Top 10 Email Management Software (+ How to Choose One)

Some hate them, and some praise them, but no matter how we feel about them, emails are the pillar of how most of us communicate in business.

As any entrepreneur knows, email is integral to running a business. But overflowing inboxes can grind productivity to a halt.

But overloaded inboxes can take a hit on our productivity.

In this guide, we'll explore the top email management software options available to help you gain back control over your emails

From tools that declutter your inbox to those that help you better organize your communication and collaborate with others, you’ll find the one that suits your needs.

What Is an Email Management Software

An email management software is a tool that helps you organize and manage your email inbox. It's designed to make email more manageable whatever you're a user dealing with personal emails or a business.

From better organization to automation, email management solutions go beyond what your typical email client can do. Key features like folders, rules, calendars and shared inboxes bring order to chaos and can even in some cases enable collaboration. Integrations also offer context by connecting communications to CRM and project data. They also help you take advantage of the email management best practices.

Plus, they can be used for many use cases like customer support, employee support, sales, and marketing

Top 10 Email Management Software

The best email management application depends on your specific need. Here's our list of tools that cover the most common use cases.

We reviewed the best solutions with a focus on important characteristics including scalability, pricing, integrations, and ease of use.

1. Missive

For small to medium teams looking for the ideal mix of features and affordability.

Missive is an intuitive, and powerful all-in-one email management software built for teams to help them manage communications. It comes with standard features that you would expect from an email management tool like snoozing, multiple account support, and filters.

Missive helps teams collaborate from within their email inboxes with advanced collaboration tools like chat, team inboxes, collaborative writing, assignments, calendar, status, and so much more.

In addition, you’ll gain access to a multitude of tools to help you and your team stay productive. Rules let you automate your team workflow by triggering actions when certain conditions are met. You can also share canned responses or templates with a team or everyone at your company, so they can reply to common questions with little to no time. To make sure you avoid email overload you can merge two related conversations into a single one.

We know we are biased toward Missive. So here's an in-depth review from an actual user.

Missive is probably the best solution out of all the tools on the list for small businesses and customer service.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Intuitive interface for easy collaboration
• Rich feature set for both individuals and teams
• Affordable pricing starting at $18/user

Cons:

• May have a learning curve compared to basic clients
• Some advanced integrations require paid plans

2. Microsoft Outlook

For teams using Microsoft and looking for integration with Microsoft 365 (Office).

Microsoft Outlook is probably one of the most well known email management tools out there. It comes with all the basic features you would expect from software to manage your emails like snoozing, calendar, tasks, team inbox, and contacts.

It has a clean interface that everyone knows and can easily start using. The email client is web-based and is available on the web, on a standalone desktop app, and on mobile.

Another advantage of Microsft Outlook is the integration with other tools from the Microsoft 365 suite like Word, Excel, and Skype.

Outlook is included in Microsoft 365 subscription, which makes it a great option for businesses already using Microsoft 365 and needing a basic email manager.

However, the free version of the software for personal use is supported by ads, which can add some clutter to your experience.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Interface that most are familiar with
• Seamless integrations with MS Office suite
• Included with many business Microsoft 365 plans

Cons:

• Not as collaborative focused as some others
• Basic version includes ads

3. Gmail

For individuals already using the Google suite and don't need collaboration or advanced features.

Gmail is the default email client for Google Workspace users. While compared to email management apps like Missive or Help Scout, Gmail might look limited in terms of team collaboration, it offers the basic features you would be looking for in a tool to help you manage emails.

Gmail is probably the most popular and used email client out there. It offers a simple and clean user interface that is easy to use for everyone. Plus, similar to Outlook, it integrates with other tools from the Google Suite like Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Google Drive.

It has features like labels to organize your emails, spam protection, and filters to help you manage your email.

Gmail is available via a web browser on desktops and an app on mobiles.

However, if you're looking for an email management software to collaborate with your team, Google Gmail might not be the best solution for you.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Free and widely used personal option
• Clean interface works well for individuals
• Integrates seamlessly with Google Drive/Calendar

Cons:

• Limited collaborative features for teams
• Limited organization features

4. Spike

For people looking for email collaboration in a chat-like package.

Spike is a collaborative email management platform. It has a different approach than traditional email applications, since it organizes messages in a conversation that resembles chat. It helps you to manage your emails by offering a way to unify your emails in one inbox and to collaborate with other people on conversations, tasks, and notes.

Another key differentiator of Spike is that you create groups where you can chat with all the members. It feels more like Facebook Messenger than your typical email client. Email threads are also presented as chat conversations.

Spike also offers a feature that uses AI to categorize your emails and prioritize them based on relevance. This can be useful to help you focus on important messages.

If you're coming from Outlook or Gmail, you'll certainly have to adapt to their unique UI.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Unique chat-based interface for collaborative workflows
• AI features like auto-categorization are helpful

Cons:

• Learning curve to adapt to chat interface
• Fewer integrations than some alternatives

5. Superhuman

For individuals looking to manage their Gmail personal account.

Most email management platform offers some sort of collaboration and team features to help you and your business be more productive with emails. Superhuman differs from the other solution by providing a clean email client for your own Gmail email account.

While Superhuman only supports Gmail and Google Workspace, it offers features to ensure you are efficient and productive with your individual email like automatic email triage with AI, snooze, and follow-up reminders.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• AI-powered filtering helps focus on priority emails
• Simple interface tailored for individual productivity
• No collaboration features for teams

Cons:

• Only supports Gmail, not other email providers
• Pricey at $30/user compared to other options

6. Front

For teams looking for teams collaboration.

