Gorgias alternatives for Shopify stores: 7 options compared on price and AI [2026]

Most stores that look for a Gorgias alternative aren't unhappy with the helpdesk itself. Gorgias is a capable, Shopify-native ticketing system with every channel in one inbox. What sends merchants looking is the bill: a helpdesk priced by tickets, an AI Agent priced per automated interaction on top, and, in Gorgias's own pricing FAQ, every AI interaction also counted as a helpdesk ticket. For a store where most questions arrive in the storefront chat, that is a lot of machinery for "where is my order?" and "does this run small?".

This guide compares seven Gorgias alternatives for Shopify stores on what actually changes your month: what the AI does in the chat, which channels you get, how each one bills the AI, and what a small team pays for the same 200 chats. Every price and feature was read on the vendors' official pricing pages and Shopify App Store listings on October 17, 2026. If you want the broader field, our comparison of the best AI chatbots for ecommerce covers nine tools, Gorgias included.

One thing to say up front: Strathly is an AI sales and support agent built only for Shopify stores, not a helpdesk. Its assistant, Ivy, works in your storefront chat; your team answers what she hands over from a shared inbox or the iPhone app with a push when a shopper needs you, free on the App Store. If that is the job you hired Gorgias for, you can see the difference on your own catalog: Install on Shopify. Setup takes about 2 minutes. 14-day free trial. Cancel anytime.

Why Shopify stores look for a Gorgias alternative

Shopify merchants leave Gorgias for three documented reasons: two meters for one AI-resolved conversation, a small AI allowance on the entry plans, and a helpdesk that is more than a chat-first store needs. None of them is about quality; all of them show up on the invoice.

Two meters for one conversation. Gorgias prices its helpdesk by tickets (50 on Starter, 300 on Basic, 2,000 on Pro, 5,000 on Advanced) and its AI Agent by "automated interactions". Its pricing FAQ states that each AI Agent interaction "also counts as a helpdesk ticket and is billed accordingly", and that if an agent replies within 72 hours of an AI resolution, the interaction is charged only as a ticket. So the conversation your AI solved costs an automated interaction and a ticket; the one it half-solved costs a ticket and your agent's time.

A small AI allowance, then a higher rate. With the AI Agent added, Starter costs $40 a month and Basic $90, and both include 30 automated interactions. Pro includes 190 for $550 and Advanced 530 for $1,430. Above the allowance, the pricing page bills $1.50 per interaction. A store whose AI resolves 150 chats a month on Basic pays for 120 of them at the overage rate.

A helpdesk where a chat would do. Gorgias's strength is the queue: email, chat, SMS, voice, social and TikTok Shop in one inbox, with rules, macros and views for a support team. Many Shopify stores don't have that team. Their questions arrive in the storefront chat, and what they want is an assistant that answers from the catalog, finds the order, recommends the right size and brings in a person only when it should. Paying per ticket for that is paying for a structure the store doesn't use.

To be fair to Gorgias: it is not priced per agent (Basic includes unlimited support agents on its Shopify App Store listing, and the pricing page says it is "never priced per agent"), it offers a 7-day trial without a card, and it holds 4.3 stars from 706 reviews on the Shopify App Store. If your team lives in tickets across five channels, it is built for you. If your customers live in your storefront chat, read on.

The 7 Gorgias alternatives at a glance

Prices are in each entry, with their source. Strathly is the only tool in this list with neither a seat fee nor a ticket fee for your team: the teammates are part of the plan, their conversations never count, and the AI's unit is the whole conversation, whatever the outcome.

1. Strathly: best for Shopify stores whose customers write in the chat

Only the conversations Ivy takes count: your team's conversations are unlimited on every plan, and every feature is on every plan. There is no ticket meter, no per-resolution fee and no second charge when Ivy hands a conversation to a person. A conversation Ivy solves and one she passes to your team with a drafted reply cost the same: one Ivy conversation. The plans differ only in how many conversations Ivy handles and how many teammates join.

And Ivy doesn't stop at answering: she works on the order. With an order number and the email used at checkout, she shows the shopper the status, the carrier and the tracking link from Shopify. Refunds, cancellations, address changes and free replacements are prepared as drafts your team approves with one click, or, if you switch an action on, done by Ivy herself within the money cap you set, only for a shopper who proved the order is theirs, with 10 seconds to undo before anything reaches Shopify. Refunds and address changes within your limits shows each one.

