Front
PaidCustomer communication hub for teams
About Front
Front is the shared inbox platform that sits between Help Scout (simpler) and Zendesk (more complex), built for teams that live in email and want shared visibility without a separate ticket system. Pricing: Starter $19/user/month (2-10 users), Growth $59/user/month, Scale $99/user/month, Premier $229/user/month. Used heavily by customer success, operations, and sales teams. The CRM integration surfaces Salesforce or HubSpot contact context next to every email thread. Shared channels handle email, SMS, social, and WhatsApp in one inbox. Internal comments let teammates discuss a thread without the customer seeing the conversation. The main r/productivity complaints: pricing is steep relative to Help Scout, the Starter plan's 2-10 user limit creates an awkward gap, and the automation rule setup has a learning curve. The $59/user Growth plan is the first tier with real automation and analytics. Competes with Help Scout (simpler, cheaper for small teams), Zendesk (full ticketing, scales larger), and Missive (similar email-first concept at lower price). Best for customer success and operations teams that need shared email with CRM context without abandoning the email interface.
Key Features
Pricing Plans
Starter
- Omnichannel messaging
- Team collaboration
- Basic automation
- Calendar integration
Growth
- Everything in Starter
- CRM integrations
- Advanced workflows
- Analytics
Scale
- Everything in Growth
- Smart rules
- Custom roles
- Onboarding and training
Premier
- Everything in Scale
- Success manager
- Custom build hours
- Premier onboarding
Pros
- Familiar email-like interface teams adopt quickly
- Excellent team collaboration with comments and mentions
- Powerful shared inbox across multiple channels
- Strong analytics on response times and workload
- Great API and integration ecosystem
- Personal and shared inboxes in one tool
Cons
- Pricing is premium compared to alternatives
- Minimum seat requirements on some plans
- Can be overkill for very small teams
- Learning curve for advanced automation rules
- Mobile app misses some desktop features
- Search can be slow in large inboxes
Best For
- customer success teams that need shared email visibility with CRM contact context per thread
- operations teams handling shared inboxes for email, SMS, and social in one place
- companies where keeping email-like UX matters but team collaboration on threads is needed
- sales and support hybrid teams that need internal discussion on customer emails
Not Ideal For
- small teams under 10 people where Help Scout is simpler and cheaper
- high-volume support operations that need full ticket routing and SLA management (use Zendesk)
- teams that only need email scheduling and don't need the full shared inbox stack
Potential Deal Breakers
- Starter plan limited to 2-10 users — awkward ceiling for growing teams
- Growth plan at $59/user/month is expensive relative to Help Scout or Missive
- automation and routing rules require meaningful setup time before delivering value
Data & Privacy
Shared inbox platform processing email and message content. AI features assist with drafting but no customer data used for training. SOC 2 Type 2 certified. Message data exportable.
Who Is This For?
Hands-on tested May 2026
Signup Experience
Email signup with a 7-day free trial, no credit card required. Onboarding connects shared inboxes -- email, SMS, social, and chat -- to a central workspace. Team members are invited and inboxes assigned. The collaboration layer (comments, assignments, snooze) appears alongside emails rather than replacing them.
For Home Users
Not suited for personal or home use. Built around team email collaboration with multiple people responding to shared inboxes.
For Business Users
Starter at $19/user/mo (2-10 users) covers the core shared inbox workflow. Growth at $59/user/mo adds rules, integrations, and analytics. Scale at $99/user/mo adds CSAT surveys, SLAs, and advanced analytics. Priced at a premium -- teams with straightforward support needs may find Help Scout more cost-effective. Front is the stronger choice for teams that live in email and want collaboration without moving to a ticketing system.
Our Verdict
Front is the right tool when your team lives in email and needs shared visibility without abandoning the email metaphor. The CRM context per thread is genuinely useful for CS teams. The pricing is hard to swallow at $59/user for Growth — Help Scout at $20/user covers most of the same ground for pure email support teams.