Coasting vs Missive
Missive comes up, with Front, when a shared Gmail or Outlook address stops working and nobody can tell who is answering what. Both fix that. Missive is a team email app; Coasting is a small helpdesk. Here is how they differ.
The short answer
- Choose Missive when your team works all day in email and wants to keep sending from your own Gmail or Outlook addresses, needs SMS, WhatsApp or social messages in the same place, or wants internal chat and tasks around each email.
- Choose Coasting when you want customers answered by AI from your own help articles, website chat and a public help center built in, and one flat price that does not grow with every person or every AI reply.
How they differ
| Missive | Coasting | |
|---|---|---|
| Priced per user? | Yes: $14 (Starter, up to 5 users), $24 (Productive) or $36 (Business) per user a month, billed yearly | No - one price, 5 agents on $29 |
| AI | On Productive and Business: an assistant that drafts replies for your team. $5 of free credits, then you pay per use, or bring your own API key | Included: 50, 500 or 5,000 AI answers a month by plan, written from your help articles |
| Website chat | Included on every plan; it runs through your own Twilio account, free under 200 active chats a month | Built in on every plan, nothing else to sign up for |
| Replies from your own address | Yes - it connects your Gmail, Outlook or IMAP mailbox | Not yet - replies carry your team's name from noreply@coasting.app |
| Free plan | A 30-day free trial of Productive, no credit card required | Yes: 3 agents, 50 AI answers a month |
| Channels | Email, live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram | Email and website chat |
Read on missiveapp.com/pricing and Missive's own docs, checked 30 September 2026. Their page shows prices billed yearly and says yearly billing is 20% off, so paying month to month costs more.
The same month, two ways
Three people answering email and website chat, with AI. Missive's AI needs Productive: 3 users at $24 is $72 a month billed yearly, plus AI use once the $5 of credits is spent, plus a Twilio account for the chat. On Coasting Growth: $29 a month for up to 5 agents, email and chat, and 500 AI answers.
Without AI, Missive Starter is 3 users at $14, $42 a month billed yearly - and it sends from your own address, which Coasting does not yet. Coasting's free plan covers 3 agents with 50 AI answers a month.
What Coasting does today
- Email and website chat in one shared inbox. Assign a conversation to a person, see what is still Unassigned, and get a warning when a teammate is viewing the same one.
- AI answers written from your own help articles - and you can import your first one from a page on your website.
- When the AI cannot answer, it says so and emails your team, instead of guessing.
- If you want every email checked first, switch email to drafts: the AI writes the reply and a person sends it.
- A public help center, saved replies, private notes, tags, CSAT surveys and automations.
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 full email client - no personal inboxes, calendar, internal chat or tasks. Coasting is for customer conversations only.
- A long track record - Coasting is a small, new product.
If any of these is a must-have today, Missive is the better fit right now.
Or look around the demo first.