Shared inbox productivity that centralizes customer communication
Front is a shared inbox and collaboration platform that centralizes email, chat, and customer channels for teams; it’s ideal for customer-facing teams and managers who need consolidated workflows and SLA tracking. Pricing starts with an affordable entry-level plan and scales to Enterprise with advanced routing and security, making Front suitable for teams wanting focused collaboration without a huge upfront investment.
Front is a shared inbox and team collaboration tool that centralizes email, SMS, chat, and social customer channels into one workspace. It combines unified inboxes, rules-based routing, collision detection, and internal comments to streamline team workflows and reduce duplicated replies. Front’s key differentiator is its conversation-centric design that treats email like a collaborative workflow rather than isolated messages, making it ideal for support, sales, and operations teams. Pricing is tiered from an accessible paid Starter plan to Business and Enterprise options; a limited trial or demo is available for evaluation.
Front is a team inbox and customer communication layer founded to help companies manage collaborative email and messaging. Launched with an emphasis on turning email into a shared, trackable workflow, Front positions itself between traditional email clients and helpdesk systems. The core value proposition is to bring private inboxes and team channels together with shared views, assignment, and status controls so teams can manage customer conversations collaboratively without switching apps. Front emphasizes transparency — showing who’s working on a conversation, when it was last replied to, and offering analytics to measure response times and volume.
Front’s feature set focuses on inbox consolidation, automation, and internal collaboration. Shared inboxes let teams take ownership of channels (e.g., support@, sales@) and assign conversations to teammates; rules and routing automate assignment based on keywords, sender, or workload. Collision detection warns if another teammate is viewing or replying to the same conversation, while internal comments allow private, in-thread collaboration that does not reach the customer. Front also includes Service Level Agreement (SLA) reporting and conversation analytics that show median response times and backlog, plus integrations with CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot to surface customer data inline. Finally, Front’s API and Zapier integration enable automations and custom workflows for triage, tagging, and follow-ups.
Front’s pricing is tiered to accommodate small teams up to Enterprise customers. There is no permanently free multi-user plan; instead, Front offers a paid Starter plan (priced per user/month) for small teams, a Business plan that adds advanced routing, SLA monitoring, and analytics, and an Enterprise tier with SSO, advanced security controls, and custom onboarding. Exact monthly per-user prices vary by promotion and billing choice (monthly vs. annual) and Front publishes current pricing on its website; larger organizations can get custom quotes for enterprise needs. Front also provides a free trial and product demos so teams can evaluate features like rules, analytics, and integrations before committing.
Front is used by support managers, account teams, and operations staff who need shared visibility into customer conversations. For example, a Customer Support Manager uses Front to cut average response time by assigning tickets automatically and enforcing SLAs, while an Account Executive uses it to manage sales@ and respond faster with CRM context. Marketing ops teams use Front for routing campaign replies to the right regional reps. Compared with a traditional helpdesk like Zendesk, Front focuses on conversational email workflows and team collaboration rather than ticket-centric workflows, making it preferable when email remains the primary customer touchpoint.
Three capabilities that set Front apart from its nearest competitors.
Current tiers and what you get at each price point. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
| Plan | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19 | Per-user per month, basic shared inboxes, limited rules and integrations | Small teams centralizing customer email |
| Growth | $49 | Per-user per month, adds routing, SLA, analytics, and more integrations | Growing teams needing analytics and automation |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom per-user and org limits, SSO, advanced security, dedicated support | Large orgs needing security and custom onboarding |
Choose Front over Zendesk if you prioritize conversation-centric shared inboxes and in-thread team collaboration rather than ticket lifecycle controls.