AI CRM suite
Shared inbox for customer operations
Front Alternative: HelloGrowthCRM vs Front
Last verified against Front's own pricing and product pages.
Quick verdict
Should you switch from Front to HelloGrowthCRM?
Decide on evidence.
- Step 1
List must-haves
Pipeline, WhatsApp, calling, reports
- Step 2
Price your team
Cost per user at your real team size
- Step 3
Trial with real leads
A week of genuine follow-up
- Step 4
Check the extras
AI, automation and integrations you need
- Step 5
Plan the move
Export, import and go live
HelloGrowthCRM's free plan lets you run step 3 on real leads before paying.
Who should choose which
Growing US businesses whose shared inbox feeds revenue: account teams, agencies and service businesses that answer a customer, then call them, quote the work, send the invoice and track the follow-up, and want one record and one seat for it.
Operations, support and account teams that work mostly in email with external customers and partners, value Front's collaboration features and guest access, and keep their pipeline in a CRM that Front connects to.
How to evaluate Front against a CRM with a team inbox
Front describes itself as a customer operations platform. Its core is a shared inbox that brings email, chat, SMS, social and Slack conversations into one workspace, with assignments, tags, views, internal comments and shared drafts. On top sit ticketing, a knowledge base, a customer portal, SLA time goals, analytics and AI: Copilot for agents, Autopilot as an AI agent, Compass for quality scoring and external AI agents that work beside the team.
HelloGrowthCRM is an AI CRM suite in which the team inbox is one module. Conversations from email, web chat, social messages and calls arrive in the inbox, can become tickets with SLA targets, and can be answered by AI agents from the knowledge base. The same customer record holds the deals on the pipeline, the quotes and invoices, the call recordings and the tasks on the team's boards.
The table above shows both columns as they stand on 2026-10-28. "Included (Growth plan)" means the capability is part of HelloGrowthCRM's Growth plan. "Via integration" means it works through a provider you connect. "Paid add-on" means Front sells it separately from the plan, and "Limited" means Front covers part of it. "Coming soon" marks a HelloGrowthCRM capability that is planned but not shipped, such as automatic ticket assignment. Capabilities whose Front cell could not be checked against Front's own pages, including pipelines and quoting, are left out of the table rather than guessed.
A fair trial compares a week of real conversations. Connect a copy of one shared mailbox to a HelloGrowthCRM trial, recreate your main rules and templates, and measure response times, how often AI replies needed correcting, and how many conversations became a deal, quote or renewal you could act on without leaving the inbox. If email collaboration is the whole job, Front is built for it. If the inbox feeds sales and service, one CRM matters more.
The 10 differences that decide it
What buyers comparing Front ask about most. Each Front cell links to Front's own page.
| What you need | Why it matters | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support tickets | Customer issues get an owner, a status and a history. | Included (Growth plan) | IncludedSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
| SLA policies and escalation | Late tickets escalate before the customer has to chase. | Included (Growth plan) | Professional and aboveSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
| Help-center articles | Customers answer common questions themselves. | Included (Growth plan) | IncludedSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
| Customer portal | Customers check tickets, quotes and invoices without emailing you. | Included (Growth plan) | IncludedSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
| CSAT surveys | You learn which customers are unhappy before they leave. | Included (Growth plan) | Paid add-onSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
| Automatic ticket assignment | New tickets reach an agent without a dispatcher. | Coming soon | LimitedSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
| One shared inbox | The whole team sees every conversation, so nothing waits on one person. | Included (Growth plan) | IncludedSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
| Website live chat | Visitors ask before they leave, and the chat becomes a lead. | Included (Growth plan) | IncludedSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
| Call leads from the CRM | Reps dial in one click and every call lands on the lead's timeline. | Included (Growth plan) | Via integrationSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
| First-response tracking | Managers see which conversations are waiting too long. | Included (Growth plan) | Professional and aboveSource, checked 2026-10-28 |
What HelloGrowthCRM includes for teams comparing Front
Included in Growth. Each card says what the feature does not do yet.
Tickets and SLAs
Tickets from any inbox channel with SLA policies, escalations, watchers and internal notes.
Limit: Automatic ticket assignment is coming soon.
Knowledge base
Help articles your customers can search, which the AI chat also answers from.
Customer portal
A passwordless portal where customers pay invoices, accept quotes, raise tickets and see bookings.
Limit: There is no vendor or supplier portal.
Team inbox
Email, SMS, chat, social and WhatsApp conversations in one inbox, with assignment, snooze and mentions.
Limit: AI autopilot drafts and sends on email only.
Website chat with AI answers
A chat widget with live visitors, proactive triggers and answers drawn from your knowledge base.