That is the real difference with a helpdesk. Gorgias starts when a ticket exists. Strathly's job is to make sure most conversations never need one: Ivy answers in the chat, sells in the chat and resolves in the chat, and what reaches your team arrives with the work already half done.

It sells, which a helpdesk doesn't

Ivy reads your catalog from Shopify (products, variants, prices, stock, options and collection names), your policies, your published pages and your shipping rates. When a shopper describes what they want, she recommends from that catalog with product cards: photo, price, stock, an option picker and Add to cart. When the shopper is ready, she builds a real Shopify cart with a Checkout button. An AI shopping assistant that recommends from your live catalog shows the flow.

Every sale is checkable. An order placed within 3 days of a conversation with Ivy counts as a sale from that conversation, and each order links back to the conversation that led to it, in sales from conversations you can check order by order. A ticketing tool measures how fast you closed the ticket; Strathly also shows what the chat sold.

The handoff arrives with the work done

When Ivy shouldn't answer alone, rules decide what reaches a person: a refund request, a shopper who asks for a person or sounds upset, a wholesale or bulk order, words you list yourself such as "chargeback". Each rule is a switch with an action you choose, and the shopper is told what happens next, in your tone and their language.

The conversation lands in a shared inbox, in Needs you, with Ivy's summary at the top, the reason she handed off, what she based her answers on, and a reply she drafted for your teammate to edit or send. In the sample store below, a shopper asked for 40 beanies for a team gift; Ivy quoted the wholesale discount from the store's own page, took the shopper's email and handed off because bulk orders are the team's to price. The reply is already written.

Business hours decide what Ivy does while you're away (keep answering and take the shopper's email, or hand off anyway), a reply target turns a waiting conversation late on your screen, and a shopper who left gets your team's reply by email. The docs cover how handoff rules work and what each action does.

Strathly pricing

Prices in US dollars, excluding VAT and sales tax. Everything one shopper asks Ivy within 24 hours is one conversation, with one more every 30 of her replies in a very long chat; spam and conversations stopped by the chat's protections never count. Extra conversations are bought ahead from 10 at a time, at your plan's rate, and never expire. There is no automatic overage: when the allowance and the extras run out, Ivy finishes the conversations she is in and new ones go to your team. The full rule is on what counts as a conversation.

Pros

• One unit, the Ivy conversation, whether she resolves it or hands it off; your team's conversations are unlimited.
• She sells: product cards with options, Add to cart, a real Shopify cart and sales you can check order by order.
• Order status plus refunds, cancellations, address changes and replacements, with approval by default and Ivy's autonomy only where you switch it on.
• Handoff rules, Ivy's summary and drafted reply, business hours and the iPhone app (free on the App Store), all on every plan.

Cons

• There is no free plan. What you get instead is a 14-day free trial on Growth with every feature from day one, including order actions, analytics and the iPhone app, with your team's conversations unlimited, where a helpdesk's trial still meters tickets and AI interactions.

2. Richpanel: best for a full helpdesk with AI order actions

Richpanel is an AI-native ecommerce helpdesk for Shopify brands and the alternative that most often pitches itself against Gorgias by name: its pricing page promises "30% Guaranteed savings vs Zendesk/Gorgias" and 50% fewer tickets in 60 days. Its Shopify App Store listing describes AI agents that "resolve orders, returns, refunds and subscriptions end to end, with guardrails you control".

Channels: email, live chat, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, phone and SMS in one inbox, with apps for the web, iOS, Android, Windows and Mac.

Pricing (Richpanel's pricing page, read October 17, 2026):

• PRO: $69 per agent a month, billed $828 a year. PRO MAX: $99 per agent a month, billed $1,188 a year. Enterprise: custom, for teams of more than 50 agents.
• "All subscriptions are on yearly contracts."
• Customer Service AI: $0.20 per AI-handled conversation. Sidekick AI (reply drafts, summaries, translation) and the Self-Service Portal are listed as free add-ons.
• A guarantee of 30% savings and 50% automation within 30 days, or a full refund. The Shopify App Store listing shows PRO at $89 a month or $828 a year, PRO MAX at $119 a month or $1,188 a year, a 14-day trial, and AI conversations "from $0.20 each" on a model you choose.

Pros: AI order actions across refunds, cancellations, returns and subscriptions; a low AI price per conversation; every channel; migration and contract buyout from other helpdesks; 4.9 stars from 137 reviews on the Shopify App Store.

Cons: seats on a yearly contract before the AI starts, and in the pricing page's plan comparison several self-service order flows (cancel, edit order, change address, returns) are marked "Coming Soon" on some plans. No add to cart from the chat is listed. Richpanel is the closest thing to "Gorgias, cheaper"; Strathly is a different answer, where the chat sells as well as resolves and the team needs no seats on Scale.

