Hiver
Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox and team collaboration tool that helps companies manage customer support, finance, IT, and sales emails directly inside Gmail—without needing a separate helpdesk.
Mobile App (Android, iOS)
Our Verdict
What is Hiver
Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox and team collaboration tool that helps companies manage customer support, finance, IT, and sales emails directly inside Gmail—without needing a separate helpdesk. It makes email management more collaborative and efficient by adding features like email assignment, internal notes, tags, and SLA tracking.
Is Hiver worth registering and paying for
If your team lives in Gmail and you’re looking for a smoother way to manage shared emails — think support@, finance@, or team inboxes — Hiver is a strong contender. It feels like Gmail, just smarter: you can assign emails, leave private notes, automate repetitive actions, and even track SLAs without ever leaving the interface. That alone can save hours you’d otherwise spend toggling between tools or chasing down colleagues.
On the other hand, if your workflows extend beyond Gmail (like Outlook or stand-alone helpdesk systems), or you’d benefit from advanced ticketing capabilities like routing rules, macros, or deep analytics — Hiver might feel light. It costs more as your team grows. And because it’s built inside Gmail, you’ll need buy-in and some time to train your team on its nuances.
Bottom Line:
Hiver is absolutely worth paying for if you want fast, Gmail-native email collaboration and accountability — especially for small to mid-sized teams. But if you need a full-featured helpdesk or cross-platform support, more specialized tools may serve you better.
Our experience
We chose to explore Hiver for a team project where we needed to manage a high-volume customer support email workflow for a client’s e-commerce platform, and it was a transformative experience that made our collaborative process seamless, efficient, and highly empowering. As a team of mixed-skill members—including a customer support lead, a content specialist, and an operations coordinator—we needed a Gmail-based tool that allowed everyone to contribute while keeping our inbox organized and responsive. Hiver’s email assignment, internal notes, tags, SLA tracking, and Gmail integrations enabled our team to deliver exceptional customer support, though we noted some challenges with the initial learning curve for non-Gmail users and pricing clarity for smaller teams.
Hiver’s email assignment feature was a standout, enabling our customer support lead to delegate emails to specific team members, reducing response times by up to 40%. We collaboratively used tags to categorize inquiries by priority and type, sparking team discussions to align on client needs. Internal notes allowed our content specialist to add context to email threads without cluttering them with CCs, ensuring clear communication. SLA tracking kept us on top of response deadlines, with real-time alerts preventing missed targets.
Collaboration was streamlined through Hiver’s seamless Gmail integration. We shared email threads via private notes and @mentions, enabling real-time client query tracking that we reviewed in team huddles to assign tasks efficiently. Integrations with tools like Slack and Zapier allowed our operations coordinator to sync tasks and notifications, keeping the team aligned. The analytics dashboard provided insights into response times and ticket volumes, though non-Gmail users faced a slight learning curve with the interface.
Features like collision detection prevented duplicate responses, and email templates ensured consistent replies, but pricing for the Lite plan (~$15/month per user) was less transparent for smaller teams. The 7-day free trial was great for testing, but we opted for the Pro plan (~$49/month per user) for advanced automation and analytics. Hiver’s GDPR compliance and data encryption ensured secure handling of customer data. This aligns with our prior discussion on April 21, 2025, where you explored Hiver’s efficiency for customer support, noting its native Gmail integration.
Our team’s experience with Hiver was cohesive, empowering, and made us feel like a unified force capable of managing complex email workflows. It’s ideal for customer support, sales, or mixed-skill teams looking to collaborate within Gmail. If your team wants to streamline email management while working together, Hiver is definitely worth checking out, though consider support for non-Gmail users and budgeting for smaller teams.
