For Shopify and WooCommerce stores comparing helpdesk bills
Gorgias alternative and Gorgias alternatives for Shopify stores that want flat-price AI chat
InChat is an AI chatbot for your store that trains on your product pages, shipping and returns policies, answers shoppers around the clock and hands order problems to a person in a shared inbox. You pay one monthly price. No ticket counter, no per-resolution AI fee, no bill that doubles in November.
- $24/mo
- Starter billed yearly, 500 AI conversations
- $0
- per AI resolution on every plan
- Same day
- from pasting your store URL to a live widget
The short answer
Gorgias is a full ecommerce helpdesk priced by ticket: $50 to $750 a month on annual billing for 300 to 5,000 tickets, plus $0.90 per AI Agent resolution after a small included allowance, and each AI resolution also counts as a ticket. If most of your volume is repeat pre-sale and policy questions on website chat, InChat covers them for a flat $24, $74 or $249 a month billed yearly, with human handoff included. If you run refunds, order edits, SMS and phone support out of one Shopify helpdesk, Gorgias is still the stronger fit.
See it answer
What a shopper sees at 11pm on a Sunday
The agent answers product and policy questions from your own pages, quotes the page it used, and passes anything tied to a specific order to your team with the conversation attached. Nobody has to write a flow for sizes or returns.
- Answers cite the product or policy page they came from
- Order-specific questions go to a person, not a guess
- Every AI answer is included in the plan, including the busy weeks
Questions about your order?
AI answers from this site, a person when you need one
Order question, handed to Jess in the shared inbox
Compare
What Gorgias and InChat cost at three store sizes
Each setup assumes about half of the conversations are answered by AI (sizing, shipping, returns, stock questions) and the rest go to a person. Gorgias is priced on its cheapest plan for that volume at annual billing; InChat on its yearly price. On monthly billing Gorgias AI resolutions cost $1.00 instead of $0.90 and InChat plans are $49, $149 and $499.
| Store size | Gorgias (annual billing) | InChat (yearly billing) | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small store, about 250 conversations a month, AI answers 100 | Basic $50 (300 tickets, 30 AI resolutions included) + 70 AI resolutions at $0.90 = about $113 | Starter $24 for 500 AI conversations, 3 team members, human handoff | About $89 a month less, and a slow month costs the same as a busy one |
| Growing store, 1,000 conversations, AI answers 500 | Pro $300 (2,000 tickets, 190 AI resolutions included) + 310 at $0.90 = about $579 | Plus $74 for 2,000 AI conversations, 10 team members, email, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram inbox | About $505 a month less; Basic would cost more here ($753) because of ticket overage |
| Established brand, 4,000 conversations, AI answers 2,000 | Advanced $750 (5,000 tickets, 530 AI resolutions included) + 1,470 at $0.90 = about $2,073 | Pro $249 for unlimited AI conversations and unlimited team members | A fixed line in the budget instead of one that tracks your Black Friday traffic |
Gorgias prices checked on gorgias.com/pricing in September 2026: Starter $10 a month (50 tickets, monthly billing only), Basic $60 monthly or $50 annual (300 tickets), Pro $360 or $300 (2,000 tickets), Advanced $900 or $750 (5,000 tickets), Enterprise quoted. Extra tickets $0.40 on Starter and Basic, $0.36 on Pro and Advanced. AI Agent $1.00 per resolution monthly, $0.90 annual; Gorgias states each automated interaction also counts as one helpdesk ticket, and if an agent replies within 72 hours it is billed only as a ticket. Voice and SMS are usage priced on top.
Why teams switch
What you keep, and what gets cheaper, when you move chat off Gorgias
Answers from your own store
InChat reads your product pages, collections, size guides, shipping and returns policies and answers from them. Update a policy page and the next answer uses the new wording.
No per-resolution fee
AI conversations are part of the plan: 500 on Starter, 2,000 on Plus, unlimited on Pro. A shopper who asks five follow-up questions is one conversation, not five charges.
Human handoff built in
When a shopper asks about a specific order, a damaged item or a refund, the agent collects the order number and email and routes the chat to a person with the full transcript.
Shared inbox for your team
Starter includes 3 team members, Plus 10 and Pro unlimited. Everyone works the same inbox, sees who replied and picks up where the AI stopped.
Proactive prompts on product pages
Open the chat when a shopper lingers on a product, scrolls to the size guide or moves to leave. Useful on high-return categories like apparel and bedding.
Omnichannel on Plus
Email, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram messages land in the same inbox as website chat, so DMs about stock and sizing get the same AI answers.
How it works
Move website chat from Gorgias in an afternoon
-
1
Paste your store URL
InChat crawls your product, collection and policy pages. Upload the macros or help center exports you use most in Gorgias as files.
-
2
Test it on last week's tickets
Ask the agent the 20 most common questions from your Gorgias reports. Fix any wrong answer by editing the source page or adding a short instruction.
-
3
Set handoff rules
Anything with an order number, a refund or a damaged item goes to a person. Add your team members and their hours.
-
4
Swap the widget
Remove the Gorgias chat snippet from your theme and add the InChat script tag. Keep Gorgias on email and phone if you still want it there.
What is the best Gorgias alternative for Shopify stores?
The best Gorgias alternative for a Shopify store depends on which part of Gorgias you are paying for. If most of the bill comes from website chat and AI resolutions on repeat questions, a flat-price AI chatbot such as InChat is the cheaper fit. If you need refunds, order edits, SMS and phone in one Shopify helpdesk, look at Zendesk, Richpanel or Re:amaze instead.