3. Re:amaze: best low-cost multichannel helpdesk for small teams

Re:amaze, a GoDaddy brand since 2021, is a helpdesk and live chat for small and mid-size online stores: email, chat, social, SMS and voice, FAQ pages, chatbots and an AI Agent, with several brands in one account from the Pro plan.

Pricing (Re:amaze's pricing page, read October 17, 2026):

• Basic: $29 per team member a month ($26.10 billed annually). Pro: $49 ($44.10). Plus: $69 ($62.10).
• AI Agent: 5 resolutions per user a month included on Basic, 10 on Pro, 20 on Plus, then $0.85 per resolution. Its help center defines a resolution as "a conversation thread that is handled entirely by the AI Agent".
• A 14-day free trial with no credit card. The Shopify App Store listing adds a Starter plan at $59 a month for 500 responded conversations, with more in packs of 100 for $15.

Pros: the lowest seat price among the helpdesks here; many channels, including SMS and voice from Pro; multi-brand; a no-card trial; 4.4 stars from 181 reviews on the Shopify App Store.

Cons: the AI allowance is small (5 resolutions per Basic seat), and AI order actions are not listed on its pricing page or AI Agent help pages; agents edit Shopify orders from the conversation. A two-person team on Basic gets 10 AI resolutions a month before the $0.85 rate starts. Strathly's Starter plan includes 100 Ivy conversations and 2 teammates for $39.

4. eDesk: best for sellers on marketplaces as well as Shopify

eDesk is a helpdesk built around marketplaces: Amazon, eBay, Walmart, TikTok Shop and others in the same inbox as Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento and WooCommerce. If a large share of your messages arrives through marketplace messaging, no other tool in this list covers it as well.

Pricing (eDesk's pricing page, read October 17, 2026):

• Essential: $49 per agent a month on monthly billing ($39 billed annually), 1 connected store or marketplace. Growth: $115 ($89), 5 stores. Professional: $149 ($119), 10 stores. Enterprise: custom.
• AI Agent on every plan at $0.99 per outcome: charged "only when it actually answers your customer or takes real action on their behalf", once per ticket.
• Add-ons: AI Assist (reply drafting) $30 per agent, Translate $19 per agent, Feedback $99 per account, all a month.
• A 14-day full-feature trial with no card and a 30-day guarantee. The Shopify App Store listing shows different plans: Starter $59, Growth $199 and Professional $399 a month.

Pros: marketplaces and stores in one inbox; a clear outcome definition; transparent self-serve pricing; a no-card trial; 4.7 stars from 32 reviews on the Shopify App Store.

Cons: seats, outcomes and paid add-ons stack, and an outcome is charged whenever the AI answers, not only when it resolves. Drafted replies are a paid add-on per agent. For a store that sells only on Shopify, Strathly includes the drafted reply, the summary and the team on every plan.

5. Zendesk: best for large, multi-department support

Zendesk is the general-purpose customer service suite: ticketing, messaging, voice, a help center, AI agents and workforce tools, used well beyond ecommerce. Shopify connects through an integration app.

Pricing (read October 17, 2026):

• On its Shopify App Store listing, billed annually per agent a month: Suite Team $55, Suite Growth $89, Suite Professional $115, Suite Enterprise $150, each with a 14-day trial.
• On its official pricing page (shown to us in euros): AI agents include 5 automated resolutions per agent a month on Suite Team and 10 on Suite Professional; extra resolutions cost 1.50 on a committed volume or 2.00 pay-as-you-go.

Pros: the most complete suite here for large teams (voice, help center, multi-brand, workforce management); a huge ecosystem; AI agents in many languages.

Cons: seats plus a resolution meter, with only 5 to 10 automated resolutions per agent included; no ecommerce shopping assistant found; 3.2 stars from 94 reviews on the Shopify App Store, where a one-star review of September 30, 2026 describes trouble connecting the Shopify app. Leaving Gorgias for Zendesk usually means more helpdesk, not less: our Gorgias vs Zendesk comparison for Shopify stores puts their billing, AI and order tools side by side. Strathly's Growth plan includes 5 teammates and 300 Ivy conversations for $79.

6. Tidio: best for a free start on any website

Tidio is a live chat and helpdesk for any website, with Lyro, its AI agent, sold as a separate meter. It has a free plan, a large review base on Shopify, and a Lyro that its listing says handles order status, refunds, cancellations and order edits and adds to cart. If Tidio itself is what you're leaving, see the Tidio alternatives for Shopify stores.

