Missive
A shared team inbox for email, SMS and social messages, with AI drafting replies and summarising long threads before anyone opens them.
What you'd use it for
Replacing a shared support or sales inbox that several people CC each other on with one place where the thread, the internal note and the task live together.
- Draft a reply to an incoming email for you to review and edit before it sends
- Summarise a long email thread into key points so the next teammate doesn't have to read the whole history
- Set an AI Rule that reads an incoming message and routes it, labels it or drafts a reply automatically
- Pull context from Stripe, Notion, Linear or a custom MCP server before the assistant drafts a reply
- Translate an incoming or outgoing email into another language inline
The verdict
Missive earns its keep as a shared inbox first, email, SMS and social in one place, with comments and tasks sitting on the thread instead of in a separate app. The AI drafting and summarising that lead the pitch only switch on at the Productive plan and up, and even then you're paying for Missive's own AI credits or bringing your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key, so the entry-level Starter tier is a shared inbox with no AI in it at all. It suits a small team that already wants a shared inbox and is willing to pay for automation on top, not a team shopping for a cheap way to try AI email drafting.
What it costs
| Tier | Price | For | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $14/user/month, billed yearly (20% cheaper than monthly) | A small team consolidating email, SMS and social into one shared inbox. | Email, SMS and social account connections; team spaces; conversations; tasks; SOC 2 Type II compliance. |
| Productive | $24/user/month, billed yearly (20% cheaper than monthly) | A team automating triage and reporting on top of the shared inbox. | Everything in Starter, up to 50 users, integrations, up to 1,000 rules & automations, basic analytics, API/MCP access. |
| Business | $36/user/month, billed yearly (20% cheaper than monthly) | An organisation needing single sign-on and access controls. | Everything in Productive, plus SAML SSO, IP restrictions, advanced analytics, personalised onboarding. |
Read from Missive's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.
What you need to start
- An existing email account to connect (Google, Office 365, Outlook.com, iCloud or IMAP)
- The Productive plan or higher to use any AI feature; Starter has none
- Missive AI credits or your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google API key to run the AI assistant
A few minutes to sign up and connect one email account solo; a longer admin session to add shared accounts, create teams and invite everyone before the shared inbox is actually the team's front door.
Your first run Sign up and connect one email account (Google, Office 365, Outlook.com, iCloud or IMAP) and messages start arriving in the shared inbox within a few minutes; AI drafting only switches on once you're on the Productive plan and have connected an AI credit or your own model API key.
Where it breaks
Browser, macOS, Windows and mobile apps. Every plan includes a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.
First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.
When not to use it
Not for a solo operator or anyone hoping to try the AI features cheaply, since AI does not exist on the Starter plan and using it on Productive or Business still costs Missive AI credits or your own model API key on top of the seat price. Also not for a team that has outgrown a shared inbox and needs full ticketing with SLAs, queues and a knowledge base.
Missive is what a shared inbox looks like when it takes the “shared” part seriously: email, SMS and social messages land in one place, and a thread can carry internal comments, assignees and tasks alongside the actual conversation with the customer — so the coordination happens next to the message instead of in a separate Slack thread.
The AI sits in two places that matter for a small team drowning in a shared inbox: it drafts replies you can edit rather than send verbatim, and it summarises a long back-and-forth so the next person picking up the thread doesn’t have to read the whole history to get up to speed. Neither feature runs unattended — you still send the message.
What actually changes between tiers
Starter is a genuinely usable shared inbox on its own. Productive is where it becomes an operations tool — rules and automations that route and tag conversations without a human deciding each time, plus API access. Business is mostly a compliance and access-control upgrade (SSO, IP restriction) rather than new day-to-day functionality.
Against the alternatives
Front is the closest direct comparison — both are built around the same shared-inbox idea, and the honest difference is price and polish rather than capability; Missive tends to run cheaper per seat at the entry tier. For a team that’s outgrown a shared inbox and needs full ticketing (SLAs, queues, a knowledge base), Help Scout or Zendesk go further.
Alternatives
Support & inboxAgentsFront
A shared team inbox for email and other channels, with AI drafting replies, tagging conversations and summarising long threads for anyone on the team.
Support & inboxAgentsHelp Scout
A shared support inbox that looks and feels like email, with AI drafting replies and summarising long threads, built for small teams who dislike ticket software.
Zendesk AI
Auto-resolves customer support tickets, drafts replies, and routes by intent inside the most widely used help desk.
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