Turn Gmail into your Team’s Workspace

Drag is the best Front alternative for SMEs in Gmail.

Here’s a comparison for those that may be looking for a Front alternative.

In a nutshell.

Both tools offer shared inboxes, automations, analytics, integrations and mobile apps.
Drag works inside Gmail and thus is a more convenient solution for Google Workspace users.
Drag does not store users’ emails—they are always on Gmail servers. Front stores emails on their servers.
There is no 2 way sync between Front and Gmail. Users’ Gmail accounts don’t reflect actions taken in Front.
Front only accepts annual payments upfront and is up to 10x more expensive than Drag.
Front charges extra for onboarding and only offers real-time support to its enterprise customers.
Public reviews suggest that Drag is a more customizable solution and suits Small Businesses better.
Front shares inboxes by duplicating emails across team members’ inboxes, posing data security issues.
Front is more focused on Help Desk features while Drag is more flexible in terms of interface and use cases.

Front alternative: is Drag right for your team?

If you are part of a small team using Google Workspace and are looking for an email collaboration tool – definitely read on. We have designed this page to help you make a clear and simple decision and explore insights into why customers switch from Front to Drag.

Ultimately, picking the right tool between Front vs Drag depends on your specific needs and workflow, and this choice doesn’t come down to only feature sets. At a first glance, both Front and Drag offer basic email collaboration features such as shared inbox, automations, analytics, integrations and mobile apps. However, there are key differences between Front vs Drag, from technical approach to pricing.

Drag lives in Gmail.

Drag allows users to manage shared inboxes from the place they already spend their day: Gmail. It keeps the same familiar Gmail interface, meaning the learning curve to start using Drag is close to zero.

On the other hand, Front is a standalone email client, with a new interface and terminologies, which can be overwhelming.

Besides, Front is not only competing directly with Gmail, but also with it’s ever-growing features and community of developers in the Google Workspace marketplace. Front users constantly switch between Front and Gmail.

⚠️ Front has no Gmail 2-way sync and stores users’ emails.

Not only Front has its own interface competing with Gmail, but also its syncing with Gmail is cumbersome.

For example, actions performed in Front are not reflected in Gmail. Let’s say you connect your support email account (eg. [email protected]) to Front. You may process emails in Front and archive them when they are done, but all of those conversations will remain in your Gmail account as if they had never been attended to. The same applies for starring/unstarring emails and similar actions.

Due to Drag’s native integration with Gmail, all actions performed in Drag are instantly reflected in your Gmail account.

Another critical point is that Front stores users’ emails on their own servers. Drag does not store your emails—they are always on Gmail servers. If you are looking for a secure Front alternative, Drag might be a good option for your team.

Pricing.

Drag and Front have contrasting views on pricing. Front is primarily focused on serving large enterprises, and have designed their pricing accordingly, while Drag serves small businesses.

Drag offers a free plan for small teams with up to 3 users. Front only offers paid plans.
Drag’s starter plan doesn’t limit number the number of users. Front limits it across all plans.
Front does not offer a monthly billing option. All plans must be paid a year upfront with a strict no-refund policy.
Front’s entry pricing is 2.4x Drag’s, getting up to 10x more expensive on more advanced plans.

If you’re more of an enterprise customer than Front prices will be more palatable. However, if you’re a small team, Drag may be best Front alternative for you.

Here is an example of comparison of prices:

Number of users
Price per user
Monthly billing option
Shared inboxes
Email assignment
Shared drafts
Team chat and @mentions
Email templates
Email sequences
Zapier integration
Reports & analytics
Custom roles & permissions
Live-chat support

Drag Pro Plan

As many as necessary

$16 user / month

Front Starter Plan

Up to 10

$19 user / month

Expensive onboarding and support.

The lack of onboarding assistance and support on Front’s entry level plans is another aspect that frustrates small businesses. Front only offers live-chat support to customers on their Scale plan ($99/user/month). For video call support, customers need to be in the Premier plan ($229/user/month).

The same applies for onboarding assistance, which is not provided in the Starter or Growth plans. This means that even customers paying $708/user/year get no help during onboarding. And the upfront annual payments are non-refundable, putting smaller teams in a very difficult position.

“Great platform with no real support for the small fish in the sea. I could get no useful assistance (at my level, they offer no setup assistance or live help).

I started on the simple plan ($684 for three users for the year), then found out that the features I actually wanted were not available on my plan, and I could not get a refund. For me to get the features I needed, I would have to pay roughly $3,600 a year (no monthly plan, although they quote the fee by the month) with no refund once you set up.”

