Groove
Groove is a simple help desk software designed to help small businesses manage customer support emails, live chat, and knowledge bases through a collaborative team inbox.
Hiver
Hiver is a multi-channel customer service platform that transforms your Gmail interface into a collaborative help desk for managing shared inboxes, live chat, and voice support without leaving your email.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Groove | Hiver |
|---|---|---|
| Website | groovehq.com | hiverhq.com |
| Pricing Model | Subscription | Subscription |
| Starting Price | $12/month | $15/month |
| FREE Trial | ✓ 7 days free trial | ✓ 7 days free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✘ No free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2011 | 2011 |
| Headquarters | Newport, USA | San Jose, USA |
Overview
Groove
Groove provides a streamlined help desk solution that feels just like using personal email but with powerful collaboration tools behind the scenes. You can manage all your customer interactions—from email and live chat to social media—in one unified dashboard. This eliminates the clutter of shared passwords and forwarded threads, allowing your team to work together on tickets without stepping on each other's toes.
The platform is specifically built for growing small businesses that have outgrown traditional email but find enterprise tools too complex. You can set up a self-service knowledge base to reduce ticket volume and use built-in reporting to track your team's performance. With its focus on simplicity, you can get your entire support operation up and running in minutes rather than days.
Hiver
Hiver transforms your existing Gmail interface into a powerful customer service hub. Instead of jumping between different tools, you can manage shared inboxes like support@ or info@ directly from the email environment you already know. You can assign emails to team members with one click, track status in real-time, and write internal notes on email threads to collaborate behind the scenes without forwarding messages to colleagues.
Beyond just email, you can handle live chat, WhatsApp messages, and even voice calls from the same sidebar. It eliminates the need for complex help desk training because it lives right inside Gmail. You can also automate repetitive tasks, build custom reports to track team performance, and ensure no customer query ever falls through the cracks. It is ideal for teams that want professional support capabilities without the steep learning curve of traditional software.
Overview
Groove Features
- Shared Inbox Manage all your support emails, chats, and social messages in one collaborative space where nothing falls through the cracks.
- Knowledge Base Create a 24/7 self-service help center so your customers can find answers instantly without needing to email you.
- Live Chat Connect with your website visitors in real-time to answer questions and solve issues before they leave your site.
- Internal Notes Collaborate privately with teammates directly inside support tickets to solve complex problems faster without the customer seeing.
- Collision Detection See exactly who is viewing or replying to a ticket in real-time to prevent double-replies to customers.
- Reporting & Analytics Track your average response times, resolution rates, and busiest hours to optimize your team's performance and schedule.
Hiver Features
- Shared Inboxes. Manage group aliases like support and sales directly from Gmail while keeping track of who is working on what.
- Email Notes. Collaborate with your teammates through private notes on email threads instead of using messy forwards or external chat apps.
- Collision Detection. See in real-time when another team member is replying to an email so you never send duplicate responses.
- Automated Workflows. Set up rules to automatically assign emails based on keywords or sender, saving you hours of manual sorting every week.
- Multi-Channel Support. Handle live chat, WhatsApp, and voice calls from a single sidebar without ever leaving your Gmail browser tab.
- Visual Analytics. Track key metrics like first response time and resolution rate with built-in dashboards to improve your team performance.
- Email Templates. Create and share canned responses with your team to answer common customer questions instantly and maintain a consistent voice.
- Customer Surveys. Insert feedback surveys directly into your email signatures to measure customer satisfaction immediately after you resolve an issue.
Pricing Comparison
Groove Pricing
- Unlimited conversations
- 1 Mailbox
- 1 Knowledge Base
- Web Widget
- Basic reporting
- Assignment & internal notes
- Everything in Standard, plus:
- Unlimited Mailboxes
- Unlimited Knowledge Bases
- Live Chat
- Reporting API
- 25+ Integrations
Hiver Pricing
- Up to 10 users
- 2 Shared Inboxes
- Shared Labels
- Email Notes
- Collision Detection
- Slack Integration
- Everything in Lite, plus:
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited Shared Inboxes
- WhatsApp & Chat channels
- Automations
- Detailed Analytics
- CSAT Surveys
Pros & Cons
Groove
Pros
- Extremely easy to set up and learn
- Interface feels familiar like a standard inbox
- Excellent internal collaboration tools for teams
- Affordable pricing for small support teams
- Clean and clutter-free user interface
Cons
- Limited advanced automation for complex workflows
- Reporting can be too basic for large teams
- Fewer native integrations than enterprise competitors
Hiver
Pros
- Zero learning curve since it works entirely inside Gmail
- Eliminates duplicate replies with effective collision detection
- Internal notes keep team communication organized and private
- Setup is extremely fast compared to traditional help desks
Cons
- Requires a Google Workspace account to function
- Mobile app experience is more limited than desktop
- Can feel cluttered if managing many shared inboxes
- No forever-free tier for very small startups