Jobber vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Headlight Restoration
Jobber
$49/mo ($588/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 5.7 months at Jobber's current price.
Bottom Line
Jobber costs headlight restoration $588/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 5.7 months it has cost less than Jobber, 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 Jobber 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 headlight restoration: Jobber is solid software, but at $49/month it costs $1,764 over 3 years. Nexa does most of what Jobber does for $279 once. For solo headlight restoration 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 invoicing, time tracker and task manager in one tool
You're tired of price increases
You want to own your tools like you own your equipment
Choose Jobber if:
You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
You're deeply invested in Jobber's specific workflow
You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet
Sound Familiar?
People see your before-and-after photos and think it's a magic wipe, but real headlight restoration is a wet-sanding progression and a sealed clear coat, and explaining that is half the job. The first car has badly yellowed, cloudy lenses, so you mask off the paint around them, then start wet-sanding with 800 grit to cut through the oxidized layer, stepping up through finer grits, keeping everything wet so you don't burn the plastic. After the sanding you machine-polish with compound until the lens goes clear, and then the step that separates a lasting job from a scam: a UV-cure clear coat so it doesn't yellow again in three months. That last step is what protects your reputation, because a cheap process that skips it looks great for a season and then comes back hazed. Some lenses are beyond surface work, fogged on the inside or crazed in the plastic, and you have to tell that customer honestly that they need new headlights, not a polish. You run mobile too, doing restorations in driveways, but a damp or cold day can ruin a cure, so weather and a power source dictate where you can work. After lunch you do a pair in a parking lot for a fleet customer and pull the masking carefully. You close by confirming tomorrow's mobile stops and following up with last month's customers to make sure the coat is holding.
Customers expecting a quick wipe-on miracle when proper restoration means wet-sanding through grits and sealing
Restorations that yellow again in months because a cheap process skipped the UV clear coat, hurting your reputation
Severely hazed or internally fogged lenses that surface cleaning won't fix, requiring an honest you-need-new-headlights talk
Mobile jobs where weather and a power source dictate whether you can wet-sand and cure a sealant in a driveway
Invoicing, time tracking, job tracking and the books 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. Jobber solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
What Jobber Actually Costs Headlight Restoration
Today's list price is $49/month — $588 a year, from Jobber's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.
Three years at today's price
Year 1$588
Year 2$588
Year 3$588
Three years of Jobber$1,764
Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $1,485 less.
If Jobber 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
Jobber
Nexa
Invoicing
✓
✓
Scheduling
✓
✓
CRM
✓
✓
Time Tracking
—
✓
Full Accounting
—
✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management
—
✓
Works offline
—
✓
Price
$49/mo
$279 once or 3 × $99
3-Year Total
$1,764
$279
You own it?
No — stop paying, lose access
Yes — forever
✓ and ✗ for Jobber come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Jobber 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.
Jobber'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 Jobber Does Better
Straight from Jobber's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Built for home services
Mobile app for field teams
Route optimization
Client hub for self-service
QuickBooks Online integration
A smaller bill up front: plans start at $49/month, against $279 paid once for Nexa.
Jobber is the better call if you need built for home services specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
What Jobber Is Built For
Jobber is built for home and commercial field service businesses. Its homepage names 12 trades, including cleaning, HVAC, landscaping, plumbing, roofing and tree care, and says it serves service pros in over 50 industries. (getjobber.com)
Core covers online booking and scheduling, quotes, invoices with online payments, a website, built-in reporting and 100+ app marketplace connections. (getjobber.com)
The Connect plan adds automated client reminders, automatic payment collection, checklists, quote and invoice follow-ups, QuickBooks Online sync, and time and expense tracking. (getjobber.com)
The Grow plan adds job costing, automatic time tracking, two-way SMS and custom workflow automations. The Plus plan adds crew scheduling, custom reports, unlimited photo and video storage, and dedicated onboarding with Premium Support. (getjobber.com)
Pricing is listed per plan and user count. For example, Connect for 5 users is $199/month with no commitment, or $149/month billed annually. Extra users cost $29/month each, and a plan can run month to month with no commitment. (getjobber.com)
A 14-day free trial includes full Grow access and needs no credit card. Core, Connect and Grow list 1-on-1 product support. (getjobber.com)
Jobber AI helps price jobs, drafts quotes and adds line items. The site also offers Jobber Academy, free estimate and profit-margin tools, and free monthly live sessions. (getjobber.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 headlight restoration technician
Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every headlight restoration technician: 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 headlight restoration technician'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.
The job Headlight restoration, pair with UV clear coat
ServiceWet-sand and polish headlight2 × $50$100
ServiceUV-cured clear coat2 × $25$50
→
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$190
Invoice total$190
You didn't write this invoice — the job did.
Calculate Your Full Stack
Jobber plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
Switching from Jobber
1
Export your data — Go to Settings → Data Export. Download clients, jobs, and invoices as CSV.
2
Set up Nexa — 15-minute setup. Import your client list by CSV; re-enter your services and upcoming jobs.
