10 Gorgias Alternatives for Shopify in 2026, With Real Pricing

Prices below were checked in November 2026 on each vendor's pricing page or, when the page is gated, on dated third-party breakdowns. Each figure says where it comes from. Pricing in this category changes several times a year, so confirm the number on the vendor's page before you sign anything. Full disclosure: we make Relay, one of the tools on this list. We put it in the same table with the same criteria, and we say where it is not the right fit.

Why Shopify merchants look for a Gorgias alternative

Gorgias is still the default helpdesk for Shopify, and for good reasons: the Shopify sidebar is excellent, macros can pull order data, and every paid plan includes many user seats. People rarely leave because of the product. They leave because of the bill.

• Two meters on one invoice. Gorgias charges by billable ticket, and the AI Agent adds a second meter for automated interactions. An interaction the AI fully handles also counts as a helpdesk ticket, so the same conversation is billed twice.
• Peaks cost extra. A BFCM week that doubles your tickets also pushes you into ticket overage ($0.40 per extra ticket on Basic, $0.36 on Pro and Advanced) or into the next plan.
• AI allowances are small. Basic includes 30 automated interactions a month and Pro 190. Several independent breakdowns report that interactions past the allowance bill at $1.50 each.
• The helpdesk still needs a person. Rules and macros route and draft. Someone still has to read the ticket, check the order and click refund for anything outside a simple flow.

None of this makes Gorgias a bad choice. It makes it a choice you should price at your real volume, and that is what the rest of this guide does.

Gorgias pricing in 2026, for reference

Gorgias's pricing page has an AI Agent toggle that is switched on by default, which is why you will see two sets of prices quoted online. Here are both, as reported by Drag and YourGPT, which read the page in October 2026:

Two details matter more than the plan price. First, each automated interaction also counts toward your ticket allowance. Second, the cost of interactions beyond the bundle: Gorgias's FAQ prices the included ones at $0.90 to $1.00 each, and most breakdowns we found report $1.50 for each one past the allowance. Ask your account manager to confirm the overage rate in writing. Our full Gorgias review covers the product side.

Gorgias alternatives at a glance

1. Relay: resolves the ticket instead of routing it

Relay is an AI support agent for Shopify. It reads the order, applies your written rules (return window, refund cap, address-change cut-off), takes the action in Shopify and replies. Anything outside your rules goes to your team with the order context attached.

• Pricing: Starter $149/month up to 500 orders, Growth $299/month for 500 to 2,000 orders, Scale from $599/month above that. Annual billing gives two months free. Plans are based on orders, not tickets or seats, per our pricing page.
• Good fit: stores where WISMO, cancellations, address changes and in-policy refunds make up most of the queue, and where the team is one to five people.
• Not the right fit: teams that need phone support, a voice IVR or a heavy multi-brand ticketing setup today. Keep Gorgias or Zendesk for that and compare the cost per resolved ticket.

The fastest test is to forward a week of real tickets during the 14-day trial and count how many were closed with no human reply. Our Gorgias alternative page shows the feature-by-feature comparison.

2. Richpanel: per-seat helpdesk with a cheap AI meter

Richpanel retired its old $29 to $99 seat ladder. Its own pricing breakdown, dated July 2026, lists $99 per helpdesk seat per month on an annual commitment ($119 monthly), plus AI billed per conversation at about $0.20, with a $200 monthly minimum. The self-service portal is included; Returns & Exchanges is an add-on from $99 a month.

• Why switch from Gorgias: the AI meter is the lowest per conversation of the major ecommerce helpdesks, and you do not pay per human ticket.
• Watch out for: the price is per conversation the AI handles, resolved or not. Seats add up fast once you pass four or five agents.

3. Zendesk: the most flexible, if you have someone to run it

Zendesk charges per agent: $19 for Support Team, $55 for Suite Team and $115 for Suite Professional on annual billing, according to Macha's check of zendesk.com/pricing in September 2026. AI agents now come with every plan, with 5 automated resolutions per agent a month on Team and 10 on Professional, then a per-resolution charge that Zendesk does not publish. Third-party trackers report about $1.50 on a committed volume and $2.00 pay as you go. Copilot for human agents is $50 per agent per month.

• Why switch from Gorgias: you sell across many brands, regions or channels, or support is only one part of a larger service team.
• Watch out for: the Shopify integration is an app, not the core of the product. Setup and upkeep take real admin time.

