An honest comparison
A Google Groups Collaborative Inbox alternative that shows who's replying
If you've already set up a Collaborative Inbox, you've correctly diagnosed the problem: one address, whole team. The question is whether the free tool is enough — for some teams it genuinely is.
Where Collaborative Inbox wins
- Free, forever, with no new vendor
- Already inside Google Workspace and its admin
- Fine for low volume where double-replies are rare
- No forwarding rule to set up
Where Bosun wins
- Live “Tom is typing” before you both answer
- Read receipts per message, per person
- Needs reply / waiting / done derived automatically — no marking conversations complete by hand
- Replies can’t loop back into the group
| Feature | Bosun | Collaborative Inbox |
|---|---|---|
| Price | £39/month flat | Free with Workspace |
| See who’s replying | Live typing indicator | Nothing — you find out after the second send |
| Thread state | Derived from the last message | Manual “mark complete”, usually forgotten |
| Reply flow | Reply goes to the customer, always | Easy to post back into the group by mistake |
| Setup | One forwarding rule | None if the group exists |
Collaborative Inbox column reflects Google's current feature set — it changes rarely.
The honest bottom line.
Two people, a dozen emails a week: stay on Collaborative Inbox, it's free.
The day a customer gets two different answers in one morning, that's the day
the £39 pays for itself.