Team inboxes and shared inbox tools in 2026
Teams that answer customers from a shared address such as sales@, orders@ or support@ go looking for this once a shared Gmail or Outlook mailbox stops working. Two people answer the same email, another sits unanswered, and nobody knows who owns what. They want every conversation to have one owner and a private place to discuss it, at a per-seat price a team of ten can carry, without moving to a ticketing help desk that stamps ticket numbers on their customers' mail.
Which team inbox to choose in 2026
Front is the best choice for most teams leaving a shared mailbox. It meets every need on the list except the $20 price line, on any mail provider, with personal and shared mail together, and its $25 Starter plan fits a team of up to ten as long as one channel type is enough. Hiver scores the same but only inside Gmail or Outlook and with a 2-inbox cap on its $25 plan. Drag is the runner-up and wins for a Gmail team on a budget, covering every core need at $18 per user, though it has no customer history panel and WhatsApp needs its $24 Pro plan. Hiver suits a Gmail team that needs SLAs and CRM links and will pay $55 per user for them, Missive suits a team that wants team chat and SMS inside its mail client, and Help Scout suits a dedicated support team that wants a help centre without tickets. Among open-source options, Chatwoot is the closest to a complete product and the one to self-host when chat or WhatsApp matters, while FreeScout is the better fit for an email-only team on cheap hosting. Open-source tools still lack a combined personal and shared mailbox, and the ticket systems (Zammad, osTicket, uvdesk, Libredesk) stamp ticket or reference numbers on subjects by default, which is the help-desk feel these buyers are trying to avoid.
Best team inbox for a team of up to ten on any mail provider
Front
Front meets every need on the list except the $20 price line, works with Gmail, Outlook or IMAP, and keeps personal and shared mail in one window. Starter at $25 per seat covers a team of ten on one channel type; budget for Professional at $65 once you add WhatsApp or pass ten seats.
Cheapest complete team inbox for a team that lives in Gmail
Drag
Drag covers all five core needs, including collision warnings and mobile apps, at $18 per user on Plus with unlimited rules, without moving anyone out of Gmail. Pick Hiver instead if you need a customer history panel and CRM links and can pay $55 per user.
For a support team that also wants a help centre and live chat, without tickets
Help Scout
Help Scout keeps replies as ordinary email while adding a knowledge base, live chat, SLA policies and customer profiles. It is a separate app for shared mailboxes only, so it suits a dedicated support team more than a sales or operations team that also works its own mail.
Best open-source team inbox to self-host, especially with WhatsApp or chat
Chatwoot
Chatwoot covers every core need in the free edition, with replies sent as normal email, and adds website chat, WhatsApp, SMS, rules, reports and mobile apps. SLA policies need the paid Enterprise plan, and the interface feels like chat rather than an email client.
Open-source pick for an email-only team on cheap PHP hosting
FreeScout
FreeScout behaves like Help Scout, runs on basic shared hosting, and covers every core need in its free core, including collision detection and mobile apps. Saved replies, workflows and reports are one-time paid modules, so add their cost before comparing it with a paid service.
What team inbox software needs to do
- Every email has one owner Everyone needs Each conversation is assigned to one person, everyone can see who has it, and it stays open until that person marks it done or snoozes it.
- Warning before two people answer the same email Everyone needs The app shows who else is viewing or writing a reply on the thread, so the customer never gets two different answers.
- Private notes and @mentions on the thread Everyone needs Colleagues discuss a message beside it in notes the customer never sees, instead of forwarding it around or asking in Slack.
- Customers get ordinary email from your address Everyone needs Replies go out from sales@ or support@ as normal email in the same thread, with no ticket number in the subject and no portal link, unless you choose to add them.
- Affordable for a team of ten Everyone needs Ten users with assignment, notes and automatic rules cost at most $20 per user per month on annual billing, or nothing for self-hosted software (partial for $21 to $40, no above $40 or when no price is published).
- Running in a day without a consultant Most need A team can sign up, connect its mailboxes and start working the same day with no vendor onboarding and no server of its own (partial when only self-hosting is offered).
- Personal and shared mail in one place Most need People work shared inboxes from the mail app they already use, or the product replaces it fully, so nobody keeps two windows open all day.
- Shared saved replies Most need A team library of reply templates that anyone can insert and fill in.
- Rules that tag, route and assign Most need Incoming mail is tagged, moved or assigned automatically by sender, subject or keyword, set up without code.
