Toggl Track vs Nexa The Real Comparison for Virtual Assistants
Toggl Track
$12/mo ($144/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 23.3 months at Toggl Track's current price.
Does Toggl Track Fit Virtual Assistants? Our Read
What virtual assistants need from their software, from sources outside Toggl Track and outside Nexa:
Virtual assistants who work for clients as independent contractors need to track self-employment tax and make quarterly estimated payments, because no employer withholds tax from their pay. The IRS says self-employed people generally pay self-employment (SE) tax, which is Social Security and Medicare tax, plus income tax. It says they generally pay estimated taxes quarterly using Form 1040-ES. A net self-employment income of $400 or more requires filing a return. (irs.gov)
Bookkeeping for a VA has to separate the SE tax from income tax and apply the 15.3% SE tax rate to net earnings. The rate is 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. The IRS page gives the Social Security wage base as $168,600 for 2024. The employer-equivalent portion of SE tax can be deducted when figuring adjusted gross income. (irs.gov)
Client records and contracts should be able to show that the VA is an independent contractor and not an employee. The IRS looks at three categories of evidence: behavioral control, financial control, and type of relationship. The last category covers written contracts, benefits, and whether the relationship is ongoing. A VA who works long-term for one client therefore needs a written agreement and records of how the work is directed. (irs.gov)
Many VAs bill on retainer, so invoicing software needs to handle prepaid monthly hours. A practitioner handbook describes a retainer as a client paying in advance for a set number of hours or tasks. It says retainers are always charged for the month ahead, not the month just ended. It advises billing the full retained amount whether or not the hours are used, and avoiding rollover of unused hours. The same handbook also notes that policies on unused hours vary. (thevahandbook.com)
Toggl Track covers the time side of a VA's work well. It tracks on web, desktop, mobile and browser extensions. It groups reports by client or project, and it has billable rates and invoicing. It also connects to tools VAs often work inside, such as Asana, Notion and Slack, and it has a free tier. It does not cover the tax side of being an independent contractor. Nothing in its feature list handles self-employment tax, quarterly estimated payments, or records showing contractor status. Its invoicing is also not described as handling prepaid monthly retainers.
Nexa covers more of the money side. It has invoices, recurring invoices and payment plans, which suit billing a retainer a month ahead. Clients can pay by card through the VA's own Stripe account. It also has expenses, profit and loss, and time tracking, plus proposals and estimates that clients can sign, which could help document the working arrangement. It does not state any self-employment tax calculation or quarterly estimate support, so the VA would still need a separate way to work those out. It has no integrations with other apps, no QuickBooks or Xero sync, and no Google Calendar sync. It runs on one device unless the optional Cloud Sync is added. Any automated emails it sends, such as reminders, go out only while Nexa is open on one of the VA's devices. It is software you own and run yourself, with no vendor onboarding or support desk.
Over three years Toggl Track on the $12 plan costs $432 ($144 a year). Nexa is $279 once, or $458.64 with Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month. Nexa is cheaper without sync and costs more with it. A VA who tracks time inside other apps, works from several devices, or can use the free tier should stay with Toggl Track. A VA who wants invoicing, retainer billing and bookkeeping in one owned tool, and works from one device, could reasonably switch. Either way, the self-employment tax and quarterly estimate work needs a separate tax tool or professional.
Our read for virtual assistants: Stay with Toggl Track unless you want invoicing and bookkeeping in one tool you own, and neither tool handles self-employment tax or quarterly estimates.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Bottom Line
Toggl Track costs virtual assistants $144/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 23.3 months it has cost less than Toggl Track, 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 Toggl Track 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 virtual assistants: Stay with Toggl Track 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 $432 for Toggl Track over three years.
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 connect crm in one tool
You're tired of price increases
You want to own your tools like you own your equipment
Choose Toggl Track if:
You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
You're deeply invested in Toggl Track's specific workflow
You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet
Sound Familiar?
I support five clients, and each one has handed me a different slice of their business. For one I manage the inbox and calendar, sorting what needs her attention from what I can answer myself. For another I run the back office: invoices out, bills logged, payments chased, and a weekly summary of where money stands. A third gets social media scheduling and newsletter formatting, and a fourth has me on customer service, answering enquiries within an hour. Every client has their own tools, logins and preferences, so I keep detailed notes and checklists for each one; the job is being reliable enough that they stop thinking about the task at all. I work in time blocks, and I track every hour because most of my clients are on monthly retainers for a set number of hours, and I have to flag it when the work outgrows the retainer. Confidentiality matters: I'm inside people's email, finances and client lists. I invoice at the start of each month and spend a couple of hours a week finding the next client.
