Most shared inbox tools charge per user, so the bill follows the number of people, not the amount of email. On each vendor’s pricing page in September 2026, on annual billing, a team of 7 pays US$168 a month at Missive, US$175 at Front, Help Scout and Gmelius, US$250 at Hiver, €119 at Freshdesk and €98 at Zoho Desk. Trupeo, priced per mailbox and billed monthly with no commitment, costs €20 a month excluding VAT for the same team, and still €20 for a team of 10. Several free options are good enough for a low-volume address, and we say below which ones and where each one stops.
Who this is for
Five to ten people share one address: a strata or building committee, a club board, a volunteer team, a school office, a small business. Each of you sends a few emails a week, not a few hundred a day. And the money is often not yours to spend: owners’ contributions, members’ dues, a school budget.
The tools that come up when you look for a shared inbox are mostly priced per user. This page does the multiplication for you, for a team of 3, 7 and 10, and then says plainly when a free option or a per-user tool is the better choice.
Trupeo is our product. We say it upfront, we price it with the same rules as every other tool here, and we point to other tools where they fit better.
How we counted
- Every price comes from the vendor’s own pricing page or documentation, opened on 17 September 2026. Nothing is taken from a review site or a third-party list. Where a price is not public, we say so.
- We take the cheapest plan that includes a shared inbox and accepts the whole team. Several entry plans stop at a head count: Missive’s Starter at 5 users, Zoho Desk’s Express at 5, Front’s Starter at 10 seats, Help Scout’s free plan at 5 users. Past that, the next plan is the real price.
- Annual billing for the other vendors, shown per month, because that is the figure most pricing pages lead with. Paying them month to month costs more: Front’s Starter moves from US$25 to US$35 per seat, Hiver’s Growth from US$25 to US$35, Gmelius’s Growth from US$25 to US$33, Help Scout’s Standard from US$25 to US$30, Missive’s Starter from US$14 to US$18, Freshdesk’s Growth from €17 to €20 and Zoho Desk’s Standard from €14 to €20. Trupeo has no annual plan: it is billed monthly with no commitment, so its row is already the month-to-month price.
- Currencies are the ones each page displayed, opened from France. Freshdesk, Zoho Desk and Google Workspace showed euros, the other vendors US dollars, written US$ here, and Trupeo’s prices are in euros. We converted nothing, and your own visit may show another currency.
- Trupeo’s prices exclude VAT.
What a team of 3, 7 or 10 pays per month
| Tool | 3 people | 7 people | 10 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail delegation | Free | Free | Free |
| Microsoft 365 shared mailbox | US$12 | US$28 | US$40 |
| Google Workspace delegation | €27.20 | €54.40 | €74.80 |
| Zoho Desk | Free | €98 | €140 |
| Help Scout | Free or US$75 | US$175 | US$250 |
| Missive | US$42 | US$168 | US$240 |
| Freshdesk | €51 | €119 | €170 |
| Front | US$75 | US$175 | US$250 |
| Gmelius | US$75 | US$175 | US$250 |
| Hiver | US$125 | US$250 | US$250 |
| Trupeo | €20 | €20 | €20 |
Prices as observed in September 2026, per month: annual billing for every vendor except Trupeo, which is billed monthly with no commitment. How each line is priced:
- Gmail delegation: a personal @gmail.com account, up to 10 delegates, at no cost.
- Microsoft 365 shared mailbox: the mailbox is free, but each person needs an Exchange Online license, here Plan 1 at US$4 per user.
- Google Workspace delegation: each person needs a Workspace account, and so does the shared address, because Google treats a shared inbox as a delegated account, which is a user account. Here Business Starter at €6.80 per account, so 4, 8 and 11 accounts.
- Zoho Desk: free up to 3 users, then Standard at €14 per user, since Express stops at 5 users. Zoho’s pricing FAQ says Standard also stops at 5 users, which its edition comparison contradicts. We followed the comparison: if the FAQ is right, a team of 7 or 10 needs Professional at €23 per user, so €161 and €230.
- Help Scout: free up to 5 users and 100 contacts a month, then Standard at US$25 per user.
- Missive: Starter at US$14 per user up to 5 users, then Productive at US$24.
- Freshdesk: Growth at €17 per agent.
- Front: Starter at US$25 per seat, up to 10 seats.
- Gmelius: Growth at US$25 per user, the first plan with shared inboxes.
- Hiver: Growth at US$25 per seat, with seats sold as 2, 5, then multiples of 5.
