Group Email vs Shared Mailbox: Which Is Best For Your Team

Collaborative inbox vs shared mailbox? When seeking the perfect email solution for your team, you've likely heard of both options. As more teams search for the best digital collaboration tools, group and shared inboxes let different group members access the same communications in one place.  

However, that's where their similarity ends. It's necessary to know the nuances of group email, such as Google Groups, and a shared inbox, to take the right call for your team.

Choosing Between Group Email and Shared Mailbox is Tricky

Importantly, both group emails and shared inboxes offer benefits when you're trying to streamline communications quickly and efficiently. Group email accounts are typically free, which makes them attractive to a lot of companies.

However, if you're looking for more powerful features and not just the ability to access a shared email folder of sorts, a group email might lead to wasted time. That's why, while it can be difficult to choose which option is more suitable for your team, we're here to help.

In this comparison, we explore the key differences between a group email (using a Google Group as an example) and a shared mailbox in Google Workspace to help you determine which solution will work for your needs.  

What Is a Group Email? 

A group email is a dedicated email address used for specific communication purposes among a team.

Once a group email is created, certain team members can be added. When someone sends a message  group email address, each individual team member will receive a copy. 

Who is group email for?

Group email best suits departments like HR, marketing, or legal, which exchange company announcements, meeting information, or holiday emails regularly. 

Benefits of group email

Group email works best for mass communication, and this is helpful in a few different ways. For instance, if three new company hires need to receive standard training documents, their manager can create a “new-hire” group in Google Workspace and invite all new employees.

Sending files and messages to the “new-hire” group saves a lot of time. There is no need to add multiple email addresses through CC and BCC when all recipients will receive the same incoming emails. Over time, files sent to group email can act as a knowledge base for users' reference.

Understanding Google Group settings to configure group email in Google workspace

Group email in a Google Workspace is a service associated with Google Groups. A group is a free feature available with any Gmail account, where you can add different members, assign a dedicated email address, and define group settings like a description and welcome messages.

You can do a lot with Google groups, and sending group emails is just one of the services available. Ask your Admin if you’d like to set up a Google Group with employees working on the same process, product, or department.

Bear in mind that configuring Google Groups for collaboration and task management is complex and time-consuming, with a lot of limitations. For instance, you can't automate common tasks, which makes it much easier to choose a shared mailbox instead.

What Is a Shared Mailbox? 

A shared mailbox is an inbox that allows multiple team members to manage emails together from inside their own Gmail account.

Unlike a group email, the inbox doesn't automatically send incoming emails to all team members. It's in a shared space, where users can log in using their individual Gmail IDs.

Who is a shared inbox for?

Company inboxes for teams like dispatching and customer support receive a high daily volume of emails, which often requires management by more than one user.

CEOs and senior executives may also want to share their work inboxes with an assistant for simpler delegation. This is where a shared inbox comes in.

Benefits of shared inboxes

Managers can grant access to specific members, who can then send, receive, and manage emails together from one email address.

Thanks to collaborative inbox features, shared mailboxes allow teams to work together to reduce inbox clutter and respond faster. Teams often employ shared mailboxes when multiple members need to not only access but also work on the same email inbox, such as support@ or orders@.

Group Email vs Shared Mailbox: How Does it Impact Group Members?

The key difference between these tools lies in the main function of distribution or collaboration.

Google Group emails function as distribution lists for teams, while shared mailboxes serve as an email management platform through which teams can address emails collaboratively. 

While Google Groups also supports collaboration to an extent, it isn't designed for it. It's when one person needs to share messages and files with multiple people, that a group email offers the greatest advantage.

However, when it comes to team collaboration, group email lacks this capability. This is where you need a Google collaborative inbox, which is possible when you use a Google-certified platform like Gmelius to set up a shared inbox system.

Shared mailboxes make your workflows more transparent by preventing cc'ing and forwarding. This allows administrators to assign clear accountability to team members and prevent duplicate efforts. 

5 Differences Between Google Groups and Shared Inbox

The chart below displays the key differences between a group email vs shared mailbox by comparing common Google Group features with those of a standard shared mailbox. 

The best email solution for your team will address your company's specific needs. 

How to choose the right tool for your collaborative inbox?

A shared mailbox offers a better solution for enhancing collaboration, task assignment, and delegating emails for clear accountability. However, if you simply need to communicate with all team members simultaneously, a group email may better suit your needs. 

Remember that while group emails often come gratis, or at a lower cost, they sometimes lack features many teams view as essential. A shared mailbox may cost more, but your team will likely view the benefits and solutions as priceless. 

Examples of group email vs shared inbox

Of course, the most common example of group email is probably Google Groups. A Google Group is a separate app within Google Workspace that allows users to email a large group at once. If your team uses Microsoft for email, an Office 365 group offers similar functionality via Microsoft Teams instead. 

On the other hand, Gmelius is a good example of a shared inbox solution. It creates a collaborative inbox for Google Workspace users where you can auto-label conversations, assign tasks, automate email management, and much more.

Gmelius: The Only Inbox Your Team Needs

As a collaboration and communication tool for Gmail, Gmelius offers the only truly shared mailbox solution for teams using Google Workspace.

To build a productive workflow, your team needs a collaborative solution. Remote and hybrid teams as commonplace at many companies today, making asynchronous communication a vital concern. 

While a group email can expedite communication, the ability to bring team members together with a shared mailbox promotes greater efficiency. Gmelius allows your team to create a shared inbox directly from Gmail instead of managing multiple inboxes or downloading additional apps.

Your Gmail inbox makes all Gmelius features immediately accessible. Teams can view multiple shared inboxes from one interface and manage emails together. Gmelius offers the following additional features to promote collaboration: 

• Email notes allow teams to hold conversations to the side of an email, preventing additional email threads, cc'ing, and forwarding. 
• Teams can assign emails for clear accountability to prevent duplicate replies, with a clear conversation history.
• No need to share passwords. Gmelius is accessible from each team member's personal Gmail account. Simply log in and view your company's shared mailboxes on the left side of the interface. 
• Analyze and improve team collaboration with insightful analytics. 

If your team already uses Google Groups, Gmelius can convert a group into a superpowered collaborative inbox for all users.

Download the Gmelius extension for your browser today to get started. 

In Conclusion

When you compare Google group emails to a shared team inbox, you may not immediately see the benefits. After all, both allow multiple users to see the same emails without being in CC or BCC. However, when you examine the component parts, the differences become clear.

A group email is like a distribution list; anything sent to that email will be seen by everyone. In contrast, shared inboxes give you much more control and enable smarter collaboration.

Using a shared inbox, you can assign an email to a group member and even set up automation rules to assign a specific type of email (e.g., anything with an order ID) to designated email accounts (e.g., [email protected]).

Ultimately, a shared mailbox is a simple way to organize all your email-related processes, whereas group emails merely act as distribution lists. If you're prioritizing productivity, the answer is a no-brainer.  

Gmelius is the collaborative inbox solution that puts the genius into Gmail. Find out how it can help your team.