Best Shared Inbox Software in 2026

Quick answer

Front is the best shared inbox software for most teams that run on customer email. It keeps an email-like workflow for the people answering, adds real collaboration (comments, @mentions, shared drafts and collision detection) and scales to SSO, SCIM and omnichannel inboxes. Plans start at $25 per seat a month billed annually.

If price matters more than polish, Missive gives small teams shared inboxes, internal chat and tasks from $14 per user a month (billed yearly). If your team wants to stay inside Gmail, Hiver adds help desk features to Gmail from $25 per user a month, and Drag is the cheapest Gmail option at $12. If your "shared inbox" is really a support desk, Help Scout adds a knowledge base and chat widget and has a free plan for up to 5 users.

What is shared inbox software?

A shared inbox lets several people work one email address, such as support@, sales@, billing@ or hello@, without forwarding emails around or sharing a password. The basics are the same in every tool on this list:

• Assignment, so each conversation has an owner.
• Status, so everyone can see what is open, waiting or done.
• Internal notes, so teammates can discuss an email without the customer seeing it.

The better tools add collision detection (you can see when a teammate is already replying), shared drafts, automation rules, SLA timers and reports on response time and workload. Some also pull in chat, SMS, WhatsApp and social messages so one team can answer every channel from one place.

Shared inbox tools differ from classic help desks (like Zendesk or Freshdesk) mainly in feel. A help desk turns every email into a numbered ticket and often sends customers to a portal. A shared inbox keeps the conversation looking like ordinary email on both sides, which is why account managers, operations teams, agencies and finance teams tend to prefer it.

How we picked

We compared each product's own pricing pages and documentation in October 2026 and looked at what a small or mid-sized team actually needs from a shared inbox:

1. Collaboration depth: assignment, internal comments, shared drafts and collision detection.
2. Where you work: a standalone app (Front, Missive, Help Scout) or inside Gmail (Hiver, Drag, Gmelius, Collaborative Inbox).
3. Email providers supported: Gmail only, or also Outlook, Office 365 and IMAP.
4. Automation and reporting: rules, SLAs and reports on response times.
5. Total cost: per-user price, user caps per plan, and what AI costs on top.
6. Room to grow: extra channels, SSO and admin controls when the team gets bigger.

We left out tools that have been retired or rebranded away from shared inboxes. Groove, a long-time shared inbox, now points its website to Helply, the company's new AI-first support platform with credit-based pricing. The company says Groove Classic continues for existing customers, but it no longer has a public pricing page, so we did not include it.

The best shared inbox software in 2026

1. Front: best overall shared inbox

Front is built around the idea that customer communication should feel like email, but with a whole team behind it. You connect Gmail, Office 365 or other email accounts, and every conversation in a shared inbox can be assigned, commented on and tracked.

What stands out:

• Collaboration: comments with @mentions sit right next to each email, and drafts in shared inboxes are automatically shared, so a manager can edit a reply before it goes out.
• Collision detection: Front shows when a teammate is already replying, which prevents double answers.
• Rules and AI: automation rules route and tag conversations; AI Topics groups conversations by subject.
• Growth path: Professional adds omnichannel inboxes (SMS, social, WhatsApp and more), macros, advanced analytics and SSO with SCIM. Enterprise adds custom roles, unlimited rules and includes Copilot, QA and CSAT.

Pricing: Starter is $25 per seat a month billed annually, for up to 10 seats and a single channel type. Professional is $65 (up to 50 seats) and Enterprise is $105 with unlimited seats. There is no free plan, but there is a 14-day trial with Professional features and no card required. Copilot costs $20 per seat a month on Starter and Professional, and the Autopilot AI agent starts at $0.05 per conversation.

Limits: Front is one of the pricier options once you move past Starter, and Starter's 10-seat and single-channel limits mean growing teams usually end up on Professional.

Choose Front if your team lives in customer email and you want the most complete collaboration layer, with a clear path to omnichannel and enterprise controls.

2. Missive: best value for small teams

Missive combines team inboxes, personal inboxes, internal chat and tasks in one app. It connects Gmail, Outlook and IMAP accounts and also handles WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and SMS (through Twilio, Quo or Dialpad).

What stands out:

• Internal threads and chat: discuss any email privately, or chat with teammates without leaving the app.
• Collaborative drafting: write a reply together in real time.
• Tasks: turn emails into tasks with due dates, multiple assignees and a calendar view.
• Flexible AI: AI drafts, summaries and translation run on Missive AI credits or your own key from Anthropic, OpenAI or Gemini.

