Front alternatives
The best Front alternatives for a small business (2026)
The best Front alternatives are Missive for a cheaper shared inbox with chat and SMS, Hiver for collaboration inside Gmail, Help Scout for customer support with a free plan, Zendesk for full ticketing and phone, Shortwave for a team on Gmail with AI search, and Mojobase for shared email beside your customers, tasks and invoices.
Updated . Prices and features checked on each company's own site
Why do people look for alternatives to Front?
- Starter handles a single channel type and caps at 10 seats; email, SMS, social and WhatsApp together need Professional, at $65 a seat a month billed yearly.
- Copilot is a $20 a seat add-on below Enterprise, and Autopilot, its AI agent, starts at $0.39 per conversation through sales.
- Native WhatsApp costs Meta's fees plus a 20% admin fee, on Professional and Enterprise.
What are the best Front alternatives?
| Tool | Best for |
|---|---|
| Missive | A cheaper shared inbox with team chat and SMS |
| Hiver | Shared inboxes and collaboration inside Gmail |
| Help Scout | Customer support that feels like email, with a free plan |
| Zendesk | Full ticketing, routing and phone as support grows |
| Shortwave | A Gmail team that wants AI search and shared threads |
| Mojobase | Shared email beside customers, tasks and invoices |
1. Missive: best for a cheaper shared inbox with team chat and SMS
Missive connects Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook and IMAP accounts, plus WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and SMS, in one team inbox with internal chat. Rules handle auto-assignment, follow-ups and canned responses. It's the closest match to Front for a small team, at a lower price per user.
- Business: $36 per user per month, unlimited users, billed yearly (20% off); $45 billed monthly1
- Feature: Channels: Gmail / Google Workspace, Outlook, IMAP, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, SMS (Twilio, Quo, Dialpad)2
- Feature: Rules and auto-assignment, auto follow-ups and canned responses; up to 1,000 rules3
2. Hiver: best for shared inboxes and collaboration inside Gmail
Hiver gives Gmail teams shared inboxes with ticketing, rule-based automations and analytics on every plan, plus @mentions and links to Jira or Linear for cross-team work. AI agents and Copilot come with every plan rather than as add-ons. It suits teams that won't leave Gmail.
- Growth: $25 per user per month, billed annually (page 'Annual' toggle); $35 billed monthly4
- Feature: Cross-team collaboration: @mentions, link requests to Jira or Linear, discuss issues in Slack from Hiver5
- Feature: Rule-based automations, pre-built analytics and shared inbox with ticketing on every plan6
3. Help Scout: best for customer support that feels like email, with a free plan
Help Scout's shared inbox has multiple inboxes, tags, saved replies, snooze, send later and customer profiles, and light users let teammates collaborate without a full seat. It's free for five users. It suits teams whose shared inbox is mainly for customer support.
- Free plan: Yes: Free plan with up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site, 100 contacts per month, 10 saved replies, 10 tags.7
- Feature: Shared inbox with multiple inboxes, tags, saved replies, snooze, send later and customer profiles8
- Feature: Light users let teammates view and collaborate without a full seat (Plus up to 25, Pro up to 50)9
4. Zendesk: best for full ticketing, routing and phone as support grows
Zendesk Suite Professional adds skills-based routing, an IVR phone tree, Admin Copilot and quick reports to its omnichannel help desk. It suits a team whose shared inbox has become a support operation with service levels and phone calls.
- Suite Professional: $115 per agent per month, billed annually; $149 billed monthly10
- Suite Professional includes: Suite Team features, plus Admin Copilot, App Builder, Writing Tools, Quick Reports; Skills-based routing; IVR phone tree; 10 automated AI-agent resolutions per agent per month included11
- Feature: Skills-based routing and IVR phone tree from Suite Professional12
5. Shortwave: best for a Gmail team that wants AI search and shared threads
Shortwave adds shared threads, team comments, assignees, shared labels and channels to Gmail, with AI that searches the team's email history. Business includes AI filters that act on new mail from a plain-language prompt. It suits teams on Google Workspace that don't need a help desk.
- Business includes: Standard intelligence; roughly 150-300 Standard AI requests per day; 5 years AI search history; 50 threads per AI search; 3 AI filters; AI integrations and MCP; Read statuses, link tracking, snippets, team collaboration13
- Feature: Team features: shared threads, team comments, assignees, shared labels, channels, team read statuses.14
- AI: AI filters (3 / 10 / 50 by plan) that act on new email from a plain-language prompt; AI search over your team's email history; attachment analysis; AI memory; saved prompts.15
6. Mojobase: best for shared email beside customers, tasks and invoices
Mojobase hosts shared addresses such as hello@ and support@ on your domain, or connects Gmail and Microsoft 365, and keeps them beside the CRM, tasks, calendar and read-only Stripe invoices. Support addresses get their own Inbox with one owner per conversation. No SMS, WhatsApp, social or phone.
- Price: $39 a month for the first person and $25 for each after; the first 10 companies pay $29 and $19, for life
- AI: included, with your choice of model, or bring your own
How should a small team choose a Front alternative?
Decide what your shared inbox is for. If it's customer support, a help desk such as Help Scout or Zendesk adds help centers, reporting and service levels. If it's a team sharing addresses like hello@ and sales@, a team email client such as Missive or Shortwave is lighter. If it's the hub of the business, where sales, support and billing all run through email, the shared inbox should sit next to the customer records and the money.
