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Distribution List vs. Shared Mailbox: Which One Should You Use?
Blog →
by
Luis Manjarrez
November 10, 2022
· Updated on
January 8, 2026
Should I use (or still use) a distribution list or a shared mailbox? We get asked this question a lot, and although some say that it depends on your business needs, I say most businesses should opt for a shared mailbox over a distribution list. Let me explain.
Let’s start with understanding what they are and how they differ.
A distribution list is a method using a single email address to send emails to multiple people at the same time. Using a maintained list of email addresses, you can send emails to all recipients without having to use CC or BCC to manually enter all the addresses.
Companies have been using distribution lists mostly as a visibility hack and workaround. They want a group of people to see emails sent to a particular email address, for example, a support team getting emails from a shared mailbox (support@company.com).
The original email is replicated and sent to all the members of the list. The lists can be managed easily to add or remove recipients.
It's great for sending out information, but not for collaborating seamless, coordinating a discussion, or even staying on top of the actual email thread.
Distribution lists were created in the early 1980s as a way to share news about certain subjects such as wine tasting. Like an email blast from your favorite blog, distribution lists were not meant for two-way communication aka. when you respond to emails and the visibility stops.
Distribution lists sounds like a great solution, but what about replies? This is where the email management all goes south. You have no way of knowing who has answered which incoming emails, what they said, or what they responded to.
This leads to duplicate responses, sending clients conflicting information, or simply not answering some messages at all.
This is where the second layer of hacking comes along. Businesses start developing intricate labeling systems on top of their distribution lists to keep track of who's working on what.
I've heard about these labeling chaos situations countless times. Those systems work at first, but you cannot scale much with them.
When Diane joined in 2014, we created adistribution list that went to both of us. It worked fine because we were small, but as we kept growing, the system became inefficient. - Canex Global
I've heard about these labeling chaos situations countless times. Those systems work at first, but you cannot scale beyond a couple people when you're relying on distribution lists and labels to stay in sync.
Simply put, distribution lists were not designed to be used for collaborative email management or in team setting.
Distribution lists are great for sending information or content to a lot of people at once, like a newsletter or internal communication for example, that don't require anyone to respond to emails or have open communication. They can be set up in Gmail (Collaborative Inbox) or Microsoft Outlook (Shared Mailbox), or into a marketing tool that will enable you to take advantage of segmentation.
A shared mailbox is a mailbox that multiple team members can access simultaneously. Each member maintains a personal email account, but they all can "send as" and read messages from a particular email address.
Shared inboxes are a step up from a distribution list as they enable communication and collaboration around emails.
For example, Amy (amy@acme.com) and Lucy (lucy@acme.com) can receive and send messages from the shared mailbox address help@acme.com. They can reply using their personal accounts or use the shared address.
Users with access to the shared email inbox will be able to see and manage the mailbox from their personal account under their personal inbox. When an email is deleted from a shared inbox by a user, it will automatically be removed from the shared mailbox of all other users.
Contrary to distribution lists, most shared mailboxes offer collaborative features. For example:
A shared mailbox solves all the pain points presented by distribution lists.
Setting up a shared mailbox isn't complicated. Most email clients offer some sort of shared inbox functionalities, however, as we'll see later the tools to manage share mailboxes don't offer all the same functionalities.
To create a shared mailbox in Google Workspace, you can either delegate an account to team members or use a Collaborative Inbox within Google Groups. Both enable team members to have access to shared email aliases and reply to messages, however, Collaborative Inbox enables teammates to collaborate around emails.
If you're using Outlook, you can create a shared mailbox to give permission to team members to view, edit and send emails using share email aliases such as support@company.com. You should note that shared mailbox in Outlook aren't available on mobile device.
Missive Team inboxes are shared mailboxes made for collaboration and assignment between team members. It is useful for teams who want a "triage" step that will clean up messages for all coworkers at once and for teams who want the ability to see read/unread status at an individual level instead of an email level.
Allowing you to answer the question: Is David working on that email? Without ever having to ask David.
You can set it up easily by creating a team and giving it access to the email address or email account that you want to share.
If your goal is to collaborate on incoming emails in a team setting, 10 out of 10 times go for the shared mailbox option. On the other hand, if your only goal is to broadcast information and you're not expecting replies, go for the distribution list.
Businesses with customer support, sales, or any other customer-facing teams will benefit the most from centralized emails coming into shared mailboxes, as it will enable better collaboration and make sure every team member are synchronized.
You can find very affordable ways to create distribution lists, whereas shared mailbox solutions tend to be a little more expensive. There's a reason for this; one was made with collaboration in mind, and the other is mostly a message forwarder.
Mostly the added cost. Email wasn't mean to be a team activity but modern day business is a team sport so your out-of-the-box inboxes won't have very good shared mailbox functionality. Which means, if your business runs off of email inquiries and requests, you'll want software that is purpose built for collaborative teams and shared mailboxes.
Shared mailboxes are also the wrong tool for one-way communication, that's where distribution lists shine.
If you are looking for the best shared inbox software for your team emails, I suggest having a look at our guide.
As always, there are plenty of collaboration tool solutions out there. If you are looking for the barebones, most people start with Gmail's Collaborative Inbox or Outlook's Shared Mailbox but if you're working with a lot of volume, you might need a purpose-built collaborative inbox and they are not all created equally.
Depending on your needs, some features and functionalities might be more important than others, but being able to collaborate around shared emails is the most crucial aspect of a shared inbox tool.
Basic solutions like Outlook or Gmail simply don't compete with a robust tool like Missive. Sure they offer basic collaboration functionalities like labels and assignments, but with them, you won't be able to chat with coworkers inside an email conversation or compose an email collaboratively.
Considering a shared inbox tool with more advanced features can help your business offer better customer service, especially to those who process high volumes of emails every day.
No matter what tool you decide to use in the end, following shared inbox best practices will help your team collaborate seamlessly and augment productivity.
Missive is much more than a simple shared inbox medium; it's a collaborative inbox tool that empowers teams to collaborate around email and other channels of communication like SMS, WhatsApp, Twitter, Messenger, and live chat.
It can be used in various scenarios in all areas of a business.
In addition to the shared inbox experience, you will also get access to these great features:
Book a demo to see how Missive can help your business.
April 26, 2023
Get Started With a WhatsApp Shared Inbox
Looking to streamline your customer communications? Learn how to get started with a WhatsApp shared inbox...
With over 2 billion active users per month, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world. Far more popular than Facebook Messenger which only has half the user base per month.
It’s no wonder you should be using WhatsApp as a communication channel for your company. However, it can be a hassle for your customer service team to manage your WhatsApp inbox using the WhatsApp web or WhatsApp Business app.
But luckily for you, you’re at the right place to remedy this situation.
This magic solution is called a WhatsApp shared inbox!
With it, you’ll be able to see all messages in one centralized inbox and easily manage them via assignment, labels, and collaboration.
Let’s explore what exactly a shared inbox for WhatsApp is, its benefits, and how to start using one.
A WhatsApp shared inbox is like an inbox that can be accessed by everyone in a team and where they can check and respond to customer messages from that centralized place. It's super handy for improving customer service since your team can get back to people fast, even if they're not all working at the same time.
It's way better than having everyone manage their own WhatsApp convos because it keeps everything organized using assignments and labels. It also makes sure no one drops the ball on a customer request. Plus, it enables all team members to collaborate easily. It helps you keep your customers happy, and your company improves and maintains a good reputation.
Just like an email shared inbox comes with many advantages, using a WhatsApp shared inbox can take your customer service to the next level and make your team more productive.
While the WhatsApp Business App can be a useful tool for small businesses, it has some significant limitations compared to a shared inbox. For example:
A WhatsApp shared inbox solves these problems by providing more advanced features and functionality for any business.
Here are some of the reasons why a shared inbox is a game-changer.
By using a shared inbox, your team can chat internally, assign conversations to specific team members, use canned responses, and label conversations to keep them organized. This lets your team work together more effectively, reduce response times, and resolve issues faster. Plus it makes the job more enjoyable for all employees.
With a shared inbox, your team can respond to customer messages quickly and easily, no matter when they come in. Since WhatsApp conversations are accessible to all team members at any given moment, you can be sure that message will get a reply no matter if someone in the team is offline.
By using canned responses for frequently asked questions, you can provide faster and more consistent service. Additionally, a lot of tools like Missive, offer features like conversation merging that let you easily consolidate all the messages from a customer into one conversation no matter the channel used. It ensures that no customer conversations are ignored or forgotten.
Plus a shared inbox with labels and assignment lets you easily keep track of what’s going on and analyze your customer service performance. You’ll be able to better identify areas of improvement and optimize your strategies.
A WhatsApp shared inbox enables you to consolidate all your customer communication channels into one inbox, making it easier for your team to keep track of customer conversations and reducing the need to switch between different tools and channels. By having one go-to solution for all your communication channels, you can save on time, and cost, freeing up more time and money for other important aspects of your business.
In summary, if you want to provide better customer service, simplify your communications, and improve collaboration, a WhatsApp shared inbox is the way to go.
Now that you are aware of all the benefits of a WhatsApp shared inbox tool for your business, are you considering using one? Choosing the right one is key.
To make an informed decision, consider these factors:
Evaluating and trying your options carefully to ensure the tool meets your needs and goals will ensure that you can take advantage of all the benefits a WhatsApp shared inbox offers.
A WhatsApp shared inbox will let you manage all your conversations by connecting to your WhatsApp Business via an API.
Managing all your customer conversations with ease using Missive's WhatsApp shared inbox is easy. With the integration of Twilio's API for WhatsApp, you can import your WhatsApp number into Missive in just a few steps. This way, your team can start collaborating on all your customer conversations in a matter of seconds.
Here’s how to get started:
That's it! You can now receive, send, and collaborate on your WhatsApp messages directly in Missive Team Inbox.
Best of all, the WhatsApp shared inbox can be easily accessed by all members of your team.
Having a shared inbox can be a huge benefit for your business and customer service.
If you’re looking for the best WhatsApp shared inbox provider for your business you should look no further than Missive. It has it all:
Missive is the perfect solution for managing all your customer conversations across multiple channels.
With Missive, you'll enjoy powerful yet simple tools that make it easy to collaborate with your entire team and keep everyone on the same page. Plus, with glowing reviews from our satisfied customers, you can be sure you are making the right choice.
Give it a try for free today!
April 20, 2023
The Benefits of a Shared Inbox: Why One Inbox Is Better
Simplify your email management with a Shared Inbox. Learn what are the advantages of having only one inbox...
Managing an inbox with multiple people has long been a difficult and tedious task that most people aren't even willing to take on. It’s easy to understand why dealing with shared emails without a unified, shared inbox is something people would want to avoid at all costs.
It makes filtering and classifying emails a pain as well as keeping track of who's responsible for what. And, with so many forwarding, it’s a pain to track and follow up on so many exchanges in an email thread.
If we are completely honest, we all know that forwarding shared emails to the personal email address of all team members isn’t the best way to work with shared aliases. However, as you probably know with the right tool, managing multiple email addresses is not a difficult task.
So let's explore what’s the advantage of having only one inbox.
A shared inbox is like a group chat for emails. It’s an inbox that multiple can access to collaborate on shared aliases or any email address. It’s the perfect solution to let all team members work together when replying to emails and managing shared aliases emails.
In most shared inbox software, you can assign emails to different team members, add comments to messages, and keep track of which emails have been replied to or still need a response.
Shared inboxes can help any team in your business from customer support passing by sales, accounting, and HR. Having multiple team members collaborating to reply to customers’ questions or requests quickly and efficiently can be a real advantage for almost any business.
Plus, many shared inbox software programs also make it easy for people from different teams to collaborate. This means smoother communication and better teamwork all around.
It also makes internal communication easier, as many shared inbox software programs allow people from different teams to collaborate.
Having just one inbox for all your emails comes with many benefits. Here are the most noticeable for your business.
Having one unified shared inbox makes it easy to manage and respond to all incoming emails by grouping them all in one centralized tool. This can include your personal emails and the shared aliases of your business.
Having one centralized inbox eliminates the need to check multiple individual inboxes. It will also save you precious time and reduce the chances of missing important messages.
It also allows teams to collaborate and communicate without the need for constant back and forth between several apps. Plus, since everyone has access to the same messages and information, it makes prioritizing tasks and responding to urgent requests a lot easier.
Another big advantage is that you won’t have to dig through endless email chains or try to find that message you know exists but can’t remember where it is. With a shared inbox, everything is organized in one location, making it easy to keep track of conversations.
Having your team members use their own accounts to access an inbox that groups all incoming emails brings many benefits. A shared inbox software is a great solution to improve your access control and gives you more options for granular permissions.
With a shared inbox, you can set up different levels of access and permissions for team members based on their roles and responsibilities. This helps to ensure that confidential information is only accessed by the right people in your business. At the same time, it also reduces the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.
Most solutions, like Missive, will let you decide what permissions you give to every team member, which email address they can access, and if they can use it to send emails. This ensures information is only accessible to authorized team members.
As John C. Maxwell said in his book:
Teamwork makes the dream work
And, let’s admit it, having only one shared inbox is one of the key ingredients to achieving that dream.
With a shared inbox, everyone on the team has access to the same messages, reducing the need for each person to manage their own individual inbox. It saves time and eliminates the risk of messages getting lost or overlooked in someone's personal inbox.
Team members can see which emails or messages have been replied to, which ones are already assigned to someone, and which ones haven’t been taken care of. This prevents multiple team members from responding to the same message.
Having a single unified inbox also promotes collaboration. Team members can work together more efficiently by responding to messages on time, delegating tasks, and prioritizing messages based on their urgency. It will help any team to help avoid duplicated efforts and ensures that every message receives a timely response.
Managing multiple inboxes can be overwhelming and time-consuming for your customer service team. Not to mention that important customer inquiries can easily slip through the cracks if they're distributed across various individual inboxes. This is where a shared inbox comes in to save the day.
By using one, all customer inquiries are centralized and easily accessible to everyone on your team. This means no more digging through individual inboxes or worrying about missing an important message.
Another benefit of having one shared inbox is that it improves your team's ability to work together more efficiently. With everyone having access to the same inbox, your team can provide a better customer experience and avoid duplicating their efforts.
Plus, since the customer service team can easily share responsibility, team members are more likely to take ownership of customer inquiries and work together to provide the best possible service.
Shared inboxes can be a game-changer for team communications. Not only does it make it easier to keep track of incoming messages, but it can also promote accountability and transparency within the team.
Think about it:
When everyone has access to the same inbox, it's much easier to ensure that every message gets the attention they deserve. You don't have to worry about whether or not someone received an email or if someone already responded to it. Instead, everyone can see what's in the inbox and who is responsible for responding to each message.
A shared inbox can also promote transparency within the team. Rather than relying on individual team members to forward or share information, everyone can see all incoming messages and responses. It can come in handy if someone on the team is on vacation or on sick leave.
It can also help to prevent misunderstandings and ensures that everyone aligns when it comes to important messages.
So, how does this actually play out in practice? Let's say you're working on a project with several other team members. You receive an email from a client with some questions about the project. Normally, you might forward that email to your team members and hope that they respond in a timely manner. But with a shared inbox, everyone can see the email and who is responsible for responding to it. This eliminates any confusion or ambiguity about who is taking care of what.
As a company grows, it becomes increasingly important to have effective communication and collaboration tools in place. One tool that can help facilitate this is a shared inbox.
Having only one inbox to manage all emails can actually become more valuable as a company grows. As the number of team members increases, it can become more difficult to keep track of who is responsible for what messages. With a shared inbox, however, everyone can see what messages are coming in and who is taking care of them. It can help to avoid duplicated responses and ensure that all messages are being addressed in a timely manner.
With everyone using the same inbox, there is less room for miscommunication or confusion about who is responsible for what tasks.
In addition, as a company grows, it may become necessary to have different teams or departments. With a shared inbox, it's easy to create labels for different teams, so everyone can stay organized and focused on their specific responsibilities. This can help prevent information overload and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
With a multitude of shared inbox solutions, it’s easier than never to choose a solution that will suit your needs. You should also make sure you these shared inbox best practices to make the most out of your unified inbox.
For example, by using a solution like Missive you can easily invite all of your team and give them access to only the team they need. From there, by using rules and labels your can easily improve make your business’ email workflow to be more efficient.
A shared inbox lets many people use the same inbox together. It's useful for any team who has a minimum of messages. It helps communication and teamwork by avoiding duplicate work and saving time. It's also good for customer service because the team can work together and give better responses to customers. It helps keep track of customer interactions and can improve service.
Using a shared inbox has several benefits for teams. Firstly, it centralizes communication and eliminates the need to check multiple inboxes, saving time and reducing the chances of missing important messages. Secondly, it allows for better access control and permissions, promoting data security and privacy. Thirdly, it reduces workload and promotes collaboration, making it easier to prioritize tasks and respond to urgent requests. Fourthly, it improves customer service by centralizing inquiries and promoting collaboration. Fifthly, it increases accountability and transparency within teams. Lastly, choosing a flexible shared inbox solution allows easy scaling as your team grows.
The best way to use a shared mailbox is to establish clear guidelines and procedures for accessing and managing emails. Here are some tips:
