Maxdesk vs Shared Inbox by Canary
Maxdesk
maxdesk.aiShared Inbox by Canary
shared-inbox.aiSide by side
| Figure | Maxdesk | Shared Inbox by Canary |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $20/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 6 |
| Spec score · Email Collaboration Software | 8.0 (#13) | 7.8 (#16) |
| Spec score · Shared Inbox Software | 8.0 (#12) | 8.0 (#13) |
| Automation | No-code rules use triggers, conditions and actions, and can route, tag, escalate or auto-reply to tickets. | AI can answer repetitive questions from uploaded help documents and automatically send follow-ups. |
| Integrations | The pages reviewed describe email-to-ticket but do not name third-party integrations. | The pricing page includes Lite integrations in Business and Advanced integrations in Scale but does not name the integrated services. |
| Product | Maxdesk describes itself as a hosted help desk and ticketing system. | Shared Inbox by Canary is a collaborative team inbox built to help teams organize and respond to email together. |
| Support | The Free plan includes email support, while Pro includes priority email support; the contact page says replies usually arrive within a working day. | The Scale plan includes priority support, and the site offers a personalized demo session. |
Plans
Maxdesk
- FreeFree
- Pro$20 a month
- Elite$99 a month
- Free planFree
- Pro plan$20 a month
- Elite plan$99 a month
- Enterprise planPriced on request
Shared Inbox by Canary
- Starter$10 a month
- Business$20 a month
- Scale$30 a month
- Starter$10 a month
- Business$20 a month
- Scale$30 a month
In their own words
Maxdesk
Maxdesk is a hosted, web-based help desk and ticketing system for customer support and internal IT. Each workspace receives a support address that turns incoming email into threaded tickets. The ticket view brings conversations, priorities, statuses, assignments, internal notes and attachments together. SLA targets can vary by priority and business hours, with countdowns and breach alerts. No-code rules use triggers, conditions and actions to route, tag, escalate or auto-reply. Its dashboard reports ticket counts, SLA breaches, CSAT, response time, trends and live activity. Custom roles, groups, a permission matrix and ticket-scope controls manage access. The Free plan includes unlimited agents and tickets within fair use, basic SLA policies, templates, a knowledge base and limited active automations. Pro costs $20 a month; Elite costs $99 a month and adds AI capabilities.
Shared Inbox by Canary
Shared Inbox by Canary is a collaborative team inbox for organizing and responding to email together. Teams can assign messages and track conversation status, while AI can route incoming messages to the appropriate teammate based on their subject. The AI can also answer repeated questions using uploaded help documents and send follow-ups automatically. Other features include shared templates, internal chat and mentions, ticket status and assignment, issue tagging, thread merging, search, analytics and CSAT. Email connections include Gmail, Microsoft 365 and IMAP. The service is available on iOS, macOS, web and Windows. Starter costs $10 a month billed monthly and includes one shared inbox, a built-in helpdesk, assignment and status tools, and an AI chatbot with up to 100 training materials and responses. Business is $20 a month billed monthly; Scale is $30 a month billed monthly. The site lists a 14-day trial and no free plan. Canary says data is stored on its servers in Germany and encrypted in transit and at rest; it says user data is not used to train generalized AI models.