QuickBooks vs Nexa
The Real Comparison for Roofers

QuickBooks
$38/mo ($456/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 7.3 months at QuickBooks's current price.

Does QuickBooks Fit Roofers? Our Read

What roofers need from their software, from sources outside QuickBooks and outside Nexa:

QuickBooks covers the money side of roofing well. It has bank feed reconciliation, comprehensive reporting, and an industry-standard format that accountants know. Plus adds project profitability, which helps when you cost out individual roofs. 800+ integrations and phone support on paid plans help too. What its feature list doesn't show is anything for the trade's compliance work. That includes contract templates with required deductible notices and bold-type clauses, a record of each job's cancellation window and notice, and per-job lien dates such as last day worked and notice deadlines. Those rules vary by state, and nothing listed tracks them. Cash planning for a seasonal, weather-driven business falls to you and your reports. The plan that does the core job is $38/month.

Nexa covers estimates, quotes and proposals that convert to invoices, and clients can sign estimates and pay by card through your own Stripe account. It also has jobs with costing and profit per job, a crew view of assigned jobs, time tracking, a payroll CSV, expenses, bank reconciliation, profit and loss, a balance sheet and cash flow. It does not run payroll taxes, pay stubs or direct deposit. It has no job templates and no lien-deadline or statutory-notice tracking. You could keep notice dates in job notes, but nothing would prompt you. It cannot sync or import with QuickBooks, so moving over means re-entering history, and it has no hosted support desk. Over three years, QuickBooks at $38/month is $1,368. Nexa is $279 once, or $458.64 with Cloud Sync at $4.99/month. Nexa is much cheaper if you only need invoicing, job costing and bookkeeping on one device. If your accountant works in QuickBooks, or you rely on its integrations and phone support, stay put. Whichever you use, track contract clauses and lien dates in a separate system.

Our read for roofers: Neither product tracks roofing's required contract notices, cancellation windows and lien deadlines, so add a roofing-specific contract and job-compliance tool and keep QuickBooks or Nexa only for the books.

Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.

Bottom Line

QuickBooks costs roofers $456/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 7.3 months it has cost less than QuickBooks, 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 QuickBooks 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 roofers: Neither QuickBooks 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 $1,368 for QuickBooks over three years.

Choose Nexa if:

  • You're done paying monthly forever
  • You're a solo operator or small team (1-5)
  • You need invoicing, task manager and time tracker in one tool
  • You're tired of price increases
  • You want to own your tools like you own your equipment

Choose QuickBooks if:

  • You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
  • You're deeply invested in QuickBooks's specific workflow
  • You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet

Sound Familiar?

A roofing day starts before sunrise, because by early afternoon in summer the shingles are too hot to walk and the crew is cooked. Most of my work starts with an inspection: up on the roof, checking shingles, flashing around chimneys and vents, soft spots in the deck, and the attic for water stains and ventilation. After a storm I'm on the phone with homeowners and their insurance adjusters, documenting hail and wind damage with photos so the claim holds up. A tear-off and re-roof on an average house is one or two days: strip to the deck, replace rotten sheathing, ice and water shield at the eaves and valleys, underlayment, drip edge, shingles, new flashing and ridge vent, then magnets for every stray nail in the yard. The weather runs my calendar; a forecast change moves three jobs. Materials are the biggest cost, delivered to the roof the day before, and the supplier wants paying on terms. I'm quoting new jobs in the evening, ordering material, and collecting the deposit and the final payment once the job passes inspection.

Invoicing, job tracking, time 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. QuickBooks solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.

What QuickBooks Actually Costs Roofers

Today's list price is $38/month — $456 a year, from QuickBooks's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.

Three years at today's price

Year 1$456
Year 2$456
Year 3$456
Three years of QuickBooks$1,368

Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $1,089 less.

If QuickBooks 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.

What QuickBooks has actually done to its price

Today's sticker price only tells you what a subscription costs today. These are dated changes, each linked to the announcement or report it comes from. Tap one for the numbers.

Since launch Nexa — $279 once. No annual hike, no per-seat creep, no "your plan is changing" email.

Only changes we can link to a vendor announcement or a named publication are listed. Plans, add-ons and discounts vary, so check the vendor's current pricing page before you decide.

Feature-by-Feature

FeatureQuickBooksNexa
Invoicing✓✓
Scheduling✗✓
CRM✗✓
Time Tracking—✓
Full Accounting✓✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management✗✓
Works offline—✓
Price$38/mo$279 once
or 3 × $99
3-Year Total$1,368$279
You own it?No — stop paying, lose accessYes — forever

✓ and ✗ for QuickBooks come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as QuickBooks lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.

What "$279 Once" Does And Doesn't Buy

What QuickBooks Does Better

Straight from QuickBooks's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.

QuickBooks is the better call if you need industry standard - accountants know it specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.

What QuickBooks Is Built For

QuickBooks Online is aimed at freelancers and new businesses, small and mid-size businesses, product-based businesses, and nonprofits. Larger or more complex operations are pointed to Desktop Enterprise (up to 40 users) or Intuit Enterprise Suite (multi-entity). (quickbooks.intuit.com)

What people outside QuickBooks and outside Nexa say:

Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.

Where business tools fit — for a roofer

Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every roofer: 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. 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. 2

    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. 3

    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. 4

    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 roofer'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 Tear-off and re-roof (22 squares)
Service Tear-off, underlayment and shingle install 22 × $240 $5,280
Time Labor — tracked on the job 4 hrs × $65/hr $260
Materials Architectural shingles, underlayment, flashing $3,900
Materials Dumpster and disposal $450
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$10,210
Deposit credited−$3,000
Invoice total$7,210

You didn't write this invoice — the job did.

