TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Front

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AFront is a communication hub that helps businesses keep the human touch in every interaction.

    $29

    per month per user

    Google Chat

    Score7.9 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Chat, formerly Hangouts Chat, is a collaboration tool competing with Slack, designed to make it easy for teams to be able to get their work done in one place. From direct messages to group conversations, Chat helps teams collaborate, and with dedicated, virtual rooms to house projects over time — plus threaded conversations — Chat helps users track progress and follow up tasks. Chat currently supports 28 languages and each room can support up to 8,000 members.N/A
    Pricing
    FrontGoogle Chat
    Editions & Modules
    Starter
    $29
    per month per user
    Growth
    $79
    per month per user
    Scale
    $99
    per month (billed annually) per user
    Premier
    $229
    per month (billed annually) per seat (50 seat minimum)
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FrontGoogle Chat
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsDiscount for annual pricing on Starter and Growth plans. Scale and Premier plans are annual price only.—
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    FrontGoogle Chat
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Front and Google Chat
    Feature
    Front
    7.6
    6 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Google Chat
    -
    Ratings
    Organize and prioritize service tickets8.26 Ratings00 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications6.74 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission7.74 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket response7.74 Ratings00 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Front and Google Chat
    Feature
    Front
    7.0
    6 Ratings
    13% below category average
    Google Chat
    -
    Ratings
    External knowledge base7.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Front and Google Chat
    Feature
    Front
    8.8
    4 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Google Chat
    -
    Ratings
    Customer portal8.33 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social integration9.43 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email support9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration8.42 Ratings00 Ratings
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Front and Google Chat
    Feature
    Front
    -
    Ratings
    Google Chat
    8.3
    26 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Task Management00 Ratings8.014 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings8.29 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings8.616 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings7.412 Ratings
    Mobile Access00 Ratings9.225 Ratings
    Search00 Ratings9.123 Ratings
    Visual planning tools00 Ratings7.713 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Front and Google Chat
    Feature
    Front
    -
    Ratings
    Google Chat
    8.9
    26 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Chat00 Ratings9.826 Ratings
    Notifications00 Ratings9.126 Ratings
    Discussions00 Ratings8.824 Ratings
    Surveys00 Ratings9.417 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings8.915 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings8.07 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings8.215 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Front and Google Chat
    Feature
    Front
    -
    Ratings
    Google Chat
    8.6
    26 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Versioning00 Ratings8.817 Ratings
    Video files00 Ratings7.623 Ratings
    Audio files00 Ratings7.922 Ratings
    Document collaboration00 Ratings8.021 Ratings
    Access control00 Ratings9.318 Ratings
    Advanced security features00 Ratings9.319 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings8.115 Ratings
    Device sync00 Ratings9.624 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    FrontGoogle Chat
    Small Businesses
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Kustomer
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FrontGoogle Chat
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (35 ratings)
    9.2
    (26 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (9 ratings)
    8.9
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.8
    (5 ratings)
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FrontGoogle Chat
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Front
    I think Front is very useful for every company with multiple teams working together on different emails from clients. Not so useful if a lot of different teams need to work on a request at the same time, because when an email is sitting in multiple shared inboxes things can get messy. Also would not recommend for teams that work is individualized, as team work is the main point of Front.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    It is a easy and quick way to chat and send instant message using the Google account, even send files, emojis, create groups. I have used it to communicate even with external people with a personal gmail account and is great to stay in touch with all around. I recommend it for anyone who wants to stay communicated using a google account.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Front
    • Even if you are just trying to compose a single email, Front gives a smart system that has options such [as] organized templates, tags, alerts, [and] changing your outbound dpt email.
    • Tasks- with Front you will not miss any interaction. When you are required to get assistance from a coworker, you only need to mention him/her and that notification will appear automatically in their inboxes.