Google review monitoring
New Google reviews arrive in the CRM so the team sees and answers them quickly.
Quotes, proposals and invoices
Quotes built from the deal, turned into invoices, plus recurring invoices and AI-drafted proposals.
Limit: Card payments run through a payment provider you connect.
Task boards
Table, kanban, calendar, Gantt and analytics views with subtasks, dependencies, several assignees and time tracking.
Limit: No voice notes on tasks yet.
What it costs for 5, 10 and 25 users
Year-one cost at list price: HelloGrowthCRM Growth at $12 per user per month, and Front Starter at $25 per user per month (billed annually, up to 10 seats, from Front's pricing page, checked 2026-10-28).
| Team size | HelloGrowthCRM | Front Starter |
|---|---|---|
| 5 users | $720 | $1,500 |
| 10 users | $1,440 | $3,000 |
| 25 users | $3,600 | $7,500 |
Front Professional is $65 and Enterprise $105 per seat. Front does not include a sales pipeline, quotes or invoices.
Try your own team size
Front Starter
$3,000 in year one
$25 per user per month, billed annually, up to 10 seats.
HelloGrowthCRM Growth
$1,440 in year one
$12 per user per month.
Front price from its pricing page, checked 2026-10-28. Taxes, usage charges and add-ons are not included on either side.
Why teams look past Front
Teams consider moving from Front for three reasons.
The first is the record behind the inbox. Front keeps contact and account context per conversation and pulls CRM fields from linked systems such as HubSpot. HelloGrowthCRM is that system: the conversation, the deal on the pipeline, the quote, the invoice and the call recordings live on one customer record.
The second is add-ons. Front's Copilot and Autopilot AI are sold separately, and SMS and voice need third-party providers. HelloGrowthCRM includes AI agents, AI drafting, summaries and a browser dialer with call recording in the Growth plan.
The third is plan gating. SLA time goals, social channels and SSO start on Front Professional, and custom roles and custom reports on Enterprise. HelloGrowthCRM includes them in the Growth plan.
Where Front is stronger
- Native Gmail, Outlook and IMAP mailbox sync; in HelloGrowthCRM mailbox sync runs through a connection.
- A Slack integration built for operations teams.
- Email collaboration features refined over many years.
Full capability comparison
51 capabilities in 9 groups. Open a group to see every row.
Calling and messaging (15)
| Capability | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|
| Shared team inbox | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Shared mailboxes | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Snooze, assign and mention in the inbox | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Send later from any composer | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Email templates | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Gmail sync | Via integration | Included |
| Outlook and Microsoft 365 mail sync | Via integration | Included |
| IMAP and custom SMTP email | Via integration | Included |
| Website live chat | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Facebook Messenger inbox | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Instagram DM and comment inbox | Via integration | Included |
| Two-way SMS | Via integration | Via integration |
| Click-to-call dialer | Included (Growth plan) | Via integration |
| Cloud telephony provider connections | Via integration | Via integration |
| Inbox SLA and first-response tracking | Included (Growth plan) | Professional and above |
Records and pipeline (7)
| Capability | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|
| Tags and labels | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Saved views and advanced filters | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Comments and @mentions | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Contact and lead records | Included (Growth plan) | Limited |
| Company and account records | Included (Growth plan) | Limited |
| Account health badge | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Multi-language interface | Included (Growth plan) | Limited |
Integrations (3)
| Capability | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|
| Slack | Via integration | Included |
| HubSpot sync | Via integration | Via integration |
| Asana | Via integration | Via integration |
Support and customer success (5)
| Capability | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|
| SLA policies and escalation | Included (Growth plan) | Professional and above |
| Support ticketing | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Ticket auto-assignment | Coming soon | Limited |
| Knowledge base | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Customer portal | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
AI (9)
| Capability | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|
| AI inbox autopilot | Included (Growth plan) | Paid add-on |
| Multiple prebuilt AI agents | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| AI assistant chat over CRM data | Included (Growth plan) | Paid add-on |
| AI email and message drafting | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| AI timeline and thread summaries | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Conversation intelligence | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| AI governance and approval mode | Included (Growth plan) | Limited |
| Pre-meeting brief | Included (Growth plan) | Paid add-on |
| Proactive AI copilot suggestions | Included (Growth plan) | Paid add-on |
Automation (2)
| Capability | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|
| Visual workflow automation | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Public REST API | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
Sales execution (1)
| Capability | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting booking pages | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
Reporting (2)
| Capability | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|
| Standard dashboards | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Report builder | Included (Growth plan) | Enterprise and above |
Security and admin (7)
| Capability | HelloGrowthCRM | Front |
|---|---|---|
| Roles and permissions | Included (Growth plan) | Enterprise and above |
| Single sign-on (SAML/OIDC) | Included (Growth plan) | Professional and above |
| Two-factor authentication | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| SOC 2 certification | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| GDPR and CCPA tooling | Included (Growth plan) | Limited |
| Data residency choice | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
| Seat and plan management | Included (Growth plan) | Included |
Sources for the Front column (51)
Each Front cell is checked against Front's own documentation or pricing page. A cell that has not been re-checked within 120 days is removed from the table rather than shown out of date.
