If you are looking for Missive alternatives, you came to the right place.
Email continues to be the primary method of communication for many companies. And while it is an excellent solution for internal communication, it does not meet the needs of the hybrid requirements of the modern business.
This is where shared inbox apps like Missive come in to offer a comprehensive view of customers’ status updates, minimize response times with automation, and encourage transparency across a team. However, Missive has a few limitations (aside from being a standalone tool and therefore requiring users to switch between Gmail and Missive).
Luckily, there are some great Missive alternatives to make up for these limitations. This guide has everything you need to help you find the best Missive alternative to suit your business needs.
Why Do People Look for Missive Alternatives?
Undoubtedly, Missive has some great features such as shared inbox management, snooze emails, canned responses, and live editing, all of which streamline internal and external communications. However, it has some downsides that limit collaborative teams from achieving their full potential. Some Missive limitations include:
⚠️ Missive limitations.
1. No Email Sequences
Among the reasons for using collaborative tools is saving time and reducing response time. It will be best to choose an app that lets you send more than one email at once via email sequence.
You cannot create a sequence with multiple emails when setting up canned emails with Missive – you can only set it up to send one, which costs the team a lot of time, especially when responding to many emails.
2. Archiving emails is confusing
Email archiving is critical in ensuring customer satisfaction. The idea allows you to keep a record of all sent and received emails, thus ensuring that no message is missed. Moreover, it ensures that you always have a copy of all documents attached to the emails and that they are stored safely in a different folder. This means less chance of deleting them accidentally.
Missive features a complicated email archiving and closing process. The reason is, that it is closed from an individual’s box and not the shared inbox. It is also confusing to hand over an email and remove it from your inbox.
3. Searching and Sorting Emails can be confusing
Email searching and sorting are great time savers. You don’t have to scroll down hundreds of emails to find that one email that you want to handle.
Nonetheless, email searching and sorting with Missive is still a work in progress. Most users opt to shift to Gmail if they have specific emails they need to run, which can be quite inconvenient.
4. Limited Analytics or Reporting feature
The ideal collaborative app should allow teams to measure their performance. Modern business operations are data-driven, requiring teams to measure metrics to determine if they are on the right track.
Also, with analytics and reporting features, it is much easier to measure conversation volume and the time taken to solve inquiries. Unfortunately, Missive has only recently launched its reporting features so they are limited.
What Are the 4 Best Missive Alternatives?
It is best to compare Missive competitors to help you find a multi-channel inbox that caters to your business needs. Here are the top four.
1. Drag.
Best for: Missive alternative for Gmail users
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans range from $8 – $26 per user/month.
Rating by Capterra: 4.4 stars
Rating by G2: 4.4 stars
Drag is the perfect Missive alternative for Gmail users. Its main product is a Chrome extension that adds more collaborative features on top of Gmail.
The most critical one is a shared inbox that lets team members reply to emails to send, read, and monitor emails from their various devices. This makes it easier for team members to work on an email that needs more than one person’s attention.
The app lets you create shared email templates, so teams does not have to spend hours setting up emails one by one. This helps you achieve your bottom line: responding to inquiries within the shortest period to improve customer experience.
Drag has reporting and analytics features that help users track their performance and establish if they are on the right track. They can measure the amount of time spent responding to emails and whether they need to bring more members on board.
Even better, if you need to update your team members on a task or make suggestions, you can leave internal notes. The app features discussion boards for easy task viewing so everyone can see the pending tasks and the ones in progress.
The fact that you will be working from Gmail means easy email searching and sorting without switching from the app. Furthermore, email archiving is straightforward because you will be doing it directly on Gmail.
Drag is a top workflow management software thanks to its numerous collaboration tools for teams from customer support to operations.
Key Features
- Gmail shared inbox to save time and enhance transparency
- Kanban Gmail boards for easier task viewing
- Features analytics and reporting tools
- Task delegation and sharing tools
Pros
- It has a super-friendly interface
- Collaborative email features
- Transforms Gmail into a workspace
- Allows desktop and mobile synchronization
Cons
- It’s only available for teams using Google Workspace
2. Zendesk.
Best for: For enterprise teams that need a full suite of features
Price: Paid plans range from $45 – $99 per user/month.
