Head to head

inrelay vs Front

Two team inboxes with real desktop apps — one priced per seat with AI as add-ons, one flat with AI included.

The case for Front

Choose Front if you’re a larger team that needs mature workflow automation, SLA rules and analytics today — it has a decade of polish and an integration catalog inrelay can’t match yet.

The case for inrelay

Choose inrelay if you want one flat price with AI drafting included and a human approving every send, instead of per-seat tiers with the AI sold separately.

This inrelay vs Front comparison plays it straight: dated prices, verifiable rows, and a genuine account of where Front is ahead. If you’re surveying the field, the Front alternatives roundup reviews the whole set, and the comparison hub links every head-to-head.

01 · The matrix

Feature by feature.

Gaps rendered as gaps, on both sides — including ours.

	Front	inrelay
Pricing shape
Model	per seat, capped tiers	flat per account
Free tier	14-day trial only	the Solo plan, free forever — small AI reply budget
Channels
Email
Live chat
Instagram DM		in development
TikTok Shop	—	in development
SMS	via Twilio	in development
WhatsApp	yes, Meta cost +20% fee	in development
Help-desk layer
Knowledge base		yes, custom domains
CSAT surveys	yes; AI-scored is +$10/seat
Collision detection
SLA rules		in development
Analytics		included on Team
AI
AI drafting	Copilot, +$20/seat below Enterprise	every plan, drafts in your voice
Human approval before send	Copilot yes; Autopilot sends autonomously	default; auto is opt-in
Apps
Desktop app (Mac + Windows)
Mobile app

Front features and pricing as of August 2026, from front.com/pricing directly — note many third-party roundups still cite Front’s older four-tier lineup.

02 · Their wins

Where Front is stronger

Four areas, and for bigger teams they matter more than price. First, SLAs: Front has native SLA rules with automated response-time tracking; inrelay’s SLA support is in development. If breach alerts are how your team runs the queue, that’s decisive today.

Second, analytics depth. Front ships team performance, response-time and CSAT reporting — reviewers wish the drill-downs went deeper, but it has years of refinement behind it. inrelay’s analytics ship on the Team plan and are younger; if deep drill-downs run your week, Front is ahead there today.

Third, integrations breadth: a decade-old ecosystem of CRM, order and workflow connections plus a mature API, against inrelay’s young catalog. And fourth, plain maturity — edge cases polished, admin controls proven, workflow rules that handle genuinely complex routing. A 30-person operation with process requirements should weigh Front seriously; the trade is that every one of those seats, and several of the capabilities, carries its own monthly price.

03 · Our wins

Where inrelay is stronger

Start with what’s in the box. On Front, AI drafting is Copilot at $20 per seat per month below Enterprise, AI-scored CSAT is another $10, and the autonomous Autopilot bills per conversation. On inrelay, the agent — drafting in your voice, triage, routing — is included on every plan, governed by a monthly reply budget you set. No per-resolution fees. Ever.

prop · screenshot — AI draft open with the approve-and-send control

Second, the approval gate is the default, not a mode. Front’s Copilot keeps a human sending, but Autopilot resolves conversations autonomously; inrelay’s agent drafts everything and a person approves every send unless a workspace deliberately opts into auto. Third, the pricing shape: flat plans where teammates are never priced, so hiring never moves the bill — and there’s a real free tier, where Front offers a 14-day trial. Both products ship dedicated Mac and Windows desktop apps; the difference is that inrelay is desktop-first by design — the desktop app is the product, bundled on every plan including Free. Said plainly, what Front has that we don’t yet: SLAs, deeper analytics, live social channels, and years of integrations.

04 · The bill

Pricing, side by side.

Per-seat tiers with add-on stacking against one flat price — at three people and at eight.

Team	Front Starter ($25/seat)	Front Professional ($65/seat)	inrelay, flat
3 people	$75	$195	$79 Team, flat
3 people + AI drafting	$135 (+ Copilot $60)	$255	$79 Team, included
8 people	$200	$520	$79 Team
8 people + AI drafting	$360 (+ Copilot $160)	$680	$79 Team, included
11 people	over the 10-seat cap	$715	$79 Team

As of August 2026, annual billing, from front.com/pricing. Front’s Starter allows a single channel type and caps at 10 seats — the 11th person moves every seat to Professional. Smart QA and Smart CSAT stack another $20 and $10 per seat where needed. inrelay numbers per pricing — Team is $79 flat, teammates never priced, the agent included with a reply budget you set.

05 · The move

Migrating from Front

Request the export early

Front has no self-serve full export — a company admin requests it from Front support, with roughly a 72-hour turnaround. It covers conversations in shared inboxes only, and excludes attachments, comments, individual-inbox content, templates and tags. The API can pull a more complete archive if you have a developer afternoon.

Reconnect your addresses

Email and chat reconnect to inrelay in minutes, and third-party movers like Help Desk Migration support Front as a source for larger histories.

Rebuild rules by hand

Front’s rules, macros and tags don’t export — screenshot them before you cancel, then rebuild only the ones the team actually used.

Start today

Hire your ninth person without a pricing call.

Flat plans, teammates never priced, AI included with a human on the send button — free to try with your own inbox.

Start free See pricing

Questions, answered.

Is inrelay ready for a team Front’s size?

Honestly, not always. inrelay has no SLA rules yet — they’re in development — and a 30-person operation that runs on breach alerts and deep, mature dashboards is better served by Front today. Teams of two to ten living in email and chat get the full benefit now.

Does Front include AI in its plans?

Only on Enterprise. Below that, Copilot drafting is $20 per seat per month, Smart QA another $20, Smart CSAT $10, and the autonomous Autopilot bills from $0.05 per conversation. inrelay includes the AI agent on every plan — Team is $79 flat, with a monthly reply budget you set instead of per-seat add-ons.

What does eight people cost on each?

On Front, $200 a month on Starter or $520 on Professional, annual billing — plus $160 for Copilot if you want AI drafting. On inrelay, $79 flat on Team with the AI included, and the ninth hire costs nothing.

Will my Front history come with me?

Partially. The support-requested export covers shared-inbox conversations but not attachments, comments, templates or tags; the API route or a migration service recovers more. Request the export before cancelling — it takes about 72 hours.

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