CommunicationOS vs Front
Invite your staff without paying per seat
Front charges per user per month with extra fees for WhatsApp and AI. We bill per connected account with unlimited seats.
Seats
Front meters
$25/seat/mo paid annually
Front entry price
Accounts
We meter
None
Our conversation cap
Who each one is for
Two products, two different jobs
Buy Front if this is you
Logistics dispatchers and travel operations desks get great value from Front. Its shared email workflows, internal comments and calendar scheduling handle shift handoffs well.
Email handled as a team sport, with comments and shared drafts
Calendar and meeting scheduling inside the inbox
A rules engine operations managers can maintain themselves
Analytics on response time and shift handoffs
Free guest accounts for colleagues who only comment
Buy CommunicationOS if this is you
B2B companies running long-term client relationships across modern messaging apps fit our platform. You get the networks you connect and your whole staff on one flat monthly rate.
Where Front costs more
Omnichannel starts at Professional, $65 per seat per month
Starter stops at 10 seats and one channel type
Copilot, Smart QA and Smart CSAT are separate per seat add-ons
Native WhatsApp bills Meta's charge plus a 20% admin fee
The arithmetic
A fifteen person desk, costed
15 people on omnichannel over twelve months, paid annually, with an AI assistant for the team.
Front Professional
Omnichannel starts here, Starter is capped at 10 seats and one channel type
Professional seats
$11,700
$65 × 15 = $975 a month, × 12
Copilot for all 15 people
$3,600
$20 × 15 = $300 a month, × 12
Twelve months
$15,300
CommunicationOS Team
10 connected accounts, unlimited people, AI layer included
Team plan, paid monthly
$948
$79 × 12
AI for all 15 people
$0
included in the plan
Twelve months
$948
$15,300 on Front against $948 on Team. That is about 16 times the money for the year.
Front Starter for a smaller version of the same desk
$25 × 10 seats = $250 a month, × 12, and it stops at 10 people on one channel type
$3,000
Native WhatsApp sits on top of both totals for Front, at whatever Meta bills plus 20%. Front's guest accounts are free, so people who only comment cost nothing there either.
Front figures read from their public pricing page in August 2026. Our figures come from our pricing page.
Feature by feature
The whole table, including where they win
| Capability | CommunicationOS | Front |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $39/mo | $25/seat/mo |
| Conversation limit | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Cost per extra conversation | $0 | $0 |
| Teammates | Unlimited, free | Per seat |
| History retained | Forever, indexed | Plan dependent |
| Voice note transcription | Every channel | No |
| Group chat indexing | Yes | No |
| Personal WhatsApp numbers | Yes | Business API only |
| Signal and Discord | Yes | No |
| Writes in your voice | PersonaLearn | No |
| Open source SDK | MIT, five languages | REST only |
| MCP server | Yes | No |
| Self-hosted option | Enterprise | No |
| Export ceiling | 1 GB, 25 GB on Scale | CSV of tickets |
| Omnichannel seat price | $0 per teammate | $65/seat/mo |
| Top tier seat price | $0 per teammate | $105/seat/mo |
| Starter seat cap | None | 10 seats, one channel type |
| AI as a seat add-on | Included | $20 to $25/seat/mo |
| AI agent per conversation | $0 | Autopilot from $0.05 |
| WhatsApp markup | None | Meta bill plus 20% |
| Channel ceiling | The accounts on your plan | 10 to 50 per licence |
| Guest commenters | Unlimited teammates | Free guest accounts |
| Calendar and scheduling | No | Yes |
| API rate limit increase | Included | $200 per 100 req/min |
The straight answer
Sometimes Front is the better buy
Choose Front if
You need shared email workflows with built-in meeting scheduling and calendars.
9,300 companies run on Front, so the integration library is deep and tested.
Your staff works primarily in email and needs rule-based message assignments.
Operations managers need specific analytics on shift handoffs and email response.
You want free guest accounts for staff who only need to comment on email threads.
If two or more of these describe your team, buy Front. We would rather you spend the money well than churn out of here in four months.
Choose CommunicationOS if
Connect ten live networks now and five more in beta, instead of hitting Front's channel ceilings.
Invite your entire team without paying $25 to $105 per seat every month.
Connect native WhatsApp without paying Front's 20% surcharge on Meta's bill.
Get AI features included instead of buying $20 to $25 monthly seat add-ons.
Starter plans include 3 connected accounts for $39 a month with unlimited users.
Eight design partners run on this in private beta, among them Antwerp diamond trading houses and Lebara. Ongoing relationships across many networks, indexed and searchable.
Moving over
Bring the archive with you
We import your Front message bodies, tags, contacts and inboxes. What comes across stays searchable for the life of the account in our native desktop and mobile apps.
Import from Front
You request the export
Front gives you your data. Tickets, contacts, tags and message bodies.
We ingest it in one pass
One automated run, no per-record work on your side, no downtime on the old desk.
Threads get stitched back together
Identity resolution merges the same person across networks into one history.
Everything stays indexed
Imported history is searchable for the life of the account and counts towards your indexed storage.
import_front_2026-08-22 • twelve platforms supported
Questions
Front, answered
Something missing? Ask us and we will put the answer on this page.
Ask a questionHow does Front pricing work per seat?
Front charges $25 per seat monthly on Starter with a 10 seat cap and one channel type. Professional costs $65 per seat and Enterprise costs $105 per seat on annual billing. AI add-ons cost an extra $20 to $25 per seat monthly.
Does Front charge extra for WhatsApp?
Yes. Front charges you whatever Meta bills for your WhatsApp Business API usage, plus an extra 20% administration fee. CommunicationOS lets you connect WhatsApp directly with no added percentage markup.
How do channel limits compare between Front and CommunicationOS?
Front caps channels at 10 per licence on Starter, 30 on Professional and 50 on Enterprise. CommunicationOS charges $39 monthly for 3 connected accounts, $79 for 10 accounts and $499 for 50 accounts across 19 supported networks.
Can I migrate my message history out of Front?
Yes. We import your tickets, tags, customer records and message history from Front into CommunicationOS. We store and index the complete history so your team can search old conversations forever.
Leave the meter behind
Unlimited conversations, unlimited teammates, and a Front import that starts the day you connect.