- Reply-time and backlog reports Most need Reports on first reply time, resolution time and open backlog per person and per inbox.
- WhatsApp, SMS and chat beside email Most need Messages from WhatsApp, SMS and website chat land in the same list as email and are assigned and answered the same way (partial for one extra channel, or for channels only on a higher plan's mobile app).
- Customer history beside the thread Some need Next to each message the agent sees the customer's past conversations and contact details, ideally pulled from the CRM.
- Phone apps that can reply and assign Some need iOS and Android apps for replying, assigning and commenting away from a desk (partial for a mobile web app or web view).
- Reply-time targets with warnings Some need Set a target reply time per inbox or customer and get warned before a conversation goes overdue.
17 team inbox options checked feature by feature
Each one checked against its own documentation. ● built in $ paid edition only ◐ partly – missing
| Software | Covers | Every email has one owner | Warning before two people answer the same email | Private notes and @mentions on the thread | Customers get ordinary email from your address | Affordable for a team of ten | Running in a day without a consultant | Personal and shared mail in one place | Shared saved replies | Rules that tag, route and assign | Reply-time and backlog reports | WhatsApp, SMS and chat beside email | Customer history beside the thread | Phone apps that can reply and assign | Reply-time targets with warnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FrontComplete system · commercial | 95% | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HiverComplete system · commercial | 95% | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DragComplete system · commercial | 93% | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | No | Yes | Yes |
| ChatwootComplete system · open source | 93% | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Paid edition |
| MissiveComplete system · commercial | 88% | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly |
| Help ScoutComplete system · commercial | 88% | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GmeliusComplete system · commercial | 88% | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ZammadComplete system · open source | 87% | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes |
| FreeScoutComplete system · open source | 78% | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | No | Paid edition | Paid edition | Paid edition | Paid edition | Partly | Yes | No |
| LibreDeskComplete system · open source | 77% | Yes | Partly | Yes | Partly | Yes | Partly | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| TrengoComplete system · commercial | 73% | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | No |
| Zoho TeamInboxComplete system · commercial | 70% | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | No | Yes | No |
| IntercomCovers part of it · commercial | 73% | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| osTicketCovers part of it · open source | 67% | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes | Partly | No | Partly | Yes | Partly | No | Partly | No | Yes |
| PippCovers part of it · commercial | 52% | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| SpikeCovers part of it · commercial | 47% | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Community-skeletonCovers part of it · open source | 47% | Partly | No | Yes | Partly | Yes | Partly | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
- Front
- A standalone app for shared and personal mail on Gmail, Outlook or any IMAP account, with assignment, comments, collision warnings, rules, time goal rules and analytics. Starter costs $25 per seat per month (annual) but stops at 10 seats, 10 rules and one channel type, so a team that needs WhatsApp or grows past ten moves to Professional at $65.
- Hiver
- Shared inboxes worked from inside Gmail (and now Outlook), so nobody leaves the mail app they know. Growth costs $25 per user per month (annual) but caps a team at 10 users and 2 shared inboxes, and SLAs, CRM integrations and the API need Pro at $55; reviewers report occasional sync lag and slowdowns inside Gmail.
- Drag
- Turns Gmail into shared inboxes and Kanban boards with assignment, notes, collision detection, templates and mobile apps on every plan. Starter is $12 per user per month (annual) with 10 rules and Plus is $18 with unlimited rules; WhatsApp, SLA rules and round-robin need Pro at $24, and its pages describe no customer history panel.
- Chatwoot
- The most complete open-source option, with email over IMAP and SMTP sent back as ordinary 'Re:' replies, alongside website chat, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS and social, with assignment, private notes, typing-based collision warnings, canned responses, rules, reports, contact profiles and mobile apps. It can be self-hosted free or used as a hosted service; SLA policies sit in the paid Enterprise plan, and the chat-style interface handles long email threads less naturally than an email client.
- Missive
- A full email client built around team inboxes, with internal comment threads, team chat, SMS, WhatsApp and live chat, and apps on every platform. Starter at $14 per user per month (annual) stops at 5 users, so a team of ten pays $24 on Productive, which is also where rules and reports start; avatars show who is looking at a thread but its docs describe no warning when a colleague is replying.
- Help Scout
- An email-first support inbox whose replies read as normal email, with collision detection, private notes, saved replies, workflows, a knowledge base and live chat. It is a separate app for shared mailboxes only, so personal mail stays elsewhere; the free plan covers 5 users and one inbox, Standard costs $25 per user, and CRM integrations and round-robin need Plus at $45.
