Front alternative for teams who run support out of GitHub
Front is a shared inbox with a seat for everyone who touches it. Kontacts is a shared inbox whose output is a GitHub issue — one project, one address, and no per-seat bill at any tier.
Mail to your own domain lands in the project's inbox; with routing on, mail to the addresses on your list also opens an issue in the repository you connected, with the original message in it. Free to start.
How Kontacts compares to Front
| Feature | Kontacts | Front |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox on a domain you own | Yes — point MX, SPF and DKIM at Kontacts | Yes — “Shared inbox and ticketing” from Starter up [1] |
| Authenticated mail to a listed address opens a GitHub issue | Yes, when routing is on | Not offered [1] |
| A reply you send posts back as a comment on that issue | Yes — from the inbox; posted as a comment on the linked issue | Not offered [1] |
| GitHub App scoped to repositories you pick | Yes, including private repos | Not offered [1] |
| Booking page for the project | Yes | Not offered [1] |
| Mail and meetings on one surface | Yes | Shared inbox only [1] |
| Free plan | Free plan available | None — 14-day trial of Professional, then paid [1] |
| Billed per seat | No — billed per organisation, not per seat | Yes — Starter $25/seat/mo up to 10 seats, Professional $65/seat/mo up to 50 seats, Enterprise $105/seat/mo, all billed annually [1] |
| Channels | Email only | Omnichannel — “email, SMS, social, etc.” from Professional up [1] |
| Automation rules and macros | None | Up to 10 rules on Starter, 20 plus macros on Professional, unlimited on Enterprise [1] |
Sources
- [1] https://front.com/pricing — read . Starter "$25/seat/mo, up to 10 seats"; Professional "$65/seat/mo, up to 50 seats"; Enterprise "$105/seat/mo" — all billed annually. There is no free plan; the page offers a 14-day trial of Professional with no credit card. Starter includes "Shared inbox and ticketing", "AI Topics and up to 10 automation rules" and a "no-code public knowledge base"; Professional adds "Omnichannel (email, SMS, social, etc.)", macros with "up to 20 automation rules", advanced analytics and multiple workspaces with SSO/SCIM; Enterprise adds "Smart rules", "Unlimited rules and macros", custom roles and the AI add-ons. Add-ons: Autopilot "Starting at $0.05 /conversation"; Copilot "$20 / seat / month"; Smart QA "$20 / seat / month"; Smart CSAT "$10 / seat / month". No GitHub issue creation and no scheduling or booking page appears on the page.
Front vs Kontacts: two answers to “who owns this email”
Front's answer is a person: the message gets an assignee, a comment thread beside it, a rule that routed it there, and analytics on how the team handled it. It is a genuinely deep product and the per-seat price is what it costs to give everyone a place in that workflow.
Kontacts' answer is a repository. Mail to an address on your project's list opens a GitHub issue, and from there ownership is whatever GitHub already does for you — assignee, labels, milestone, project board, the same place the pull request will land. We are not a better Front. We are a shorter path for teams whose real queue is already the issue tracker and whose inbox is a staging area in front of it.
Front pricing vs Kontacts pricing
Front has no free plan. Starter is “$25/seat/mo, up to 10 seats”, Professional “$65/seat/mo, up to 50 seats” and Enterprise “$105/seat/mo”, all billed annually, after a 14-day trial of Professional (source [1], read 2026-08-18). The AI features are add-ons on top: Copilot and Smart QA are “$20 / seat / month” each, Smart CSAT “$10 / seat / month”.
Kontacts is billed per organisation, not per seat. Prices live on the pricing page rather than here. What we will not do is print a number on this comparison that belongs on the pricing page.
Front alternative for open-source projects and small teams
If you maintain an open-source project or run support out of a GitHub repo, most of Front is built for a shape you do not have: seats for a support team, omnichannel routing, analytics on handling time. What you have is a repository, a couple of maintainers, and an address people mail when something is broken.
Kontacts is that shape. Point your domain at it, install the GitHub App on the repositories you choose, connect the project, turn routing on. That last step declares one address for you — support@ — and you add the others, or turn on the catch-all. Authenticated mail to a listed address opens an issue with the original message in it, and the project's booking page is on the same domain. A reply you write in the inbox posts back as a comment on that issue. Mail that fails sender authentication, or that arrives at an address nobody declared, is quarantined instead — stored, visible, and not published to your repo.
When Front is the better choice
When the inbox is the workplace rather than the doorway. Front is the better product if you need omnichannel — email, SMS and social in one queue — or automation rules and macros, or analytics on how the team is handling volume, or multiple workspaces with SSO and SCIM (source [1]). We have none of those: Kontacts is email only, with no rules, no macros, no CSAT and no reporting, hosted only, with no self-serve data export yet. If ten people need to work a shared queue with assignment and escalation, buy the seats — that is what they are for. Kontacts is the right answer only when the queue you actually work is GitHub.
Questions,
answered short.
- Is there a free Front alternative?
- Front has no free plan — the pricing page offers a 14-day trial of Professional and then Starter at “$25/seat/mo, up to 10 seats” billed annually (read 2026-08-18). Kontacts is billed per organisation, not per seat, and gives the project a shared inbox on your own domain where authenticated mail to a listed address opens a GitHub issue. It is email only.
- Does Front create GitHub issues from email?
- No GitHub issue creation appears on Front's pricing page (read 2026-08-18). In Kontacts, with routing on, authenticated mail to an address on your list opens an issue in the repository you connected, and a reply you write in the inbox posts back as a comment on it.
- How much does Front cost per seat?
- Starter is “$25/seat/mo, up to 10 seats”, Professional “$65/seat/mo, up to 50 seats” and Enterprise “$105/seat/mo”, all billed annually, with Copilot and Smart QA “$20 / seat / month” each on top (front.com/pricing, read 2026-08-18). Kontacts is billed per organisation, not per seat. Prices live on the pricing page.
- Can Kontacts handle SMS and social messages like Front?
- No. Kontacts is email only. Front's Professional plan and above are omnichannel — “email, SMS, social, etc.” (read 2026-08-18). If you need one queue across channels, Front is the right product.
- Does Kontacts have automation rules?
- No rules and no macros — there is no rule builder and no condition to set. Routing is automatic once you turn it on: authenticated mail to a listed address opens a GitHub issue, and a reply you write in the inbox posts back as a comment on it. Triage and closing are still your job — in GitHub, where the issue already is. A comment you type on the issue does not reach the sender; replies go out from the inbox.
- What happens to email that fails sender authentication?
- It is quarantined — stored and visible in the inbox — and it opens no GitHub issue. You can release it by hand. This is deliberate: an unauthenticated message should not be able to publish itself into your repository.