12 best Front alternatives for 2025

Let’s be real: Front was a huge help for a lot of teams. It took the mess of multiple email inboxes and gave us one place to work together. But as your team grows, that once-perfect shared inbox can start feeling more like a traffic jam. Suddenly you’re lost in endless internal comment threads, staring down a per-user bill that keeps climbing, and using an AI that feels… well, a little limited.

If that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place. This guide will walk you through the 12 best Front alternatives. We’ll cover everything from direct competitors to smarter, AI-powered tools that can actually keep up with your team’s growth in 2025.

What are shared inboxes and help desks anyway?

Think of a shared inbox, like Front, as a central hub for group emails like support@ or info@ your company. It lets a bunch of people see, assign, and comment on emails without tripping over each other or letting conversations fall through the cracks.

A help desk is the next level up. It’s a beefier platform with a full ticketing system to track customer issues, omnichannel support to pull in conversations from email, chat, and social media, plus some handy automation and reporting. As teams get bigger, they usually graduate from a simple shared inbox to a help desk, and now, many are looking toward AI to make support even smarter.

ront alternatives.

Why you might need to look for Front alternatives

If you’re starting to feel the limits of Front, you’re not the only one. Many teams hit a wall with the platform for a few common reasons.

• Costs that get out of hand: Front’s per-user pricing means your bill goes up every time you hire someone. Add on the extra costs for key AI features, and your budget can balloon pretty quickly. It’s a model that feels like it punishes you for growing.

• AI that only knows half the story: Front’s AI is decent, but it mostly learns from its own built-in knowledge base. The reality is, your company’s real knowledge is scattered all over the place,in Google Docs, Confluence pages, and old support tickets. Because the AI can’t access all that, it often gives incomplete or inaccurate answers.

• A clunky and unreliable experience: Users often complain that the interface feels awkward, with annoying bugs like emails getting duplicated between personal and shared inboxes. Plus, the lack of an offline mode means your workflow grinds to a halt if your internet connection gets flaky.

• No way to test the AI safely: This is a big one. With Front, you can’t test its AI on your past conversations to see how it will actually perform before you unleash it on your customers. You just have to flip the switch and hope for the best, which is a stressful "all-or-nothing" gamble.

How we picked the best Front alternatives

To put this list together, we focused on what really matters when you’re looking to move on from Front.

• AI and automation smarts: How well does the tool handle repetitive tasks? Can it provide genuinely helpful suggestions and learn from all of your team’s knowledge?

• Connections to other tools: Does it play nice with the other apps you use every day, like your CRM, e-commerce store, and internal wikis?

• Pricing and room to grow: Is the pricing clear and fair? Will it scale with your business without becoming a massive line item on your budget?

• The day-to-day experience: Is the platform easy and intuitive for your agents and managers to actually use?

A quick comparison of the top Front alternatives for 2025

Tool	Best For	Starting Price	Key Feature
eesel AI	Teams wanting to add smart AI to their current help desk.	$239/month (billed annually)	Connects to 100+ knowledge sources.
Gorgias	Ecommerce stores on Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento.	$10/month	Deep integration with ecommerce platforms.
Help Scout	Small to medium businesses needing a simple, friendly help desk.	$20/user/month	Clean, email-like interface.
Zendesk	Large companies that need a super customizable help desk.	$55/agent/month	Advanced reporting and workflow tools.
Freshdesk	Teams on a budget or those wanting a free starting point.	$0 (Free plan available)	Omnichannel support with a free plan.
Missive	Teams that collaborate heavily on emails and internal tasks.	$0 (Free plan available)	Real-time draft collaboration.
Hiver	Teams who want to stay inside their Gmail inbox.	$15/user/month	Turns Gmail into a help desk.
Intercom	SaaS companies focused on proactive chat and user engagement.	$29/seat/month	Powerful live chat and engagement features.
Kustomer	Businesses that want a CRM-first view of their customers.	$29/user/month	Unified customer timeline.
Zoho Desk	Teams already using other Zoho products.	$14/user/month	Tight integration with the Zoho ecosystem.
Crisp	Businesses looking for an all-in-one platform with simple pricing.	$0 (Free plan available)	Flat-rate pricing per workspace.
Google Collaborative Inbox	Small teams needing a very basic, free way to share emails.	Free (with Google Workspace)	Simple, no-frills email management.

The 12 best Front alternatives for 2025

Here’s a deeper dive into the top platforms that can help you get past the limits of a simple shared inbox.

1. eesel AI: The smart AI layer for your existing tools

Instead of thinking of eesel AI as another inbox to switch to, think of it as a different way to solve the problem. It’s not a replacement for Front; it’s a powerful AI layer that plugs into the help desk you already use. This fixes Front’s biggest issues,siloed knowledge, expensive seats, and risky setup,without forcing you through a painful migration.