- Gmelius
- Shared inboxes, shared labels and Kanban boards inside Gmail, with notes, collision detection, templates, rules, reports and SLAs from Growth at $25 per user per month (annual). It handles email only, and HubSpot and Salesforce integrations need Pro at $40.
- Zammad
- A full open-source help desk with email, chat, WhatsApp, Telegram, phone and SMS, owner assignment, internal notes, editing-conflict warnings, triggers, text modules, SLAs and reports, available self-hosted or as a hosted service. It works in tickets and by default puts a [Ticket#] number in every subject (the ticket hook position can be set to none), so a team that wants mail to stay mail will find it heavy; on phones it offers a mobile web view.
- FreeScout
- An email-first shared mailbox modelled on Help Scout that runs on ordinary PHP hosting, with assignment, collision detection, internal notes and Android and iOS apps in the free core, and replies that keep the customer's own subject line. Saved replies, workflows, reports, WhatsApp and live chat are paid one-time modules from the project, and there is no SLA module.
- LibreDesk
- A newer self-hosted support desk shipped as one Go binary with PostgreSQL and Redis, covering email, live chat and WhatsApp with auto-assignment, private notes with mentions, a previous-conversations sidebar, macros, rules, SLAs, CSAT and an AI copilot, with no paid tier. Agent typing is broadcast to other agents on the conversation without saying who, subjects carry a '#' reference number that it uses for threading, and there are no phone apps.
- Trengo
- A WhatsApp-first inbox from the Netherlands with email, chat, social and voice, assignment, internal comments, quick replies and contact profiles. Plans are priced per team, and ten users means Boost at about 299 euros a month with a yearly conversation allowance. Native phone apps have given way to an installable web app, and neither its site nor its help centre describes collision warnings or SLA timers.
- Zoho TeamInbox
- A shared inbox from Zoho with thread owners, internal discussions, snooze, templates, rules, shared drafts and a personal inbox per user on Professional. Zoho's pricing page shows a cost estimator rather than a per-user figure, its feature page names no collision warning, SLA or customer history, and WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram come through the mobile plans and WhatsApp credits.
- Intercom
- A support platform built around chat and its Fin AI agent, whose inbox also takes email, with mobile apps that reply, assign and add notes. Intercom staff confirmed in September 2025 that the inbox does not show which teammates are viewing or replying, and workflows need Advanced at $85 per seat, so it is more help desk than team inbox and costly for a team of ten.
- osTicket
- A long-running PHP ticket system that turns mail into tickets with assignment by department, ticket locks while an agent replies, filters, SLA plans and a customer portal. Its default reply templates put the ticket number in the subject, it has no chat or messaging channels and a dated interface, so it fits an IT or support desk better than a sales or operations team.
- Pipp
- A free email team inbox with assignment, notes with mentions and indicators of who is viewing and replying, sending from your own verified domain, plus AI drafts, translation and summaries in beta and an MCP server for a team's own AI agent. Its site describes no open or closed states, saved replies, rules, reports or other channels yet, and caps sending at 100 recipients per workspace per day.
- Spike
- A chat-style email app whose Teamspace plans ($4 or $8 per member per month, annual) add shared inboxes with assignment, status labels and snooze. It suits a small team that already lives in Spike, but its shared inbox pages list no internal notes on a message, rules or reports.
- Community-skeleton
- A Symfony ticketing help desk that converts mailboxes into tickets, with agent notes, saved replies, workflows and a knowledge base. Its default customer reply subject reads 'Customer Reply Ticket #' plus the number, and its README and open-source page name no collision detection, reports or SLAs.
Checked on 2026-11-06 from each product's documentation, feature pages and repository. "Covers" weights the features everyone needs three times and those most need twice.
10 commercial products, ranked by how many people read about each, or about its maker, on Wikipedia's mobile site. Of those with an article of their own, Spike has the most readers, about 88 a month. 5 open-source projects, ranked by GitHub stars and how recently each was worked on. Chatwoot leads with 39k stars, ahead of Community-skeleton. 4 had code pushed in the last three months. Most common licenses: AGPL-3.0 (2), See repository (1) and OSL-3.0 (1).
Commercial team inboxes and shared inbox tools
-
1
Spike Spike
Stay organized, respond faster, and boost productivity with Spike's AI-powered email platform
Complete system Usable A small team already uses Spike and wants a basic shared inbox cheaply.
