Shared inbox platform that combines email, SMS, and social channels with team collaboration
Front is a team communication platform built around a shared inbox that combines email, SMS, WhatsApp, social media, and live chat — enabling teams to respond to customers from a single interface while collaborating internally on conversations. Unlike traditional helpdesks with ticket numbers, Front preserves the native email format for customers while adding assignment, commenting, and tagging tools for team coordination behind the scenes.
Front is a strong fit if its core strengths match your workflow, budget, and support needs. Use the quick signals below before opening the full review.
Front occupies the space between a team email client and a helpdesk — preserving the email-native experience that customers expect while adding the collaboration, assignment, and reporting tools that shared inboxes lack. Its appeal is broadest for teams that want coordination without ticket-system formality.
Front's shared inbox allows multiple teammates to see the same incoming messages, assign conversations to specific agents, leave internal comments visible only to the team, and @mention colleagues for input — all without the customer seeing any of this coordination. From the customer's perspective, they receive a well-coordinated email response; from the team's perspective, they have full collaboration tooling on every conversation.
Front unifies email, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, and live chat in one inbox — agents switch between channels in one workspace without logging into separate applications. Customer history across channels is visible in the conversation sidebar regardless of which channel initiated the conversation.
Front's analytics measure first response time, SLA adherence, conversation volume by channel, and individual agent performance — with team-level and channel-level filtering. For operations managers reviewing support capacity and response quality, these metrics provide the reporting layer that raw shared Gmail inboxes lack.
Score: 7.9/10 — Best shared inbox platform for collaborative customer-facing teams; not a traditional helpdesk and not appropriate for ITIL or complex routing requirements.
$19/mo
$228/mo billed annually
$59/mo
$708/mo billed annually
$99/mo
$1,188/mo billed annually
Front is best for Customer-facing teams — sales, account management, customer success — that handle high email volumes and want shared inbox coordination without a ticket-based helpdesk UX, Companies whose customers expect personal email-style responses and for whom ticket numbers would feel transactional, Teams managing multiple communication channels (email, SMS, WhatsApp) that need a single unified response workspace.
No. Front does not currently list a permanent free plan in ToolRankr data.
Paid plans start at $19/mo.
Front is reviewed using ToolRankr's scoring model for ease of use, value, features, support, and overall quality. Affiliate links may earn a commission, but sponsored labels do not change editorial scoring.
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