Front vs Plain
A side-by-side comparison of Front and Plain on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
The short answer
2 of the 11 capabilities tracked on both differ. Front starts at $25/seat/mo, Plain at $35/seat/mo.
| Measure | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $25/seat/mo | $35/seat/mo |
| Charged per | Each agent seat | Each agent seat |
| AI billed at | $0.05 per conversation | Sidekick credit allowance, no rate published |
| Included, where the other says no | 1 capability | 0 capabilities |
Capability by capability
2 of the 11 capabilities tracked on both products differ.
Channels
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| IncludedAll plans, with OAuth for Office 365 and Gmail. On Starter, only if email is the single channel type you choose. | Included2 email addresses on Foundation, 10 on Horizon, 25 on Frontier | |
| Live chat | IncludedAll plans in principle, but Starter supports one channel type only, so chat there means no email or SMS alongside it. Omnichannel starts at Professional. | IncludedListed on the integrations page and available from Foundation |
| Voice | IncludedProfessional and above. Voice and telephony run through Aircall or Dialpad rather than a Front-operated network. | Not published |
| SMS | IncludedThrough Twilio on all plans, subject to the Starter single-channel-type limit. Dialpad also carries SMS. | Not published |
| Paid add-onNative WhatsApp is a paid add-on on Professional and Enterprise, priced as Meta's WhatsApp costs plus a 20% admin fee. Third-party WhatsApp through Twilio or Number AI is available otherwise. | Not published | |
| Instagram / Facebook | IncludedProfessional and above. Social channels are not on Starter. | Not published |
| X / Twitter | IncludedProfessional and above, listed with the other social channels. | Not published |
| Slack Connect | Not published | Included25 Slack channels on Foundation, unlimited on Horizon and Frontier. Slack Enterprise Grid is Frontier only. |
| Microsoft Teams | Not published | IncludedHorizon and above. Not available on Foundation. |
| Community forum | Not published | IncludedUnknown. A Discourse integration is listed on the compare table, but the per-plan checkmarks are images and could not be read. Plain ingests an existing forum rather than hosting one. |
Ticketing
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox | IncludedAll plans. 1 workspace on Starter, up to 5 on Professional, unlimited on Enterprise. | Not published |
| SLA policies | Not published | IncludedSLAs and business hours start on Horizon |
| Business hours | Not published | IncludedHorizon and above |
| Macros / saved replies | IncludedProfessional and above. Starter has no macros at all; Enterprise removes the cap. | IncludedDocumented as Snippets, with full API read and write on all plans |
| Ticket forms | IncludedUnknown. A customer portal with ticket forms is named in the product navigation, but no plan gate is published for it. | Not published |
Routing & automation
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Workflow builder | IncludedRules are capped: up to 10 on Starter, up to 20 on Professional, unlimited on Enterprise. Smart rules are Enterprise only. | IncludedUp to 5 workflows on Foundation, unlimited on Horizon and Frontier |
| Escalation rules | Not published | IncludedEscalation paths start on Horizon |
AI resolution
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous resolution agent | Paid add-onAutopilot, the omnichannel AI agent, is an add-on on all three plans starting at $0.05 per conversation. No included allowance on any plan, and Front bills the conversation rather than the resolution. | IncludedAri, the customer-facing AI agent, is free on all workspaces and consumes no credits. Bring-your-own AI agent is Frontier only. |
AI assist
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Reply drafting | IncludedAI Compose is included on all plans and capped at 200 actions per teammate per day. | Not published |
| Summarization | IncludedAI Summarize is included on all plans and capped at 200 actions per teammate per day. | Not published |
| Translation | IncludedAI Translate is included on all plans and capped at 200 requests per teammate per day. | Not published |
Knowledge base
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Public help center | IncludedBasic knowledge base on Starter, customisable on Professional, multi-language on Enterprise. | Not publishedKnowledge bases are plan-limited (1 on Foundation, unlimited above) and a Help center API section is documented, but nothing states whether they are publicly hosted. The headless portal starts on Horizon. |