88 readers a month Since 2013 Commercial -
2
Zoho TeamInbox Zoho
Shared inbox for a transparent workspace—Zoho TeamInbox lets you manage team emails efficiently, gives you clutter free inboxes and helps attain Inbox Zero easily.
Complete system Production-ready You already use Zoho apps and want a team inbox that fits beside them.
Commercial -
3
Help Scout Help Scout
Help Scout delivers all the powerful, intuitive features you need to deliver exceptional support at a fraction of the cost of other customer service platforms.
Complete system Production-ready A small support team wants customer email handled cleanly without the overhead of a ticketing system.
25 readers a month Commercial
-
4
Drag Drag
Drag is the shared inbox for Gmail teams, with Varley, Drag's AI, built in: it drafts, tags and resolves, and asks first. From $12 a seat. Free 7-day trial.
Complete system Production-ready A small team in Gmail wants a complete shared inbox at a low price per user.
Commercial -
5
Front Front
Deliver exceptional service with Front, the platform where support, sales, operations, and AI agents come together to resolve complex customer work.
Complete system Production-ready Operations, account management or support teams handle customer email together and want collaboration without a ticket portal.
Commercial
-
6
Gmelius Gmelius
Our AI Assistants sort your emails and draft replies, while Gmelius shared inboxes help your team take over conversations so you don't have to. Start for free.
Complete system Production-ready Your team works in Gmail and wants a shared inbox without leaving it.
Commercial -
7
Hiver Hiver
Hiver is the agentic customer service platform where teams and AI work together to resolve customer issues across channels.
Complete system Production-ready A team on Google Workspace wants shared inbox workflows without leaving Gmail.
Commercial -
8
Missive Missive
See what’s going on, know who’s doing what, and collaborate behind the scenes — without changing your workflow. Try for free!
Complete system Production-ready Your team wants shared and personal mail in one client, with internal chat on each thread.
Commercial -
9
Pipp Till Felippi
A simple, beautiful team inbox for small teams. Work in it yourself with Pipp AI at your side, let your own agent run it, or both.
Complete system Usable A small team shares one support or sales mailbox and wants assignments and an AI assistant without a full help desk.
Commercial -
10
Trengo Trengo
Enhance customer interactions with Trengo’s AI-powered engagement platform. Automate workflows and manage omnichannel communication effortlessly from a single dashboard.
Complete system Production-ready Most of your customer conversations happen on WhatsApp and social channels rather than email.
Commercial
Open-source team inboxes and shared inbox tools
Complete systems you can adopt 5
-
1
Chatwoot chatwoot
Open-source live-chat, email support, omni-channel desk. An alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud etc. 🔥💬
Complete system Production-ready You want to self-host a shared inbox, especially one that handles WhatsApp or chat beside email.
★ 39k See repository Ruby Active, pushed today
-
2
Community-skeleton uvdesk
UVdesk Open Source Community Helpdesk is a comprehensive ticketing support system designed for everyone, offering robust features to streamline customer support and collaboration.
Complete system Usable You want a free PHP helpdesk and can live with a slower release pace.
★ 20k OSL-3.0 CSS Active, pushed 29 days ago
-
3
FreeScout freescout-help-desk
FreeScout — Free self-hosted omnichannel AI-powered helpdesk & shared mailbox
Complete system Production-ready A small team wants Help Scout-style email support on cheap PHP hosting.
★ 4.6k AGPL-3.0 PHP Active, pushed 10 days ago
-
4
LibreDesk abhinavxd
Open-source, self-hosted customer support desk in a single binary. A lightweight alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Chatwoot.
Complete system Usable A small team wants a lightweight self-hosted Intercom or Zendesk replacement that is easy to deploy.
★ 3.1k AGPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed 2 days ago
-
5
osTicket osTicket
The osTicket open source ticketing system official project repository, for versions 1.8 and later
Complete system Production-ready You need a free, self-hosted support ticket system and do not mind a classic interface.
★ 4k GPL-2.0 PHP Slowing, pushed 5 months ago
Compared head to head
Looking for an alternative to
Open-source licenses
- Strong copyleft: 2. If you distribute the program or anything built on it, you must release the whole source under the same license.
- Network copyleft: 2. Like GPL, and running a changed version as a web service counts as distributing it, so its users get the source too.
Languages
PHP 2, Ruby 1, CSS 1 and Go 1.
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