Illustration by Sonny Ross

Written by Jesse Short

Whether we’re writing, reading, or complaining about them, one thing remains true: Email is a central part of many of our professional lives. And though each day seems to bring a new tool ready to reduce the number of emails we receive, they hardly ever seem to make a dent.

Though completely eliminating email is probably out of the question, there are tools we can use to make email more manageable. In fact, there’s a whole category called email management software that’s dedicated to just that.

What is email management software?

Email management software is a tool that helps you manage, sort, organize, and send email. Generally speaking, email management software tends to focus on a few different areas:

Received emails — Tools in this category are mainly focused on managing incoming emails from customers. These tools are mostly focused on one-to-one interactions.

Sent emails — Tools in this category are mainly focused on sending emails. These tools are used for one-to-many communication. You also have expanded capabilities to see things like open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics that a tool focused on received emails wouldn’t include.

Personal email — Tools in this category are mainly focused on managing a personal email inbox. They generally help automate sorting and sending and can even unsubscribe you from certain emails to make managing your own inbox less of a hassle.

Rarely, if ever, do tools cover multiple use cases. They’re too disparate and generally lack any amount of crossover. However, they may be used in conjunction with one another.

The 7 best email management software

Since email management software covers a few different use cases, we’ve put together a diverse list of tools that cover each of those different use cases.

1. Help Scout

Best email management software for customer service.

Help Scout is email management software built specifically to help customer service teams deliver a great customer experience. With Help Scout you get access to powerful collaboration tools like private notes to help keep everyone informed and collision detection to eliminate duplicate work.

Productivity tools like workflows let you automatically assign customer conversations to specific agents or custom folders based on criteria you set. And saved replies make responding to routine requests a breeze.

Finally, access to customer profiles helps you stay in the loop. You’re able to see past conversations, which company the customer works for, the type of account they’re on, and other basic information to help interactions go smoothly and limit hassle for both customers and agents alike.

Best of all, email management software is just one of the entire suite of customer service tools you get access to when signing up for Help Scout. A couple other notable tools are Docs, which allows you to build out a knowledge base, and Beacon, which lets you provide live chat and in-app messaging.

Price: Starting at $20 per user/month

2. SaneBox

Best email management software for personal use.

Though lots of email management software focuses on business needs, there are also tools to help manage personal inboxes. One of the best we’ve found is SaneBox. Their powerful AI learns your different email habits and then automatically sorts emails right when they hit your inbox.

High-priority messages are shown right away in your main inbox, while lower priority ones are moved to a separate folder.

They also offer features like SaneNoReplies, which shows any message you’ve sent that’s yet to get a response, and Do Not Disturb, which stops any new incoming emails from showing to help keep your focus on the task at hand.

Price: Starting at $7/month

3. Sendinblue

Best email management software for one-to-many communication.

Sometimes you need to talk to a lot of people at once: Maybe you’re announcing a new feature or you have a company or product update. Since you can only Bcc so many people from your Gmail account — around 500 if you were wondering — you’ll need a specialized tool.

One of the best is Sendinblue. Their tool lets you build beautiful emails using their easy-to-use editor and also includes top-notch automation to make sure messages are sent right when you want. You’re also able to do A/B tests and track metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and even see a heat map for your emails.

Price: Free (paid plans start at $25/month)

4. Front

Best email management software for managing team and personal emails together.

Email management software is often used to manage a group email address (i.e., support@companyname.com). However, if your team wants to use both personal and shared email addresses to interact with customers, Front could be a great option.

Front offers some collaborative features like internal comments, and they also have more advanced features like analytics and automation on their higher-cost plans.

Price: Starting at $19 per user/month

5. Hiver

Best email management software for Gmail.

Many of the tools on this list are standalone offerings, but Hiver is a little different. Basically, it acts as an extension to your existing Gmail account. You’re able to assign emails to specific agents and add notes — all things you can’t do from a standard Gmail account.

There are also task automation and analytics features, but it should be noted that many of the more advanced features are only offered on their higher-cost plans.

Price: Starting at $7 per user/month

6. Moosend

Best free email management software.

Moosend is another tool meant for one-to-many communication. They offer features like a no-code editor to easily make beautiful email templates. You’re also able to segment audiences, A/B test, and track certain metrics.

Best of all, you’re able to do all of the above on their free plan. There are some limitations — like only one person can access the account. But it’s a lot of value for no cost. For those looking to get expanded functionality, they also offer paid plans starting at $8 per month.

Price: Free (paid plans starting at $8 per user/month)

7. Emailigistics

Best email management software for Outlook.

Emailigistics is similar to Hiver, but instead of working with Gmail, it’s an overlay for Outlook. It provides similar functionality and light collaboration features such as notes and assigning capabilities.

You’re also able to do some automations like routing emails to specific people based on certain conditions to improve productivity and response times. Rounding things out, they offer access to analytics to see how your team is performing, though this is only offered on their higher-cost plan.

Price: Starting at $10 per user/month

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Must-have email management software features

If you’re looking for team email management software, make sure to look for these features when you’re comparing your options.

Collision detection

It’s frustrating for the recipient and time-wasting for your team when multiple people send replies to the same conversation. Collision detection helps prevent this by providing real-time indicators when another team member has already replied to a conversation — or is actively writing a reply.

Saved replies

Saved replies are shared responses that your team can add to an email response in just a couple of clicks and personalize when needed.

Well-organized, pre-written saved replies save time for team members and yield faster results for customers. They also create continuity with easy-to-apply language that keeps a team on the same page, especially if there’s a significant issue like an outage or a new product release.

Customer profiles

The best email management software empowers team members with data that paints a vivid picture of the person who sent the email and their unique challenges. With this important information, your team can help people more effectively and efficiently without requiring much effort on the part of the customer.

Reporting

Trying to complete any analysis within a shared Gmail or Outlook mailbox takes more time than it’s worth. The right email management software can do the work for you, giving you data that adds up to powerful business insights relevant to every aspect of your company.

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The right solution

For most of us, email is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Whether you’re responding to customer emails, sending out a mass message about a new feature, or just cleaning up your own inbox, email management software can help make your life easier.