Solves vs Hiver: a standalone desk or a Gmail shared inbox?
Both turn shared support email into owned work for a team. Hiver does it inside Gmail, so you never leave the interface you know, and it has a genuine forever-free plan. Solves is a separate, email-first desk built for teams running more than one brand, with brand-locked sending and GBP team bands. Here is an honest read on which suits you.
Competitor details verified on 13 June 2026. We do not claim feature parity, and we say plainly where Hiver is the better fit.
The short answer
They solve the same problem from opposite directions
Hiver and Solves both take a shared support address and give it ownership, assignment, collaboration and reporting. The real difference is where the work lives. Hiver keeps it inside Gmail; Solves gives it a separate home built around running several brands.
Hiver is a Gmail-native layer. It adds shared inboxes, assignment, notes and analytics directly inside Google Workspace, so your team never opens a new tool and never leaves the mailbox they already trust. If your whole company runs on Gmail and you want the lightest possible change, that is a real advantage, and Hiver has a forever-free plan to start on.
Solves is a standalone, email-first desk. It connects to your support addresses through guided, forwarding-first setup, then runs every brand you support from one queue, each with its own mailbox, sender identity and saved replies, and a structural guard against replying as the wrong brand. It is not tied to Google Workspace, and it prices on GBP team bands rather than per agent.
Neither is a contact centre. Both are email-first at heart, so if you need live chat, phone or social channels at scale, a broader omnichannel platform is the better fit than either of these.
Side by side
Solves vs Hiver, point by point
An honest read of where each one fits. Competitor details verified on 13 June 2026 and may change, so re-check Hiver's current pricing before you decide.
| Solves | Hiver | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the work lives | Standalone desk, own login, not tied to a mail provider | Inside Gmail and Google Workspace |
| Best starting point | Teams running more than one brand on email | Teams already living in Gmail who want to stay there |
| Forever-free plan | No; Starter at GBP 29, then paid | Yes; forever-free plan at USD 0, unlimited users, no card |
| How you pay | GBP team bands, ex VAT, no per-seat penalty for helpers | Per user, per month, in USD |
| Multi-brand desk | Core: several brands, one queue, brand-scoped saved replies | Multiple shared inboxes inside one Gmail workspace |
| Brand-locked sending | Composer locked to the ticket brand and mailbox | Sends from the connected Gmail or Google identity |
| SLA timers | First-response and resolution, per-brand targets, breaching view | Available on paid tiers |
| Live chat, phone, social | Not included, email-first by design | Some wider channels added; core strength is the Gmail inbox |
Competitor facts last verified 13 June 2026. Re-check the vendor's current plans before deciding.
Hiver figures are from its published pricing and homepage, verified 13 June 2026. Paid Hiver tiers are roughly Growth USD 25 to 35, Pro USD 55 to 65 and Elite USD 85 to 95 per user per month (annual versus monthly, approximate, and they vary by source). Re-verify before relying on any figure. We do not claim Solves matches every Hiver feature.
Where Hiver is the better fit
Choose Hiver if Gmail is home and free matters
There are clear cases where Hiver is the right answer, and pretending otherwise would not help you. Two stand out.
You want to stay inside Gmail
Hiver lives inside Gmail and Google Workspace. Your team manages shared inboxes, assigns conversations and adds notes without opening a separate application, so there is almost no learning curve and almost nothing new to roll out. If your whole company already works in Gmail and you want support to feel like a natural extension of it, that closeness is genuinely valuable, and Solves cannot match it because Solves is deliberately a separate desk.
You need a genuine free plan
Hiver publishes a forever-free plan at USD 0 with shared inboxes, email and knowledge-base support, collaboration and a Slack connection, and its homepage states unlimited users on Free with no card (verified 13 June 2026). Solves does not match that. The Solves Starter at GBP 29 is paid, intended for small teams rather than running a team forever for free. If a permanent free plan is your deciding factor, Hiver wins that point outright.
Where Solves is the better fit
Choose Solves for a standalone, multi-brand desk
Solves is built for a job Hiver is not positioned around: running several brands from one place, with sending you cannot get wrong, priced in pounds.
A standalone, multi-brand desk
Solves runs several customer-facing brands from a single login and one unified queue. Each brand keeps its own support address, sender name, signature and saved replies, while your team works every brand together, with a brand badge on each ticket and a brand filter a click away. Hiver groups multiple shared mailboxes inside one Gmail workspace, which suits a single organisation, but Solves is built around the multi-brand case as its first job, not an afterthought.
Brand-locked sending you cannot get wrong
When you answer for more than one brand, the worst mistake is replying to one brand's customer as another. In Solves the reply composer is locked to the ticket's brand and mailbox, and the from-address comes from that mailbox, never from whatever the browser sends. Changing the outbound brand is an explicit, audited admin action. Inside Gmail, replies go out from the connected Google identity, so keeping brands cleanly apart depends more on care than on a structural guard.
GBP team bands, not per agent
Solves prices on GBP team bands, ex VAT, with annual billing priced as twelve months for ten. Starter is GBP 29, then Starter is GBP 29, Team GBP 79, Growth GBP 149 and Agency or MSP GBP 299 per month. Because you pay for a band of usage rather than per seat, the occasional helper who picks up overflow does not cost a full licence. Hiver prices per user per month in US dollars, so a UK team adds a seat charge and a currency to think about with every extra hand.
There is also an early-adopter pilot: the first twenty paid customers get Team at GBP 49 per month for six months, then GBP 79, with setup help and guided mailbox setup, in exchange for feedback or a testimonial.
What you get with Solves
The email-first desk, in brief
Everything below is live in Solves today. We list only shipped features.
Owned email tickets
Shared support email becomes owned tickets with assignment, states, priority and tags, so nothing slips between people.
Multi-brand, one queue
Several brands, each with its own mailbox, sender identity and saved replies, worked together in one unified queue with brand badges.
Wrong-brand send guard
The composer is locked to the ticket brand and mailbox; changing the outbound identity is an explicit, audited action.
Replies and private notes
Public replies and internal notes are kept hard apart, with a stale-reply guard so a note can never reach the customer by mistake.
SLA timers
First-response and resolution timers with per-brand or organisation targets, with a clear view of what is breaching.
Encrypted at rest
Support content is encrypted at rest with per-organisation keys, authorised access only and metadata-only logs.
Moving across
If you are moving off a Gmail shared inbox
Connect your support address
Set up each brand mailbox with guided, forwarding-first steps. Live sending stays gated until the checks pass, so deliverability stays correct.
Add saved replies and brands
Recreate your saved replies per brand or organisation-wide, add a brand for each identity, and set who can see and answer each one.
Work one queue
New email arrives as owned tickets, badged to their brand. Filter, group and reply with the right identity every time.
Both are email-first, on purpose
Neither Solves nor Hiver is a contact centre. Solves handles support email: tickets, ownership, notes, SLAs and multi-brand, with no live chat, phone or social inbox. If you need those channels at scale, a broader omnichannel platform suits better than either product.
FAQ
Solves vs Hiver questions
What is the difference between Solves and Hiver?
Hiver adds shared inboxes, assignment and collaboration on top of Gmail, so your team keeps working inside the Gmail interface they already know. Solves is a standalone support desk with its own login, built email-first for teams that run more than one brand and want each brand to keep its own support address, sender name and saved replies in one shared queue. If you live in Gmail and want to stay there, Hiver fits naturally. If you want a separate, multi-brand desk that is not tied to Google Workspace, Solves is the closer match.
Does Hiver have a free plan?
Yes. Hiver publishes a forever-free plan at USD 0 with shared inboxes, email and knowledge-base support, collaboration and a Slack connection, and its homepage states unlimited users on Free with billing is founder-led during the pilot (verified 13 June 2026). Solves does not match that with a permanent free tier. Solves offers a Starter at GBP 29 for small teams, then GBP team bands. If a genuine forever-free plan is the deciding factor, Hiver wins on that point and we will say so.
Is Solves tied to Gmail like Hiver?
No. Hiver is built on top of Gmail and Google Workspace, which is its strength if your team already uses Gmail. Solves is a separate desk that connects to your support addresses through guided, forwarding-first mailbox setup, so it works whether your mail sits on Google, Microsoft 365 or somewhere else. You are not locked to one mail provider, and your support workflow is not inside an individual person's mailbox.
Which is better for running more than one brand?
This is where Solves is built differently. Solves treats multi-brand as a first-class job: one organisation can run several customer-facing brands, each with its own mailbox, sender identity and saved replies, in one unified queue, with a hard guard that stops a teammate replying as the wrong brand. Hiver groups multiple shared mailboxes inside Gmail, which suits a single organisation with several team inboxes, but it is not positioned as a standalone multi-brand desk in the way Solves is.
Does Solves do live chat or phone like a full helpdesk?
No, and neither product is a contact centre. Solves is email-first by design: tickets, ownership, private notes, SLAs and multi-brand, with no live chat, phone or social channels. Hiver focuses on the Gmail shared inbox and has added some wider channels over time, but if you need chat, voice or social at scale, a broader omnichannel platform is the better fit than either of these.
Want a standalone, multi-brand desk?
Start at £29, or let us help you set up your brands and mailboxes. If Gmail is home and free is the deciding factor, Hiver may suit you better, and that is fine.