Pricing: billed yearly, Starter is $14 per user a month (up to 5 users), Productive is $24 (up to 50 users) and Business is $36 (unlimited users). Yearly billing is 20% off monthly. Every new team gets a 30-day trial of Productive with no card. There is no free plan.

Limits: Starter has no rules or integrations, so most teams will want Productive. Missive is a collaboration app, not a help desk: its plans do not list a knowledge base, customer portal or CSAT surveys.

Choose Missive if you are a small business, agency or professional firm that wants shared and personal email, chat and tasks in one place without paying Front prices.

3. Help Scout: best shared inbox for customer support

Help Scout is a help desk that deliberately looks and feels like a shared inbox. Customers just get email replies, never ticket numbers or portals, while the team gets assignment, workflows, SLAs and customer profiles.

What stands out:

• Knowledge base included: Docs sites and the Beacon widget (chat and self-service help on your site) come with the product.
• Channels: from Standard you can answer email, chat, SMS, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
• Workflows and SLAs: 150 workflows and 1 SLA policy on Standard, 500 workflows and 2 SLA policies on Plus, unlimited on Pro.
• AI: AI Drafts are included (limited on Standard, unlimited on Plus and Pro). AI Answers costs $0.75 per resolution with monthly spending caps.

Pricing: the Free plan covers up to 5 users with 1 inbox, 1 Docs site and 100 contacts a month (email only). Standard is $25 per user a month billed annually or $30 billed monthly, for up to 25 users and 2 inboxes. Plus is $45 annually or $54 monthly, for up to 50 users and 5 inboxes. Pro is $75 per user a month billed annually ($90 monthly) with a 10-user minimum, started through a demo. Standard and Plus have a 15-day trial with no card.

Limits: Help Scout is built for support. If your shared inbox is used by sales, ops or finance, a general tool like Front or Missive fits better.

Choose Help Scout if your shared inbox is your support desk and you want a knowledge base and chat widget in the same tool, or if you want to start free.

4. Hiver: best for Gmail teams that need help desk features

Hiver turns Gmail into a team inbox. Shared addresses appear in Gmail, and the team can assign emails, add notes, track SLAs and send CSAT surveys without leaving Gmail. Hiver also sells Hiver Omni, a standalone omnichannel app, at the same Growth and Pro prices.

What stands out:

• Gmail-native: no new app for the team to learn, and Notes with @mentions sit beside each email thread.
• AI included: AI Agents and AI Copilot are part of the Growth plan rather than a per-resolution charge.
• Help desk extras: help center, rule-based automations and analytics on Growth; SLAs, CSAT, customer portal, premium integrations and API access on Pro.
• Enterprise controls: Hiver in Gmail's Elite plan adds skill-based routing, AI QA, custom objects, SSO, HIPAA and custom roles.

Pricing: Growth is $25 per user a month billed annually ($35 monthly), Pro is $55 ($65 monthly) and Elite, for Hiver in Gmail, is $85 ($95 monthly). A free trial is available; there is no free plan.

Limits: SLAs and CSAT, which many support teams want, start on the $55 Pro plan. Monthly billing adds $10 per user over annual.

Choose Hiver if your company runs on Google Workspace and you want shared inbox plus help desk features inside Gmail.

5. Drag: cheapest shared inbox for Gmail

Drag adds shared inboxes and Kanban boards to Gmail. Emails stay in Gmail, but they also show up as cards on boards that the team can move through stages, which suits teams that think of email as tasks.

What stands out:

• Boards: Kanban, list and preview views of shared inboxes.
• Assignments, templates and rules: 10 automation rules on Starter, unlimited from Plus.
• AI on Plus: Varley AI assists, Copilot and AI-powered help center search, with monthly AI credits.
• Pro features: WhatsApp, AI agents, API and MCP access, SLA rules, round-robin assignment and custom fields.

Pricing: billed annually, Starter is $12 per user a month ($16 monthly), Plus is $18 ($22) and Pro is $24 ($30). There are no seat minimums. A 7-day trial with full access needs no card. There is no free plan.

Limits: Drag works with Gmail and Google Workspace only. Reporting history is 3 months on Starter, 6 on Plus and 12 on Pro, and its plans do not list CSAT surveys.

Choose Drag if you are a small Gmail team that wants the lowest price and likes managing email on a board.

6. Gmelius: best for AI triage inside Gmail

Gmelius brings shared inboxes and shared labels to Gmail and leans into AI agents that read, triage and route incoming email. It also connects to tools around Google Workspace, including Slack.

