Alternatives
Troppus vs Google Groups Collaborative Inbox
If you already pay for Google Workspace, Collaborative Inbox costs nothing extra. It's a fair place to start, and a clunky place to work every day.
Choose Troppus if
Teams already assigning support email in Groups who want statuses, private notes, and customer history in one place.
Stay with Google Groups if
Teams on Google Workspace with light support volume who can live with the Groups interface and don't want another bill.
Overview
Quick take
Collaborative Inbox adds assignment and resolved states to a Google Group. Troppus is built around the support queue: each email becomes a ticket with an assignee, a status, private notes, and a customer profile.
Troppus
From $10 / mo billed annually (Starter, up to 3 users)
Google Groups
No extra charge, but it comes with paid Google Workspace seats
Features
Side by side
| Feature | Troppus | Google Groups |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Assignee on every ticket | Assign a conversation in Groups |
| Status | New, open, pending, solved, closed | Mark a conversation resolved |
| Internal discussion | Private notes on the ticket | Forwarding or side threads |
| Customer history | Profile with past tickets | Search the group |
| Teammates on the same email | Live presence shows who else is on the ticket | No presence |
| Setup | Forward your address and verify your domain | Already there if you use Workspace |
| Added cost | $10/mo billed annually for 3 users | None on top of Workspace seats |
Why teams switch to Troppus
Work somewhere built for it
Groups is a mailing list tool with an inbox mode on top. Troppus starts from the queue of tickets waiting on your team.
Talk without emailing
Private notes keep the discussion on the ticket and out of the customer's inbox.
Keep your address
Customers keep emailing the same support address. You forward it into Troppus and reply from your own domain.
Where Google Groups still wins
No new bill
If your team already has Workspace and support is light, Collaborative Inbox may be enough for now.
Nothing new to set up
It lives in the Google account your team already uses, with no new tool to learn or sign in to.
FAQ
Questions
Is Google Groups Collaborative Inbox free?
It's no extra charge on Google Workspace, but Workspace itself is billed per user. If you already pay for it for regular email, Collaborative Inbox adds nothing to the bill.
Do we still need Google Workspace with Troppus?
Troppus doesn't replace your team's own mail. It handles the shared support address, so most teams keep Workspace for everything else.
Can we move our old conversations from Groups?
No. Troppus doesn't import history, so it starts with the email you receive after you connect it. Keep the group around as an archive.
More
More alternatives
Ready to leave Google Groups complexity behind?
Create a workspace, connect your domain, and run support from $10 a month when billed annually.