A shared Gmail inbox, or Coasting?
Most small teams answer customers from one Gmail address - hello@ or support@ - shared by everyone, or forwarded to everyone. It works until two people answer the same email, or nobody does. Before you pay for anything, know that Google already has an answer of its own.
Try this first: a Collaborative Inbox
If your team is on Google Workspace, you can make support@ a Google Group and turn it into a Collaborative Inbox, at no extra cost. Members can then take an email, assign it to someone, mark it complete, no action needed or a duplicate, label it, and filter by who it is assigned to or what is still open.
The catch: that work happens on groups.google.com, not in Gmail, and an owner has to give members the right permissions first. For a team of two or three that answers a handful of emails a day, it may be all you need.
How they differ
| Gmail + Collaborative Inbox | Coasting | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Included with Google Workspace | Free for 3 agents; $29 a month for 5 |
| Assign and close emails | Yes, on groups.google.com | Yes, in the inbox you answer from |
| Warning when a teammate is viewing the same email | Not in Google's help pages | Yes |
| Website chat | No | Built in, same inbox |
| AI answers from your help articles | No | Included: 50, 500 or 5,000 a month by plan |
| Public help center | No | Yes |
| Replies from your own address | Yes | Not yet - replies carry your team's name from noreply@coasting.app |
Read on Google's own help pages, Use a group as a Collaborative Inbox and Take and assign conversations, checked 30 September 2026.
When Coasting is worth it
- You want customers to chat from your website too, and land in the same inbox as email.
- The same questions come in every week, and you would rather an AI answered them from your own help articles - and handed off to a person when it cannot.
- Your team wants to assign, see what is Unassigned, and be warned when a teammate is already on it, without leaving the inbox.
You keep your address: forward support@ to the address Coasting gives your team, and mail starts arriving in the shared inbox.
What Coasting does not do yet
- Replies from your own address - email replies carry your team's name but are sent from noreply@coasting.app.
- Other channels - no SMS, WhatsApp, social or phone.
- A long track record - Coasting is a small, new product.
If replies must come from your own address today, stay on Gmail and try the Collaborative Inbox.
Or look around the demo first.