What stands out:

• Unlimited shared inboxes and shared labels from the Growth plan.
• Automation rules and integrations on Growth.
• AI dispatching, CRM integrations, webhooks and advanced analytics on Pro.

Pricing: billed annually, Growth is $25 per user a month ($33 monthly) with 10,000 email conversations a month, and Pro is $40 ($50 monthly) with 100,000. Enterprise is custom, with a 50-user minimum. The cheapest plan, Meli ($19 annually), is a personal AI assistant and does not include shared inboxes. Growth has a 7-day free trial.

Limits: Gmail and Google Workspace only, and the monthly conversation allowances are worth checking against your email volume.

Choose Gmelius if you want AI to sort and route a busy Gmail-based shared inbox and you don't need Outlook.

7. Gmail (Google Workspace Collaborative Inbox): best free option

If your company already pays for Google Workspace, you can set up a shared inbox at no extra cost with Collaborative Inbox in Google Groups. A group owner creates a Collaborative Inbox group (or turns the features on for an existing group) and sets permissions.

What it can do: according to Google's documentation, members can assign conversations, take a conversation themselves, and mark conversations as resolved (complete, duplicate or no action needed). Labels help organize conversations.

Pricing: included with Google Workspace. Workspace costs $7 (Business Starter), $14 (Business Standard) or $22 (Business Plus) per user a month with a 1-year commitment, and has a 14-day trial.

Limits: it lives in the Google Groups interface rather than in Gmail's inbox view, and Google's documentation covers only assigning, taking, resolving and labeling conversations. There are no rules, SLA timers or response-time reports like the dedicated tools offer.

Choose Collaborative Inbox if two or three people share one address, volume is low, and you want to try a shared workflow before paying for a tool.

Pricing comparison

What a 10-person team pays per month on annual billing (entry plan with shared inboxes): Drag $120, Help Scout about $210, Front, Hiver and Gmelius $250 each. Missive's Starter stops at 5 users, so a 10-person team needs Productive at $240.

AI costs to budget for: Front charges $20 per seat a month for Copilot (except Enterprise) and from $0.05 per conversation for Autopilot. Help Scout charges $0.75 per AI Answers resolution. Hiver includes AI Agents and Copilot in its plans. Drag includes AI credits from Plus. Missive lets you bring your own AI key.

Feature comparison

"Not listed" means the vendor's pricing page does not show the feature for that product as of October 2026.

How to choose by scenario

You are a 3-person team sharing hello@ on Google Workspace. Start with Collaborative Inbox in Google Groups. If people start answering the same email twice or losing track, move to Drag or Hiver.

You are a small business on Gmail and want the lowest bill. Drag at $12 per user a month (annual) is the cheapest dedicated option, and its boards make work visible.

You are an agency or professional firm mixing client email, internal chat and tasks. Missive fits best: shared and personal inboxes, internal chat and tasks in one app, from $14 per user a month.

Your shared inbox is your support desk. Help Scout gives you a knowledge base, chat widget, SLAs and AI answers, with a free plan to start. Hiver is the Gmail-native alternative.

You are a growing B2B team where sales, account management and support all touch customer email. Front is the most complete choice, with collaboration, analytics and enterprise controls as you scale.

You get a lot of repetitive email and want AI to triage it inside Gmail. Gmelius's AI agents and dispatching (Pro) are built for that.

Setup and migration tips

• Start with one address. Move support@ or hello@ first, set up assignment and statuses, and add more inboxes once the team trusts the workflow.
• Decide on Gmail-based versus standalone. Gmail-based tools (Hiver, Drag, Gmelius) are faster to roll out because nobody changes apps, but they tie you to Google Workspace. Standalone apps (Front, Missive, Help Scout) work with any email provider.
• Check user caps before you buy. Front Starter stops at 10 seats, Missive Starter at 5 users, and Help Scout Standard at 25 users.
• Plan your rules. Write down who owns which kind of email and set rules for it on day one. Most tools let you start with a handful of rules and add more later.
• Budget for AI separately. AI pricing models differ a lot (per seat, per conversation, per resolution, included, or bring your own key), so estimate your volume before turning it on.
• Export history if you switch. Most tools sync with your existing mailbox, so old email stays in Gmail or Outlook, but internal comments and tags usually do not move between products.

Bottom line

For most teams that run on customer email, Front is the best shared inbox software in 2026: it has the strongest collaboration features and grows with you. Missive is the best value for small teams, Help Scout is the best pick when the shared inbox is a support desk, Hiver is the best Gmail-native option with help desk features, and Drag is the cheapest way to share a Gmail inbox. If you only need two people to share one address, try Google Workspace's free Collaborative Inbox first.