What's free and what's paid in Nexus?

What's free and what's paid in Nexus?

The most important thing to know about Nexus: a large part of it is free, for every NHS staff member, forever. No card details, no trial that runs out, no obligation to ever subscribe. The paid platform is a separate, optional decision for your practice.

Free: for anyone with an NHS email

Register once with your @nhs.net or nhs.uk address and you have:

  • Practice, PCN and ICB benchmark dashboards: your organisation compared against peers and the national picture on QOF, demographics, workforce, income, quality and patient experience
  • Funding & equity dashboard: income vs activity, staffing, deprivation and disease burden across England
  • Data sources reference: every dataset behind the dashboards
  • National performance dashboard: every ICB in England ranked, free for every account
  • Find a GP: the public practice-comparison page (no account needed)

All of it runs on published, aggregate NHS data. There is nothing to cancel because there is nothing to pay.

Paid: a subscription your practice chooses to take

The paid platform adds the tools that work on your own live data and day-to-day workflows:

CapabilityWhat it adds
Build toolsForms, questionnaires, searches, dashboards and library items, exported ready for your clinical system
Monitoring & recallThe recall worklist and monitoring packs
Performance and Actions dashboardsYour live, in-year position computed from your own clinical system: QOF: live, Multi-KPI patients and Data quality, with CQC performance, CQC actions and Childhood immunisations as separate packages
WorkforceRotas, rooms, leave and absence
FFTFriends & Family Test by email and SMS
CommunicationsDrafting, approval and scheduling
AutomationStanding instructions and the patients who now need a decision
ResultsIncoming test results grouped by what they mean

Subscriptions are an annual Core Platform band based on registered population, plus optional modules. Some capabilities are add-ons (for example AI Insights, metered in Insight Credits, and PowerPoint export of the benchmarks). Current prices are on the in-app /pricing page; see Platform tiers and à-la-carte packages.

Moving between the two

  • Start free, decide later. Most practices should simply take the free dashboards first. If your practice later subscribes, your account joins the organisation and the paid features light up: nothing to reinstall or re-register.
  • Your organisation gets a free account too. Choosing Free dashboards sets up the practice, PCN or ICB you named as an organisation on Nexus. If you already have the free dashboards from an earlier signup, use Set up your organisation's account in the banner. We email a confirmation link, then verify your role. Still nothing to pay: see Free NHS data access.
  • Trying the paid platform is also low-risk: new organisations get a free 90-day trial with no card details.
  • If your practice already subscribes, you don't need to buy anything. Ask to join its organisation account. See Joining your organisation's existing account.

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