The biggest problem with Front’s AI is that it’s trapped in its own little world. eesel AI breaks out of that box by connecting to over 100 places where your team’s knowledge actually lives. It learns from past tickets in Zendesk, internal guides in Confluence, and product notes in Google Docs. The result? AI-powered answers that are far more accurate and complete.

It also tackles Front’s pricing problem. Instead of a per-seat model that penalizes you for hiring, eesel AI’s pricing is based on usage, so it’s fair and transparent. You pay for the value you get, not for the number of seats you fill. Best of all, it gets rid of the risk of launching an untested AI. Its simulation mode lets you test the AI on your old tickets in a safe environment. You can see how accurate it is, figure out your potential ROI, and find knowledge gaps before a single customer interacts with it.

Pros:

• Works with the help desk you already have, so there’s no need to migrate.

• Trains on all your company knowledge, not just one siloed knowledge base.

• Predictable, usage-based pricing that grows fairly with your business.

Cons:

• You need an existing help desk or communication tool (it’s an AI layer, not a standalone inbox).

Pricing:

Starts at $239/month for the Team plan when billed annually.

2. Gorgias: One of the best Front alternatives for ecommerce support teams

For ecommerce support teams on Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento, Gorgias is one of the best Front alternatives out there. It’s deeply connected to these platforms, letting agents see order details, process refunds, and view a customer’s full history right from the ticket. It’s also full of features that help your support team bring in revenue, like chat campaigns that engage potential buyers.

Pros:

• Amazing ecommerce features that make common tasks a breeze.

• Helps turn customer support into a channel for generating revenue.

Cons:

• Not the best fit for non-ecommerce companies that won’t use its specialized tools.

Pricing:

Starts at $10/month for the Starter plan.

3. Help Scout: A leading Front alternative for small and medium businesses

Help Scout is a great pick for small to medium-sized businesses that have outgrown email but don’t need the overwhelming complexity of a huge enterprise system. Its clean, email-like interface is super intuitive, so teams can jump right in with little to no training. It gives you a shared inbox, a knowledge base, and live chat, all designed with real people in mind.

Pros:

• Very easy to use, with a focus on simple team collaboration.

• A clean, familiar design that doesn’t feel intimidating.

Cons:

• Its reporting and automation aren’t as powerful as what you’d find in enterprise tools.

Pricing:

Starts at $20/user/month for the Standard plan.

4. Zendesk: A powerful Front alternative for enterprise teams

As one of the biggest names in the game, Zendesk offers a powerful and scalable help desk for large companies. It’s built for complex, global operations with advanced workflow customization, deep reporting, and a marketplace with over 1,500 apps. If you need a system that you can fine-tune for very specific business needs, Zendesk is a strong choice.

Pros:

• Extremely powerful and can be customized to fit just about any workflow.

• Can handle huge ticket volumes and complex team structures.

Cons:

• Can be complicated and expensive to get up and running.

• Its own AI tools can be pricey and might be overkill for smaller teams.

Pricing:

The Suite Team plan starts at $55/agent/month when billed annually.

5. Freshdesk: A great Front alternative with a free plan

Freshdesk gets a lot of attention for its generous free-forever plan, which makes it a fantastic option for small businesses or teams watching their budget. It gives you solid omnichannel support, pulling in conversations from email, social media, and chat. You also get basic ticket automation and a knowledge base, all without paying a dime to get started.

Pros:

• A great free plan for up to 10 agents.

• Paid plans that scale up with more advanced features as you grow.

Cons:

• The really powerful AI and automation tools are reserved for the more expensive plans and add-ons.

Pricing:

A free plan is available. Paid plans start at $15/agent/month.

6. Missive: One of the top Front alternatives for cross-functional collaboration

Missive is probably the most direct competitor to Front, with a big focus on internal collaboration. It lets you co-edit email drafts in real-time and assign multiple tasks to different people within a single conversation. It feels like a modern email app, making it familiar for teams where one email can set off a whole chain of internal to-dos.

Pros:

• Excellent for teams that need to work together closely on emails and messages.

• Offers a free plan for small teams.

Cons:

• Automation features are a bit basic, especially on the cheaper plans.

Pricing:

A free plan is available. Paid plans start at $14/user/month.

7. Hiver: A popular Front alternative for teams running on Gmail

If your team lives and breathes Gmail and the thought of learning a new tool is exhausting, Hiver is the answer. It works right inside the Gmail interface, adding features like shared inboxes, email assignments, and internal notes without making you switch tabs. It’s a seamless way to add help desk power to the tool your team already uses all day.

Pros:

• No new interface to learn, which means almost no training time.

• Works perfectly with Google Workspace.

Cons:

• You’re limited to the Gmail ecosystem, so it’s not as powerful as a standalone help desk.

