DriftFrontDrift vs Front

Drift vs Front: $2,500 against $325 a month

A conversational marketing platform against a team inbox: Front is $2,175 a month cheaper for five people. What decides between Drift and Front, and a third option for small teams.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

No credit card. Live in minutes.

The short answer

Pick Drift if you want a sales chatbot that qualifies visitors and books meetings, not a support inbox. Pick Front if email is the channel and you want shared drafts, comments and sequences on every thread. For five people, Front is $2,175 a month cheaper than Drift ($2,500 a month on Drift against $325 on Front), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, $280 under Front. Drift and Front both include website chat in the price; only Front has email and Instagram. Neither Drift nor Front includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between Drift and Front for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glanceDriftDriftFrontFront
Built aroundSales conversations · a marketing tool, not a help deskShared email · comments and drafts on every thread
Entry planFrom $2,500/mo · Premium, yearly contract$25/seat/mo · Starter: one channel type
Chat in the priceFrom $2,500/mo · one contract for the whole team$65/seat/mo · Professional: omnichannel
AI agentBy contract · part of the Salesloft platformFrom $0.05 per conversation · Autopilot
Copilot for agentsBy contract$20/seat/mo
Free planNone · sales-led, no trialNone · 14-day trial

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    DriftDrift

    As a chat with a website visitor that Drift tries to qualify and route to a sales rep or a meeting. Front has no ticket queue either.

    FrontFront

    As a thread in a shared inbox that teammates comment on and draft together; it is email first. Drift has no ticket queue either.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    DriftDrift

    There are no support seats: one annual contract from $2,500 a month covers the revenue team. $2,500 for five people, against $325 on Front.

    FrontFront

    $25 buys one channel type and up to ten seats. Omnichannel and fifty seats start at Professional, $65. $325 for five people, against $2,500 on Drift.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    DriftDrift

    AI chat and qualification are part of the Salesloft platform and priced in the contract. Front meters AI (from $0.05 per conversation) above the seats as well.

    FrontFront

    Autopilot, the AI agent, from $0.05 a conversation; Copilot is $20 per seat and Smart QA $20 per seat. Drift meters AI (by contract) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    DriftDrift

    Website chat, email sequences and meeting booking; no WhatsApp, Instagram or ticket queue. Front adds email and Instagram, which Drift lacks.

    FrontFront

    Email on Starter; chat, SMS, WhatsApp and voice on Professional and up. email and Instagram are here and not on Drift.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    DriftDrift

    Account-based marketing, playbooks, meeting booking and Salesloft's sales engagement suite. Front is a team inbox instead.

    FrontFront

    Sequences, calendar, account views and analytics for logistics, finance and account teams. Drift is a conversational marketing platform instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    DriftDrift

    Weeks: a sales-led onboarding with playbooks and routing, and Salesloft has said the product is winding down. Front is a day.

    FrontFront

    A day: connect the mailboxes, set rules and assignments, then add the chat widget. Drift is weeks.

Sources: Drift pricing · Front pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Drift conversation view: a visitor chat with routing to a rep and a meeting booker
DriftDrift. The Drift conversation view: a visitor chat with routing to a rep and a meeting booker
The Front inbox: the thread with internal comments beside it and the assignment bar on top
FrontFront. The Front inbox: the thread with internal comments beside it and the assignment bar on top

Pricing references: Drift pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06; needs verification); Front pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

Drift, Front and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureDriftDriftFrontFrontSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Annual platform contract from $2,500/mo.
Per seat; channels tiered; AI add-ons per seat.
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Sales-led only.
14-day trial.
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The core of the product, aimed at lead capture.
Chat channel; Starter allows one channel type.
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
Sales email sequences; not a support inbox.
The core of the product.
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Not a channel.
Professional and up, via add-on.
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Not a channel.
Professional and up.
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not a channel.
Not a channel.
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications for sales alerts.
Slack and Teams integrations.
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
AI for qualification and booking rather than support answers.
Autopilot.
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
By contract.
From $0.05 per conversation; Copilot $20 per seat.
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Routes to reps.
Routes to teammates.
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
No ticketing.
Conversations with tags and status.
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Playbooks for lead routing.
Rules engine; visual on higher plans.
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Pipeline and conversion reporting; no CSAT.
Analytics on Professional and up.
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile.
Mac and Windows apps.
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Drift if

  • You want a sales chatbot that qualifies visitors and books meetings, not a support inbox.
  • You already run Salesloft and want chat inside the same platform.
  • Time to the first reply is weeks here and a day on Front.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than Front's: drift's pricing page redirects to Salesloft. Published figures come from third-party summaries and Salesloft's own materials; Salesloft has announced the product is being wound down.

Pick Front if

  • Email is the channel and you want shared drafts, comments and sequences on every thread.
  • You run logistics, finance or account management where a thread is a piece of work.
  • Five people cost $2,175 a month less than on Drift ($325 against $2,500), before AI.
  • You need email and Instagram in the price, which Drift does not include outright.

The third option: Sellio

  • Two to ten of you answer chat, messaging and email. Compare Sellio's workspace plans with $2,500 a month on Drift against $325 on Front for five people, including each product's limits.
  • The AI invoice should be known in advance: Drift meters AI (by contract) above the seats and Front meters AI (from $0.05 per conversation) above the seats, where Sellio's credit is included and capped by you.
  • You need Telegram and a free plan with no trial clock, which neither Drift nor Front includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Drift: $2,500 a month for five (one annual contract, from $2,500 a month); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. Front on Professional: $130, $325 and $650 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $2,455 less than Drift and $280 less than Front for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $555 under Front.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Drift is a conversational marketing platform built around sales conversations; Front is a team inbox built around shared email. Neither has a free plan: Drift offers no trial, Front a 14-day trial of Professional. Drift and Front both include website chat in the price; only Front has email and Instagram. Neither Drift nor Front includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. Drift (by contract) and Front (from $0.05 per conversation) both meter AI above the seats. Neither Drift nor Front has a ticket queue, and only Front ships desktop apps. Drift is weeks; Front is a day.

What each price leaves out

Drift: AI features are part of the Salesloft platform and priced by contract. Front: Autopilot AI agent from $0.05 per conversation; Copilot $20 per seat per month and Smart QA $20 per seat (included on Enterprise). Beside Drift's by contract and Front's from $0.05 per conversation, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How these figures were read

Drift does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Drift's pricing page redirects to Salesloft. Published figures come from third-party summaries and Salesloft's own materials; Salesloft has announced the product is being wound down.), so they are marked unverified here beside Front's, and Drift's pricing page should be checked before you decide.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    DriftDriftSee vendorNot quoted
    FrontFront$0.05$24
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    DriftDrift · None; sales-led contracts
    FrontFront · 14-day trial of Professional
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Drift vs Front: the questions people ask

Drift is a conversational marketing platform built around sales conversations; Front is a team inbox built around shared email. Neither Drift nor Front has a ticket queue, and only Front ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: Drift From $2,500/mo (Premium, yearly contract); Front $25/seat/mo (Starter: one channel type).
  • Chat in the price: Drift From $2,500/mo (one contract for the whole team); Front $65/seat/mo (Professional: omnichannel).
  • Sellio puts every channel in one inbox: WhatsApp and Telegram, which neither Drift nor Front has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Drift and Front rows is on the shared inbox page.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

Get startedRead the docs

No credit card required