Housecall Pro vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Gutter Cleaners
Housecall Pro
$79/mo ($948/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 3.5 months at Housecall Pro's current price.
Does Housecall Pro Fit Gutter Cleaners? Our Read
What gutter cleaners need from their software, from sources outside Housecall Pro and outside Nexa:
Licensing depends on the type of work, so job records should separate cleaning from gutter installation or repair. Minnesota's labor department says a roofing contractor who wants to install gutters needs a residential building contractor or remodeler license instead of a roofer license. A business that does both cleaning and installation or repair needs to record which jobs fall under which rule. (dli.mn.gov)
In California, unlicensed work is limited by a dollar cap that is checked per job. The minor work exemption rose from $500 to $1,000 on January 1, 2025. It does not apply to work that needs a building permit, and it does not apply once the person hires a worker. Advertising or signs that present the person as a contractor also take them outside it. Quotes and job totals therefore need to be tracked against that limit, and hiring a helper changes the licensing position. This is one state's rule, and other states set different thresholds. (sites.sandiego.edu)
Gutter cleaners usually quote by linear foot, with a higher rate for second-floor gutters. Practitioners in a window cleaner forum thread (posts from 2009, so the prices are dated) report $0.75 per foot for the first floor and $1.50 per foot for the second floor. Another poster charges $1.00 per linear foot, adds charges for snaking or sealing leaks, and gives a small discount over 300 feet. Estimates therefore need gutter length, number of stories, and add-on items recorded per property. (community.windowcleaner.com)
Gutter work is often repeat business at a given address, and customers ask to be put on a list for next year. Forum posters describe having 5 or 6 regulars once a year, and one says every customer asked to be added to the list for the following year after the first cleanings. Another poster says gutter cleaning was 12% of their revenue and they aimed to raise it to 20%. This calls for per-property history, annual re-booking reminders, and tracking of the service done each visit. One poster notes that gutter whitening is not suited to monthly-type intervals, so recurring accounts get basic cleaning. (community.windowcleaner.com)
Ladder and fall exposure is a trade-specific risk that affects insurance and safety records. OSHA says falls are the leading cause of death in construction, with 389 fatal falls to a lower level out of 1,034 construction fatalities in 2024 (BLS data). It also says workers six feet or more above a lower level risk serious injury or death if they fall, and that employers should supply suitable equipment, including ladders. A gutter cleaner who works from ladders needs certificates of insurance, any employee records, and safety documentation kept on file. This page covers construction generally and does not name gutter cleaning. (osha.gov)
Housecall Pro covers much of what a gutter cleaner runs on day to day. It has estimates, a price book, online booking, invoicing, online payments, 'On My Way' texts and vehicle GPS. A cleaner who works from a ladder and wants customers to get arrival texts will use those every day. It also has recurring service plans, which suit the yearly re-booking this trade depends on, but those come on its top tier, not the $79/month plan. Its own feature list doesn't mention linear-foot quoting, story-based rates, per-property service history, licence-limit tracking or insurance and safety records. A gutter cleaner would have to handle those with the price book and notes, or outside the tool.
Nexa covers quoting and repeat work in a simpler way. Estimates convert to invoices, jobs can recur, and a public booking page has reschedule and cancel links. A CRM with tags and notes could record stories, add-ons and which jobs are cleaning versus installation. Jobs show costing and profit, and the day's stops go to Google Maps in time order. It also has a crew view for helpers, time tracking and a payroll CSV. The gaps matter for this trade. A client record has no street-address field, which is awkward when history belongs to a property. There are no text messages or calls, no GPS or route optimization, no QuickBooks sync, and no payroll taxes or pay stubs. Its automated emails, including reminders, send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices, so a yearly reminder won't go out if the app is closed. It is software you run yourself, with no hosted support desk or onboarding. Neither tool documents ladder-safety or insurance paperwork.
Over three years, Housecall Pro at $79/month comes to $948 a year, or $2,844. Nexa is $279 once (or 3 payments of $99), plus $4.99/month for optional Cloud Sync, which comes to $458.64 over three years. A solo cleaner who only needs invoices, a booking page and a per-customer notes list, and who is comfortable without texting, could save money with Nexa. Anyone who dispatches helpers, relies on arrival texts or GPS, or needs recurring service plans and phone support should stay with Housecall Pro.
Our read for gutter cleaners: Stay with Housecall Pro if you use its texting, GPS or recurring plans; only a solo cleaner with simple needs should consider Nexa to save money.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Housecall Pro costs gutter cleaners $948/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 3.5 months it has cost less than Housecall Pro, 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 Housecall Pro 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 gutter cleaners: Stay with Housecall Pro 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 $2,844 for Housecall Pro 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 Housecall Pro if:
You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
You're deeply invested in Housecall Pro's specific workflow
You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet
Sound Familiar?
