Hiver adds a shared inbox to the Gmail interface and to Outlook shared mailboxes, so the team keeps working in the mail client it has. Front is a standalone workspace that pulls email, SMS, social and WhatsApp into one app the whole team moves into. Hiver asks for a smaller change and covers a narrower job. Front asks for a bigger change and covers a wider one.
Pick Hiver when the team runs on Gmail or an Outlook shared mailbox and the work is one support queue. Pick Front when customers write on several channels and requests move between departments on rules. Both are queue tools, and both keep nothing about a client once the conversation closes. Prices below were verified on both pricing pages in October 2026.
| Hiver | Front | |
|---|---|---|
| Channels | Email, live chat and self-service on Growth; WhatsApp and voice through Hiver Omni, voice as a $30 per seat add-on | One channel type on Starter; email, SMS, social and WhatsApp on Professional and Enterprise |
| Where mail lives | In Gmail or an Outlook shared mailbox, with Hiver's controls added in the interface | In Front's own app, connected to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 accounts |
| Assignment | Assign to a user, with if-then automations | Assign by rule, with routing across teams and SLA policies |
| Notes | Internal notes on the conversation | Comments on the conversation |
| Collision detection | Shows when a teammate is replying | Shows when a teammate is replying |
| Analytics | Pre-built analytics on Growth, advanced analytics on Pro and Elite | Reporting across teams on Professional and Enterprise |
| AI and how it is billed | AI agents, AI Copilot and a knowledge builder included from Growth | Copilot $20 per seat per month as an add-on below Enterprise; Autopilot from $0.05 per conversation on every plan |
| Price range | $25 to $85 per user per month billed annually, two-seat minimum, Growth capped at 10 users | $25 to $105 per seat per month billed annually, Starter capped at 10 seats, Professional at 50 |
- Pick Hiver if the team lives in Gmail or works an Outlook shared mailbox and the inbound is a support queue. The change it asks for is a set of controls added to the mail client.
- Pick Front if customers reach you by email, SMS, social and WhatsApp and requests pass between departments. The whole team moves into one application, and someone has to own its rules.
- Pick neither if the people writing in are named clients who return for years. Both tools close the conversation and keep nothing about what was promised in it. Sektra keeps that record per client, as the last section shows.
What is the difference between Hiver and Front?
Hiver is a shared inbox layer. It renders assignment, statuses, notes, automations, SLAs and reporting in Gmail, and connects Outlook shared mailboxes through Microsoft 365 in its Omni product. A support or operations address becomes a queue without anyone opening a new application. The scope is the queue, and the AI included from the Growth plan works on that queue.
Front is a customer operations platform that replaces the mail client. Conversations from email, SMS, social and WhatsApp arrive in one app, where routing rules, SLA policies and analytics run across teams. The channel list is longer, the rules engine is deeper, and all of it needs configuring by someone on your side.
Where does the mail live with Hiver and with Front?
With Hiver, nobody leaves the mail client. The shared inbox appears as controls in Gmail, or as a connected Outlook shared mailbox, so there is no adoption step to plan. Hiver also inherits the limits of that mail client. It is an email tool first, and chat, WhatsApp and voice sit in the Omni product line, with voice as a paid add-on.
With Front, the team moves. Mail still arrives through the connected Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 accounts, but the work happens in Front, with Front's concepts and shortcuts. A team that fully commits gets one place for every channel. A team where two people keep answering from Gmail or Outlook ends up with context split across two systems. Decide which team you have before comparing features.
Which channels does each cover?
Hiver's Growth plan covers email, live chat and self-service in one inbox, and the Omni product adds WhatsApp, with higher tiers unlocking more channels. Voice is an add-on on every plan at $30 per voice seat per month with pooled minutes.
Front's Starter plan covers one channel type, whichever you choose, with up to 10 channels per license. Professional and Enterprise are omnichannel, with email, SMS, social and WhatsApp in one inbox. Front's native WhatsApp channel is available on those two tiers, billed at Meta's rates plus a 20 percent admin fee. If your customers write email, the channel question is small and the pricing question is large.
Hiver vs Front pricing in 2026
Both vendors publish per-user monthly prices and discount annual billing. The figures below are from the two pricing pages, verified October 2026, on annual billing. Check them again before signing, because both companies have repriced more than once.