Tracking hours across 5-10 clients billing at different hourly rates
Clients expecting 'always available' response times
Scope creep when 'admin support' expands to social media, bookkeeping, and personal errands
Late payments from clients who see VA work as low-priority
Time tracking, invoicing, client records and job tracking 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. Toggl Track solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
What Toggl Track Actually Costs Virtual Assistants
Today's list price is $12/month — $144 a year, from Toggl Track's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.
Three years at today's price
Year 1$144
Year 2$144
Year 3$144
Three years of Toggl Track$432
Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $153 less.
If Toggl Track 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
Toggl Track
Nexa
Invoicing
✗
✓
Scheduling
✗
✓
CRM
✗
✓
Time Tracking
✓
✓
Full Accounting
✗
✓ (SIMPL)
Task Management
✗
✓
Works offline
—
✓
Price
$12/mo
$279 once or 3 × $99
3-Year Total
$432
$279
You own it?
No — stop paying, lose access
Yes — forever
✓ and ✗ for Toggl Track come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as Toggl Track 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.
Toggl Track'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 Toggl Track Does Better
Straight from Toggl Track's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
Simple time tracking
Desktop and mobile apps
Pomodoro timer
Project-based tracking
Good free tier
A free plan to start on (with limits), so you can use Toggl Track before paying anything.
Toggl Track is the better call if you need simple time tracking specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
What Toggl Track Is Built For
Toggl Track's product page lists agencies and professional services teams, software and IT teams, law firms, and accounting and finance teams. It also names three sizes of customer: freelancers and solo users, growing teams, and large organizations. (toggl.com)
The product page lists cross-platform tracking on web, desktop (Windows, Mac), mobile (iOS, Android) and browser extensions. It also lists automated background tracking and a one-click timer. (toggl.com)
The product page lists timesheet and detailed time reports grouped by project, client or team. It also lists financial reports on project, client and team profitability, and estimated vs. actual time tracking. (toggl.com)
The product page lists billable rates, including 6-minute increments for law firms, and invoicing. (toggl.com)
The product page lists Boards, Gantt charts and a calendar planner. It also lists utilization and workload reports, and automatic planning around PTO and public holidays. (toggl.com)
The product page lists integrations with Jira, Asana, Notion and Slack, among others. It also lists an API and an MCP server, which can connect to Claude, Cursor and Codex. (toggl.com)
The pricing page shows a Free plan, with a stated limit of up to 3 users in its FAQ. Starter is $9 per user per month on annual billing, and Premium is $16 per user per month on annual billing. Enterprise is priced through sales. Paid plans and add-ons come with a 30-day trial. (toggl.com)
The product page says it does no screenshots, keystroke logging or webcam monitoring. It also states SOC Type 2 and ISO 27001 compliance and 99.99% uptime. It offers a free 30-day trial of all features with no credit card required. (toggl.com)
What people outside Toggl Track and outside Nexa say:
The Business Dive gives Toggl Track 4.4/5. It calls the interface "beautiful and straightforward" and says offline time tracking is supported. It also says the free version "includes all the basic features they need" for individuals and freelancers, and that invoicing is "quite valuable for agencies and consultancies." (thebusinessdive.com)
The Business Dive criticises the lack of GPS tracking, which it says rules Toggl Track out for construction, real estate and other location-dependent work. It also says "some advanced reporting and analytics tools are locked behind the more expensive plans." (thebusinessdive.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 virtual assistant
Software doesn't do the creative work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every virtual assistant: 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 creative work. Tap a step to see what gets automated.
1
Find the work
Land the project
↓
An inquiry becomes a proposal becomes a signed project — with the scope and the deposit locked in.
CRM / contacts
Estimates & proposals
Booking / scheduling
then ↓
2
Manage the work
Do the work
↓
The work itself — tracked against the project: hours, milestones, revisions, and expenses, so nothing bills late or goes uncounted.
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 creative 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 virtual assistant'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 Monthly retainer, 20 hours
ServiceRetainer (20 hours)1 × $700$700
TimeLabor — tracked on the job
3 hrs× $35/hr$105
→
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$955
Invoice total$955
You didn't write this invoice — the job did.
Calculate Your Full Stack
Toggl Track plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
Switching from Toggl Track
1
Export your data — Go to Reports → Detailed → Export as CSV. Download your full time entry history.
2
Set up Nexa — 10-minute setup. Import your client list by CSV, then set up your projects.
3
Start tracking in Nexa — Use Nexa time tracker for new entries. Import historical data if needed.
4
Cancel Toggl — Cancel subscription. Download a final export for your records.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.