Fall is my busy season; every leaf that drops is a job. At each house I set up the ladder safely on level ground with a stabiliser, then work my way around the gutters, scooping out leaves and sludge, and flushing every downspout with a hose so the water runs freely, because a blocked downspout is the reason most gutters overflow. From up on the ladder I see what homeowners can't: loose hangers, sagging runs, rusted seams and gutters that slope the wrong way, and I photograph them for the customer. Small repairs, resealing seams and re-securing hangers, I do on the spot; replacements get quoted separately. Gutter guards are a common upsell, and I'm honest about when they help and when they just trap debris. Two-storey and steep roofs need more care and more time, and I don't work in wind or rain. Most customers are on spring and fall plans billed per visit, priced by the linear foot of gutter and the height of the house, and I clean up every bit of debris from the yard before I leave.
Highly seasonal — slammed in fall, dead in summer
Scheduling 8-12 houses per day in tight geographic clusters
Recurring biannual clients who forget they booked you
Quoting linear footage of gutters from the ground
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. Housecall Pro solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
What Housecall Pro Actually Costs Gutter Cleaners
Today's list price is $79/month — $948 a year, from Housecall Pro's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.
Three years at today's price
Year 1$948
Year 2$948
Year 3$948
Three years of Housecall Pro$2,844
Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $2,565 less.
If Housecall Pro 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
Housecall Pro
Nexa
Invoicing
✓
✓
Scheduling
✓
✓
CRM
✓
✓
Time Tracking
—
✓
Full Accounting
—
✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management
—
✓
Works offline
—
✓
Price
$79/mo
$279 once or 3 × $99
3-Year Total
$2,844
$279
You own it?
No — stop paying, lose access
Yes — forever
✓ and ✗ for Housecall Pro come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Housecall Pro 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.
Housecall Pro'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 Housecall Pro Does Better
Straight from Housecall Pro's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Online booking for home services
GPS tracking
Postcard marketing campaigns
Professional invoicing
Review collection
A smaller bill up front: plans start at $79/month, against $279 paid once for Nexa.
Housecall Pro is the better call if you need online booking for home services specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
What Housecall Pro Is Built For
Housecall Pro describes itself as 'Tailored for teams of 1 to 100+' and aimed at home service pros across 50+ industries, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, lawn care and pest control. (housecallpro.com)
Three plans: Basic at $59/mo billed annually ($79 monthly) for 1 user, Essentials at $149/mo annual ($189 monthly) for 5 users, and Max at $299/mo annual ($329 monthly) for 8 users. Extra Max users cost $35/mo each. (housecallpro.com)
Every plan includes live phone and chat support, a free iOS and Android app in English and Spanish, offline viewing, AI team members, and card processing rates 'as low as 2.59%'. (housecallpro.com)
The free trial lasts 14 days with no credit card required, and the FAQ says it includes full access to the Max plan. The page says long-term contracts are not required. (housecallpro.com)
Essentials adds routes, flat-rate pricing, checklist automations, photo reports, employee GPS tracking, commissions and QuickBooks Online sync. Max adds a sales proposal tool, recurring service plans, route optimization, open API access, a dedicated onboarding specialist and escalated phone support. (housecallpro.com)
The feature set covers scheduling and dispatching, estimates, a price book, online booking, invoicing, online payments, financing, time tracking, payroll, job costing, vehicle GPS and 'On My Way' texts. It also has a CSR AI that answers calls and books jobs. (housecallpro.com)
Support and learning resources include a Help Center, a Pro Community, webinars, a Mastermind program and a Trade Academy. Housecall Pro lists 4.7 stars on Capterra from 2,700+ reviews, though that figure is its own claim. (housecallpro.com)
What people outside Housecall Pro and outside Nexa say:
SoftwareConnect rates Housecall Pro 4.5/5 from 10 reviews. Its editorial pros are full QuickBooks integration, a large library of training tutorials, and texting customers and employees from the app. A user review calls it an 'Amazing all in one platform for running a service provider company.' (softwareconnect.com)
SoftwareConnect's editorial cons are limited CRM functionality, some reported lag, and some users needing multiple programs. Users say scheduling is 'rigid' and multi-day jobs can't be extended. One reviewer says invoices don't produce usable internal reports and had to move away from the program. Another says it does not let them add many jobs or locations to one customer. (softwareconnect.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 gutter cleaner
Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every gutter cleaner: 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
Win the job
↓
A lead, a call, a referral — and a quote or estimate that turns it into a booked job.
CRM / contacts
Estimates & proposals
Booking / scheduling
then ↓
2
Manage the work
Do the job
↓
The part you actually get paid for — with the time, materials, add-ons, and tasks tracked as you go, not guessed at later.
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.)
Watch a job become an invoice
This is the connection that makes the rest worth it. A gutter cleaner'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.
Housecall Pro plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
Switching from Housecall Pro
1
Export your data — Go to Settings → export customers, job history, and invoices as CSV files.
2
Set up Nexa — 15-minute setup. Import your customer list by CSV; re-enter your core services.
3
Parallel run — Run both for 2 weeks. Transition dispatching and booking to Nexa.
4
Cancel Housecall Pro — Cancel subscription (check for early termination fees). Download all records.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.
What This Means for Gutter Cleaners
The median gutter cleaner earns $35,000/year. At $948/year, Housecall Pro 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 gutter cleaners. You own it like you own your Extension ladders (28-foot minimum).