- Hiver Growth: $25 per user per month billed annually ($35 monthly), capped at 10 users, with the omnichannel inbox, pre-built analytics and the AI features. Pro: $55 ($65 monthly), unlimited users, adds SLAs, CSAT surveys and advanced analytics. Elite: $85 ($95 monthly). Every plan starts at two seats. There is no free plan; the trial is seven days of Elite.
- Front Starter: $25 per seat per month billed annually, capped at 10 seats and one channel type. Professional: $65 per seat, up to 50 seats, omnichannel. Enterprise: $105 per seat, no cap listed. Front labels the annual toggle as a 24 percent saving and lists no monthly prices. The trial is 14 days with Professional features.
- Front's AI: Copilot is a $20 per seat per month add-on on Starter and Professional and included on Enterprise. Autopilot is an add-on on every plan from $0.05 per conversation. Smart QA and Smart CSAT are included on Enterprise, and the pricing page lists no separate price for them below it.
Put an eight-person team on each. On Hiver Pro at $55, that is $5,280 a year with SLAs and analytics included. On Front Starter at $25 it is $2,400 a year.
Starter is single-channel and stops at 10 seats, so a team that wants a second channel or expects to pass 10 people is quoting Professional. That is $6,240 a year, plus $1,920 if it adds Copilot. Price the tier that holds the feature you are buying.
How is AI billed on Hiver and Front?
Hiver bundles its AI features into the plans from Growth upward, so the number on the invoice is the seat price. Front sells Copilot as a per-seat add-on below Enterprise and meters Autopilot per conversation on every tier, so the AI line moves with headcount and with volume.
Bundling gives finance a fixed number. Metering ties cost to use, which is predictable only when the inbound is. Ask for the AI line in writing before you compare totals, because on Front it can be a quarter of the bill.
How deep does the workflow go?
Front has the larger engine. Routing rules move conversations between teams, SLA policies escalate what is late, automations handle the repeated moves, and analytics report on all of it. Operations teams in logistics, financial services and travel buy it for that depth, and it needs someone senior to configure and maintain.
Hiver covers assignment, statuses, SLAs on Pro, CSAT surveys and if-then automations for a Gmail or Outlook queue. Both tools treat the conversation as the unit of work. It arrives, is assigned, is resolved, and leaves the queue. Neither tool keeps anything about the client once the thread leaves.
Does Hiver work with Outlook?
Yes. Hiver connects an Outlook shared mailbox through Microsoft 365 in its Omni product, and its help center walks through the Entra permissions needed. The account that connects the mailbox becomes the source user. If that person leaves or loses access, sync and sending stop until someone reauthenticates. Hiver imports up to 10,000 emails from the previous two weeks on connect. Front also connects Microsoft 365 accounts, and the team then works in Front.
Which is better: Hiver vs Front?
Ask whether the whole team will leave the mail client. Will they, in practice? If the answer is no, or if the team includes part-timers and contractors who rotate through, Hiver leaves them where they are and Front does not.
Then ask whether the inbound is a queue or a set of named clients. A queue is new people with solvable problems, where resolution is the goal, and both tools are built for it.
Named clients write month after month, and the risks are a forgotten promise, a question that aged in an answered thread, and an account that went quiet. Neither Hiver nor Front holds that record, so for that inbound the grid above is the wrong comparison.
Where Sektra fits
We build Sektra. It is a separate workspace that syncs two-way with Gmail, Outlook (including shared mailboxes), IMAP and WhatsApp Business. The mail stays where it is, and anyone who has not moved keeps working in their mail client.
It keeps the shared inbox basics both tools above have: assignment by rule, round robin or current workload, and notes and mentions on the thread. A typing indicator reads "A teammate is typing a reply" when someone is already answering.
Underneath sits the memory layer: a record per client of every commitment with its date, every open question, the people involved and the thread history. Sektra builds it from the mailbox on connect. Set a silence watch on a client with the day count you choose and Sektra tells you the day they go quiet. The morning digest lists who owes you a reply. The assistant drafts from that history, and a person always sends.
Every AI feature is part of the plan, and plans are on the pricing page. Every new workspace starts with 7 days of Pro and no card is required, so Sektra can run next to Hiver or Front on the same inboxes while you decide.
The row-by-row pages are Sektra vs Hiver and Sektra vs Front. The product page covers the memory layer, and account management teams shows the inbound it is built for.
Hiver and Front are both built for the queue. Choose between them on where your team will work and how many channels you need, and choose something else if the queue is only part of the job.