Then count the channels. Front's strength is many channels in one place. If you only need email, you're paying for channels you don't use.
How do Front alternatives compare on price?
Prices are per user or seat a month, billed yearly, from each company's own pricing page.
| Tool | Free plan | Entry plan | Channels | AI for your team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | None | $25 a seat (Starter, one channel type, up to 10 seats) | Email, SMS, social and WhatsApp from Professional, $65 | Copilot add-on, $20 a seat |
| Missive | None; 30-day trial | $14 (Starter, up to 5 users) | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, social | AI assistant from Productive, $24 |
| Hiver | None; 7-day trial | $25 (Growth) | Email, chat, Slack, Teams; voice add-on | AI agents and Copilot on every plan |
| Help Scout | 5 users | $25 (Standard) | Email; chat, SMS, WhatsApp and social from Standard | AI Drafts unlimited on Plus |
| Zendesk | None; 14-day trial | $19 (Support Team) | Messaging, chat and phone from Suite Team | Copilot add-on on Professional, $50 |
| Shortwave | Yes, limited AI | $30 a seat (Business, monthly) | Gmail | Standard AI with a daily quota |
| Mojobase | None | $39 a month for the first person, $25 each after | Email, hosted or connected; website Messenger for support | A monthly allowance included, or your own API key |
Hiver Growth is $25 per user per month billed annually; seats start at two, then five, then increments of five. Successful AI resolutions add $0.80 each, separate from seats; handoffs and assumed resolutions are not charged.
Mojobase's price also covers team chat, calendar, documents, tasks, the CRM, Numbers and the Handbook. For five people it's $139 a month.
What does Mojobase do differently from Front?
Front organizes conversations; Mojobase organizes the business around them. A mailbox seen by Everyone in the company is shared by the team, and every person also has their own. Support addresses move into Customers' Inbox, where each conversation is open, waiting or closed with one owner. New mail is sorted as it lands, and the AI drafts replies with the customer's history, open tasks and invoices in view.
Because the CRM builds itself from the same mail, everyone you write to becomes a person in Customers with their company, last contact and next meeting. Ask who's waiting on a reply, oldest first, and the AI answers from every shared mailbox you can see.
What it doesn't have: SMS, WhatsApp, social or phone channels, routing rules, SLA analytics or workspaces per team. It's built for 1 to 25 people, and it works well for teams up to 100.
What do you lose by leaving Front?
You lose a mature shared inbox for many channels and teams. Front combines email from Gmail, Office 365 or any provider with SMS through Twilio or Dialpad, WhatsApp, social and Slack, plus ticketing, a knowledge base, workflow rules, multiple workspaces and 160+ integrations. Smart QA scores conversations, Smart CSAT infers satisfaction without surveys, and Autopilot handles complex customer work on its own.
If your team routes hundreds of conversations a day across channels and departments, Front is built for that. A small team that mostly shares email can do the same job with less.
How do you move from Front?
If Front is connected to your Gmail or Office 365 accounts, the mail itself stays with that provider. Move the shared addresses to the new tool one at a time, recreate your most-used templates and rules, and close open conversations in Front before switching each address.
In Mojobase, connect each shared mailbox and set it to be seen by Everyone in the company, switch support addresses to Support, or move your domain's email to Mojobase hosting when you're ready.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest alternative to Front?
Help Scout is free for five users with one inbox. Missive Starter is $14 a user a month billed yearly for up to five users, and Hiver Growth is $25 a user. Front Starter is $25 a seat billed yearly, for one channel type.
Which Front alternative is best for Gmail users?
Hiver, which runs inside Gmail, or Shortwave, which is a Gmail app with team features. Missive connects Gmail alongside Outlook and IMAP. Mojobase connects your Google Workspace mailboxes and calendar, or hosts your domain's email itself.
Does Mojobase have shared inboxes like Front?
Yes. A mailbox seen by Everyone in the company is shared by the team, and a support address switched to Support moves into Customers' Inbox, where each conversation has a state and one owner. Replies go out from the same address. There are no SMS, WhatsApp or social channels.
Can AI agents work in a shared inbox?
Yes. Front's MCP server lets agents act on conversations as a specific Front user, and it connects external agents built with Claude and others. Mojobase's one MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT or your own agent read and draft across email, the support Inbox, calendar and tasks, under your permissions.
When should a small team stay on Front?
When several teams such as sales, support and operations share customer email across many channels, with routing rules and analytics. Front's omnichannel inbox and workspaces are built for that, and lighter tools would mean losing those controls.
Sources
- Missive: Business. missiveapp.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Missive: Feature. missiveapp.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Missive: Feature. missiveapp.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: Growth. hiverhq.com/pricing/hiver-omni, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: Feature. hiverhq.com/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: Feature. hiverhq.com/pricing/hiver-omni, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Free plan. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Feature. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Feature. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Suite Professional. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Suite Professional includes. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Feature. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Shortwave: Business includes. shortwave.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Shortwave: Feature. shortwave.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Shortwave: AI. shortwave.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: About the pricing. hiverhq.com/pricing/hiver-omni, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: AI resolutions. hiverhq.com/blog/live-chat-software-pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Front: Professional. front.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Front: Copilot. front.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Front: Autopilot (AI agent). front.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Missive: Starter. missiveapp.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Missive: Productive. missiveapp.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Copilot add-on. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Shortwave: Business. shortwave.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.