We compared the two at four ticket volumes in Gorgias vs Zendesk for Shopify.

4. eDesk: built for marketplace sellers

eDesk lists Essential at $39, Growth at $89 and Professional at $119 per user per month, according to a reading of edesk.com/pricing in October 2026. It pulls Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Shopify messages into one inbox with order data next to each one.

• Why switch from Gorgias: a large share of your tickets come from marketplaces, where Gorgias coverage is thinner.
• Watch out for: per-user pricing, and AI features billed on top of the plan.

5. Re:amaze: per-user and channel-rich

On the Shopify App Store listing, Re:amaze costs $29 per user per month on Basic, $49 on Pro and $69 on Plus, with 20, 50 and 100 AI Agent resolutions per user per month. It covers email, chat, social, SMS and VOIP, and the Shopify integration shows orders and lets agents refund or create draft orders.

• Why switch from Gorgias: a small team with high volume pays by headcount, not by ticket.
• Watch out for: AI resolution caps are low, and overage pricing isn't listed publicly. See our Re:amaze alternative page for how it compares with Relay.

6. Help Scout: the cleanest shared inbox

Help Scout went back to per-user pricing: a Free plan for up to 5 users and 100 contacts a month, Standard at $25, Plus at $45 and Pro at $75 per user per month on annual billing. Its customer-facing AI, AI Answers, costs $0.75 per resolution with an optional spending cap, as Carly sums up from Help Scout's billing docs.

• Why switch from Gorgias: you mostly answer email and want a calm, simple tool with predictable seats.
• Watch out for: the Shopify integration shows orders but can't do as much in the sidebar as Gorgias. It's not ecommerce-first.

7. Freshdesk: cheap seats, metered AI

Freshdesk raised prices in 2026. Growth is $19, Pro $55 and Enterprise $89 per agent per month on annual billing, per Dupple's reading of the pricing page in October 2026. The Freddy AI Agent comes with 500 sessions once per account, then $49 per 100 sessions. Copilot is $29 per agent per month and only on Pro and Enterprise.

• Why switch from Gorgias: you need low-cost ticketing and your support covers more than ecommerce.
• Watch out for: the Shopify app is basic, and a session is billed whether or not the AI solved the problem.

8. Tidio: chat-first and cheap to start

Tidio has a free plan with 50 billable conversations a month. Starter is $29 a month ($24.17 billed annually) for 100 conversations. Its Lyro AI agent is a separate meter: on monthly billing, 50 Lyro conversations cost $39 and 300 cost $210, roughly $0.70 to $0.78 each, according to SiteGPT's review of Tidio's calculator.

• Why switch from Gorgias: most of your contacts start in website chat and volume is low.
• Watch out for: three separate meters (conversations, Lyro, Flows) that compound as you grow. Our Tidio alternative page has the details.

9. Shopify Inbox: free and good enough for a while

Shopify Inbox is free on every Shopify plan. It handles store chat, Shop app and social messages, shows the customer's cart and orders, and suggests AI replies. It has no real ticket statuses, no email ticketing and very little automation.

• Why switch from Gorgias: you're a solo founder under a few hundred conversations a month and Gorgias feels like overkill.
• Watch out for: you'll outgrow it once email volume or a second person arrives.

10. Siena AI: an AI layer for larger brands

Siena doesn't replace your helpdesk. It sits on top of Gorgias, Zendesk, Gladly and others and answers tickets in your brand voice. Its published model is a $750 monthly platform fee plus $0.90 per automated ticket, as eesel's breakdown of the pricing page shows.

• Why choose it: you want to keep Gorgias as the inbox and add a strong AI agent on top.
• Watch out for: the $750 floor drives the bill for most mid-size stores, and you still pay Gorgias underneath.

What each option costs at 500, 2,000 and 5,000 tickets

List prices only tell you so much. Below is the monthly cost of four common setups at three volumes, using only the public prices quoted above. The assumptions are stated so you can redo the maths with your own numbers:

• Human agents: 2 at 500 tickets, 4 at 2,000, 8 at 5,000. This only matters for per-seat tools.
• AI share: the AI handles 40% of tickets (200, 800 and 2,000). That's a round number to make the maths readable, not a promise from any vendor.
• Gorgias: cheapest plan for each volume, annual billing with AI Agent on, $1.50 per AI interaction past the allowance.
• Zendesk: Suite Team, annual, $1.50 per automated resolution past the included 5 per agent (reported rate).
• Richpanel: annual seats, $0.20 per AI conversation with the $200 minimum.
• Help Scout: Standard, annual, $0.75 per AI resolution.

