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Compare Hiver, Gmelius, Keeping and Drag for customer support that stays inside Gmail.
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4 of 4 publish a price · 1 offer a free plan · 4 offer a free trial
Why it ranks here: Hiver adds dated tasks and business-hours response alerts inside the Gmail workspace.
Not a fit if: you need round-robin routing or load balancing; Hiver uses rules and date fields.
Why it ranks here: Gmelius pairs shared drafts and presence with conditional round-robin load balancing in Gmail.
Not a fit if: you need unlimited Gmail usage without Growth caps.
Why it ranks here: Keeping gives Gmail teams ticket assignments and a workflow allowance that grows beyond two Essentials workflows.
Not a fit if: you need more than two mailboxes or workflows on Essentials; Advanced expands both.
Why it ranks here: Drag turns Gmail conversations into visual task boards with deadlines and a Starter plan without a seat minimum.
Not a fit if: you need Gmail rules without plan gating.
Choose Hiver when Gmail should remain the support workspace and response commitments matter. Compare Gmelius for shared labels and automated distribution across the team, Keeping for a focused Gmail ticket queue, and Drag for email conversations that also need visual task stages and dated follow-ups.
All four support the shared-inbox workflow inside Gmail. That is the defining requirement here: connecting a Gmail address to another help desk is a different buying choice. Our small-business help desk comparison covers that wider shortlist.
| Product | Strongest fit | Deciding capability | Plan boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiver | Email support with response targets | Named ownership and Gmail-side collaboration | Compare the Gmail edition; early SLA warnings require Elite |
| Gmelius | Routing across shared inboxes and labels | Conditional assignment, shared labels and drafts | Growth has usage caps; business hours and CRM integrations require Pro |
| Keeping | A concise shared email ticket queue | Gmail tickets, team notes, assignment and statuses | Essentials has two mailboxes/two workflows; Advanced expands both |
| Drag | Email work that continues as tasks | Visual boards, task cards, due dates and reminders | Pro adds SLA/business-hours rules; no seat minimum |
Hiver provides a clear ownership model: agents use their own accounts and see Unassigned, Mine and Team views. A typing banner makes another agent's draft visible. Follow-up date fields can drive automations, while SLA policy handles the separate response commitment. The decision is which controls you need: Hiver in Gmail pricing separates Growth, Pro and Elite, and documented due-soon warnings sit in Elite. Do not substitute the separate Hiver Omni workspace when Gmail-native operation is required. Read the Hiver pricing analysis before choosing seats.
Gmelius fits a team whose support work crosses shared Gmail labels as well as an address such as support@. Its rule engine assigns to a named user, round robin or the least-loaded teammate and can recheck a delayed no-reply condition. This helps distribute inbound work without asking someone to triage every message. Viewing/replying indicators establish awareness; a guaranteed stale-send block is a separate capability. Compare the Gmelius plan and usage limits against real thread and rule volume.
Keeping makes incoming support emails trackable tickets in Gmail, with open/pending/closed status, priority and private notes. Its setup guide distinguishes direct Google sign-in for a dedicated mailbox from forwarding for a Group or alias. Advanced adds shared drafts, round robin and more workflow capacity. Choose it when a shared email queue is the core requirement, then use the Keeping pricing guide to check mailbox and agent limits.
Drag is the strongest visual-workflow option in this group. A customer email becomes a card that can move from New to Waiting to Done; standalone tasks can sit beside it. Its task documentation describes due dates, reminders, checklists and Google Calendar events. This makes a promised Friday update a dated piece of work rather than merely an unanswered email. Review Drag plans for automation and SLA entitlements.
Give every agent an individual account and assign each customer thread to a responsible person. A refund that needs a finance answer should remain open or waiting with an internal note. If an agent promises an update on Friday, record that commitment separately from the first-response target. Then compare whether the chosen plan covers two support addresses, routing rules, reminders and the required seat count. A typing indicator helps colleagues coordinate; test the actual second-reply behavior before deciding that duplicate sends are blocked.
For Microsoft's email ecosystem, compare Microsoft 365 and Outlook support software. For contractual response policies, use the SLA-management comparison. Return to all customer support software reviews.
We compare current official product, pricing and setup documentation for this buying situation. The shortlist is editorial: choose the workflow that matches the team, then compare the named plan boundaries. Cells preserve source links and qualification; no numeric quality score or invented hands-on test is used.