- Trupeo: per mailbox, €10 for 1 or 2 people and €20 for 3 or more, excluding VAT, billed monthly with no commitment.
Three details change the arithmetic. Hiver sells seats in steps: plans start at 2 seats, then go to 5, then up in increments of 5, so a team of 3 pays for 5 seats and a team of 7 pays for 10. Help Scout’s free plan covers 3 people only while the team replies to no more than 100 different people a month; above that, it is US$75. And the Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace rows are what a team pays when it buys those accounts only for this. If everyone already has a Microsoft 365 license in the same organization, the shared mailbox adds nothing. Google Workspace works differently: its documentation says delegated accounts and shared inboxes are the same, and that a user needs a license to use Gmail. So even a team whose members all have an account pays for one more, €6.80 a month, for the shared address.
The Trupeo row needs its own caveat. Trupeo works on top of a mailbox you already have, Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft 365 or any IMAP provider, so the address itself stays with your current provider and on its bill.
Why a per-user bill grows faster than your email
A per-user price suits a support team, where every seat answers all day. It is hard on a team where seven people each answer a handful of messages a week. The bill counts heads, not emails: on the same plan, a committee of 7 that sends 20 emails a week pays what a support desk of 7 pays for 2,000.
It also taxes the thing a volunteer team needs most: cover. Adding the treasurer so they can read the invoices, or a new member so they can learn how things are done, is one more seat. On a tool that sells seats in steps, going from 5 people to 6 can mean paying for 10.
The free options, and where each one stops
Free is often the right answer for a low-volume address. Each of these is real, and each one stops somewhere precise.
Gmail delegation. A personal @gmail.com account can give up to 10 delegates access, and each one opens it from their own Google Account. Two limits matter for a team: when a delegate sends a message, their own email address appears, and delegation only works if the shared address is itself a Google Account, not an alias or an address hosted somewhere else. There is no owner per message and no done state. We took it apart in Gmail delegation: what it does well and where it stops.
A Microsoft 365 shared mailbox. The mailbox itself needs no license up to 50 GB, but everyone who opens it needs a licensed Exchange Online mailbox of their own, in the same organization: people with a Gmail account cannot be given access. Microsoft documents a maximum of 25 users, past which it warns of connection failures and duplicated messages. For a team already on Microsoft 365, it costs nothing extra; for volunteers who each use a personal address, it means buying a license per person. Every documented ceiling is in shared mailbox limits.
Zoho Desk’s free plan. Free forever for 3 users, with email ticketing ready to use. It is a help desk, so each email becomes a ticket, and a fourth person means a paid plan: Express at €7 per user for up to 5 users, then Standard at €14.
Help Scout’s free plan. Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 100 contacts a month and 10 saved replies. Help Scout counts a contact as someone who received a reply from your team, however many conversations they had, so the free plan fits an address that writes back to no more than 100 different people a month.
Google Workspace for Nonprofits. Workspace at US$0 per user per month, with addresses on your own domain, for organizations registered as a charity in their country and verified by Google’s partner Goodstack. Schools, universities, government bodies and hospitals are explicitly excluded, so check your own registration against Google’s rules before planning around it.
Two tools people expect to find here have no free plan. Missive’s billing documentation says so in as many words: new teams get a 30-day trial of the Productive plan, then pay. Hiver’s pricing page shows a 7-day trial and no free plan. The longer tour of what free really covers is in free shared mailbox options.
Discounts for not-for-profits
For a non-profit or a school, ask before paying the list price. As observed in September 2026:
- Gmelius takes 30% off its Growth, Pro and Enterprise plans for non-profits from 5 to 19 users, and 50% from 20 users. It asks for a 501(c)(3) document, which is a US status.
- Hiver offers discounted pricing for qualified nonprofit organizations, and asks you to book a demo to learn the price.
- Help Scout runs a Help Scout for Good program with discounts for qualifying non-profits.
- Zoho Desk mentions special pricing for non-profits and educational institutions, without a public figure.
- Missive states that it does not offer discounts for nonprofits or schools.
- Trupeo takes 50% off for verified associations and schools, which brings a team of 3 or more from €20 to €10 per mailbox. Strata and owners’ committees are not on that list.
Building committees: HOAfy and Matera
Two platforms built for buildings include a shared mailbox, and neither prices it per user.
