5 Best Sortd Alternatives for Gmail Teams in 2026
Your team just hit 11 people and Sortd's Starter plan won't let you add the new hire. Now you're staring at an upgrade to Essentials and wondering if there's something better out there. Sortd carries a 4.3/5 on G2, but that's from just 20 reviews, and the complaints about limited features and a clunky interface keep showing up. We've tested all five of these alternatives inside Gmail. Here's what's actually worth switching to.
Our picks:
- Drag - Best overall replacement. Closest feature match, no user caps, from $12/user/mo.
- Hiver - Best free starting point. Free forever plan, helpdesk-focused.
- Streak - Best for teams that need a real CRM, not just a kanban layer.
You'll see Mixmax on some lists. At $89/user/mo it's a full sales engagement suite, not an inbox organizer. Different category entirely.
Why People Switch From Sortd
The friction points hit fast once a team starts scaling.
User caps are the biggest trigger. Starter maxes out at 10 users, Essentials at 20. Growth means constantly bumping into upgrade gates. Then there's the Chrome-only lock-in - Sortd is a Chrome extension overlay on Gmail with no standalone web app, no Firefox support, and no mobile client.
Setup requires granting access to manage emails, create/delete labels, compose and send on your behalf, and access Google Drive files. That's a lot of trust for a kanban layer.
Automation is thin. Starter gives you 5 rules. Essentials bumps it to 20. In our experience, the ceiling hits fast once you're running more than a handful of workflow rules. One G2 reviewer called the interface "not intuitive" for accessing essential features; another cited "limited number of features" as the core frustration.
Reddit threads about Sortd are rare - most user feedback lives on G2's small review base, which skews toward very small teams.
Sortd Pricing in 2026
Here's what Sortd charges today, billed annually:
| Tier | Price | Max Users | Boards / Mailboxes | Automations | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $10/user/mo | 10 | 5 shared boards, 2 shared mailboxes | 5 rules | 6 months |
| Essentials | $16/user/mo | 20 | Unlimited boards, 10 shared inboxes | 20 rules | 2 years |
| Business | $22/user/mo | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Business Plus | $29/user/mo | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Essentials adds AI Smart Status, which auto-tags conversations as "To Respond" or "Awaiting." Business unlocks AI Urgency & Sentiment plus built-in CRM pipelines. Business Plus is the upcoming tier with concierge onboarding, a success manager, and additional AI features like follow-up nudges, complaint alerts, and advanced sentiment analysis - though most of that AI is still listed as "launching soon."
Switching inbox tools won't fix your bounce rate. Sortd, Drag, Hiver - none of them verify the contacts you're emailing. Prospeo delivers 98% email accuracy across 300M+ profiles with a 7-day refresh cycle, so your outbound actually lands.
Start with 75 free verified emails - no credit card, no contract.
Best Sortd Alternatives Compared
Drag - Best Overall Replacement
Use it if you want the closest thing to Sortd without the user caps. Drag's paid plans don't limit the number of users - even the $12/user/mo Starter tier. That alone solves the most common frustration driving people away from Sortd. You also get unlimited workspaces, 10 automation rules on Starter (double Sortd's 5), and Zapier integration out of the box. Auto-assign cards when they move to a column, trigger Zapier workflows on @mentions - the automation specificity is a real step up from what Sortd offers at the same price point. G2 ranks Drag as the #1 Sortd alternative.
Skip it if you need a built-in CRM pipeline or helpdesk ticketing. Drag is a shared inbox and kanban tool - it doesn't try to be Salesforce. If you do need a CRM layer, compare options in our guide to examples of a CRM.
Pricing scales cleanly: $12/$18/$24 per user/mo on annual billing. Pro at $24 adds a WhatsApp channel, API access, custom fields, business hours, and SLA tracking.
Gmelius - Best for Workflow Automation
Gmelius is where you go when Sortd's automation limits become the bottleneck, not just an annoyance. Starting at $19/user/mo on the Meli tier, it scales to $40/user/mo on Pro with 100,000 monthly email conversations. The standout feature is kanban synchronization from multiple sources - inbox, labels, Trello, and other tools via Zapier - so your boards aren't siloed inside one extension.
The catch: Meli caps at 5 users and 5,000 conversations/month. Hit either limit and you're jumping to Growth at $25/user/mo. For teams under five, though, it's a strong pick.
