Front is a powerful customer support platform with plenty of features, but there are some downsides, especially for SMBs.
And that’s probably why you’re here.
Either the steeply rising price became too much for your fast-growing team. Or the integrations offered by Front were too limited for you and the system too difficult for your team to navigate.
Not to worry. There are plenty of Front alternatives available out there.
And although, sometimes it feels like finding the right platform is impossible, we’re here to help you out.
In this article, we’ll give you an in-depth breakdown of these top Front alternatives:
Skip the list and get the best front alternative available on the market
If you’re interested in more customer service tools, check out these articles:
- 16 Best Live Chat Software for Websites
- How to Create Customer Service Chatbots [+Examples]
- What Is Customer Service Automation? [Full Guide]
Before we jump into the detailed reviews, let’s cover some basics.
What is the Front app?
Front is a central hub for your customer conversations that works by pulling all your messages into a unified interface. This means that you and your team no longer need to hop between different apps.
Need help with a tricky message? Assign it to a teammate with a few clicks. You can also tag conversations for easy categorization and speed things up with templates.
So, what is Front used for?
The most notable Front use cases include managing messages and tracking customer service metrics like response times and customer satisfaction. These give you the insights you need to improve your game.
You can also integrate Front with your existing tools like CRM systems, making your tech stack work well together and helping you break data silos.
Now—
What are the features of a Front app?
Front offers many useful features but four main ones are:
- Shared inboxes—allow your team to manage emails and messages from a single place.
- Integrations—connect with CRMs, ecommerce apps, issue tracking tools, etc.
- Automation and workflows—automate repetitive tasks and set up workflows to streamline operations
- Analytics—provide data on team performance and customer satisfaction.
Okay, but what are some of the limitations of Front app?
Two of the biggest Front limitations are pricing and the limited range of integrations.
The tiered pricing plans may be a little steep for some users. As you add more team members or need more advanced features, the price hikes become steeper and steeper. So, even though Front’s base price is competitive, at $19/mo/seat, it only allows 10 agents and doesn’t include some of the key features. In order to get the basic functionality, like analytics, you need to jump to the $49/mo/agent and $99/mo/agent tiers.
On top of that Front has a decent range of integrations, but some popular tools are missing. This means you might need extra tools or workarounds, which can be a hassle.
But fear not!
There are some excellent Front app competitors out there. So, let’s explore the top Front alternatives and find the perfect one for your team!
Top 10 best Front alternatives
To help you decide which Front alternatives to try out, we’ve put together a list of the top ten contenders for best customer service platform. As a quick reference point, the table below shows the G2 rating, details of any free plans or trials, and the standout feature of each.
| Software | Rating | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio | 4.7/5 ⭐️ | 50 human conversations & 100 chatbots/month | 35+ ready-to-use chatbots |
| Zendesk | 4.3 /5 ⭐️ | 14-day free trial | Wide range of integrations |
| Freshdesk | 4.4/5 ⭐️ | Up to 10 agents | Omnichannel support |
| Hiver | 4.6/5 ⭐️ | 7-day free trial | Gmail integration |
| Help Scout | 4.4/5 ⭐️ | 15-day free trial | Shared inboxes |
| Kayako | 4/5 ⭐️ | 14-day free trial | Simple dashboard |
| Intercom | 4.5/5 ⭐️ | 14-day free trial | User-friendly interface |
| Hubspot | 4.4/5 ⭐️ | 14-day free trial | Built-in CRM |
| Gorgias | 4.6/5 ⭐️ | 7-day free trial | Shopify integration |
| Zoho Desk | 4.4/5 ⭐️ | Up to 3 agents free | Contextual awareness |
Let’s explore each of these customer support software in more detail.
1. Tidio
Rating: 4.7/5 ⭐️ (1,410+ reviews)
Tidio can help you regain control of your customer support tickets. State-of-the-art AI technology and a wide range of features for online stores makes Tidio ideal for ecommerce businesses. It also has impressive chatbot capabilities with more than 35 pre-designed bot templates for customizable chat flows, as well as helpdesk ticketing system, making it an ideal Front alternative.
The dashboard is easy to use for any agent to master within minutes. You can access the unified team inbox to manage customer queries across various channels including email, live chat, social media, WhatsApp, and more.
But let’s not brag about ourselves. Check out the free trial to see all of Tidio’s capabilities and read the reviews of our users to see for yourself if we deserve this spot on the list.
Key Features:
- Visitor segmentation
- Multichannel support
- AI and NLP chatbots
- Variety of notifications
- Built-in email marketing
- Free
- Email marketing ($10/mo)
- Starter ($29/mo)
- Automation ($29/mo)
- Growth ($59/mo)
- Lyro AI ($39/mo)
- Tidio + (starting from $499/mo)
Read more: Discover more about Tidio’s one inbox that helps you organize your conversations, by flagging those that require attention and improving collaboration between team members.
