes sense beside it, at $279 once against $1,296 for HoneyBook over three years.
Client records, scheduling, invoicing and job tracking 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.
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.
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 | 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.
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.
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.
HoneyBook describes itself as built for anyone with clients, aimed at small businesses that work with clients. Its categories are event services, marketing, design and creative, professional services, personal services, and home and real estate. (honeybook.com)
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every mortgage broker: 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.
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed engagement — the terms and the retainer set.
The work you're paid for — with the hours, tasks, and expenses tracked against the engagement instead of reconstructed at month-end.
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 actual work. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)
HoneyBook plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
The median mortgage broker earns $70,000/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 mortgage brokers. You own it like you own your Loan origination software.
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
The honest fit: if you're a solo or small mortgage brokers 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 →Client records, scheduling, invoicing and job tracking 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.
A loan starts with a conversation about what the borrower wants and what they can actually qualify for. I collect pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements and credit, calculate their debt-to-income ratio, and look for problems early, like a recent job change, self-employment income or a gap in credit, because surprises in underwriting kill deals. Then I shop the loan across lenders for the best combination of rate, fees and terms, and explain the trade-offs, points versus rate, fixed versus adjustable, in plain language. Once they're under contract on a house, the clock starts: I submit the file, order the appraisal, answer every condition the underwriter sends back, and keep the buyer's agent and the title company updated so we close on time. Rates move daily, so locking at the right moment matters. Compliance runs through everything: disclosures sent on time, licensing in every state I work in, and careful records. I'm paid at closing, either by the borrower or the lender, and the amount is disclosed up front.
Real mortgage brokers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a mortgage broker? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every mortgage broker 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 mortgage broker'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 mortgage broker — 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 mortgage brokers 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.
HoneyBook has features like Beautiful proposals and contracts and Client portal that some businesses rely on. For most solo mortgage brokers, these aren't dealbreakers.
At $36/month, Nexa pays for itself in 7.8 months. After that: $432 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