Top Front Alternatives in 2024 for Team Email Management

Why do you need a Front Alternative?

Front is a customer support and operations platform that enables teams to streamline communication and deliver exceptional service at scale. It facilitates team interaction with customers across multiple channels, automates repetitive tasks, and provides detailed insights on team performance.

While Front offers valuable features like omnichannel shared inbox, live chat, and knowledge base, it might not be the perfect fit for all businesses. Front’s pricing starts at $19/month for the starter plan, $59/month for the growth plan, increases to $99/month for scale, and reaches $299/month for the premier plan, with no free tier available.

Despite positioning itself as a customer operations platform for mid and small-sized businesses, Front falls short in some features. Users commonly report difficulty in navigating the complex user interface. They also report that it has an extremely high cost compared to other tools and that teams will need to undergo extensive training before they can get started which will in turn slow them down.

Whether you’re searching for more advanced features, looking for a more affordable option, or simply want a different user experience, there are several available alternatives for you. In this guide, we cover some factors to consider while choosing the right Front alternative and detailed information on those alternatives.

What should you look for in a Front Alternative?

• Features: First things first, think about what features are essential for your business. Do you need advanced call routing, CRM integration, or maybe call recording? Make a list of must-haves to guide your search.
• Ease of use: You want a platform that's user-friendly for everyone on your team, so it should be easy to use.
• Integration station: Ensure that the platform plays nicely with your existing tools. Whether it's your CRM, helpdesk software, or project management system, seamless integration is key to keeping your workflow smooth.
• Flexibility and scalability: You have plans to see your business grow, therefore, you need a solution that can grow with you. Look for a platform that's flexible enough to adapt to your changing needs and scalable to accommodate your expanding team.
• Pricing: Budget is always important, so make sure that the platform you’re going for has pricing options aligned with your budget.
• User feedback: Lastly, don't forget to check out reviews and testimonials from other users. Their experiences will offer valuable insights into what the platform is really like and help you to make better decisions.

The 5 Best Front Alternatives To Use In 2024

The following is a list of five Front customer support/operations alternatives. The softwares listed below have proven to be useful in providing customer support services to organizations and businesses.

1. Distrobird

Distrobird is a cloud-based customer and sales engagement platform, designed to streamline sales and manage customer interactions. It is an all-in-one platform managing phone calls, SMS communications, and emails, along with product features like web chats, shared team inbox, and automated campaigns.

It also integrates seamlessly with various popular CRM and business tools, notably HubSpot, Gmail, Stripe, Microsoft Outlook, Twilio, Zapier, Clearbit, Zoho, Telnyx, Salesforce and NGP VAN.

Distrobird best features

• Distrobird offers excellent value for money.
• Multi-channel shared inbox.
• Provides a unified inbox that helps you bring all your customer communication channels together in one place.
• Allows for easier collaboration with the @mentions feature that allows you to bring in your teammates to resolve an inquiry.
• Offers multiple integrations.
• Has automated CSAT surveys.
• Provides analytics and reporting tools.
• Allows you to triage customer requests into multiple shared inboxes based on issue type, customer profile, or recent activity on your site.
• Automation of tasks to streamline workflow and increase efficiency.
• Enables businesses to streamline customer or prospect engagements for enhanced productivity.
• Provides a customer-centric inbox for organized and effective communication.

Distrobird limitations

• The free plan is limited to 3 users.
• Available only on the web; no mobile application.

Distrobird pricing

• Free Plan: Free
• Startup: $8/month (shared inbox) or $25/month (sequences and voice)
• Growth: $50/month
• Enterprise: $75/month

2. Help Scout

Help Scout is often described as one of the most user-friendly customer service platform. It is an alternative to Front that assists teams in streamlining customer communication and enables them to collaborate seamlessly on customer inquiries and queries.

Help Scout best features

• It integrates with 90+ apps.
• Its inbox, chat, and knowledge base come standard.
• It provides a comprehensive reporting feature that gives you insights into team performance.

Help Scout limitations

• There is no option to organize tickets into folders.
• Every mailbox is independent, so bringing conversations together can get complicated.
• There is only one knowledge base template/design available.
• Its integration with Messenger is only available for their Pro and Plus plans.

Help Scout pricing

• Standard: $20/user/month
• Plus: $40/user/month
• Pro: $65/user/month

3. Hiver

Hiver is a Gmail-based customer support tool built for teams. It is a platform built for Google Workspace that enables users to provide fast customer service from Gmail. With Hiver, you can engage with customers in various channels such as voice, WhatsApp, email, and live chat.

Hiver best features

• Allows you to collaborate with teams across the company. You simply have to @mention a colleague, they’ll get a notification and leave their input in a comment box that will be provided.
• Provides 24/7 support on all paid plans.
• It is easy to use and makes collaboration easier.
• Allows you to assign incoming customer queries to support agents with a single click.

Hiver limitations

• The mobile app doesn’t allow sending an email from a shared address.
• Unable to automate and schedule autoresponders.
• They are constantly changing their plans by moving features to more expensive tiers and adding fewer features to lower-level plans to force users to upgrade.

Hiver pricing

• Lite: $15/month
• Pro: $39/month
• Elitre: $59/month

4. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a cloud-based help desk software or customer support/service tool that offers features such as reporting, automation, ticket tracking, and assignment. It is a more affordable option than Front.

Freshdesk best features

• It allows teams to engage with customers across multiple channels.
• Offers powerful collaboration with team inbox and calls.
• It provides a feature that helps to split one ticket (called parent ticket) into multiple more minor tickets (child tickets). This allows agents to work on portions of the tickets for quicker resolution.
• It allows the conversion of ticket replies to knowledge-based articles.

Freshdesk limitations

• It does not integrate well with Google Workspace products.
• It does not have scheduling options.
• It lacks synchronization in terms of reports and data
• Their plans and systems are optimized for mid to large-size businesses, with a lot of features for managing large teams of customer support agents. This means it can get expensive for smaller teams and you’ll be paying for some features you don’t use.

Freshdesk pricing

• Free
• Growth: $15/user/month
• Pro: $49/user/month
• Enterprise: $69/user/month

5. Missive

Missive is not a full-fledged customer support tool, however, it offers excellent team collaboration, and is a great choice for teams that want a single tool to manage customer support and collaborate on internal projects.

Missive best features

• Offers standard templates agents can use to respond to customer support enquiries.
• It allows support agents to assign, track , and collaborate on incoming calls.
• It offers one-to-one live chat with users and website visitors.

Missive limitations

• It lacks analytics and reporting features making it difficult for teams to track important metrics.
• It provides limited integrations.
• It can be a bit complex to understand.
• There’s a limit on how long you can retain conversation history for.

Missive pricing

• Starter: $14/user/month
• Productive: $18/user/month
• Business: $26/user/month

Which Customer Support & Shared Inbox Platform Is Right For You?

Choosing the right Front alternative to help drive sales depends on your specific needs and budget.

If you are looking for a comprehensive and affordable solution with a free plan, Distrobird is a great option. It offers all the essential features you need to manage your sales & customer engagement tech stack in one place - multi-channel sequences and campaigns, web messenger, outbound dialer, inbound call center software, shared team inbox, and conversation analytics - in a single solution. Distrobird is also easy to use and integrates with a variety of popular apps.

Whether you're a startup or an established business, Distrobird's scalable pricing plans make it a cost-effective choice. Create your free Distrobird account and see how it can transform your customer interactions!