HOAfy, in the United States, prices its whole HOA platform by the number of units: US$36 a month on annual billing for a community of up to 30 units (US$40 month to month), US$63 for 31 to 60, US$90 for 61 to 100 and US$126 for 101 to 200, with unlimited users. The mailbox is one part of it, next to invoicing and payments, accounting, violations and requests, voting and an owner portal, and its address is built from your association’s short name, at hoafy.org. If your board wants that whole platform, the mailbox comes with it. If you only need to share the address you already have, you would be paying for much more than that.
Matera, in France, runs two help centers: one for its cooperative and volunteer offer, one for its pro offer, where Matera is the building’s professional manager, its syndic. For the cooperative and volunteer offer, the help center says a building can create a shared address on Matera’s domain, for example cs.geranium@mail.matera.eu, that creating it is entirely free for Matera’s clients, and that owners with Admin or extended access can open it. For the pro offer, the help center says the mailbox of the conseil syndical, the owners’ council, is open only to owners with extended access and to the building’s property manager at Matera. Either way, the mailbox comes with being a Matera client, and Matera’s pricing page gives no figure for its syndic offers, only a free tailored quote. So we cannot tell you what it costs a building, and we will not guess.
For a committee weighing its options, we also wrote about a shared mailbox for self-managed HOAs and strata committees. For what Trupeo does with a building’s address, and what it costs, see our page for strata committees and HOA boards.
What per-mailbox pricing costs you in return
Per-mailbox pricing is a trade, not a trick. Here is what you give up.
Every address is billed. At Trupeo, each connected mailbox costs €20 for a team of 3 or more. Three people running contact@, bookings@ and accounts@ pay €60 a month. Missive’s Starter, at US$14 per user, includes 5 shared accounts per user, so the same three people pay US$42. If your team runs several addresses, a per-user tool can be the cheaper one.
The price steps up at the third person. One or two people pay €10 per mailbox; three pay €20. And a team of two that fits a free plan pays nothing at all.
You get a shared inbox, not a help desk. Trupeo gives each conversation an owner, a status (to assign, to handle, done), internal notes and a signal when a colleague is already replying. It has no live chat, no SMS, no knowledge base, no SLA automation and no reporting dashboards. A 30-person support team answering customers all day needs those, and a help desk priced per agent is the better tool for it. We set out that choice in shared inbox vs help desk.
The mailbox is still yours to pay for. Trupeo does not host email. It connects to the Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft 365 or IMAP mailbox you already use, so the €20 comes on top of that subscription or hosting plan.
Which one to pick
Two people, low volume, a Gmail address: Gmail delegation. Everyone already on Microsoft 365 in one organization: the shared mailbox. Three people who want ticket numbers: Zoho Desk’s free plan. A registered charity that needs addresses on its own domain: Google Workspace for Nonprofits. Many people answering email all day, with chat, SMS or a help center: a per-user tool earns its price. Five to ten people answering a few emails a week each, from an address you want to keep: that is the case per-mailbox pricing exists for, and Trupeo’s pricing comes to €20 a month excluding VAT, with a 30-day free trial.
For a tool-by-tool look at features rather than price, read the best shared inbox for small teams.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a shared inbox that is not priced per user?
Yes. Trupeo charges per connected mailbox: €10 a month for one or two people and €20 for three or more, excluding VAT, whether the team is 3, 7 or 10. As observed in September 2026, HOAfy prices its HOA platform by number of units rather than users. For its cooperative and volunteer offer, Matera’s help center says creating a shared address for the building is free for its clients, as observed in September 2026. Gmail delegation on a personal account is free for up to 10 delegates, and a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox adds nothing for people who already have an Exchange Online license.
How much does a shared inbox cost for a team of 7?
On annual billing, as observed in September 2026: US$168 a month at Missive, US$175 at Front, Help Scout and Gmelius, US$250 at Hiver, which sells a team of 7 ten seats, €119 at Freshdesk, €98 at Zoho Desk and €20 at Trupeo. Gmail delegation costs nothing for up to 10 delegates.
Is there a free shared inbox for a small team?
Yes, with limits, as observed in September 2026. Zoho Desk is free for 3 users, Help Scout for 5 users and 100 contacts a month, Gmail delegation for up to 10 delegates on a personal account, and a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox adds nothing for people who already have a license. Missive and Hiver showed no free plan.
When is per-user pricing the better deal?
When a small team runs several addresses, when two people fit a free plan, or when many people answer email all day and use chat, SMS, SLAs or a knowledge base. As observed in September 2026, Missive’s Starter includes 5 shared accounts per user, so three people with three addresses pay US$42 a month there on annual billing, against €60 at Trupeo.
