I'm considering joining one of the US government's Trusted Traveler programs. I found this comparison chart (see below) on the Homeland Security website comparing TSA Pre-Check, Global Entry, NEXUS, and SENTRI.
I'm a US citizen, so I'm eligible to join any of them. Now usually when you have multiple options for something, each has its own relative advantages and disadvantages. But when comparing TSA Pre-Check, Global Entry, and NEXUS, it appears that NEXUS offers all the benefits of the other two, in addition to expedited processing to enter Canada, and also costs a lot less. This seems a little too good to be true, so I wonder if I am missing something.
Given the choice between the three of them, is it really true that NEXUS is clearly superior in all ways? Or is there a catch?
(As for SENTRI, I guess the main extra benefit it offers is that you can register your car, so if you enter the US by road in your own car, you can use a special lane. I don't think I'd use that feature so I don't think it's worth it for me to pay the higher fee for SENTRI, unless it has even more features that I'm missing.)
Comparison chart: