Customer support · checked 2026-10-13

Can I vibecode Front?

KINDA· weekend project

What a small team actually lives in is a shared mailbox where every thread has an owner, a status, private comments and a few canned replies. An agent can wire that up over IMAP and SMTP in a weekend, and it will run a support@ address for a handful of people. What stays behind is the rest of Front: SMS, WhatsApp and chat in the same list, phone apps, analytics, CRM and Slack connectors and the AI add-ons. Getting into the mailbox is the fiddly part, because Microsoft 365 and some Google Workspace setups only allow OAuth.

$35/moprice per seat

$420you'd save a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.

TimeA weekend; mailbox access can eat an extra hour

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
IMAP and SMTP access to the shared addressGmail wants 2-Step Verification and an app password. Microsoft 365 only allows OAuth, which this build leaves out.
A machine the team can reachA $5 VPS behind HTTPS, or an office machine on a private network such as Tailscale.

Before you buildThere is no free Front plan. If you want a free shared inbox without building one, self-host FreeScout or Chatwoot.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a self-hosted team shared inbox to replace Front. Requirements:

- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a Fastify API and a React front end built with Vite.
  `npm start` serves everything on http://localhost:4900.
- Mail in: watch one or more IMAP mailboxes (support@, sales@) with `imapflow`,
  using IDLE where the server supports it, and parse with `mailparser`.
  Credentials live in .env. Never delete or move mail on the server.
- Group messages into threads by Message-ID, In-Reply-To and References. Store
  them in better-sqlite3 at ./data/inbox.db, attachments in ./data/files/.
- Each thread has a status (open, snoozed until a date, done), one assignee,
  tags and internal comments with @name mentions that are never emailed.
  Views: Unassigned, Mine, All open, Snoozed, Done, and one per tag.
- Reply and forward from the shared address over SMTP with `nodemailer`, keeping
  the threading headers; canned replies with {{first_name}} placeholders.
- When a teammate has the same thread open or a draft started, show it live
  (server-sent events) so two people never answer the same customer.
- Rules: if sender or subject matches, then tag, assign or mark done. Search
  subjects and bodies with SQLite FTS5.
- Teammates come from team.json and one shared password in .env guards the app.
  No sign-up flow, no telemetry, self-hosted.
- Out of scope: SMS, WhatsApp and chat channels, mobile apps, analytics.
- README: setup, backups, and an honest note that Microsoft 365 mailboxes refuse
  IMAP passwords (OAuth only), while Gmail needs an app password.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Front.

Add a Front importer to the shared inbox in this folder. Requirements:

- Read FRONT_API_TOKEN from .env and page through the Front Core API: the
  inboxes, their conversations, then each conversation's messages and comments.
- Respect the rate-limit headers and resume where it stopped if interrupted.
- Save everything as normal threads tagged "imported from Front", keeping the
  original dates, authors, assignees and attachments.
- Skip conversations that were already imported, so a second run is safe.
- Print totals at the end: conversations, messages, comments, failures.
- Update the README with how to create the API token.

Add AI reply drafts to the shared inbox in this folder. Requirements:

- A "Draft reply" button on each thread calls the Anthropic API (key in .env).
- Give the model the thread plus the five most similar closed threads found
  with the existing FTS5 index, and the canned replies.
- Put the draft in the reply box marked "AI draft"; never send on its own.
- Log tokens and cost per draft to ./data/ai-log.csv.
- Update the README with the cost per draft I should expect.

Add a reports page to the shared inbox in this folder. Requirements:

- From the stored messages, compute first-response time and time to done per
  thread, then weekly medians per assignee and per tag.
- Page at /reports with a table and a small bar chart (Chart.js), plus a list
  of open threads waiting more than 24 hours.
- CSV export of the weekly numbers.
- Out of scope: business-hours calendars.
- Update the README.

Add a website chat channel to the shared inbox in this folder. Requirements:

- A small script tag shows a chat bubble; messages travel over a WebSocket.
- Each chat becomes a thread with channel "chat" in the existing views.
- Replies reach the visitor live while the page is open, and by email if they
  left an address.
- Serve only the widget routes on WIDGET_PORT from .env; rate-limit by IP.
- Update the README with the embed snippet and how to expose the port.