Pricing:

Starts at $15/user/month.

8. Intercom: A strong Front alternative for proactive engagement

Intercom is designed for proactive customer communication. It’s great at engaging users with its powerful live chat messenger, targeted messages, and its "Fin" AI chatbot. It’s a top choice for SaaS companies that want to guide users through onboarding, announce new features, and convert leads right on their website. The focus is less on just reacting to problems and more on actively engaging with customers.

Pros:

• Best-in-class tools for live chat and customer engagement.

• Great for sales, marketing, and support teams that want to be proactive.

Cons:

• Can get very expensive, with pricing based on both seats and the number of AI-powered resolutions.

Pricing:

Starts at $29/seat/month, with extra costs for AI resolutions.

9. Kustomer: A CRM-centric Front alternative

Kustomer is a unique platform that’s part help desk, part CRM. It focuses on giving agents a complete timeline of every customer. This means your team can see every past chat, purchase, and interaction in a single stream, providing rich context for every new conversation. It’s perfect for businesses where understanding the full customer journey is critical.

Pros:

• Gives agents deep, contextual information about every customer.

• Great for support teams focused on building relationships.

Cons:

• The interface can be complex and might be overkill for a team that just needs simple support tools.

Pricing:

Starts at $29/user/month.

10. Zoho Desk: The ideal Front alternative for teams in the Zoho ecosystem

If your company is already using Zoho products (like Zoho CRM), then choosing Zoho Desk makes a lot of sense. It connects smoothly with the whole suite of Zoho business apps, creating one system for sales, marketing, and support. It offers support across multiple channels, a capable AI assistant named Zia, and customizable self-service portals.

Pros:

• Seamless, built-in integration with other Zoho products.

• A lot of features for a competitive price.

Cons:

• Can take some time to learn how to use the more advanced features.

• Its connections to tools outside the Zoho world aren’t as strong.

Pricing:

A free plan is available. Paid plans start at $14/user/month.

11. Crisp: A simple, flat-rate Front alternative

Crisp offers an all-in-one messaging platform with a pricing model that’s refreshingly simple. Instead of charging per user, Crisp charges a flat fee for the whole team, which makes budgeting a lot easier. It includes a shared inbox, live chat, a chatbot builder, and a knowledge base, making it a solid choice for teams that want an affordable, straightforward solution.

Pros:

• Clear, flat-rate pricing is great for managing your budget.

• Includes a free plan to get you started.

Cons:

• Not as powerful or customizable as more specialized help desk platforms.

Pricing:

A free plan is available. The Pro plan is $25/workspace/month.

12. Google Collaborative Inbox: A free Front alternative for lightweight email collaboration

For small teams that just need the most basic version of a shared inbox, Google’s Collaborative Inbox is a free and simple option. It’s a feature inside Google Workspace that lets you set up group emails (like support@) and assign conversations to people on your team. It all happens in the familiar Google interface, so it’s incredibly easy to set up.

Pros:

• It’s free and already part of your Google Workspace subscription.

• Super easy to set up and use for basic teamwork.

Cons:

• Very basic. It has no automation, reporting, or any of the advanced features you get with a real help desk.

Pricing:

Free with a Google Workspace subscription (which starts at $6/user/month).

3 tips for choosing the right Front alternatives

1. Figure out where your knowledge lives: Before you start looking at new tools, take a minute to map out where your team’s information is stored. Is it in old tickets, scattered across Google Docs, or neatly organized in Confluence? Pick a tool that can connect to those sources. If your AI can’t access your team’s real brain, it’s never going to be smart enough to help.

2. Look beyond the sticker price: Don’t just focus on the per-user monthly fee. Think about the hidden costs: pricey add-ons for AI, setup fees, and how much the price will jump when your team gets bigger. A usage-based model might end up being much more affordable in the long run.

3. Test-drive the AI before you commit: Don’t risk throwing a new AI at your customers without knowing how it will behave. Look for Front alternatives that offer a simulation or sandbox mode. This lets you test the AI’s accuracy, see how much you could save, and plug any knowledge gaps before it ever goes live.

Look beyond Front and discover something better

While Front was a great step up from a regular email client, modern support teams need more than just a place to share emails. The best Front alternatives either give you more powerful, specialized help desk features or a smarter, more flexible way to handle automation.

Don’t just swap one inbox for another. Think about the real problems you’re facing: knowledge stuck in silos, rising costs, and the risk of launching a new AI without testing it. The best move might not be a direct replacement, but a strategic upgrade.

Tools like eesel AI show a new, smarter way forward. By adding powerful, flexible AI on top of the tools you already know, you can get better automation and efficiency without the headache of a massive migration. It’s about making your existing system smarter, not just swapping it for something different.

Ready to see how a truly flexible AI can change your support workflow? Book a demo of eesel AI or start your free trial today.