Pricing (read October 17, 2026):

• Official pricing data, monthly billing: helpdesk Starter $29 for 100 billable conversations; Lyro on top at $39 for 50 Lyro conversations, $75 for 100, $140 for 200, $210 for 300 and $700 for 1,000.
• On its Shopify App Store listing: Free; Customer Service $29 a month; Flows $29 a month; Lyro AI Chatbot $39 a month ("Reach up to 200 Lyro conversations. Upgrade as you grow."); a 7-day trial on paid plans.

Pros: a real free plan; any platform; chat, email and social in one inbox; iOS, Android and desktop apps; 4.8 stars from 1,356 reviews on the Shopify App Store.

Cons: three meters (helpdesk conversations, Lyro conversations, Flows visitors), so AI at volume adds up: 1,000 Lyro conversations cost $700 a month before the helpdesk plan. Strathly's Scale plan covers 1,000 Ivy conversations for $199, with the team's conversations unlimited.

7. Fin: best for teams already on Intercom or another helpdesk

Fin is the AI agent formerly sold as Intercom's, and Salesforce completed its acquisition of Fin on September 10, 2026. It runs with the Intercom helpdesk or on top of others such as Zendesk and Salesforce, and Fin for Ecommerce is its Shopify-only version for product discovery, checkout guidance, tracking, returns and exchanges. More in our seven Intercom and Fin alternatives for online stores.

Pricing (Intercom's pricing page, read October 17, 2026):

• Fin with the Intercom helpdesk: Essential $19, Advanced $85, Expert $132 per seat a month billed annually, plus from $0.99 per Fin outcome.
• Fin on your current helpdesk: from $0.99 per outcome, with no seats required.
• SMS, WhatsApp, phone and email campaigns are pay-as-you-go.

Pros: a strong agent for sales and support, many channels and languages, works on top of the helpdesk you have.

Cons: two costs to forecast, seats and outcomes, with an outcome that can include a handoff that ends a Procedure; 3.7 stars from 18 reviews on the Shopify App Store. For a Shopify store that wants one predictable number, Strathly's $39 covers 100 Ivy conversations and 2 teammates.

How to choose a Gorgias alternative

Choose by where your customers write, then by how far you want the AI to go, then by the unit you'll pay for. In that order, the list narrows to one or two tools in a few minutes.

Start with where your conversations happen

Open your Gorgias reports and look at the channel split. If most tickets come from email, social and phone, you need another helpdesk, and Richpanel, Re:amaze or Zendesk are the candidates. If they come from the storefront chat, as they do for most Shopify stores that sell directly, you don't need a ticketing system at all: you need an agent in the chat and a clean way to bring in your team. That is what Strathly is, and on that ground there is no contest: it is the only option here built for the Shopify storefront chat, with selling, order work and the team's conversations all in one price. If you're unsure which questions an agent should take and which need a person, chatbot vs live chat for Shopify stores splits them.

Decide how far into orders the AI should go

Order status is the floor. Ask each vendor what its AI can do after that (refund, cancel, change the address, send a replacement), what it does by default, how the shopper proves the order is theirs, and whether you can undo a mistake. In Strathly, actions wait for one-click approval until you let Ivy act herself, and each one can be undone for 10 seconds.

Compare the unit, not the headline price

Helpdesks bill seats, tickets, resolutions and outcomes, often two of them at once. A worked example makes the difference concrete. Assume a store with 200 chats a month, where the AI resolves 150 and hands 50 to a team of two, using each vendor's published prices read on October 17, 2026:

• Strathly: 200 Ivy conversations, whether she resolves them or hands them off. $39 plus 100 extra conversations at $0.39, $78 a month, with 2 teammates; past 203 conversations a month, Growth at $79 costs less. Your team's 50 replies cost nothing.
• Gorgias: Basic with the AI Agent at $90 (300 tickets, 30 automated interactions), plus 120 interactions above the allowance at $1.50, $180: about $270 a month, with the 150 automated interactions also counted among the 300 tickets.
• Re:amaze: two Basic seats at $29, $58, with 10 AI resolutions included, plus 140 at $0.85, $119: about $177 a month.
• Richpanel: two PRO seats at $69, $138 (yearly contract), plus AI at $0.20 for each conversation it handles, $30 to $40: about $168 to $178 a month.
• Tidio: Lyro at $140 for 200 Lyro conversations, plus the helpdesk Starter at $29 for the conversations your team answers: about $169 a month.
• Fin: two Essential seats at $19 (annual), $38, plus 150 outcomes at $0.99, $148.50: about $187 a month, more if handoffs through Procedures count as outcomes.

