ServiceTitan vs Nexa The Real Comparison for HVAC Technicians
ServiceTitan
$300/mo ($3,600/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 0.9 months at ServiceTitan's current price.
Bottom Line
ServiceTitan costs hvac technicians $3,600/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 0.9 months it has cost less than ServiceTitan, 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 ServiceTitan 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 hvac technicians: ServiceTitan is solid software, but at $300/month it costs $10,800 over 3 years. Nexa does most of what ServiceTitan does for $279 once. For solo hvac technicians 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 and task manager in one tool
You're tired of price increases
You want to own your tools like you own your equipment
Choose ServiceTitan if:
You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
You're deeply invested in ServiceTitan's specific workflow
You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet
Sound Familiar?
In summer I'm running six to eight calls a day, and the diagnosis is the job. A no-cool call means checking the thermostat, the breaker and the condensate switch before I touch the unit, then pulling the panel to test the capacitor and contactor, which are the most common failures on a hot day. If those are fine, I'm putting gauges on to check refrigerant pressures and superheat, and if it's low I'm leak-searching, because topping up a leaking system just brings me back next week and refrigerant is expensive and regulated, with every pound logged. Winter is furnaces: ignitors, flame sensors, pressure switches, and a combustion check for carbon monoxide on anything old. Between the emergencies I'm doing maintenance agreements, cleaning coils, changing filters and checking drains twice a year, which is steady work that smooths out the slow seasons. Replacements are the big tickets: sizing the system to the house, a written quote, permits and a day of install. Every call ends with a diagnostic fee or a repair to invoice before I drive to the next one.
Seasonal income swings — buried in summer, slow in spring/fall
ServiceTitan wants $300+/month for a one-man shop
Tracking maintenance agreements and recurring visits
Managing refrigerant logs and EPA compliance paperwork
Customers calling at 10pm because their AC died
Time tracking, invoicing, job tracking 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. ServiceTitan solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
What ServiceTitan Actually Costs HVAC Technicians
Today's list price is $300/month — $3,600 a year, from ServiceTitan's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.
Three years at today's price
Year 1$3,600
Year 2$3,600
Year 3$3,600
Three years of ServiceTitan$10,800
Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $10,521 less.
If ServiceTitan 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
ServiceTitan
Nexa
Invoicing
✓
✓
Scheduling
✓
✓
CRM
✓
✓
Time Tracking
✓
✓
Full Accounting
—
✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management
—
✓
Works offline
—
✓
Price
$300/mo
$279 once or 3 × $99
3-Year Total
$10,800
$279
You own it?
No — stop paying, lose access
Yes — forever
✓ and ✗ for ServiceTitan come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as ServiceTitan 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.
ServiceTitan'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 ServiceTitan Does Better
Straight from ServiceTitan's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Enterprise-grade field service management
Powerful dispatch board with real-time tracking
Deep reporting and analytics
Strong QuickBooks integration
Marketing attribution tracking
A smaller bill up front: plans start at $245/month, against $279 paid once for Nexa.
ServiceTitan is the better call if you need enterprise-grade field service management specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
What ServiceTitan Is Built For
ServiceTitan says it is built for commercial, construction and residential contracting businesses in the trades. Its page headline reads "Built for the Trades, Built for Your Business." (servicetitan.com)
The homepage lists one platform covering CRM, project management, service agreements, a customer portal, a field app, dispatch, purchasing and inventory, accounting, and reporting. (servicetitan.com)
The homepage cites 70+ pre-built integrations, including ServiceChannel, XOi, Viewpoint Spectrum, Sage and Ferguson. It also says it integrates with any accounting software. (servicetitan.com)
For commercial work it lists a Proposal Builder that turns accepted proposals into agreements. It also lists job costing, progress billing and WIP reporting. (servicetitan.com)
The homepage lists add-on products: AI Virtual Agent, Marketing Pro, Dispatch Pro, Pricebook Pro, and Payments, financing and accounts payable. (servicetitan.com)
The homepage lists support and training resources: phone support, a Customer Resource Hub, onboarding and training pages, Commercial Experts, and The Toolbox of articles, webinars, podcasts and templates. (servicetitan.com)
The homepage reports results for commercial customers on the platform for two or more years: +10% invoices paid on time, +9% revenue per technician, +21% service agreement renewals, and +16% annual revenue. It says results are not guaranteed. (servicetitan.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 hvac tech
Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every hvac tech: 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 hvac tech'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 No-cool call: capacitor and contactor
ServiceDiagnostic visit1 × $89$89
TimeLabor — tracked on the job
1.5 hrs× $110/hr$165
MaterialsDual run capacitor + contactor$145
→
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$549
Invoice total$549
You didn't write this invoice — the job did.
Calculate Your Full Stack
ServiceTitan plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
Switching from ServiceTitan
1
Export your data — Work with ServiceTitan support to export customer database, job history, and invoices.
2
Set up Nexa — 15-minute setup. Import your customer list from the exported CSV; re-enter your core services and upcoming jobs.
3
Parallel run — Run both for 2-4 weeks. ServiceTitan is complex so allow extra transition time.
4
Cancel ServiceTitan — Review your contract terms. Cancel with written notice per your agreement.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.
What This Means for HVAC Technicians
The median HVAC tech earns $50,590/year. At $3,600/year, ServiceTitan 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 hvac technicians. You own it like you own your Manifold gauge set.
Is Nexa actually right for a hvac tech?
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 45,000 hvac technicians in the US who do, and you wear every hat.
You're tired of paying every month for servicetitan 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 Manifold gauge set.
Look elsewhere if
You run a 20+ hvac tech 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 hvac technicians 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.
