Front charges $19-$59/seat/month for a shared inbox that helps teams collaborate on email. Email collaboration is an internal workflow problem. Your patients do not care how many team members can see their message — they care whether someone responded before they called your competitor.
TL;DR
Front and Missive organize team emails but lack CRM context. When a patient emails asking about their next appointment, your staff opens Front and has zero idea who this person is, when they last visited, or what they booked. Optimal.dev's Messages hub shows every interaction tied to the CRM record.
Shared Inbox vs. Context-Aware Hub
Key Insight: A patient sends an email asking "Can I reschedule?" In Front, your staff sees an email with no context — they have to look up the patient in the CRM, find their appointment in the scheduling tool, and respond. In Optimal.dev, the staff sees the email with the patient's full record, upcoming appointment, and a one-click reschedule button.
| Factor | Front/Missive | Optimal.dev |
|---|---|---|
| Shared email | ✅ Excellent | ✅ Included |
| SMS | ❌ Add-on | ✅ Native |
| Chat | ❌ Add-on | ✅ AI-powered |
| Voice AI | ❌ Not included | ✅ Embedded |
| CRM context | ❌ Separate | ✅ Same database |
| Scheduling | ❌ Separate | ✅ Native |
| Per-user pricing | $19-$59/user | Not per-user |
See also: Intercom alternative and CRM data sync.
The Intelligence Advantage
The difference between a disconnected software stack and a unified AI platform is not features — both can send emails, manage contacts, and publish content. The difference is intelligence.
When every tool shares the same database, AI can make connections that disconnected systems cannot. Your voice receptionist knows what ads brought the caller in. Your review system knows which patients had positive experiences. Your email campaigns reference specific services your patients actually use. Every touchpoint becomes smarter because it is informed by every other touchpoint.
This intelligence compounds over time. The AI learns which messaging converts best in your specific market, which appointment times reduce no-shows, and which follow-up sequences retain patients. After 90 days on the platform, your marketing is measurably smarter than it was on day one — without you touching a single setting.
Response Time Beats Collaboration
Front optimizes internal collaboration on customer messages: shared inboxes, assignment rules, internal comments, and collision detection. For customer support teams managing complex multi-touch interactions, these collaboration features reduce response time and improve quality.
For service businesses, the problem is not collaboration on messages — it is response time. A prospective patient who emails asking about availability needs a response in minutes, not hours. Front's collaboration features (assigning the email to the right person, adding internal comments, waiting for approval) add latency to a simple interaction.
AI eliminates the latency entirely. When a patient emails asking about Thursday availability, the AI checks the schedule and responds immediately — no queue, no assignment, no collaboration workflow. The response arrives in seconds, not hours. For complex inquiries that genuinely need human attention, the AI routes them to the right staff member with full context. The 90% of simple inquiries are handled instantly; the 10% of complex ones reach the right person faster.
See also: Zendesk alternative and Intercom alternative.