Calculate Your Full Stack

QuickBooks plus whatever else you're paying for:

Email yourself this comparison?

Switching from QuickBooks

1
Export your data — Go to Reports → export to CSV. Download clients, invoices, expenses.
2
Set up Nexa — 15-minute setup. Import your clients and expenses by CSV; re-enter your main services.
3
Parallel run — Run both for 1-2 weeks. Verify everything transferred.
4
Cancel QuickBooks — Cancel subscription. Download final backup. You're done.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.

What This Means for Roofers

The median roofer earns $47,000/year. At $456/year, QuickBooks 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 roofers. You own it like you own your Nail guns (roofing nailers).

Is Nexa actually right for a roofer?

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 60,000 roofers 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 Nail guns (roofing nailers).

Look elsewhere if

  • You run a 20+ roofer 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 roofers 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.

Roofers by the numbers — by place

What roofers charge, city by city

$13,111 /roofavg local price
+54%vs national
moderatesaturation
~4,475operators
4%growth
$14,973 /roofavg local price
+76%vs national
moderatesaturation
~2,909operators
4%growth
$9,716 /roofavg local price
+14%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,677operators
3%growth
$10,369 /roofavg local price
+22%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,181operators
7%growth
$10,559 /roofavg local price
+24%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,768operators
12%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.

Register a business in California →

Noneincome tax
TDLR (Texas Dept of Licensing and Regulation)licensing

Extreme summer heat drives HVAC demand. Hurricane risk on Gulf Coast. Year-round construction. Rapid population growth in DFW, Austin, Houston, San Antonio creates sustained demand. Freeze events (like 2021) create emergency plumbing/HVAC surge.

Register a business in Texas →

Noneincome tax
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.

Register a business in Florida →

4-10.9%income tax
NYC DCA + NYS DOS + specialty boardslicensing

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.

Register a business in New York →

Where roofers actually talk shop

Your people are already online — swapping real numbers, tool picks, and war stories. Here's where to find them.

Recent in r/sweatystartup · Where solo service businesses swap real numbers and hard-won lessons.
Quit my six-figure corporate sales job to buy a home service franchise. On pace to do $2M+ this year. AMA. Three years ago I posted about starting a company with no construction experience. Here's what I've learned since. I run my business — it doesn't run me. I think AI search is about to change how local service businesses get found. Anyone else seeing this? Update: $12k/mo revenue after 1.5 years. What I'd do differently from day one.

Subreddits worth your time

r/Roofing

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →
r/Construction

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →
r/sweatystartup

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →

Facebook groups to join

Roofing Contractors Roofing Business Owners The Roofers Community Storm Damage Roofing Network
Podcasts
🎧 Roofing Insights Podcast
Forums
RoofingTalk.comContractorTalk.com

Invoicing, job tracking, time 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 roofers actually deal with

A day in the life of a roofer

A roofing day starts before sunrise, because by early afternoon in summer the shingles are too hot to walk and the crew is cooked. Most of my work starts with an inspection: up on the roof, checking shingles, flashing around chimneys and vents, soft spots in the deck, and the attic for water stains and ventilation. After a storm I'm on the phone with homeowners and their insurance adjusters, documenting hail and wind damage with photos so the claim holds up. A tear-off and re-roof on an average house is one or two days: strip to the deck, replace rotten sheathing, ice and water shield at the eaves and valleys, underlayment, drip edge, shingles, new flashing and ridge vent, then magnets for every stray nail in the yard. The weather runs my calendar; a forecast change moves three jobs. Materials are the biggest cost, delivered to the roof the day before, and the supplier wants paying on terms. I'm quoting new jobs in the evening, ordering material, and collecting the deposit and the final payment once the job passes inspection.

The tools a working roofer actually owns

Why roofers leave the big platforms

Where roofers actually talk shop

Local roofers on Nexa

Real roofers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a roofer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every roofer on Nexa →

The kit a working roofer owns

The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.

Core kitEssential

Coil roofing nailer

$200–$500
Core kitEssential

Air compressor and hose

$150–$500
Core kitEssential

Tear-off shovels and pry bars

$60–$250
Core kitEssential

Roof jacks, planks and brackets

$150–$600
Core kitEssential

Extension and pump-jack ladders

$300–$900
Core kitEssential

Fall arrest harness and roof anchors

$200–$700
Core kitEssential

Shingle cutter and hook blades

$30–$150
Core kitEssential

Magnetic nail sweeper

$60–$250
Upgrade

Debris chute and dump trailer

$6,000–$18,000
Upgrade

Hot air welder for TPO and EPDM

$1,500–$6,000
The core kit, bought once $1,150–$3,850

Here's the bar that matters: you spent $1,150–$3,850 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.

How To Read This Page

How we put this guide together

We build a roofer'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 roofer — 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

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 QuickBooks replacement?

For solo roofers and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. QuickBooks may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.

What does QuickBooks do that Nexa doesn't?

QuickBooks has features like Industry standard - accountants know it and 800+ app integrations that some businesses rely on. For most solo roofers, these aren't dealbreakers.

How fast does Nexa pay for itself?

At $38/month, Nexa pays for itself in 7.3 months. After that: $456 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.

$1,368 Over 3 Years. Or $279 Once (or 3 × $99).

Own your tools. Stop renting your software.

Get Nexa — $279 Once
or 3 payments of $99
✓ 30-day money-back — save $500 or full refund

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