Front vs Gladly

What Front is

Front is a shared inbox that keeps email, SMS and chat in one place, with internal comments on customer threads. It suits teams where support and account management blur: the customer sees email, the team sees assignment, comments and SLAs behind it. It is priced above shared inboxes, which is the objection when the workflow is purely reactive support.

What Gladly is

Gladly organises support around the customer rather than the ticket, so an agent sees one continuous conversation across channels. Organising around the person rather than the ticket means an agent sees one lifelong conversation instead of unrelated cases. That model fits consumer brands with repeat contact and is overkill for low-volume B2B support.

What Front is built to do

Shared channels

Manages email, SMS and chat addresses as team inboxes.

Internal comments

Discusses a customer thread without forwarding it.

Rules and SLAs

Routes conversations and tracks response commitments.

What Gladly is built to do

Customer-centric timeline

Shows one continuous history per person across all channels.

Channel-agnostic routing

Assigns the customer, not the individual message, to an agent.

Built-in voice

Handles phone conversations inside the same timeline.

Choose Front if

• Small support teams on a single channel: Starter is $25 per seat/month for up to 10 seats with a shared inbox, ticketing, AI Topics, up to 10 automation rules and a no-code public knowledge base
• Omnichannel teams — Professional at $65 per seat/month for up to 50 seats adds email, SMS and social, macros, 20 automation rules, advanced analytics, multiple workspaces, SSO and SCIM
• Teams that want AI included rather than bolted on: Enterprise at $105 per seat/month bundles AI Copilot, QA and CSAT plus unlimited rules and macros

Skip Front if

• You are over the seat ceiling of your tier — Starter caps at 10 seats and Professional at 50, so growth forces a tier change rather than just more seats
• You need more than one channel type: Starter is single-channel, and omnichannel starts at Professional
• You want AI Copilot without paying the top tier — below Enterprise it is a paid add-on

Choose Gladly if

• Customer-service teams that want a customer-centred (not ticket-centred) helpdesk and are ready for a sales-led evaluation
• Mid-size and enterprise support organisations that buy through demos and contracts
• Teams that want AI-driven resolutions bundled with agent tooling

Skip Gladly if

• You need a published per-seat price to budget — Gladly does not list one
• You are a small team wanting self-serve signup and a free tier
• You need a quick trial; the site routes to demo requests

Front: pros & cons

• Internal discussion attached to real emails
• Multiple channels in one inbox
• Good automation rules
• Per-seat pricing is high
• Setup takes planning
• Overlaps with tools you may already pay for

Gladly: pros & cons

• Customer-centred rather than ticket-centred
• Channels merge into one timeline
• Good for high-touch brands
• Priced for larger support teams
• Different mental model requires retraining
• Fewer integrations than incumbents