Rating by Capterra: 4.4 stars
Rating by G2: 4.3 stars
Zendesk is primarily designed to help customer service teams to connect with customers seamlessly. The tool has a centralized hub for easy performance management and tracking by admins. They can quickly track metrics and KPIs to establish if they need to lay off some team members or add more.
Zendesk is also suitable for chatbots and chat agents who want to monitor the whole customer journey. The app provides a personalized customer experience so customers will not feel like they are chatting with bots. Instead, it makes them feel connected and that they are cared for.
Zendesk is one of the most complete options on the market, however, it is also one of the most expensive. If your team doesn’t require all the features available on Zendesk, then it might not be the best fit.
Features
- Zendesk allows integration with third-party apps to improve customer support
- Enhances ticketing collaboration
- It comes with a knowledge base
Pros
- A complete platform for quick customer support;
- Has many relevant integrations for customer support;
- Offered in multiple languages.
Cons
- The high price makes it only attractive to organizations interested in taking full advantage of Zendesk’s several features.
The best Missive alternative for Gmail users.
- 2.5x faster email responses.
- 20 hours less spent per month, per team member.
- 40% more deadlines achieved and happier teams.
3. Spike.
Best for: For managing customers throughout the cycle of sales, marketing, and customer support.
Price: $9 per user/month.
Rating by Capterra: 4.7stars
Rating by G2: 4.6stars
Spike is a productivity app designed to turn your email into more of chat space. It gives you a seamless collaboration and project management platform right from your inbox.
The main advantage of Spike over Missive is the fact that you don’t have to switch from your email to use the app. With this, the customer service team can communicate with customers while still working on their email, thus staying focused.
It also allows you to create groups with your team and customers to collaborate on projects. They can plan and execute plans in real-time with easy access to files and documents. Moreover, they can add collaborative notes to ensure everyone is on the right page.
Email archiving with Spike has been made easy via shared inbox. So, you can archive and forward messages right from your email.
However, Spike is not the best for large organizations. It is mostly geared towards small businesses on a budget constraint. Also, if your business uses Gmail, this is probably not the ideal app for you. Most of its advanced features still need a lot of work.
For instance, it lacks tagging notes, and this makes collaboration a bit challenging. But for 7 dollars a month, small businesses can compromise some of those features and still manage to collaborate.
Features
- Features shared inbox to save time
- It has an encryption feature for security
Pros
- It is budget-friendly for small businesses
- It turns email into a chat thread
Cons
- Not the best for big businesses and Gmail users
4. Freshdesk.
Best for: For managing customers throughout the cycle of sales, marketing, and customer support.
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans range from $15 – $79 per user/month.
Rating by Capterra: 4.5stars
Rating by G2: 4.4stars
Freshdesk comes in to help customer support teams offer real-time assistance remotely. The app lets your operations run on autopilot so the agents can focus on other productive conversations.
Ideally, this is a cloud-based customer support tool that lets companies of all sizes offer fast and seamless customer support. It converts incoming email, phone, chat, and web requests into tickets then unify resolution across different channels.
Freshdesk has automation features that get rid of the most tedious tasks. It also offers self-service and has reporting and analytic tools to measure metrics. What’s more? The app allows you to initiate group discussions via a shared inbox, thus easier communication and collaboration.
You can keep tabs on agent workload in real-time to decide if you need to expand your team or lay off some agents depending on their productivity.
Features
- Features automation tool to save time
- Shared inbox for easier collaboration
- Email archiving and retention feature
Pros
- It has a ton of automation features
- Allows metrics measurement to track performance
Cons
- Freshdesk cannot be integrated and synced with Google calendar and workspace
- A bit expensive for small organizations
Missive Alternatives Take Away
Running a successful business requires you to invest in top-notch productivity and customer satisfaction apps. And while there are hundreds of collaboration apps to choose from, you need one with the most advanced features. You should also consider its usability, and don’t forget to check the price before settling on one.
While Missive pricing is affordable for most businesses, the app lacks the essential features to keep your team members focused and productive. Drag is undoubtedly the best out of the Missive alternatives, with its helpdesk Gmail shared inbox, reporting tools, and a ton of collaboration tools to streamline your support teams’ work.
Sign up today and if you are still thinking about it, check out reviews on how Boosted Commerce is overtaking the markets with Drag.
The best Missive alternative for Gmail users.
- 2.5x faster email responses.
- 20 hours less spent per month, per team member.
- 40% more deadlines achieved and happier teams.