Do non-profits get a discount on shared inbox tools?
Some do, as observed in September 2026. Gmelius takes 30% off from 5 users and 50% from 20, Hiver and Help Scout have discounts for qualifying non-profits, Zoho Desk mentions special pricing, and Trupeo takes 50% off for verified associations and schools. Missive states that it offers no discount for nonprofits or schools. Google Workspace for Nonprofits is free for eligible registered charities, schools excluded.
Sources:
- Front Pricing and Plans: Starter at US$25 per seat per month billed annually (US$35 monthly), capped at 10 seats, and a seat defined as a license for one user, as observed in September 2026.
- Help Scout Pricing: Standard at US$25 per user per month billed annually (US$30 monthly), the free plan’s 5 users, 1 inbox, 100 contacts a month and 10 saved replies, the definition of a contact, and the Help Scout for Good program, as observed in September 2026.
- Missive Pricing: Starter at US$14 per user per month billed yearly for up to 5 users, and Productive at US$24 for up to 50 users, as observed in September 2026.
- Billing and plans (Missive Docs): the US$18 and US$30 monthly prices, 5 shared accounts per user, the absence of a free plan, the 30-day trial of the Productive plan, and no discounts for nonprofits or schools, as observed in September 2026.
- Hiver Omni pricing: Growth at US$25 per user per month billed annually (US$35 monthly), the 7-day trial and no free plan shown, seats starting at 2 then 5 then in increments of 5, and discounted pricing for qualified nonprofits, as observed in September 2026.
- Gmelius Pricing: Growth at US$25 per user per month billed yearly (US$33 monthly) with shared inboxes, and the non-profit discount of 30% from 5 to 19 users and 50% from 20, as observed in September 2026.
- Zoho Desk pricing: the free plan with 3 user licenses and email ticketing, Standard at €14 per user per month billed annually (€20 monthly), special pricing for non-profits and educational institutions, and the FAQ stating that Standard is limited to 5 users after an upgrade from the free plan, as observed in September 2026.
- Zoho Desk edition comparison: a maximum of 3 users on Free, 5 on Express and no maximum on Standard, Express at €7 per agent per month billed annually, and Professional at €23, as observed in September 2026.
- Freshdesk pricing: Growth at €17 per agent per month billed annually (€20 monthly), as observed in September 2026.
- Delegate and collaborate on email (Gmail Help): up to 10 delegates on a personal account, the delegate’s own address appearing when they send, and no delegates on an alias.
- Let users delegate access to a Gmail account (Google Workspace Admin Help): delegation only to users in the same organization.
- Delegate a user’s email address (Google Workspace Admin Help): in Gmail, delegated accounts and shared inboxes are the same.
- How licensing works (Google Workspace Admin Help): a user needs a license to use Gmail, and several users cannot share one license.
- Google Workspace pricing: Business Starter at €6.80 per user per month with an annual commitment, as observed in September 2026.
- Google Workspace for Nonprofits: the US$0 per user per month offer, as observed in September 2026.
- Google for Nonprofits eligibility guidelines: registration as a charitable organization, verification by Goodstack, and the exclusion of schools, government entities and hospitals.
- About shared mailboxes in Microsoft 365: no license for the mailbox up to 50 GB, a licensed Exchange Online mailbox for each person who opens it, no access for people outside the organization, and the 25-user maximum.
- Exchange Online plans and pricing: Exchange Online (Plan 1) at US$4.00 per user per month paid yearly, as observed in September 2026.
- HOAfy pricing: pricing by number of units, US$36 a month billed annually for 1 to 30 units (US$40 monthly), US$63, US$90 and US$126 for the next three tiers, unlimited users, and what the plan includes (invoicing and payments, accounting, communications, violations and requests, owner portal, voting), as observed in September 2026.
- Why your HOA needs its own email address (HOAfy): the association mailbox at a hoafy.org address.
- La boite e-mail Matera (Matera help center for the cooperative and volunteer offer, in French): the building’s address at mail.matera.eu, entirely free to create for Matera’s clients, and open to owners with Admin or extended access, as observed in September 2026.
- La mailbox (boite e-mail) Matera (Matera help center for the pro offer, in French): the mailbox of the conseil syndical, open only to owners with extended access and to the building’s property manager, as observed in September 2026.
- Matera syndic pricing (in French): tailored pricing on a free quote, with no public figure, for its Syndic coopératif and Syndic local offers, as observed in September 2026.