Same month of chats, a spread of more than three to one. The cheapest line after Strathly's is more than twice it, and the helpdesks among them (Gorgias, Richpanel, Re:amaze) list no Add to cart in the chat on the pages we read. Strathly's pricing calculator shows your own month.

Check the team side

Count who answers today and who should tomorrow. Helpdesks price that headcount per seat (Richpanel, Re:amaze, eDesk, Zendesk, Fin) or per ticket (Gorgias). Strathly includes 2 teammates on Starter, 5 on Growth and Unlimited on Scale, with roles for owner, admin and agent; the docs explain how many teammates each plan includes. Small teams should also check for a phone app with push, because the person on call is rarely at a desk. Our guide to live chat for ecommerce lists the other team-side checks, from business hours to the reply target.

Switching from Gorgias to Strathly

Switching the storefront chat from Gorgias to Strathly takes an afternoon, and most of it is testing. There is nothing to import from Gorgias for Ivy to work: she reads your products, policies, pages and shipping rates straight from Shopify when you connect, and the Shopify integration lists every permission and why.

1. Set Ivy up while Gorgias's chat stays on. Connect Shopify, let Ivy read the store, set her name and tone, and test her in the Playground on your real products and orders. Nothing shows on your store until you go live. How Strathly goes from install to first answer walks through it.
2. Bring what only Gorgias had. Your macros and saved answers become Ivy's answers through Teach Ivy, or a CSV or PDF uploaded to Knowledge. Help center articles that aren't Shopify pages can be added as web pages. Past conversations don't move: keep or export them from Gorgias.
3. Recreate your rules as handoff rules. Refund requests, upset shoppers, wholesale orders and your own keywords become rules with an action each. Set your business hours and reply target.
4. Swap the chats in one save. In Shopify's theme editor, switch on Strathly's app embed and switch off Gorgias's chat in the same save, as the docs show in swap the chats in your theme.
5. Invite your team and go live. Teammates get the inbox on the web and the iPhone app with push.

If your team also answers email, social or phone tickets in Gorgias, you can keep it for those channels and move only the storefront chat to Strathly: the chat is where Ivy sells and resolves, and your helpdesk bill shrinks with the tickets she prevents. Strathly does not import or answer email inboxes, social messages or calls.

How Strathly helps

If you're leaving Gorgias because your customers write in the chat and your bill grows with every ticket, Strathly replaces the part of the helpdesk you actually use and adds the part a helpdesk never had: selling. Here is what you get, on every plan.

An agent that answers from your store, and only your store. Ivy reads your Shopify catalog, policies, pages and shipping rates, plus the files, web pages and answers you add. She never invents a product, a price or a discount code; when nothing answers a question, she says so, the question lands on your Unanswered list, and you teach her once. How Ivy learns your store explains each source, and the docs show how to teach Ivy and correct an answer.

Sales in the chat. Product cards with options and Add to cart, a real Shopify cart with checkout, and every sale from a conversation linked to the conversation that led to it.

Orders handled within your limits. Status and tracking from the order number and checkout email; refunds, cancellations, address changes and replacements prepared for one-click approval, or done by Ivy within your cap when you switch them on.

Handoffs your team can answer in seconds. The shared inbox for the conversations that need a person shows Ivy's summary, why she handed off, what she based her answers on and a reply she drafted; your teammate edits, sends or rewrites it. The docs cover when Ivy writes the reply for you.

A team that answers from anywhere. Business hours, Available and Away, a reply target, round-robin assignment and the iPhone app with push, included in every plan and free on the App Store.

A price you can plan. Only Ivy's conversations count, your team's are unlimited, every feature is on every plan, extra conversations never expire, and there is no automatic overage. Compare on Strathly's plans and prices, or read every feature, on every plan.

Conclusion

Gorgias is a strong helpdesk, and the stores that leave it rarely do so for its features. They leave because a ticket meter and an AI meter run on the same conversation, and because their customers write in the storefront chat, not in a queue. Richpanel, Re:amaze, eDesk, Zendesk, Tidio and Fin each fix part of that, mostly by being a different helpdesk. Strathly fixes the root: Ivy resolves and sells in the chat before a ticket exists, works on orders within your limits, hands the rest to your team with the reply already drafted, and only her conversations count.