Andrew Newman | Newman Associates

Reviews.

According to reviews from business software reviews website G2, Drag outranks Front in a number of areas. But there are two that stand out: customization and small business fit.

Drag is overall a more flexible tool, allowing users to manage workflows beyond Help Desk or traditional shared inboxes. For example, Front only allows you to share entire inboxes, while with Drag you can either share entire inboxes or just specific emails. Drag also offers better visualization of workspaces with different views (eg. kanban boards), as well as task management features.

When it comes to team sizes, Front targets large enterprises, while Drag focuses almost exclusively on best serving companies with up to 50 employees.

Quality of Support

94%

Customization

97%

Dashboards

90%

Small businesses (50 or fewer emp.)

85%

Quality of Support

92%

Customization

83%

Dashboards

83%

Small businesses

51%

Source: G2 reviews.

⚠️ Data Security.

Front has built its architecture so that when an email is sent to a shared inbox, a copy of the email is sent to every individual user’s inbox. This means that you can’t stop users from forwarding emails externally, for example. Or, if someone leaves the company or a specific team, every email sent to the shared inbox will still be in their inbox.

Needless to say, this dramatically increases the risk of data security breach.

With Drag, if someone leaves your company, they immediately lose access to any future and historical emails in a shared inbox. We do not duplicate emails across multiple inboxes. Technically, Drag shares the account permissions to access a specific inbox, which can be revoked at any time, with immediate effect.

Features, interface and usability.

When it comes to email, both Drag and Front comprehensively cover the core collaboration features that any strong shared inbox tool needs – assignments, internal chat, file sharing, automations, email templates, custom fields, etc.

If you are looking for a better workflow visualization, then Drag offers a more flexible interface including kanban, list or preview views. Front only supports the traditional Help Desk preview-pane view for conversations.

In addition, there are other limitations of Front that are offered in Drag. For example, in Drag allows a conversation to be assigned to multiple users at the same time. In Front, a conversation can only be assigned to 1 team member at a time.

Alias management is also more straightforward with Drag. You can add as many aliases as you want to each email account, and easily grant permissions for other team members to reply on your behalf or on behalf of a shared inbox email address. Front lets you change the ‘from’ address for your inboxes but does not support using multiple aliases per inbox. You need to create one channel per alias.

Overall, Drag is a good Front alternative for your team if you need to manage email-driven workflows. However, if you need other communication channels such as SMS, Facebook or live chat, then Drag is not the solution for you.

In addition, Front offers more comprehensive data and analytics if you are specifically looking for Help Desk functionality such as CSAT and SLAs – if you have a larger team and their exclusive use case is closing of support tickets, then Front may be the solution for you.

Affordable pricing.

Collaborate directly from Gmail over your 7-day free trial
– then choose a plan or continue for free.

Free

For small teams that need
the essentials.

$0

user / month, billed yearly.

$0 per user / month if billed monthly.

Up to 3 users
1 WorkspaceA workspace can be a Shared Inbox, a Google Group, or a custom board.
Assign, mention, and team chat
Shared drafts
Collision detection
Email tracking

Try for Free

Starter

For teams starting with collaboration & automation.

$8

user / month, billed yearly.

$10 per user / month if billed monthly.

Unlimited users
Unlimited WorkspacesA workspace can be a Shared Inbox, a Google Group, or a custom board.
Unlimited shared conversations
Unlimited integrations
Unlimited rule executions
Email templates
Email notes and subtasks
1-month reporting window

Try for Free

Plus

For growing teams that need to scale work.

$12

user / month, billed yearly.

$15 per user / month if billed monthly.

Unlimited users
Unlimited WorkspacesA workspace can be a Shared Inbox, a Google Group, or a custom board.
Unlimited shared conversations
Unlimited integrations
Unlimited rule executions
Email sequences
Merge cards
6-month reporting window

Try for Free

Pro

For teams with advanced email workflows.

$16

user / month, billed yearly.

$20 per user / month if billed monthly.

Unlimited users
Unlimited WorkspacesA workspace can be a Shared Inbox, a Google Group, or a custom board.
Unlimited shared conversations
Unlimited integrations
Unlimited rule executions
Custom fields
Priority support
12-month reporting window

Try for Free

“I am very excited to have discovered Drag! I am impressed with this simple, cost-effective and infinitely scalable solution to facilitate our global customer service conversations.”