Front is a customer support platform used by mainly technology companies. It's a fan favorite for forward thinking tech companies, and its modern design is far better than its established competitors like ZenDesk. We think Front has a great product, however, we don’t typically recommend it for eCommerce companies. It comes with a premium price tag and doesn't have as tight of an integration with Shopify as our recommended tool Gorgias.
Read our full guide on: Customer Support Platforms 🙏
Best for: Medium ($10-50M revenue), and Enterprise ($50M+) size companies
Front is a customer service platform that has lots of features but a premium price tag to match.
Front was founded in 2013 by Mathilde Collin (CEO) and Laurent Perrin (CTO), who first met at the startup accelerator eFounders in Paris. The duo came up with the idea for Front's collaborative email inbox after recognizing that traditional email workflows often involve inefficient chains of internal communications. Front was accepted into Y Combinator's 2014 summer batch, where Collin and Perrin pitched the concept of shared inboxes that allow team members to collaborate on customer emails. After onboarding initial test customers in Europe, Front's founders relocated to San Francisco and have since grown the company to over 8,000 global customers.
Collaboration
Front's collaboration tools like shared inboxes allow teams to collectively manage customer communications. Features include internal messaging, draft co-editing, and bringing external users into email threads as "guests". This facilitates efficient team coordination and eliminates cumbersome email chains.
Analytics
Front provides analytics on team performance, response times, customer satisfaction, and other metrics. Customizable reports help teams understand communication effectiveness and improve processes. Granular filtering enables focused analysis and enhancements.
Omnichannel Inbox
Front consolidates messages from email, SMS, chat, social, etc. into one inbox. Advanced workflow automations based on sender, time, keywords route messages appropriately. This unified approach improves response times and helps maintain context across conversations.
Integrations & APIs
Front offers extensive integrations with CRMs, project tools, messaging apps, automation software, and more. APIs allow custom workflows and interfaces. Robust documentation facilitates integration. Together this enables customization and consolidation of diverse tools within Front.
Front operates on a subscription-based model with four pricing tiers - Starter, Growth, Scale, and Premier. Prices range from $19/user/month for Starter to $229/user/month for Premier. All tiers include features like omnichannel messaging, collaboration tools, and calendar integration. Higher tiers add more advanced capabilities like workflow automation, analytics, enterprise-grade security, custom integrations, and premium support.
Summary of Front's four pricing tiers:
Starter ($19/seat/month): For 2-10 seats. Includes basic features like omnichannel messaging, collaboration, calendar, and some integrations.
Growth ($59/seat/month): For 5+ seats. Adds workflow automation, analytics, omnichannel communications, and more integrations.
Scale ($99/seat/month): For 20+ seats. Offers flexible workflow customization, account-based analytics, enterprise security, advanced onboarding.
Premier ($229/seat/month): For 50+ seats. Includes higher usage limits, premium support services, custom integration development, and video conferencing.
What is front used for?
Front is primarily a customer service platform. It serves as a central communication hub that enables customer-facing teams like sales, support and success to collaborate efficiently on responding to customer inquiries across email, messaging, and social channels. The platform consolidates communications into shared inboxes, automates routing based on rules, provides omnichannel support, generates insights through analytics, integrates with other tools, and offers mobile access - all aimed at helping companies deliver excellent customer service, build strong relationships, and operate more effectively.
How much does the front app cost?
Front has four pricing plans: Starter ($19/seat/month), Growth ($59/seat/month), Scale ($99/seat/month), and Premier ($229/seat/month).
Is Front SOC II compliant?
Yes, Front is SOC 2 Type II certified
What customers use Front?
Front has over 8,000 customers including Dropbox, Hootsuite, GoDaddy, Carvana, and ClickUp.
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