Hiver - Free, Then Expensive
$0 is hard to argue with. Hiver's free forever plan requires no trial expiration and no credit card. It's helpdesk-focused rather than sales-focused, so the angle differs from Sortd, but for teams managing support@ or info@ inboxes, it works well.
Here's the thing: the AI layer starts on Growth at $25/user/mo with features like AI Compose and AI Summarizer, and the heavier AI tooling (Agents, Copilot) lives on Pro ($55) and Elite ($85). That's a steep cliff from free. If you'll outgrow the free tier within six months, budget for the jump now rather than getting comfortable at zero and facing sticker shock later.
Streak - Best for CRM Pipelines
$49/user/mo is CRM pricing, not inbox-tool pricing. That's the first thing to know about Streak. Comparing it to Sortd on cost will give you sticker shock. But if you need a real CRM inside Gmail - pipeline management, deal tracking, reporting - Streak is a tier above what Sortd offers. If you're evaluating broader options, start with our roundup of contact management software.
The free email power tools (tracking, snippets, mail merge up to 50/day) are legitimately useful even before you pay. Paid plans run $49/$69/$129 per user/mo on annual billing for Pro/Pro+/Enterprise. AI credits scale from 10 on Pro to 50 on Pro+ to 500 on Enterprise.
Let's be honest: if your average deal size is under $5k, Streak's premium is hard to justify over Drag plus a standalone CRM. But for teams closing $20k+ deals entirely from Gmail, it earns every dollar.
Prospeo - Best for Sales Data Quality
If your Gmail workflow is outbound sales and half your emails bounce before the prospect ever sees your kanban board, the problem isn't organization - it's data. If you're seeing this, it's worth benchmarking against typical email bounce rate ranges and root causes.
Prospeo covers 300M+ professional profiles with 98% email accuracy and a 7-day data refresh cycle, which means you're not emailing people who changed jobs six weeks ago. The Chrome extension works right alongside Gmail to find verified emails and direct dials from any website - 40,000+ users rely on it daily. The free tier gives you 75 verified emails and 100 Chrome extension credits per month, with paid plans running roughly $0.01 per email. No contracts required.
We've seen teams pair Prospeo with Drag or Hiver for the full stack: verified contacts feeding into organized shared inboxes. That combination solves both the "who do I email" and "how do I track it" problems without paying CRM prices. For more ways to build pipeline, see our sales prospecting techniques guide.
Pricing Comparison
| Tool | Best For | Starting Price | Free Plan? | User Limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sortd | Kanban email boards | $10/user/mo | No | 10-20 (by tier) |
| Drag ★ | Overall replacement | $12/user/mo | 7-day trial | Unlimited |
| Gmelius | Workflow automation | $19/user/mo | 7-day trial | 5-50 (by tier) |
| Hiver | Free shared inbox | $0 | Yes (forever) | Varies by tier |
| Streak | CRM pipelines | $49/user/mo | Free email tools | Unlimited |
| Prospeo | Sales data quality | ~$0.01/email | Yes (75 emails/mo) | Unlimited |
Pair your new Gmail tool with data that doesn't waste pipeline. Prospeo's Chrome extension finds verified emails and direct dials from any website - 40,000+ users already run it alongside their inbox. At roughly $0.01 per email, it costs less than one wasted Sortd automation rule.
Stop organizing emails to people who already left the company.
When to Stay With Sortd
Sortd isn't broken. If your team is under 10 people, you only need basic kanban boards inside Gmail, and you don't require deep automations or CRM pipelines, the $10/user/mo Starter plan does the job fine. The AI roadmap on Business Plus could also pay off - if Sortd delivers on advanced sentiment analysis, complaint alerts, and follow-up nudges, it'll close some of the feature gap with competitors. We'd just want to see those features ship before recommending anyone pay $29/user/mo for a promise. If you're building a more complete outbound motion, pair your workflow with sales follow-up templates that keep deals moving.
FAQ
Is Sortd free?
No. Sortd removed its free tier. Plans start at $10/user/month on annual billing. If budget is the blocker, Hiver offers a genuinely free forever plan with no credit card required, and Prospeo's free tier includes 75 verified emails per month for outbound teams.
Does Sortd work outside Gmail?
No. Sortd is a Chrome extension for Gmail and Google Workspace only. There's no mobile app, no standalone web client, and no Firefox support. For a fully standalone shared inbox, Front is a popular option that works across browsers and devices.