What This Means for Virtual Assistants
The median virtual assistant earns $38,000/year. At $144/year, Toggl Track 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 virtual assistants. You own it like you own your Home office setup (desk, chair, dual monitors).
Is Nexa actually right for a virtual assistant?
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
Right for you if
You run solo or a small team — like the 150,000 virtual assistants in the US who do, and you wear every hat.
You're tired of paying every month for toggl and a pile of apps that don't talk to each other.
You want invoicing, scheduling, and client tracking in one place — not scattered across five apps.
You'd rather own your software once, the way you own your Home office setup (desk, chair, dual monitors).
Look elsewhere if
You have a large team that needs enterprise seats, granular roles, and dedicated admin staff — Nexa is built for solo and small operators (1–5), and a bigger 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 virtual assistants 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.
Virtual Assistants by the numbers — by place
What virtual assistants charge, city by city
$52 /hravg local price
+49%vs national
moderatesaturation
~5,931operators
6%growth
$54 /hravg local price
+54%vs national
moderatesaturation
~3,610operators
4%growth
$47 /hravg local price
+34%vs national
highsaturation
~3,130operators
5%growth
$40 /hravg local price
+14%vs national
highsaturation
~2,333operators
10%growth
$42 /hravg local price
+20%vs national
highsaturation
~1,947operators
7%growth
Local rates and saturation vary widely — price for the city you serve, not a national average.
🎧 The Virtual Assistant Podcast🎧 VA Mastered Podcast
Forums
FreeU Academy Community
Time tracking, invoicing, client records and job tracking 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 virtual assistants actually deal with
Tracking hours across 5-10 clients billing at different hourly rates
Clients expecting 'always available' response times
Scope creep when 'admin support' expands to social media, bookkeeping, and personal errands
Late payments from clients who see VA work as low-priority
A day in the life of a virtual assistant
I support five clients, and each one has handed me a different slice of their business. For one I manage the inbox and calendar, sorting what needs her attention from what I can answer myself. For another I run the back office: invoices out, bills logged, payments chased, and a weekly summary of where money stands. A third gets social media scheduling and newsletter formatting, and a fourth has me on customer service, answering enquiries within an hour. Every client has their own tools, logins and preferences, so I keep detailed notes and checklists for each one; the job is being reliable enough that they stop thinking about the task at all. I work in time blocks, and I track every hour because most of my clients are on monthly retainers for a set number of hours, and I have to flag it when the work outgrows the retainer. Confidentiality matters: I'm inside people's email, finances and client lists. I invoice at the start of each month and spend a couple of hours a week finding the next client.
The tools a working virtual assistant actually owns
Home office setup (desk, chair, dual monitors)
High-speed internet and backup connection
Project management tools (Asana, Trello, ClickUp)
Communication tools (Slack, Zoom)
Why virtual assistants leave the big platforms
toggl: $10/month for a timer. When you're billing at $25/hour, that's almost half an hour of work per month just for the timer app.
freshbooks: $17/month for 5 clients. Most VAs have more than 5. Next tier is $30/month — over an hour of billable work gone.
harvest: Time tracking and invoicing in one — but $11/month and the invoicing is too basic for client-facing work.
Where virtual assistants actually talk shop
r/VirtualAssistant (Reddit)
r/WorkOnline (Reddit)
r/freelance (Reddit)
FreeU Academy Community (Forum)
Abbey Ashley (YouTube)
Esther Inman (YouTube)
$10K VA (YouTube)
Local virtual assistants on Nexa
Real virtual assistants near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee.
Are you a virtual assistant? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time.
Or browse every virtual assistant on Nexa →
The kit a working virtual assistant owns
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Home office setup (desk, chair, dual monitors)
High-speed internet and backup connection
Project management tools (Asana, Trello, ClickUp)
Communication tools (Slack, Zoom)
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 Toggl Track'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 Toggl Track'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 virtual assistants we can verify. For user testimony, read the independent reviews — Toggl Track on G2 and on Capterra — where the reviewers are not selling you anything.
Check the price yourself:Toggl Track'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 virtual assistant'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 virtual assistant — 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 pricingToggl Track $144/yr, FreshBooks $516/yr, Harvest $132/yr, Wave $228/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 $38,000 median we cite for the typical virtual assistant 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 virtual assistants actually need to the people who set the standards — IAAP. 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 Toggl Track replacement?
For solo virtual assistants and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. Toggl Track may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
What does Toggl Track do that Nexa doesn't?
Toggl Track has features like Simple time tracking and Desktop and mobile apps that some businesses rely on. For most solo virtual assistants, these aren't dealbreakers.
How fast does Nexa pay for itself?
At $12/month, Nexa pays for itself in 23.3 months. After that: $144 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.