Missive is a team email app that puts shared inboxes, SMS, WhatsApp and social messages, team chat and tasks in one window. It connects Gmail, Outlook and IMAP accounts and runs on Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and the web. Plans are $14 to $36 per user per month billed yearly, verified October 2026.
Missive fits a small team that will move everyone into one app and wants chat beside email. Its value depends on full adoption, and every teammate left in Gmail or Outlook opens a gap in the shared view. It keeps no record of what was promised to each client. Sektra syncs with the mailboxes and keeps that record.
We build Sektra, a shared inbox that takes the other approach to adoption, and it appears in one section near the end. Missive's facts come from its own site and documentation, checked in October 2026.
What is Missive?
Missive describes itself as inbox collaboration for teams that run on email. Each email account, phone number and social account connects to one app, where the team works in shared inboxes, personal inboxes and team spaces. Conversations can be assigned and discussed in an internal thread beside the email.
The idea is one place for everything the team communicates about. Team chat runs in groups, team spaces or one to one, and tasks sit next to conversations. Rules and integrations automate the routine on higher plans.
Which channels does Missive connect?
- Email: Gmail and Google Workspace, Outlook and Office 365 including shared mailboxes, Exchange over IMAP, iCloud and any IMAP provider.
- Messaging: SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and live chat.
- Team chat: groups, team spaces and one-to-one chat in the same app.
- Apps: macOS, Windows, iOS and iPadOS, Android and a web app.
Per Missive's documentation, Gmail and Outlook accounts connect through sign-in, and IMAP accounts connect with their credentials.
How much does Missive cost?
Missive sells Starter, Productive and Business, billed per user per month. Starter is $14 billed yearly and caps at five users. Productive is $24 and caps at 50. Business is $36 with no cap. Monthly billing is $18, $30 and $45, verified October 2026.
There is no free plan. New teams get a 30-day trial of Productive with no card. Rules, integrations and analytics start on Productive, so a team that wants automation pays $24. Missive pricing works through five and fifteen seats.
How does Missive's AI work?
Missive's AI works with models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. A team pays through prepaid Missive AI credits or connects its own provider key, so the cost sits outside the seat price. Productive also adds API and MCP access for wiring Missive into other tools.
The AI works on the message in front of you. It does not build a record per client of what was promised or who owes the next reply. That per-client record is what Sektra keeps, covered below.
Who does Missive fit?
Missive fits a small team that wants email, customer messages and internal chat in one app and will move in together. Starter's five-user cap and Productive's 50-user cap point to small and mid-size teams. Business adds SAML SSO, IP restrictions and advanced analytics for larger organizations.
It fits less well where part of the team will keep working in Gmail or Outlook, because the shared view only covers people who are in the app.
Where do teams outgrow Missive?
Shared inbox decisions get made on features and unmade on adoption. Missive asks the biggest thing a tool can ask: that everyone moves in, for everything. A partial rollout is one way it stalls. The core team moves, while founders, part-time staff and freelancers stay in Gmail or Outlook, so context lives in two places.
A holdout is another. A senior person will not switch, and the team goes back to forwarding them things. Then there is drift, where people slide back to the mail app on their phone and the shared view goes stale.
The second limit is memory. Missive organizes conversations and tasks. It keeps no record of what was promised to each client, no list of who owes the next reply, and no signal when a client stops writing.
Gmail and Outlook based alternatives to Missive
If the adoption question points away from a new app, the alternatives keep mail where the team already reads it, in Gmail or Outlook. Missive alternatives sorts the full field by reason.
Gmail extensions: Hiver, Gmelius and Drag
Hiver in Gmail, Gmelius and Drag add shared inbox controls to the Gmail screen, from $12 to $85 per user per month, verified October 2026. Gmelius and Drag list no Outlook support. Hiver's Omni web app covers Outlook, as a separate app the team moves into.
Outlook shared mailboxes and Google collaborative inboxes
Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes and Google Groups collaborative inboxes come with the suite. They share the mail, with little in the way of internal notes, collision alerts or reporting. The guides on Outlook shared mailboxes and the Google collaborative inbox cover the limits.
Sektra: synced with Gmail, Outlook and IMAP
Sektra takes the sync approach. It is a separate workspace where the team reads, replies, assigns and leaves notes, and it syncs two-way with Gmail, Outlook including shared mailboxes, and IMAP. Gmail and Outlook connect through Google or Microsoft sign-in. Mail keeps flowing in the original mailboxes, so a teammate who has not switched still works from the usual inbox.
The record Missive leaves out is the core of Sektra. The memory layer reads the mail your team already has and keeps, per client, the commitments in both directions, open questions, people and dated history. A silence watch tells you when a client has been quiet past the days you set.
The morning digest lists what you owe today and who owes you a reply. WhatsApp Business connects through your provider, so a client's messages and email sit on one record. Sektra vs Missive compares the two row by row, and the consulting page shows the setup for client work.
If you have watched a rollout die of non-adoption, you already know which approach fits your team.