HVAC Technicians by the numbers — by place
What hvac technicians charge, city by city
$242 /service callavg local price
+61%vs national
moderatesaturation
~3,232operators
5%growth
$240 /service callavg local price
+60%vs national
moderatesaturation
~3,487operators
4%growth
$196 /service callavg local price
+31%vs national
moderatesaturation
~2,213operators
6%growth
$209 /service callavg local price
+39%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,741operators
8%growth
$186 /service callavg local price
+24%vs national
moderatesaturation
~1,558operators
7%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.
HVACTalk.comHVAC-Talk: The Contractor's ForumHVAC-Pro Forums
Time tracking, invoicing, job tracking 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 hvac technicians actually deal with
Seasonal income swings — buried in summer, slow in spring/fall
ServiceTitan wants $300+/month for a one-man shop
Tracking maintenance agreements and recurring visits
Managing refrigerant logs and EPA compliance paperwork
Customers calling at 10pm because their AC died
A day in the life of a hvac tech
In summer I'm running six to eight calls a day, and the diagnosis is the job. A no-cool call means checking the thermostat, the breaker and the condensate switch before I touch the unit, then pulling the panel to test the capacitor and contactor, which are the most common failures on a hot day. If those are fine, I'm putting gauges on to check refrigerant pressures and superheat, and if it's low I'm leak-searching, because topping up a leaking system just brings me back next week and refrigerant is expensive and regulated, with every pound logged. Winter is furnaces: ignitors, flame sensors, pressure switches, and a combustion check for carbon monoxide on anything old. Between the emergencies I'm doing maintenance agreements, cleaning coils, changing filters and checking drains twice a year, which is steady work that smooths out the slow seasons. Replacements are the big tickets: sizing the system to the house, a written quote, permits and a day of install. Every call ends with a diagnostic fee or a repair to invoice before I drive to the next one.
The tools a working hvac tech actually owns
Manifold gauge set
Refrigerant leak detectors
Vacuum pump
Micron gauge
Combustion analyzer
Psychrometer / hygrometer
Recovery machine
Their van with roof rack and ladder
Why hvac technicians leave the big platforms
servicetitan: Minimum $300+/month with annual contract. They don't care that you're solo — same price as a 10-truck company.
jobber: The scheduling works but the invoicing templates look cheap. Customers judge you on presentation.
housecall-pro: They raised prices three times in two years. What started at $49 is now $79 for the base plan.
Where hvac technicians actually talk shop
r/HVAC (Reddit)
r/hvacadvice (Reddit)
r/refrigeration (Reddit)
HVACTalk.com (Forum)
HVAC-Talk: The Contractor's Forum (Forum)
HVAC-Pro Forums (Forum)
HVAC School (YouTube)
AC Service Tech LLC (YouTube)
Local hvac technicians on Nexa
Real hvac technicians near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a hvac tech? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every hvac tech on Nexa →
The kit a working hvac tech owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Core kitEssential
Digital manifold gauge set
$200–$900
Core kitEssential
Two-stage vacuum pump
$200–$800
Core kitEssential
Digital micron gauge
$150–$600
Core kitEssential
Refrigerant recovery machine
$500–$2,500
Core kitEssential
Electronic leak detector
$150–$700
Core kitEssential
Combustion analyzer
$800–$4,000
Core kitEssential
Psychrometer and hygrometer
$80–$400
Core kitEssential
Charging scale
$100–$450
Core kitEssential
Clamp meter and multimeter
$100–$500
Core kitEssential
Nitrogen regulator and brazing kit
$200–$800
The core kit, bought once$2,480–$11,650
Here's the bar that matters: you spent $2,480–$11,650 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.
What Nexa does for a hvac tech — and what it doesn't
The honest version. Nexa was built to beat the rented stack on the jobs that matter most to a hvac tech — 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 hvac technicians
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: The repair becomes a job, the receipt prints from it on the spot, the maintenance agreement schedules the next visit off the same client, and you pay $279 once instead of the $300-plus a month servicetitan wants from a one-man shop. in one record — $279 once vs 3 subscriptions · ~$732/yr.
What Nexa takes off your plate
Job & project trackingvs Jobber →The AC repair you just finished is already a job with the parts and time on it, so when the next two stacked calls and the overdue maintenance-agreement customer pile up, nothing falls through because it never left the record.
Invoicingvs FreshBooks →The homeowner wants a receipt while you are still drenched in sweat, and it prints from the repair job on your phone instead of you stopping to re-type it, so you are on to the next call before the truck cools down.
Scheduling & bookingvs Calendly →That maintenance-agreement customer who should have been booked last week stays on a recurring schedule tied to their record, so July chaos does not bury the agreements you actually committed to and the recurring visits get put on the calendar.
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 ServiceTitan'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 ServiceTitan'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 hvac technicians we can verify. For user testimony, read the independent reviews — ServiceTitan on G2 and on Capterra — where the reviewers are not selling you anything.
Check the price yourself:ServiceTitan'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 hvac tech'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 hvac tech — 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 pricingServiceTitan $3,600/yr, Jobber $588/yr, Housecall Pro $948/yr, 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 $50,590 median we cite for the typical hvac tech 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 hvac technicians actually need to the people who set the standards — ACCA. 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 ServiceTitan replacement?
For solo hvac technicians and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. ServiceTitan may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
What does ServiceTitan do that Nexa doesn't?
ServiceTitan has features like Enterprise-grade field service management and Powerful dispatch board with real-time tracking that some businesses rely on. For most solo hvac technicians, these aren't dealbreakers.
How fast does Nexa pay for itself?
At $300/month, Nexa pays for itself in 0.9 months. After that: $3,600 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.