Serif vs Shared Inbox by Canary
Serif
serif.aiShared Inbox by Canary
shared-inbox.aiSide by side
| Figure | Serif | Shared Inbox by Canary |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $30/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 6 |
| Spec score · Shared Inbox Software | 8.9 (#7) | 8.0 (#13) |
| Spec score · Email Collaboration Software | 8.8 (#9) | 7.8 (#16) |
| Company | The About page identifies founders Kevin Yang and James and says they met during their first week at Stanford. | The About page says Shared Inbox by Canary began as a solution to the Canary Mail team's internal email collaboration needs. |
| Email providers | Serif connects to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and can also use an address of its own. | The site lists Gmail, Microsoft 365, and IMAP as supported email connections. |
| Product | Serif places an AI employee in shared addresses such as info@, support@, and billing@ to answer routine email. | Shared Inbox by Canary is a collaborative team inbox built to help teams organize and respond to email together. |
| Security | Serif states that it is SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA compliant, and that emails are not used to train general AI models or stored on its servers. | The privacy policy says data is encrypted in transit with TLS and at rest with AES, with role-based access controls and regular security audits. |
Plans
Serif
- Lite$30 a month
- Standard$50 a month
- Pro$200 a month
- Team$50 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- FreeFree
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
Serif
Serif places an AI employee in shared email addresses such as info@, support@ and billing@ to handle routine messages. It connects to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, or can work with an address of its own. The assistant can qualify and route inquiries, answer common questions, collect paperwork, send quotes and follow up on unpaid invoices. Ambiguous or sensitive messages are escalated to the team, and users can approve replies before allowing independent operation. The shared inbox page offers $100 in free credits without a credit card, and each plan includes a 7-day free trial with full access. Listed plans include Lite at $30 a month, Standard at $50 a month, Pro at $200 a month, and Team at $50 a month per user; each is billed monthly. Serif says it is SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR and HIPAA compliant, and that emails are neither used to train general AI models nor stored on its servers. Apps are listed for web, macOS, Windows and iOS; Android is coming soon.
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.