| Product | Works inside Gmail | Assignment and team collaboration | Gmail routing and follow-up | Gmail edition and capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hiver | Hiver in Gmail: shared inbox work stays inside Gmail via the extension. Hiver Omni is a separate workspace.[1] [2] | Named ownership, Unassigned/Mine/Team views, team collaboration and an in-conversation banner showing who is drafting.[3] [4] [5] | Growth has ten automations per shared inbox; Pro twenty; Elite unlimited. Date custom fields and date-based automations support follow-up. Early SLA warnings require Elite.[1] [6] [7] [8] | Compare Hiver in Gmail Growth/Pro/Elite. The published seat sequence begins at two, then five, then increments of five; Gmail edition is distinct from Omni.[1] |
| Gmelius | Growth and above provide shared inbox workflows inside each teammate's own Gmail account.[9] [10] | Assignments, shared drafts, notes and shared labels. Avatars show viewers; a red pen shows a teammate composing. These indicators are the reply-awareness mechanism.[9] [11] | Growth includes routing rules and auto-assignment. Rule actions support round robin/load balancing and delayed no-reply checks; Pro adds business days/hours.[12] [10] | Team shared inboxes start at Growth, not personal Meli. Growth lists 10,000 conversations and rule executions per month, with 50 users maximum; Pro raises usage and adds CRM integrations. All teammates use the same plan.[10] |
| Keeping | Gmail extension supplies the ticket workflow inside agents' individual Gmail accounts; a web/mobile portal is also available.[13] [14] | Assign one or multiple agents; see Unassigned/Mine/Assigned views and add private notes. Shared drafts require Advanced. Collision detection is listed, without establishing a stale-send block.[14] [15] [16] | Essentials includes two workflows. Advanced adds unlimited workflows, round robin and response/resolution SLA rules. Rule delays can use business/calendar hours and notify agents.[16] [17] [18] | Essentials: two mailboxes and up to ten agents; all plans have a two-user minimum. Advanced removes mailbox/workflow limits and adds shared drafts and integrations.[16] |
| Drag | The shared inbox can be used inside Gmail through the extension; web/desktop/mobile access is also offered.[19] [20] | Shared email cards and standalone tasks have assignees, notes, drafts and visual workflow columns; the shared-inbox product lists collision detection.[19] [21] | Task cards have due dates and reminders. Starter includes ten automation rules, Plus unlimited; Pro adds business hours, SLA rules and round-robin assignment.[21] [22] [23] | Starter/Plus/Pro have no seat minimum. Choose Pro for SLA/business-hours routing rather than assuming those controls are in the entry plan.[22] |
Hiver in Gmail lives inside your existing Gmail.
You need to use the same workspace email address for both Gmail and Hiver
Unassigned: Conversations that don’t have an owner yet.
You'll see a banner above the reply box showing who's currently drafting a response.
Enter your team member’s email address, assign a role, and select the Shared Inboxes
Schedule reminders: Create date-based Automations to follow up on conversations.
Date: Use date fields to track time-sensitive information like follow-ups, so deadlines stay visible to your team.
The Due soon status and notifications are available on the Elite plan.
A Gmail shared inbox allows multiple team members to collaboratively manage emails sent to a common email address (e.g., support@yourcompany.com) from their own Gmail accounts. Emails in the shared inbox can be assigned to specific team members. Everyone clearly sees who is responsible for handling each message, avoiding duplication and conflicts. Internal notes and real-time updates such as collision detections ensure smooth communication among team members.
Growth is $25/user/month annually or $33 monthly; Pro $40/$50. Growth has shared inboxes and labels, a 10,000 monthly conversation cap and 10,000 rule executions; Pro raises each cap to 100,000. Business hours and CRM integration are Pro. Meli is personal-assistant scope, not team shared inbox.
The collision alert is a default option on all shared conversations and alerts a user who is going to reply to a shared conversation when someone else from the team is already viewing or replying to the email. Team members viewing the conversation: their avatars displayed on the top right corner of the conversation. Team member replying to the conversation: A red pen icon next to the avatar is displayed on the top right corner of the conversation.
Rules assign to named teammates, no one, round robin or least-loaded users; they change status, add tags/notes and send prepared responses. Delayed actions can recheck assignee, status and no-reply conditions. Business days/hours require Pro.
Each agent uses an individual Gmail account. Connect a dedicated Google account by Google sign-in, or use forwarding for a Google Group, alias or other address. Keeping processes incoming email as trackable tickets and syncs copies to agents.
The Gmail sidebar exposes Unassigned, Mine and Assigned views, priority, status, internal notes and activity. Replies route through Keeping, use the shared support identity and sync to teammates. Defaults close and assign on reply; mailbox settings change these defaults. Recipient editing belongs in the Keeping sidebar, not the underlying routing address.
A ticket can have one or several named agents. Assignment and removal work in Gmail or the web portal, including bulk actions. Replying can auto-assign the ticket.
Live page explicitly gives annual/monthly prices: Essentials $14/$19, Advanced $24/$29, HIPAA $49/$59 per user/month; all require two users. Essentials includes two mailboxes, two workflows and up to ten agents. Advanced adds unlimited mailboxes/workflows, shared drafts, round robin, integrations and SLA rules.
Rules can examine assignment, status, priority, customer/mailbox details and time since a trigger. Delay conditions may use calendar or business hours and are re-evaluated after the delay.
Rule actions set Open/Pending/Closed, assign permitted agents or no one, tag, prioritize and send agent desktop notifications. Rules can push a ticket to a selected agent Gmail inbox.
Shared addresses or Google Groups become Gmail boards with workflow columns, email/task assignment, internal notes, shared drafts and reply-awareness tools. The same inbox can also be accessed through Drag applications.
Drag is the product and DragApp is the company name and domain, dragapp.com. Drag runs inside Gmail through the Chrome extension, or as a standalone web app, plus desktop, iOS and Android apps.
Email cards and standalone task cards share a board. Cards support assignees, due dates, reminders, checklists, attachments and internal notes. Due-date reminders and optional Google Calendar events support follow-up commitments.
Starter $12/user/mo billed yearly· $16 billed monthly 10 automation rules Plus $18/user/mo billed yearly· $22 billed monthly Unlimited automation rules Varley, Drag’s AI, is included in Plus and Pro. Pro $24/user/mo billed yearly· $30 billed monthly Business hours and SLA rules Round-robin assignment Monthly AI credits included. Need more? Top up any time. Every plan: Unlimited users No seat minimums
Official academy documents automatic replies, round robin/load balancing, rule-based notifications and response/SLA reminders. Business hours are configured per board; use the pricing page for current entitlement.
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