Is Nexa actually right for a gutter cleaner?
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
Right for you if
You run solo or a small crew — like the 25,000 gutter cleaners in the US who do, and you wear every hat.
You're tired of paying every month for jobber and a pile of apps that don't talk to each other.
You want to invoice, schedule, and track from the field — not from a back office.
You'd rather own your software once, the way you own your Extension ladders (28-foot minimum).
Look elsewhere if
You run a 20+ gutter cleaner fleet that needs enterprise dispatch and multi-crew routing — Nexa is built for 1–5, and a fleet 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 gutter cleaners business that owns its tools and is sick of renting software, Nexa replaces your whole stack for $279 once. If you're scaling past a handful of crews, a fleet platform may fit better — and we'd rather tell you that now than sell you the wrong thing.
Gutter Cleaners by the numbers — by place
What gutter cleaners charge, city by city
$226 /homeavg local price
+51%vs national
moderatesaturation
~3,517operators
4%growth
$249 /homeavg local price
+66%vs national
moderatesaturation
~2,609operators
7%growth
$192 /homeavg local price
+28%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,821operators
4%growth
$205 /homeavg local price
+37%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,473operators
8%growth
$226 /homeavg local price
+51%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,200operators
10%growth
Local rates and saturation vary widely — price for the city you serve, not a national average.
Tax, licensing & seasonality where you operate
1-13.3%income tax
CSLB (Contractors State License Board)licensing
Year-round construction in SoCal. Fire season (June-November) drives restoration demand. Drought impacts landscaping. Earthquake retrofitting is ongoing market.
DBPR (Dept of Business and Professional Regulation)licensing
Hurricane season June-November creates massive restoration demand. Snowbird season November-March boosts service volume 30-40%. Year-round construction. Pool service is year-round industry. Pest control peaks in summer humidity.
Harsh winters in upstate, moderate in NYC. Construction limited in winter upstate. NYC market is enormous but hypercompetitive. Brownstone/pre-war building maintenance is specialized trade. NYC licensing is notoriously complex.
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 gutter cleaners actually deal with
Highly seasonal — slammed in fall, dead in summer
Scheduling 8-12 houses per day in tight geographic clusters
Recurring biannual clients who forget they booked you
Quoting linear footage of gutters from the ground
A day in the life of a gutter cleaner
Fall is my busy season; every leaf that drops is a job. At each house I set up the ladder safely on level ground with a stabiliser, then work my way around the gutters, scooping out leaves and sludge, and flushing every downspout with a hose so the water runs freely, because a blocked downspout is the reason most gutters overflow. From up on the ladder I see what homeowners can't: loose hangers, sagging runs, rusted seams and gutters that slope the wrong way, and I photograph them for the customer. Small repairs, resealing seams and re-securing hangers, I do on the spot; replacements get quoted separately. Gutter guards are a common upsell, and I'm honest about when they help and when they just trap debris. Two-storey and steep roofs need more care and more time, and I don't work in wind or rain. Most customers are on spring and fall plans billed per visit, priced by the linear foot of gutter and the height of the house, and I clean up every bit of debris from the yard before I leave.
The tools a working gutter cleaner actually owns
Extension ladders (28-foot minimum)
Gutter scoops and trowels
Leaf blower (backpack, commercial grade)
Gutter vacuum system
Why gutter cleaners leave the big platforms
jobber: I clean gutters — each job is 30-45 minutes. Jobber's overhead per job entry is ridiculous for quick-turn work.
housecall-pro: Way too complex. I need a calendar and an invoice button. $129/month for a seasonal gutter business is insane.
square: Can't manage seasonal recurring clients. I need to know which 200 clients are due for fall cleaning.
Where gutter cleaners actually talk shop
r/guttercleaning (Reddit)
r/sweatystartup (Reddit)
r/Entrepreneur (Reddit)
WindowCleaningResource.com Forum (Forum)
The Window Cleaner (YouTube)
Gutter Cleaning Business Tips (YouTube)
Local gutter cleaners on Nexa
Real gutter cleaners near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a gutter cleaner? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every gutter cleaner on Nexa →
The kit a working gutter cleaner owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Extension ladders (28-foot minimum)
Gutter scoops and trowels
Leaf blower (backpack, commercial grade)
Gutter vacuum system
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 Housecall Pro'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 Housecall Pro'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 gutter cleaners we can verify. For user testimony, read the independent reviews — Housecall Pro on G2 and on Capterra — where the reviewers are not selling you anything.
Check the price yourself:Housecall Pro'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 gutter cleaner'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 gutter cleaner — 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 pricingJobber $588/yr, Housecall Pro $948/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 gutter cleaner 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 gutter cleaners actually need to the people who set the standards — NRCA. 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 Housecall Pro replacement?
For solo gutter cleaners and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Housecall Pro may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
What does Housecall Pro do that Nexa doesn't?
Housecall Pro has features like Online booking for home services and GPS tracking that some businesses rely on. For most solo gutter cleaners, these aren't dealbreakers.
How fast does Nexa pay for itself?
At $79/month, Nexa pays for itself in 3.5 months. After that: $948 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.