| Localization | IncludedEnterprise only. The multi-language knowledge base is one of the three named Enterprise unlocks. | Not published |
QA & workforce
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Automated QA coverage | Paid add-onSmart QA is $20 per seat per month on Starter and Professional, included on Enterprise. | Not published |
Reporting
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Prebuilt dashboards | IncludedBasic analytics on Starter, advanced analytics on Professional. | Not published |
| Custom reports | IncludedEnterprise only. | Not published |
| Raw data export | IncludedNo plan gate, but not self-serve on any plan: "You will need to contact Front's Support team in order to export your team's Front account data. You cannot do this on your own in the app at this time." | Not published |
| CSAT / NPS | Paid add-onSmart CSAT infers satisfaction rather than surveying for it. $10 per seat per month on Starter and Professional, included on Enterprise. | Not published |
Collaboration
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Internal notes | IncludedAll plans. Comments and discussions sit alongside the message thread, and free guests can comment without a license. | Not published |
| @mentions | IncludedAll plans. Guests may @mention participants already in the conversation but cannot invite new ones. | Not published |
Enterprise
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| SAML SSO | IncludedProfessional and above, any SAML-based IdP, plus OAuth for Office 365 and Gmail. Not on Starter. | IncludedFrontier only. Neither publicly priced plan includes SSO. |
| SCIM provisioning | IncludedProfessional and above. Not on Starter. | IncludedFrontier only |
| Custom roles | IncludedEnterprise only. Starter gets basic user management, Professional adds SSO and SCIM. | IncludedUnknown. A Custom roles row exists on the compare table but the per-plan checkmarks are images and could not be read. |
| SOC 2 | IncludedNot plan-gated. SOC 2 Type II, report on request. | IncludedUnknown. A SOC2 Type II Report row sits under Services and compliance; per-plan gating is not readable. A live trust center is published with dated subprocessor notifications. |
| ISO 27001 | IncludedNot plan-gated. Certified, certificate on request. | Not publishedNot claimed on the pricing page, the trust center notices or the help center. |
| GDPR | IncludedNot plan-gated. A DPA is published. | IncludedNot plan-gated. A DPA is published at /legal/dpa, and the terms forbid training AI models on Subscriber Data without written consent. |
| Data residency | IncludedUnited States or European Union, on Amazon Web Services. No plan gate and no price are stated for the choice. | Not publishedNo published policy. The documented endpoint is core-api.uk.plain.com, which points to UK hosting, but no multi-region option is published and the data-residency help article returns 404. |
Developer
| Capability | Front | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | IncludedAll plans. The Core API covers conversations, messages, contacts, tags and comments, and a separate analytics export endpoint exists. | Not publishedOnly a GraphQL API is documented. No REST surface appears in the docs navigation. |
| GraphQL API | Not published | IncludedAll three plans. Plain is built on the same GraphQL API it exposes. |
| Webhooks | Not published | IncludedWebhooks and Events are shown on all three plans |
| Published rate limits | IncludedPublished per plan: Starter 50 req/min, Professional 100, Enterprise 200, enforced per company. Burst limits are 5 req/s per resource type and 1 req/s for exports. | NoNo rate-limit figure on the GraphQL Introduction or Authentication pages, and no rate-limit page in the docs navigation. |
Both entries last checked Sep 9, 2026.
What Front costs
$25/seat/month
3 published plans, billed annually- Billing unit
Per seat per month at the annual-prepay rate - Free tier
No, 14-day trial - AI pricing
$0.05 per conversation - Vendor calls it
conversation - Human handoff
Not published - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
Support ticket required - Automation export
Not offered
3 of 9 not published by Front, checked
What Plain costs
$35/seat/month
2 published plans, billed annually- Billing unit
$35/month - Free tier
No, 7-day trial - AI pricing
Not published - Vendor calls it
Sidekick credit - Human handoff
Not billed - Reopened chat
Refunded - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
Self-serve - Automation export
Partial
2 of 9 not published by Plain, checked