Shopify stores that move to InChat usually have the same profile: a small team, a busy storefront and a Gorgias invoice where the ticket overage and AI Agent lines grew faster than revenue. Their chat questions repeat. Does it come in this size, when will it ship to Chicago, can I return it after washing, is it back in stock next week. Those are answered from pages you already wrote, and paying $0.90 each time a bot repeats your returns policy stops making sense at a few hundred a month.
If you want to compare with other AI chat tools before deciding, our Tidio alternative page covers the most common Shopify chat app, and the Gorgias pricing breakdown works out totals at more volumes.
Why is Gorgias so expensive in peak season?
Gorgias gets expensive in peak season because both of its meters track your traffic. Every conversation that gets a reply from an agent, a rule or the AI Agent is a billable ticket, and every AI resolution is billed on top at $0.90 to $1.00 while also counting as a ticket. When November traffic doubles, both lines double.
Here is what that looks like for a store on the Pro plan at annual billing. In a normal month with 1,000 conversations and 500 AI resolutions, the bill is about $579. In a holiday month with 2,500 conversations and 1,300 AI resolutions, it becomes $300 for the plan, 500 extra tickets at $0.36 ($180) and 1,110 AI resolutions at $0.90 ($999), about $1,479. Same team, same store, 2.5 times the invoice.
InChat does not meter conversations inside a plan. A store on Plus pays $74 a month on yearly billing whether December brings 800 conversations or 1,900. The only decision is which tier fits your busiest month.
When Gorgias is still the better choice
We would rather you pick the right tool than switch and regret it. Gorgias is still the better choice when:
- Your agents edit orders from the ticket. Gorgias shows the Shopify customer and order next to the conversation and lets agents refund, cancel or edit without leaving the helpdesk. InChat routes order questions to your team but does not change Shopify orders.
- You run phone and SMS support. Gorgias offers voice and SMS as usage-priced add-ons in the same inbox. InChat covers website chat, email, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.
- You rely on its app ecosystem. Gorgias lists more than 250 integrations, including Klaviyo, Yotpo, Recharge and Smile. InChat connects through webhooks and a REST API on Plus and Pro.
- Your team is large. Gorgias does not charge per seat above Starter, which matters with 30 agents. InChat Pro also has unlimited team members, but Starter and Plus are capped at 3 and 10.
Some stores keep Gorgias for email and order work and move only website chat to InChat. That cuts the AI Agent line, which is usually the fastest-growing part of the bill, without touching the refund workflow.
How do I switch from Gorgias to another helpdesk?
To switch website chat from Gorgias, export your most common macros and help center articles, train the new tool on your store and those files, test it on a week of real questions, then replace the Gorgias chat snippet in your theme. Most stores do it in one afternoon and keep Gorgias running on email until the contract renews.
A practical order: start with pre-sale questions (sizing, materials, shipping times), because those are where AI answers pay for themselves and carry no risk. Leave order-status and refund questions routed to people for the first two weeks, read the transcripts, then decide what else the agent should handle. Check your Gorgias renewal date first; annual plans are billed up front, so the best time to move is the month before renewal.
Who it is for
Stores that replace Gorgias chat with InChat
Apparel and bedding brands
Size, fit, fabric care and returns make up most chats. The agent answers from the size guide and returns policy and opens the chat when a shopper sits on the size chart.
Supplement and beauty stores
Ingredient, subscription and shipping questions repeat all day. Answers quote the product page, and anything medical or order-specific goes to a person.
Home goods and furniture
Delivery windows, assembly and freight questions are long and specific. The agent covers the policy pages, and damaged-item claims go straight to your team with photos requested.
FAQ
Gorgias alternatives, common questions
For stores whose Gorgias bill is driven by chat volume and AI resolutions, a flat-price AI chatbot like InChat is the best alternative, from $24 a month billed yearly with 500 AI conversations. For a full Shopify helpdesk with order editing, phone and SMS, Zendesk, Richpanel and Re:amaze are the usual comparisons.
Gorgias is worth it when your team handles refunds, cancellations and order edits inside the helpdesk and uses its Shopify sidebar every day. It is harder to justify when most conversations are repeat pre-sale questions, because each AI answer costs $0.90 to $1.00 and also counts as a ticket.
No. Gorgias prices by ticket volume, not by seat, and plans above Starter do not charge per user. Starter is limited to a small team. The cost grows with the number of billable tickets and AI Agent resolutions instead.
Gorgias costs $10 a month on Starter (50 tickets), $60 on Basic (300 tickets), $360 on Pro (2,000 tickets) and $900 on Advanced (5,000 tickets) at monthly billing, or $50, $300 and $750 on annual billing. AI Agent resolutions, extra tickets, voice and SMS are billed on top.
No. Gorgias works with Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento and WooCommerce, but its deepest order features are built around Shopify. InChat installs on any storefront with one script tag, including Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce.
Yes. A common setup keeps Gorgias for email and order work and moves website chat to InChat, so repeat questions are answered by AI at a flat price and only order problems reach your agents.
Not natively. InChat answers from your store pages and policies and hands order-specific questions to your team with the order number collected. On Plus and Pro you can connect order data through webhooks and the REST API.
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Answer every shopper question without paying per answer.
Paste your store URL, test the agent on your own products and policies and go live with one script tag. Plans from $24 a month billed yearly with 500 AI conversations, 3 team members and human handoff included.