2. Zendesk
Rating:4.3/5 ⭐️ (5,790+ reviews)
Zendesk Support Suite helps you keep track of, prioritize, and solve customer service tickets efficiently. What sets Zendesk apart is its ease of integration with other tools and its ability to scale alongside your business. The dashboard is intuitive, making it easy to navigate through the ticketing system. On top of that, automation features save you a ton of time by handling repetitive tasks and FAQs.
This platform brings efficiency to handling customer queries and helps to improve your response times. So, in terms of Front vs. Zendesk, both offer similar features, but Zendesk edges ahead in terms of its wide range of integrations, email automation, reporting, and analytics.
Pros:
- User-friendly interface and dashboards
- Variety of automation tools and workflows
- Customizable reporting and chatbot analytics
Cons:
- Some advanced features and integrations need technical knowledge
- Customer support from Zendesk can sometimes be slow or unresponsive
- Pricing could be more flexible and affordable for startups smaller businesses
- Free 14-day trial
- Basic ($19/mo)
- Suite Team Plan ($69/mo/agent)
- Suite Growth ($115/mo/agent)
- Suite Professional ($149/mo/agent)
Read more: Discover the best Zendesk alternatives and competitors with pros, cons, and pricing compares.
3. Freshdesk
Rating: 4.4/5 ⭐️ (3,070+ reviews)
Freshdesk is a strong Front alternative that’s accessible and loaded with features to enhance customer service. Its strength lies in omnichannel support, allowing you to manage queries across email, social media, chat, and more in a single dashboard.
The AI automation of ticket assignment and prioritization, as well as a wide range of third-party integrations are good for streamlining your workflows and ensuring real-time responses. Plus, Freshdesk’s user-friendly interface and scalability make it suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Pros
- Simple interface with efficient ticket routing
- Automation and AI features to streamline support
- Wide range of third-party integrations, including Slack and Messenger
Cons
- Some users report complexity with integration and help desk management
- Platform becomes costly when accessing advanced features
- Potential for improvement in customization options
- Free plan available
- Growth ($18/mo)
- Pro ($59/mo)
- Enterprise ($95/mo)
Read more: Learn what the top Freshdesk competitors are by comparing their features, pros, and cons.
4. Hiver
Rating: 4.6/5 ⭐️ (930+ reviews)
Hiver is a Front alternative that turns Gmail into a powerful customer support tool by organizing shared inboxes. It makes email and project management easy, with efficient team collaboration. This help desk software helps to ensure that none of your customer queries are missed and comes with a suite of analytical tools to help monitor your support performance.
The integration with Google Workspace is pretty seamless, which makes it easy to set up and use. And, overall, Hiver is ideal if you’re looking for a straightforward, Gmail-based customer service solution.
Pros:
- Integration with Gmail and Google Workspace
- Shared inboxes for teams
- Automated email assignments
Cons:
- Limited mobile app functionality compared to the desktop version
- Lacks advanced automation and analytics features
- Pricing may be steep for smaller teams or individuals
- Lite plan ($19/mo/user)
- Pro plan ($49/mo/user)
- Elite plan ($69/mo/user)
Read more: Discover how Tidio helped ADT Security boost sales and increase customer satisfaction.
5. Help Scout
Rating: 4.4/5 ⭐️ (400+ reviews)
Help Scout is another Front alternative that helps you unify your customer communication via email, self-service, and live chat support. The platform mimics an inbox and is intuitive to use which makes it easy for you and your team to manage customer queries in one place.
Help Scout is a straightforward, cost-effective tool for improving customer experience. It also offers powerful API capabilities and customer service automation with personalized rules which make it easy to customize the system for your specific needs.
Pros:
- Powerful APIs available
- Full set of features for customer support
- Automations based on customizable rules
Cons:
- Outdated user interface and UX
- Limited onboarding and knowledge base material
- Workflow automation can accidentally trigger excessive email responses
- Standard Plan ($25/mo/user)
- Plus Plan ($50/mo/user)
- Pro Plan ($65/mo/user)—only available on annual subscription
Read more: Check out the best Help Scout alternatives available on the market.
6. Kayako
Rating: 4/5 ⭐️ (210+ reviews)
Kayako is a customer service app that is a great Front alternative. It helps to boost both your team productivity and client loyalty by unifying support channels. With Kayako you get a user-friendly interface, efficient ticket prioritization, and easy department integration, making the tool useful for personalized support.
Kayako can be used straight out-of-the-box so that your team can manage customer conversations more or less right away. On the whole, Kayako is a simple, yet effective Front alternative.