What you lose

SMS, WhatsApp, social and live chat in the same inbox
Phone apps and push notifications
Response-time analytics and SLA reports
Connectors to CRMs, Slack and Jira
Copilot drafts and the Autopilot AI agent

Why people still pay

Teams pay because every customer message lands in one place with a clear owner, so nobody answers the same email twice and nothing slips. Once rules, templates, reports and CRM links are built around it, Front runs the support or ops desk, and a seat costs less than one lost customer.

Moatcollaboration integrations execution polish

Do the math

Front or your own copy?

Seats

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Front, 1 yr$420

Your own copy, 1 yr$44running + build session

You keep$377pays for itself in the first month

Estimate · Mail keeps flowing through the mailbox you already pay for. A small VPS for the team is about $5 a month, or nothing on a machine you already run. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving Front

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Front

1A company admin asks Front Support for an account data export; support checks the admin role and replies within 72 hours.
2The export covers shared inboxes only: conversations, messages, discussions, comments and attachments, sent as CSV files grouped by inbox, with messages as EML on request.
3Individual inboxes, contacts, message templates and tags are not included; copy them by hand or pull them through the Core API before you cancel.
4Reporting history can be downloaded separately as CSV from the Analytics dashboards.

2 · Cancel Front

1Click the gear icon and open Company settings > Billing > Upcoming plan at renewal.
2Click Cancel plan, review the summary, tick the acknowledgment box and confirm.
3Pick your reasons and click Cancel Plan. Until the date passes, Re-enable subscription in the same tab undoes it.

Nothing already paid is refunded, monthly or yearly, and a yearly plan is owed in full even if you leave early.
After the plan ends you get 30 days of read-only access (search and analytics, no sending), then the data is deleted.
Request the export well before the end date: it goes through support, not a button.
If your support address forwards into Front, change the forwarding before the last day so customer mail keeps landing somewhere you read.

Checked 2026-10-13 against Front's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

ChatwootOpen sourceSupport inbox for email, website chat, WhatsApp and social accounts; MIT outside its enterprise folder.★ 38k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
Web, iOS, AndroidVisit ↗FreeScoutOpen sourcePHP shared mailbox in the Help Scout mould: owners, notes, saved replies; many add-on modules are paid.★ 4.6k · active Oct 2026 · self-host, real ops
WebVisit ↗ZammadOpen sourceTicket desk that pulls in email, chat, phone and social, with SLAs and a knowledge base.★ 6.0k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗

All 4 free alternatives to Front ›

The numbers

Front pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Starter	$35	$25	Up to 10 seats, one channel type, 1 workspace, up to 10 automation rules, basic analytics and a basic knowledge base.
Professional	$85	$65	Up to 50 seats, every channel (email, SMS, social, WhatsApp), up to 5 workspaces, 20 rules plus macros, advanced analytics, SSO and SCIM.
Enterprise	—	$105	Unlimited workspaces, rules and macros, custom roles, a multi-language knowledge base; Copilot, Smart QA and Smart CSAT included.

Free tier: No free plan; a 14-day trial with Professional features and no card.
Billing: Per seat, billed monthly or yearly; yearly is about 24% cheaper. Enterprise is yearly only.
Hidden costs: Copilot is $20 per seat a month on Starter and Professional; the Autopilot AI agent starts at $0.05 per conversation; native WhatsApp is Meta's fee plus 20%; each extra 100 API requests per minute is $200 a month. Payments already made are not refunded.
Source: front.com

Also on the list

Zendesk$25/mo · Customer supportKINDA

Intercom$39/mo · Customer supportKINDA

Superhuman$30/mo · EmailKINDA

Questions

Front, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: SMS, WhatsApp, social and live chat in the same inbox, Phone apps and push notifications.

About $35 a month on the Starter plan per seat, $420 a year (checked 2026-10-13).

SMS, WhatsApp, social and live chat in the same inbox; Phone apps and push notifications; Response-time analytics and SLA reports; Connectors to CRMs, Slack and Jira; Copilot drafts and the Autopilot AI agent. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.