The short answer
Choose Front if you run a support or customer success team that needs analytics, SLAs, many channels besides email, and a long list of integrations, and you are happy to pay per seat for it. Choose Nexmail if you are a small team that wants addresses at your own domain, a shared inbox and Slack routing without a per-seat bill.
At a glance
| Nexmail | Front | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free for up to 9 seats; Team plan for more seats, the meeting notetaker and the AI calendar reader | Paid, per seat. Check their site for current pricing and plan limits. |
| Addresses at your own domain | Yes, for every person plus shared mailboxes | Works with the accounts you connect, such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 |
| How mail arrives and leaves | Arrives through Resend’s inbound, your own mail server or Gmail; leaves through your own Resend, Brevo, SES, SMTP2GO, SMTP or Gmail account | Through the email accounts you connect to it |
| Assign, labels, internal notes | Yes | Yes, with rules and workflows |
| Slack routing and replies from Slack | Yes | Through integrations; see their site |
| Calendar sync and booking links | Yes: Google, Outlook and CalDAV both ways | See their site |
| AI first drafts | Yes, with the sales pipeline on; a person always sends | See their site |
| Desktop or phone apps | No: runs in the browser, with no IMAP or POP access | Yes: desktop and mobile apps |
How they differ
Where your mail lives. Front sits on top of email accounts you already have, so you usually keep paying for those mailboxes and for Front. Nexmail receives mail for your domain itself, through Resend’s inbound or your own mail server, and sends it through providers you connect, many of which have free plans.
Depth. Front has years of support-team features: reporting, SLAs, rule builders, and channels such as chat and SMS alongside email. Nexmail is narrower. It does email, Slack routing, a calendar with booking links, campaigns and a light sales pipeline, and it has no reporting dashboard for response times yet; team analytics is on the roadmap as something being explored.
Delivery safety. Nexmail’s particular focus is that mail is never lost: an inbound message that cannot be saved is refused so the sender retries, replies fail over between providers, and a message with no provider waits in the queue instead of failing. Each send is also checked for spoofed links, risky attachments and unsubscribed recipients.
Apps. Front has desktop and mobile apps. Nexmail runs in the browser and has no native apps.
When to choose Front instead
- You have a support team of more than a handful of people and need reporting on response times and workload.
- You answer customers on chat, SMS or social channels as well as email, in one place.
- You need mature rule builders, SLAs and a wide range of integrations with CRMs and help desks.
- Your team needs native desktop and phone apps.
When Nexmail fits better
- You are a small team, up to 9 seats, and want shared email on your own domain for free.
- Your team already works in Slack and wants each address announced in its own channel.
- You want a calendar, booking links and campaigns in the same place as the inbox.
- You want to choose and own your sending providers, with failover between them.
How to set it up
- Create a workspace. Sign up and name your organization. The Free plan covers up to 9 seats and needs no card.
- Add your domain. Open Get started and add the domain you own. Nexmail lists the DNS records it needs, or publishes them for you on Cloudflare, Vercel or DigitalOcean. See Connect your domain.
- Connect a sending provider. Connect Resend in one click, or add Brevo, Amazon SES, SMTP2GO or any SMTP server under Settings → Providers. Add more than one and Nexmail fails over between them.
- Invite the team and add shared addresses. On Teammates, invite people by email and create general mailboxes such as support@, shared with everyone or only the people you pick.
- Send a test and route it. Send yourself a message, reply to it, and, if you use Slack, connect it under Settings → Slack and choose which channel hears about each address.
Questions
Is Nexmail a free Front alternative?
For small teams answering email together, yes: the shared inbox, assignment, internal notes and Slack routing are free for up to 9 seats. It does not match Front’s reporting, multi-channel support or native apps.
Can I try Nexmail without moving my domain?
Yes. Connect a Gmail or Google Workspace account with an app password and nothing changes in DNS. Or point a spare domain at a new workspace.
Does Nexmail have analytics like Front?
Not yet. Every message is stored with its delivery history, but response-time reports are on the roadmap as something being explored, not a shipped feature.
How much does Front cost?
Front is priced per seat across several plans. Prices change, so check Front’s own pricing page.
Read next
- Nexmail vs Missive — Nexmail and Missive compared: two takes on a team inbox, what each does well, where Nexmail falls short, and when Missive is the better choice.
- Shared inbox for small teams — A free shared inbox for support@, sales@ and hello@: assign conversations, leave internal notes, route each address to Slack and draft replies with AI.
- Pricing — Nexmail is free for up to 9 seats, calendar, booking links and Draft with AI included. The Team plan adds more seats, the meeting notetaker and the AI calendar reader. Use your own Resend or Brevo account on their free plans and a small team pays nothing.