Spaces vs Front
Front is a help desk and shared inbox for teams — email-first, with ticketing, a knowledge base, analytics, its own Autopilot AI agent and Copilot — priced per seat. It now also has an MCP server and lets you bring your own AI agent into the help desk. Spaces is messaging infrastructure for AI agents: one REST API and one MCP server that let the agent you already use — in Claude, Grok, ChatGPT, Cursor or your own code — read and answer customer chats on Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Messenger.
In one line: Front is where your team (and its agents) works conversations; Spaces is how your agent reaches the chat accounts. Here is how they differ, and when each is the better choice.
| Spaces | Front | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Messaging API + MCP server for AI agents | Help desk and shared inbox for teams, with AI add-ons |
| Built for | Developers and agent builders whose agent must answer customers on chat apps | Support and operations teams sharing one queue, email first |
| Channels | Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Messenger (inbox). TikTok posts and comments are live. Facebook Pages coming soon. | Email, live chat, SMS (via Twilio or Dialpad), Slack, social channels such as Facebook, Instagram and X, and WhatsApp as a paid add-on on Professional and Enterprise. Starter covers one channel type. LinkedIn is not listed. |
| The number you already use, linked by QR code, and it keeps working on your phone. No Meta approval, no templates and no Meta message fees. | Native channel for WhatsApp Business numbers, billed at Meta's WhatsApp costs plus a 20% admin fee; templates sent from Front's composer | |
| Bring your own agent | The whole product: your agent calls Spaces' API or MCP | Yes — "External agents" built with Claude, Codex, Sierra, Decagon and more, on all plans |
| MCP | Included on every plan, including Free. Built for conversations on the chat accounts: read, reply, schedule, routines, approvals, pause. | MCP server at mcp.frontapp.com on all plans: search, reply, comment, tag, assign — as a Front teammate; 100 / 200 / 300 tool calls a minute by plan |
| Front's own AI | — | Autopilot from $0.39 per conversation; Copilot $20 a seat a month (included on Enterprise) |
| Safety | Per-channel daily limits, pacing, four-week warm-up, read-only keys, pause, optional human approval | Teammate roles and permissions; platform rate limits |
| Price | Free: $0, 1 account, 50 actions a day, no card. Pay as you go: $9 per connected account a month, with 1,000 actions a month per account (pooled), then $5 per 1,000 (less at high volume). Reading messages is always free. No seats, no yearly option. | Per seat a month: Starter $25 billed annually ($35 monthly), Professional $65 ($85 monthly), Enterprise $105 (annual only). 14-day trial, no card. |
| 5-person team, 5 chat accounts | $45 a month (5 × $9, 5,000 actions pooled, no seat fees) | $325 a month on Professional billed annually (5 × $65), or $425 monthly (5 × $85) — + Meta's WhatsApp costs + 20%, and Autopilot per conversation if used |
| Same, 20,000 actions a month | $120 a month ($45 + 15,000 extra actions × $5 per 1,000) | Same seat price; Front does not bill per message sent |
Example assumes a team of five whose customers write in on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and LinkedIn: five connected accounts on Spaces, five seats on Front Professional (the lowest plan with social channels and the WhatsApp add-on). This is not like-for-like: Front's seats buy a full help desk for five people — email, ticketing, reporting, a knowledge base — which Spaces does not include. Spaces' price buys five chat accounts an agent can work, including LinkedIn, and does not include what your own AI agent costs to run. Meta's WhatsApp costs vary by country and are not estimated.
Choose Front if
- Email is the centre of your customer work.
- Several people share one queue and need assignments, rules, SLAs, analytics and a knowledge base.
- You want your agents — Front's Autopilot or your own via External agents — to work inside the help desk your team already uses.
- You need SMS, voice or Slack in the same queue.
Choose Spaces if
- Your AI agent should answer customers itself, straight on the WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn and Messenger accounts — no help desk in between.
- You need LinkedIn messages — Front does not list LinkedIn.
- You want to link the WhatsApp number already in use by QR code rather than add a Meta-billed WhatsApp channel.
- You'd rather pay per connected account than per person.
About how WhatsApp connects
On Front, WhatsApp is a native add-on for WhatsApp Business numbers on Professional and Enterprise, billed at Meta's WhatsApp costs plus a 20% admin fee, with templates sent from Front's composer to start conversations.
Spaces links the number you already use by QR code, so there is no approval to wait for and no template to write. For up to 24 hours after a WhatsApp account connects, reconnects, or is disconnected and connected again, Spaces does not start new chats or outreach. Replies in chats that already exist still go out. Other channels have no reply-only window: the warm-up limits apply from the first day, and replies to people who wrote in go out immediately. That number stays under WhatsApp's own automation rules: Spaces keeps every account inside limits, which lowers the risk without removing it. For large template broadcasts, the official platform is the right tool. Sending limits · How Spaces keeps accounts safe · WhatsApp Business Platform vs QR code
Looking at other options too? See the best Front alternatives — including Trengo, Callbell and Unipile.
Facts about Front were checked on 11 November 2026 from Front pricing, Front External agents, Front MCP docs and Front WhatsApp. Spaces facts are from spacesos.com/pricing, WhatsApp API and llms.txt. Prices and features change; their sites have the current version. Front is a trademark of its owner.