How the numbers were built:

• Gorgias, 500 tickets: Basic $77 + 200 extra tickets × $0.40 ($80) + 170 extra AI interactions × $1.50 ($255) = $412. At 2,000: Pro $471 + 610 extra AI × $1.50 ($915) = $1,386. At 5,000: Advanced $1,227 + 1,470 × $1.50 ($2,205) = $3,432.
• Zendesk, 500 tickets: 2 × $55 + 190 resolutions × $1.50 ($285) = $395. At 2,000: 4 × $55 + 780 × $1.50 = $1,390. At 5,000: 8 × $55 + 1,960 × $1.50 = $3,380.
• Richpanel, 500 tickets: 2 × $99 + $200 minimum = $398. At 2,000: 4 × $99 + $200 minimum (800 × $0.20 = $160) = $596. At 5,000: 8 × $99 + 2,000 × $0.20 = $1,192.
• Help Scout, 500 tickets: 2 × $25 + 200 × $0.75 = $200. At 2,000: 4 × $25 + 800 × $0.75 = $700. At 5,000: 8 × $25 + 2,000 × $0.75 = $1,700.

What this shows: once AI handles a real share of tickets, the AI meter becomes the biggest line on the bill for Gorgias and Zendesk. Per-seat tools look cheap here because the agent count is low; double the team and Richpanel and Help Scout climb fast. Relay isn't in the table because it prices by orders, not tickets. A store with 2,000 tickets usually has well over 2,000 orders, so check which plan your order count lands on. If you need a starting point for your own figures, try the support cost calculator.

How to choose the right Gorgias alternative

Start from your queue, not from feature lists. Pull last month's tickets and sort them into five buckets: order status, changes before shipping (address, cancel, edit), returns and refunds, product questions, everything else. Then:

• Mostly order status and in-policy changes: you need something that acts on Shopify orders on its own. Look at Relay, or Gorgias with the AI Agent priced at your real volume.
• Mostly marketplace messages: eDesk.
• Mostly email from a small team that wants simplicity: Help Scout.
• Many brands, regions and channels with a dedicated ops person: Zendesk.
• Under 300 chats a month and one person: Shopify Inbox or Tidio's free plan, until it hurts.
• Happy with Gorgias but want better AI: keep it and add an AI layer like Siena, or compare that cost with switching.

Switching from Gorgias without losing a week

• Export your macros and delete the ones that mention old policies or products. Most stores keep fewer than half.
• Write your rules down before you move: return window, refund cap without approval, address-change cut-off, what happens when tracking hasn't moved for X days.
• Run both tools in parallel for one to two weeks. Point one channel (often email) at the new tool first.
• Move ticket types in order of risk: order status first, then unfulfilled cancellations, then in-policy refunds. Chargebacks and fraud stay with a person.
• Keep your Gorgias export: past conversations and CSAT history are hard to rebuild. If you're coming from Freshdesk instead, read our notes on Freshdesk to Gorgias migration problems, most of which apply to any move.

FAQ

What is the best Gorgias alternative for Shopify? It depends on what fills your queue. For order status, cancellations and in-policy refunds, an AI agent that acts on orders (Relay, or Gorgias's own AI Agent) saves the most time. For marketplace sellers it's eDesk. For an email-first team it's Help Scout. For complex, multi-brand setups it's Zendesk.

What is the cheapest alternative to Gorgias? Shopify Inbox is free and Tidio and Help Scout have free plans, but all three are limited. Among paid ecommerce helpdesks, per-user tools like Re:amaze ($29 per user) are cheapest for a one or two-person team. Once you add AI, compare the cost per resolved ticket, not the plan price.

Is Gorgias worth it in 2026? For a Shopify store with a small team and moderate volume, often yes. It gets expensive when AI handles a large share of tickets, because each automated interaction is billed and also counts as a ticket.

Who are Gorgias's main competitors? For Shopify stores: Zendesk, Richpanel, eDesk, Re:amaze, Help Scout, Freshdesk, Tidio and Shopify Inbox, plus AI agents such as Siena AI, Yuma AI and Relay.

Does Gorgias charge per agent? No. Gorgias bills by ticket volume, and its paid plans include many user seats. That's the main difference with Zendesk, Richpanel, Re:amaze and Help Scout, which all charge per agent.