- Shared team inbox: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Shared mailboxes: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Snooze, assign and mention in the inbox: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Tags and labels: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Saved views and advanced filters: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Comments and @mentions: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Send later from any composer: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Email templates: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Gmail sync: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Outlook and Microsoft 365 mail sync: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- IMAP and custom SMTP email: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Website live chat: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Facebook Messenger inbox: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Instagram DM and comment inbox: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Two-way SMS: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Click-to-call dialer: help.front.com/en/articles/3553088 · checked 2026-10-28
- Cloud telephony provider connections: front.com/integrations · checked 2026-10-28
- Slack: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Inbox SLA and first-response tracking: help.front.com/en/articles/3038464 · checked 2026-10-28
- SLA policies and escalation: help.front.com/en/articles/3038464 · checked 2026-10-28
- Support ticketing: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Ticket auto-assignment: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Knowledge base: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Customer portal: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- AI inbox autopilot: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Multiple prebuilt AI agents: front.com/blog/ai-agents-teammates-launch · checked 2026-10-28
- AI assistant chat over CRM data: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- AI email and message drafting: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- AI timeline and thread summaries: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Conversation intelligence: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- AI governance and approval mode: front.com/blog/ai-agents-teammates-launch · checked 2026-10-28
- Pre-meeting brief: front.com/blog/ai-agents-teammates-launch · checked 2026-10-28
- Proactive AI copilot suggestions: front.com/blog/ai-agents-teammates-launch · checked 2026-10-28
- Visual workflow automation: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Meeting booking pages: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Contact and lead records: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Company and account records: front.com/blog/ai-agents-teammates-launch · checked 2026-10-28
- Account health badge: front.com/blog/ai-agents-teammates-launch · checked 2026-10-28
- Standard dashboards: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Report builder: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Public REST API: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- HubSpot sync: front.com/integrations · checked 2026-10-28
- Asana: front.com/integrations · checked 2026-10-28
- Multi-language interface: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Roles and permissions: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Single sign-on (SAML/OIDC): front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
- Two-factor authentication: front.com/security · checked 2026-10-28
- SOC 2 certification: front.com/security · checked 2026-10-28
- GDPR and CCPA tooling: front.com/security · checked 2026-10-28
- Data residency choice: front.com/security · checked 2026-10-28
- Seat and plan management: front.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-28
Switch from Front in 4 steps
- Export contacts from Front and list the shared mailboxes you use.
- Import contacts into HelloGrowthCRM and connect the same shared mailboxes.
- Recreate assignment, reply templates and SLA policies.
- Run both inboxes for a week, then move the mailboxes off Front.
Your data
Export Front records to CSV and import them; the import screen maps each column. Custom objects and automations are rebuilt by hand.
Learning curve
A guided setup wizard creates the pipeline, stages and fields; you can keep your current stage names.
Get the switching checklist by email
Verdict
Choose Front if your team lives in email and wants a fast, collaborative shared inbox with native Gmail, Outlook and Slack channels, AI agents and quality scoring on top, and a separate CRM such as HubSpot already holds your deals. Choose HelloGrowthCRM if the inbox is where sales and service conversations start, and you want those conversations to become tickets, deals, quotes, invoices, calls and tasks in the same CRM, at one published per-user price.
Want to see the difference?
See how HelloGrowthCRM compares to Front on your own pipeline.
Comparison FAQ
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Security and migration, handled
Everything you need to move quickly and trust the system you're switching to.
Security & governance
- SOC 2 Type II report (available under NDA)
- AES-256 at rest · TLS 1.3 in transit
- SSO and 2FA support
- Full audit log on all user actions
- Hosted on AWS (US regions)
- GDPR & DPDPA-aligned data handling
Implementation & support
- Onboarding included in Growth
- We handle data migration — not you
- Same-day demo response (business hours)
- Email + chat support on Growth
- Dedicated specialist on Growth Engine+
- 90-day post-onboarding check-in included
Take the next step
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Prefer email? Write to sales@hellogrowthcrm.com