As we’ve seen, a lot of email management software let you manage shared email aliases. Front is no exception. Just like Missive, lets you manage shared inboxes as well as your personal inbox.

With Front, you can collaborate around an email with features like chats and assignments, making it a good option for managing team emails. CRM, analytics, and a few other more advanced functionalities are available on the highest plan.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Collaboration tools with shared inboxes
• Customizable automations help with routine tasks

Cons:

• Steep learning curve for more complex solutions
• Subscription tiers can be more costly and only available via a contract

7. SaneBox

For individuals looking for an AI solution to sort their emails.

If you don’t need email collaboration features or use a shared inbox then SaneBox might be a solution for you.

This email manager works with most email providers and uses AI to sort and categorize your emails in folders. SaneBox also offers a feature to filter out distractions by automatically putting them into a separate folder.

8. Helpwise

For teams looking for a web-based customer service platform.

Helpwise is a helpdesk that also offers tools for managing customer service emails. It is designed to help businesses with their customer service operations.

Helpwise offers a variety of features to help you manage emails, including email templates, shared inboxes, notes, rules, and assignments.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Simple interface requires little customization

Cons:

• Not as customizable as other solutions

9. Sendinblue

For teams looking for an all-in-one platform for managing emails and email marketing.

Sendinblue is an all-in-one marketing platform offering email management tools built for marketers and salespeople. The platform makes it easy to create, send, and analyze email marketing campaigns. Their tool lets you send emails to a huge number of recipients.

The tool offers an automation to send emails at the right moment. You’ll also get access to features like A/B testing, metrics tracking, segmentation, and a shared inbox.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• All-in-one platform for both marketing and support
• Analytics offer insights to improve future outreach

Cons:

• Learning curve bigger than basic email clients
• High pricing

10. Help Scout

For teams looking for a customer service platform with a knowledge-based tool.

Help Scout is an email-based customer support platform and knowledge-based tool that can also be used as an email management software.

It offers a suite of tools to help businesses manage their customer support operations, including a knowledge base, a ticketing system, and a CRM system. Help Scout also offers a variety of integrations with third-party applications, shared inboxes, rules, and other collaboration tools.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Feature-rich customer service platform
• Knowledge articles can help reduce emails

Cons:

• Learning curve for agents and admins

Summary

Essential Features to Look for in Email Management Tool

Managing emails is a lot easy with the proper tool. However, to ensure you choose the right one for the job, you should be looking out for these essential features:

Folders

Folders will help you organize your emails into categories, so you can find them more easily later on.

Labels

Just like folders, labels are a great way to organize emails. They can be used to track the progress of customer inquiries or categorize priorities. Platforms like Missive can even let you share those labels with your whole organization.

Rules

Rules are a great way to automize your workflow with a multitude of actions that are triggered when an event occurs. These actions can range from simply organizing incoming emails into folders or labels to automatically sending an automatic reply when certain conditions are met.

Snooze

Snooze is a neat feature that lets you set a date and time to remind you about an email. It’s a great way to clean up your inbox from emails that don’t require immediate action.

Integrations

Integrations are another essential feature of an email management tool. It can help you connect with other apps that you use like CRM, project management software, or other communications software to receive calls or SMS. These integrations are great for those who have a lot of different tasks and projects going on at the same time.

Saved responses

Canned responses are a time saver when you often need to reply to similar inquiries via emails. It’s especially useful for customer services teams that are used to getting the same questions over and over, as they can quickly select a pre-written answer and reply in no time.

Multi-accounts

Multi-accounts support is a great way to manage all your communications in one place. Depending on the tool you use, you can connect your personal email, work email, and shared account all in the same software. This makes organizing and handling emails a breeze.

Rich contacts information

Handling thousands of communications can quickly become a hassle when you need to research information about your correspondents. Rich contact information gives you context about the sender, like in the previous discussion, directly in a conversation.

Other features made for collaboration are really useful when choosing an email management tool. It makes dealing with customer service and teamwork a breeze.

Shared inbox

A shared inbox will let you collaborate on shared email addresses with your team. Customer support teams or sales teams will benefit a lot from software that can handle shared inboxes, since it will make teamwork more productive by enabling better collaboration.

Chat

Chat is another really useful feature for team collaboration and better email management. Instead of using an email thread to communicate with your colleagues about a particular email, you’ll be able to send messages directly in the conversation to the people you need input.

Choosing the Right Email Management Tool

When it comes to choosing an email management tool, there are a few things you need to take into account.

First and foremost, you need to decide what your needs are:

Do you need a tool that can help you organize your personal inbox, a team inbox for customer service, one that can help you automate your email marketing or a mix of all?

Once you know what you need, you can start looking at different tools and comparing them. Make sure to read reviews and compare pricing before making your final decision.

The last step is to take the time to try out the tool yourself to see if it's a good fit for you.

Benefits of Using Email Management Software

With better management of your inbox, you'll save hours each week.

Here are the benefits you can expect by starting to use one.

Better Productivity

With automated workflows to handle repetitive tasks and better organization, you'll be able to spend less time dealing with emails.

For examples, you could route messages to the right team members based on tags and keywords. Plus, canned replies mean common questions are addressed with a single click.

Better Scalability

Collaboration tools like chat and shared inbox keep everyone on the loop and makes it easy to grow your team without having to worry about forwarding an email to the right person and fragmenting discussion in several tools.

Plus, with rules and integrations it's easy to maintain your high standards for responsiveness, even with larger volumes of emails.