Pros:
- Ticket prioritization to enhance productivity
- Simple integration with company departments
- User-friendly interface with customizable dashboards
Cons:
- Occasional bugs affect ticket prioritization accuracy
- Pricing plans increase steeply
- Limited by a lack of new features and updates
- Kayako Cloud & Classic On-Prem plans → contact sales team
7. Intercom
Rating: 4.5/5⭐️ (2,930+ reviews)
Intercom combines the strength of your human support team with automation tools for maximum efficiency. This helps to reduce costs while maintaining a high customer satisfaction. It supports multi-channel communication including email, chat, and social media in one platform, making customer queries faster to resolve.
Intercom’s automation and AI customer service features will make your operations run faster and smoother. Overall, Intercom is the right Front alternative for you if you’re looking to integrate automation with human support and make customer queries faster to resolve.
Pros:
- AI chatbots for workflow automations
- Multi-channel integrations
- Lead qualification features available
Cons:
- Can be complex to learn certain features
- Advanced features may incur extra costs
- The search function and help articles can be challenging to navigate
- 14-day free trial
- Essential ($39/mo/seat)
- Advanced ($99/mo/seat)
- Expert ($139/mo/seat)
Read more: Compare the best Intercom alternatives and choose the right platform for your business.
8. Hubspot Service Hub
Rating: 4.4/5 ⭐️ (2,170+ reviews)
HubSpot Service Hub is a powerful Front alternative that centralizes your customer service data and channels. It makes your support efforts more scalable through automation and self-service by integrating with HubSpot CRM. This enables you to dive deeper into customer insights.
With all your customer interactions in one place, you can streamline the service processes and enhance client satisfaction by taking a proactive approach. It’s a solid choice if you’re looking for a solution within the HubSpot ecosystem.
Pros:
- Brings together customer service channels and data
- Enables proactive customer service through automation features
- Integrates with HubSpot CRM for deeper customer insights
Cons:
- Reporting capabilities are limited
- Pricing may be too high for smaller businesses
- Integration with some third-party tools could be smoother
- Free plan available
- Starter ($20/mo) for 2 seats)
- Professional ($490/mo)
- Enterprise ($1,200/mo)
Did you know that…
By using automation you can resolve 22% of tickets at no cost. Moreover, 93% of support teams say that their productivity increased after implementing a helpdesk solution.
9. Gorgias
Rating: 4.6/5 ⭐️ (500+ reviews)
If you have an ecommerce store on Shopify, then Gorgias could be a good fit for you. It integrates well with Shopify for efficient order tracking and management. The easy-to-use interface categorizes your various chats effectively, making customer service smoother.
The platform offers a simple omnichannel support platform as well as combines live chat features with CRM capabilities. On top of that, you can use different analytical and lead qualification features to improve your customer relations while keeping an eye on your support agents’ performance.
Pros:
- Good integration with ecommerce platforms like Shopify
- Order tracking and management features
- User-friendly interface and efficient categorization of chats
Cons:
- Pricing is high for automation add-ons
- Issues with referral rewards
- Customer support is slow to respond during peak times
- 7-day free trial
- Starter ($10/mo)
- Basic ($60/mo)
- Pro ($360/mo)
- Advanced ($900/mo)
- Enterprise → contact sales team
Read more: Check out the best Gorgias alternatives and choose the best one for your business.
10. Zoho Desk
Rating: 4.4/5 ⭐️ (5,250+ reviews)
Zoho Desk is a Front alternative that collects your various support channels into a single interface. The platform is highly customizable and scales up with your business. It’s also straightforward and user-friendly, even for beginners.
This platform offers full multi-channel support and a variety of app integrations. As a scalable, user-friendly option, Zoho Desk is worth taking a look at.
Pros:
- Full multi-channel support
- Highly customizable and scalable
- User-friendly interface and easy to learn
Cons:
- Steeper learning curve for advanced features
- Limited third-party integrations
- Mobile app functionality for Android and iOS is limited
- Free plan available
- Express ($9/mo/user)
- Standard ($20/mo/user)
- Professional ($35/mo/user)
- Enterprise ($50/mo/agent)
Did you know that…
Study shows that using a help desk improves customer satisfaction by 83%.
Conclusion
When you’re trying to choose a customer service platform, it can be difficult to narrow it down as there are so many Front alternatives out there. Of all the Front competitors, a few stand head and shoulders above the others. These include:
- Tidio
- Zendesk
- Freshdesk
- Hiver
- Help Scout
- Kayako
- Intercom
- HubSpot
- Gorgias
- Zoho Desk
Tidio, Zendesk and Freshdesk are the main Front app alternatives as they offer a wide range of features, including advanced tools such as AI automation and analytics. They are also highly cost-effective, especially Tidio which scores highly on all fronts.
