FrontAcquireFront vs Acquire

Front vs Acquire: team inbox or customer engagement

A team inbox against a customer engagement platform: one prints a price and one quotes. What decides between Front and Acquire, and a third option for small teams.

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

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The short answer

Pick Front if email is the channel and you want shared drafts, comments and sequences on every thread. Pick Acquire if you need cobrowsing and video calls in the same tool as chat. For five people it is $325 a month on Front, and a quote on Acquire, before AI; Sellio Mini is $45 for the workspace. Front and Acquire both include website chat in the price; only Front has email and Instagram. Neither Front nor Acquire includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between Front and Acquire for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glanceFrontFrontAcquireAcquire
Built aroundShared email · comments and drafts on every threadChat, cobrowse and video · priced by quote
Entry plan$25/seat/mo · Starter: one channel typeQuote · no printed prices
Chat in the price$65/seat/mo · Professional: omnichannelQuote · Self Service tier
AI agentFrom $0.05 per conversation · AutopilotComing soon · bots listed, not priced
Copilot for agents$20/seat/moNone printed
Free planNone · 14-day trialNone · trial on request

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    FrontFront

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

    AcquireAcquire

    As a chat that can turn into a cobrowse or a video call with the same agent. Front has no ticket queue either.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    FrontFront

    $25 buys one channel type and up to ten seats. Omnichannel and fifty seats start at Professional, $65. $325 for five people; Acquire prints no figure to set beside it.

    AcquireAcquire

    No seat price is printed; the Self Service and Integrated tiers are quoted after a demo. No figure for five people here; Front prints $325.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    FrontFront

    Autopilot, the AI agent, from $0.05 a conversation; Copilot is $20 per seat and Smart QA $20 per seat. Acquire has no AI to bill (coming soon) instead.

    AcquireAcquire

    Bots are listed as coming soon with no price; today the product is human agents with cobrowsing. Front meters AI (from $0.05 per conversation) above the seats instead.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    FrontFront

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

    AcquireAcquire

    Website chat, SMS, email and voice or video on the Integrated tier; no WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. Front adds email and Instagram, which Acquire lacks.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    FrontFront

    Sequences, calendar, account views and analytics for logistics, finance and account teams. Acquire is a customer engagement platform instead.

    AcquireAcquire

    Cobrowsing, screen sharing and video for guided support; workflows, SLAs and queues. Front is a team inbox instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    FrontFront

    A day: connect the mailboxes, set rules and assignments, then add the chat widget. Acquire is a sales cycle.

    AcquireAcquire

    A sales cycle: a demo, a quote, then onboarding by their services team. Front is a day.

Sources: Front pricing · Acquire 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 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
The Acquire agent view: a chat with the cobrowse and video controls beside it
AcquireAcquire. The Acquire agent view: a chat with the cobrowse and video controls beside it

Pricing references: Front pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); Acquire pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13; needs verification). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

Front, Acquire 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.

FeatureFrontFrontAcquireAcquireSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per seat; channels tiered; AI add-ons per seat.
Quote after a demo
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
14-day trial.
None; trial on request
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
Chat channel; Starter allows one channel type.
With cobrowse and video
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
The core of the product.
Integrated tier
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Professional and up, via add-on.
SMS only
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Professional and up.
Not offered
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not a channel.
Not offered
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack and Teams integrations.
Notifications only
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Autopilot.
Bots listed as coming soon
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
From $0.05 per conversation; Copilot $20 per seat.
Not priced
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Routes to teammates.
No AI to hand off from
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Conversations with tags and status.
Cases, not a ticket queue
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Rules engine; visual on higher plans.
Workflows and queues
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Analytics on Professional and up.
Reporting
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

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

Which one, for whom

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.
  • You need email and Instagram in the price, which Acquire does not include outright.
  • You want native desktop apps, which Acquire does not ship.

Pick Acquire if

  • You need cobrowsing and video calls in the same tool as chat.
  • You are buying for a regulated or high-touch team and want a services-led rollout.
  • Time to the first reply is a sales cycle here and a day on Front.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than Front's: no prices printed; three tiers quoted after a demo.

The third option: Sellio

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

What two, five and ten people pay

Front on Professional: $130, $325 and $650 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Acquire quotes per team, so two, five and ten people are three conversations with sales. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $280 less than Front and against a quote on Acquire 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

Front is a team inbox built around shared email; Acquire is a customer engagement platform built around chat, cobrowse and video. Neither has a free plan: Front offers a 14-day trial of Professional, Acquire a free trial. Front and Acquire both include website chat in the price; only Front has email and Instagram. Neither Front nor Acquire includes WhatsApp and Telegram outright. Front meters AI (from $0.05 per conversation) above the seats; Acquire has no AI to bill (coming soon). Neither Front nor Acquire has a ticket queue, and only Front ships desktop apps. Front is a day; Acquire is a sales cycle.

What each price leaves out

Front: Autopilot AI agent from $0.05 per conversation; Copilot $20 per seat per month and Smart QA $20 per seat (included on Enterprise). Acquire: Bots are listed as coming soon; no AI price is printed. Beside Front's from $0.05 per conversation and Acquire's coming soon, 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

Acquire does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (No prices printed; three tiers quoted after a demo.), so they are marked unverified here beside Front's, and Acquire'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
    FrontFront$0.05$24
    AcquireAcquireSee vendorNot quoted
    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.

    FrontFront · 14-day trial of Professional
    AcquireAcquire · Free trial on request
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

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

Continue your research

FAQ

Front vs Acquire: the questions people ask

Front is a team inbox built around shared email; Acquire is a customer engagement platform built around chat, cobrowse and video. Neither Front nor Acquire has a ticket queue, and only Front ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: Front $25/seat/mo (Starter: one channel type); Acquire Quote (no printed prices).
  • Chat in the price: Front $65/seat/mo (Professional: omnichannel); Acquire Quote (Self Service tier).
  • Sellio's inbox: WhatsApp and Telegram, which neither Front nor Acquire has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

The shared inbox page puts Sellio beside Front and Acquire on the same rows.

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

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