    • Smart Notifications- sometimes we are just overwhelmed about the several notifications on our devices that we tend to miss some of them, but Front offers a new way to notify every email, discussion, mentioning, or tag that you really would not want to miss.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • When discussing about a specific project, I can quickly share google docs or sheets within the chat which helps my team to view the document in real time and they do not have to leave the conversation.
    • Scheduling a meeting with someone is very easy on Google Chat.
    • We have remote team members in different time zones and instead of waiting for emails we use Google Chat to quickly discuss anything.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Front
    • Their integration to Salesforce is lacking. As the owner of our productivity tools and how they are used, I have very little control over what things to enforce, or even change what objects are available. For example, we don't use Cases in Salesforce but with the Salesforce integration the Cases object shows up. There's no need to have that there. I've heard there is a roadmap improvement forthcoming.
    • One of our uses is for our sales development reps to prospect with visitors. Because of the high volume of inquiries it's difficult for our reps to efficiently manage all their follow ups. It would be nice if we could run a "scheduled campaign" where a predesigned cadence of email follow ups can be sent automatically. To be clear, they do have a scheduling capability, but it just can't be used as a prebuilt option.
    • Integrations to other systems require you have a user account to those systems. We have SSO and therefore we don't always have a user account. For example, out integration to Jira uses SSO so we don't each have individual Jira logins. This is an outage for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Google Hangouts Chat has a room for improvement in customizing the themes background.The themes are outdated and hard to change if you don't know the right key to change it.
    • It could be more user friendly if there will be no hidden features. Formatting messages is very likely to use and fun.
    • With conversations going on about everything all the time, it's easy to get pulled into far too many discussions but sometimes its hard to mention names because it shows many result even the users are not included on the chat room.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Front
    We are very happy with Front and don't anticipate changing
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    The updates, support, general reviews on Google Chat are great everywhere. The development of the features is ongoing and this adds a great value to Google as a big company in the market. Other applications are limiting communication while Google Chat is allowing communication to grow. It is very easy to use it and teach others how to use Google Chat.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Front
    It's very easy to understand and use by new customer support agents as well. Be it a technology, product, or marketing person, we have trained most of the company folks to read and respond to customer conversations in their free time with the help of the Front app. It is also easy to set up for an admin and manage his/her team with communication rules.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    As stated from the starting we found this application is well suited for a small audience and a group of people across the organization can be communicated easily with no additional hectic of doing any setup. When you have a Gmail account ready then you can easily access google chat and continue the communication. This tool is simple,secure and robust helping the global leading partner for their internal precise communication and handling the tasks in a great way
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Front
    The support is good, and it's definitely prompt, but still lags when it comes to technical requirements, as I guess they are slow in developing newer features fast. So no complaints in terms of responsiveness, but yeah, at times it's not very helpful when you need certain features or are blocked on things which can't be unblocked.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    I have not needed to contact the support folks for Google Hangouts Chat, so I can't speak to this with any accuracy. The online instructions are fairly clearly written, so it is fairly intuitive to start with. I did not feel the need to use the support people anyway.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Front
    This is something I am not familiar but it seems like it is [available] in Gmail. Thus I cannot give any feedback about it. What I am sure about is Front works for our team and I see Zoom using the service in the Customer Success Organization in a long run.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    Slack has a few more features than Google Chat. Slack, for a long time, had thread chats that grouped a thread of thoughts together, making the main chat group space a lot less cluttered. A while back, Google Chat implemented a similar thing in a different but similar way, making the group less crowded. They are catching up.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Front
    • Saved our executive team considerable amount of time chasing support questions through different channels.
    • Gave our team clear accountability for who was lead on a support issue and how to escalate.
    • Customer regularly say our support is the best in the industry.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • In my work it allows us to report troubles that may cost loss of investment thru Google Hangouts Chat we were able to communicate on how to fix it.
    • I hope we can make it on our own choice of colors to heightened workers vibe
    • It is connected to your email
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Front Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot