Cove vs Hiver.
Cove is the AI-native helpdesk for lean teams. £99/month flat, unlimited users, AI included. Hiver Pro is $55/user/month on annual billing ($65 monthly), sits inside Gmail, and distributes AI features across its paid tiers. Hiver's superpower is staying inside Gmail. Cove's superpower is letting the AI do the first draft.
Side by side.
Sources: hiverhq.com/pricing · hiverhq.com/harvey-ai · Cove pricing on covesupport.io
If you want AI doing the work,
Cove is built for it.
A purpose-built AI surface, not a Gmail overlay
Hiver is a thin layer over Gmail. That's by design and it's their entire wedge. The constraint shows up in AI: Hiver's assistants live inside the Gmail compose box, with limited room for the drafting view, citation panel, and reasoning trail that Cove needs to show. Cove's UI is built around the AI moment. If you want AI to do real work on every ticket, that surface area matters.
Flat price beats per-user, every team size
Hiver Pro is $55/user/month on annual billing ($65 monthly). Ten users is $6,600/yr annual. Twenty users is $13,200/yr. Cove is £99/month regardless of headcount, with AI included. More on per-user pricing.
Shadow Mode means zero-risk trial
Cove can run alongside Hiver for 30 days. We import your Gmail conversations and Hiver metadata in read-only, and your team sees Cove's drafts on real tickets without anything being sent. If it isn't better, you walk. No migration weekend, no cutover risk.
Reporting that isn't a separate dashboard
Hiver's analytics live in a tab outside Gmail because Gmail itself has no reporting layer. Cove has reporting in the inbox: response times, AI accuracy by category, source-citation hit rate, agent-edit-distance. Built once, in the same product, not bolted on as a second app.
Honest section.
Hiver is right for Gmail-only teams.
Zero learning curve
Hiver is Gmail with shared labels, assigns, and notes added inline. If your team has lived in Gmail for ten years and rejects every "new tool" pitch on principle, Hiver is the path of least resistance. Cove is a separate inbox. That's a real switch, and Hiver's whole product avoids it.
Native Google Workspace coupling
Hiver uses Google identities, Google permissions, Google attachments and Drive links. If your IT team's whole policy is "everything inside Google Workspace", Hiver fits without policy review. Cove connects to Gmail but lives outside it, which adds one piece of software for IT to evaluate.
Shared labels feel like Gmail labels
A Hiver shared inbox is just a labelled folder in your normal Gmail. The mental model is "Gmail you already know, plus a sidebar". If support is one of three things your team does and you don't want a dedicated support app, that fit matters.
How Cove imports your Hiver.
Hiver sits on top of Gmail, so the conversation data itself lives in your Google Workspace. The import runs in two streams: the Gmail API for messages, and the Hiver API for the overlay metadata (shared inbox labels, assignments, tags, notes, SLAs). Nothing is mutated in either system. You keep Hiver live while Cove ingests.
We don't import: Hiver AI configuration and training data, Hiver Phone or Chat channels, automations dependent on Hiver-specific Gmail filter chaining, custom reports built in Hiver's analytics view.
Questions we get.
We live in Gmail. Will Cove feel different?
Yes. Cove is a dedicated support inbox, not a Gmail overlay. If "we never leave Gmail" is a non-negotiable for your team, Hiver fits that constraint and Cove doesn't. If you're open to a separate inbox because the trade is AI that drafts every reply with sources cited, Cove is built for that workflow.
Can I keep Hiver during a trial?
Yes. Shadow Mode mirrors your Gmail support inbox into Cove read-only via the Gmail API. Hiver continues working unchanged inside Gmail. Your team sees Cove's drafts on real tickets without anything being sent from Cove. Hiver and Gmail stay the source of truth until you decide to cut over.
Can Cove still send and receive from our @support address?
Yes. Cove sends and receives through your existing support@ Google Workspace mailbox. Customers see replies from your support address, just as they do with Hiver. No DNS changes, no new email address, no broken threading on existing conversations.
How does Cove's AI compare to Hiver's AI features?
Hiver bundles AI features across its paid tiers: AI Compose and Summarizer on Growth, AI Agents and Copilot on Pro, QA and Insights on Elite. Cove drafts on every ticket by default with cited sources, included in the flat £99/month. The pricing models are different: Cove's AI is unmetered inside one plan; Hiver's AI capability scales with the tier you're on.
Is Cove cheaper than Hiver for every team?
For a 1-3 user team on Hiver Free or low-volume Growth, the absolute cost is similar. From Pro upward ($55/user/mo annual), or for teams above 5 users, Cove is meaningfully cheaper. The Elite tier ($85/user/mo annual) widens the gap further.
What if Cove doesn't work for us?
Shadow Mode means you find out during trial, not after switching. Nothing is destructive. You stay on Hiver. We don't have a cancellation department because there's nothing to cancel until you cut over.
Talk to a founder.
Four fields. We reply within a working day, usually faster. We will not put you in a sales sequence; we will read what you wrote and write back.
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