3
Parallel run — Run both for 1-2 weeks. Finish scheduled jobs in Jobber; book new ones in Nexa.
4
Cancel Jobber — Cancel subscription before your next billing cycle. Download final export.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.
What This Means for Headlight Restoration
The median Headlight Restoration Technician earns $48,000/year. At $588/year, Jobber 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 headlight restoration. You own it like you own your Random-orbital sander with a progression of wet-sanding discs (800 to 3000 grit).
Is Nexa actually right for a headlight restoration technician?
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 12,000 headlight restoration 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 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 Random-orbital sander with a progression of wet-sanding discs (800 to 3000 grit).
Look elsewhere if
You run a 20+ headlight restoration technician 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 headlight restoration 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.
Invoicing, time tracking, job tracking and the books 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.
What headlight restoration actually deal with
Customers expecting a quick wipe-on miracle when proper restoration means wet-sanding through grits and sealing
Restorations that yellow again in months because a cheap process skipped the UV clear coat, hurting your reputation
Severely hazed or internally fogged lenses that surface cleaning won't fix, requiring an honest you-need-new-headlights talk
Mobile jobs where weather and a power source dictate whether you can wet-sand and cure a sealant in a driveway
A day in the life of a headlight restoration technician
People see your before-and-after photos and think it's a magic wipe, but real headlight restoration is a wet-sanding progression and a sealed clear coat, and explaining that is half the job. The first car has badly yellowed, cloudy lenses, so you mask off the paint around them, then start wet-sanding with 800 grit to cut through the oxidized layer, stepping up through finer grits, keeping everything wet so you don't burn the plastic. After the sanding you machine-polish with compound until the lens goes clear, and then the step that separates a lasting job from a scam: a UV-cure clear coat so it doesn't yellow again in three months. That last step is what protects your reputation, because a cheap process that skips it looks great for a season and then comes back hazed. Some lenses are beyond surface work, fogged on the inside or crazed in the plastic, and you have to tell that customer honestly that they need new headlights, not a polish. You run mobile too, doing restorations in driveways, but a damp or cold day can ruin a cure, so weather and a power source dictate where you can work. After lunch you do a pair in a parking lot for a fleet customer and pull the masking carefully. You close by confirming tomorrow's mobile stops and following up with last month's customers to make sure the coat is holding.
The tools a working headlight restoration technician actually owns
Random-orbital sander with a progression of wet-sanding discs (800 to 3000 grit)
Polishing machine with compound and a foam pad
UV-cure clear coat or sealant to protect the restored lens
Masking tape and film to protect the surrounding paint
Spray bottle and microfiber towels for wet sanding and wipe-down
Mobile setup with a portable power supply for driveway service
The kit a working headlight restoration technician owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Random-orbital sander with a progression of wet-sanding discs (800 to 3000 grit)
Polishing machine with compound and a foam pad
UV-cure clear coat or sealant to protect the restored lens
Masking tape and film to protect the surrounding paint
Spray bottle and microfiber towels for wet sanding and wipe-down
Mobile setup with a portable power supply for driveway service
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.
What Nexa does for a headlight restoration technician — and what it doesn't
The honest version. Nexa was built to beat the rented stack on the jobs that matter most to a headlight restoration technician — 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 headlight restoration
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 reason it wins the set: From the quick-fix expectation to masking and wet-sanding through grits to sealing the clear coat to the invoice and payment, each lens job stays one record. in one record — $279 once vs 3 subscriptions · ~$1,044/yr.
What Nexa takes off your plate
Invoicingvs FreshBooks →After the wet-sanding progression and the UV clear coat the customer thought was a five-minute wipe, the real work bills off the job so they see what a sealed restoration actually took.
Job & project trackingvs Jobber →Each car is its own record from masking off the badly yellowed lenses to the sealed clear coat, so if a cheaply-done-elsewhere lens yellows again you have the honest you-need-new-headlights history on hand.
Books & accountingvs QuickBooks →The grits, compounds, and clear coat used per car cost into your books as you close the job, so a day of restorations reconciles itself without re-entry.
When you run big email campaigns & automations→ ConvertKit →
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.
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 Jobber'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 Jobber'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 headlight restoration we can verify. For user testimony, read the independent reviews — Jobber on G2 and on Capterra — where the reviewers are not selling you anything.
Check the price yourself:Jobber'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 headlight restoration technician'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 headlight restoration technician — 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 pricingQuickBooks $456/yr, Jobber $588/yr, Square, FreshBooks $516/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 $48,000 median we cite for the typical headlight restoration technician 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 Jobber replacement?
For solo headlight restoration and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Jobber may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
What does Jobber do that Nexa doesn't?
Jobber has features like Built for home services and Mobile app for field teams that some businesses rely on. For most solo headlight restoration, these aren't dealbreakers.
How fast does Nexa pay for itself?
At $49/month, Nexa pays for itself in 5.7 months. After that: $588 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.