For Richpanel teams paying $99 a seat plus a $200 AI minimum
Richpanel alternative for Shopify stores that do not need a full help desk
InChat is an AI chatbot for your Shopify or WooCommerce store that trains on your product pages, policies and PDFs, answers shoppers around the clock and hands the chat to a person when it should. AI conversations and your team seats sit inside one plan price, with no monthly AI minimum.
- $24/mo
- Starter billed yearly, 500 AI conversations, 3 team members
- $299/mo
- Richpanel's starting point on annual billing, one seat plus the $200 AI minimum
- 10
- team members on Plus for one flat price, not $99 to $119 per seat
The short answer
Richpanel sells one plan: the help desk at $99 per seat a month on an annual commitment ($119 billed monthly) plus AI with a $200 a month minimum, so the entry point is $299 a month for a single seat. AI conversations average about $0.20 each, billed from a shared meter in $100 top-ups. InChat is a Richpanel alternative for stores whose main need is website chat and instant answers: 500 AI conversations and 3 team members from $24 a month billed yearly, or 2,000 AI conversations and 10 team members on Plus. Richpanel stays the better buy if you need returns, exchanges and subscription changes handled inside Shopify orders.
See it answer
A shipping question at 9 pm, a return request at breakfast
Most Shopify stores that look past Richpanel have the same pattern: a handful of questions about shipping, sizing and returns make up most of the volume. On InChat the AI answers those from your own pages, each chat counts toward the plan, and anything that needs a person goes to a teammate who is already included.
- Answers name the page they came from
- Human handoff with routing on every plan
- No charge per resolved chat
Questions before you order?
AI answers from this site, a person when you need one
Damaged-item chat handed to Maria with order number and photo request
Compare
Richpanel vs InChat, what the same workload costs each month
Six setups priced from each vendor's public pricing page, in US dollars. Richpanel is counted on annual billing ($99 per seat), the cheaper way to buy it, with AI at the stated average of about $0.20 per AI-handled conversation and the $200 monthly minimum. Richpanel meters AI by model and token use, so your real figure can differ. On InChat the same chat is one AI conversation inside the plan. Where Richpanel is the better buy, the table says so.
| What you need | Richpanel | InChat | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person, AI answers 500 chats a month | 1 seat $99 plus AI $200 minimum, so $299 | Starter at $49 monthly with 500 AI conversations | About $250 less with InChat |
| 3 people, AI answers 1,000 chats | 3 seats $297 plus AI $200, so $497 | Plus at $149 with 2,000 AI conversations | About $348 less with InChat |
| 5 people, AI answers 2,000 chats | 5 seats $495 plus AI $400, so $895 | Plus at $149 | About $746 less with InChat |
| 10 people, AI answers 2,000 chats | 10 seats $990 plus AI $400, so $1,390 | Plus at $149 with 10 team members | About $1,241 less with InChat |
| Same 3 people, billed monthly instead of annual | 3 seats at $119 is $357 plus AI $200, so $557 | Plus at $149 | About $408 less with InChat |
| Returns, exchanges and cancellations done by the shopper inside a portal tied to Shopify orders, subscription edits | Self-service portal and Returns & Exchanges add-on from $99 a month | Not offered | Richpanel is the better fit |
Why teams switch
What changes when AI chats and seats are one plan
No monthly AI minimum
Richpanel's AI starts at $200 a month with $100 top-ups, whether or not the bot is busy. On InChat, AI conversations are counted against the plan: 500 on Starter, 2,000 on Plus, unlimited on Pro.
Seats included, not priced one by one
Starter includes 3 team members and Plus includes 10. Richpanel charges $99 per seat a month on an annual commitment, or $119 billed monthly.
A person can take over the chat
Human handoff with agent routing is on every plan. Your team replies from a shared inbox, sees the full transcript, and the shopper never leaves the window.
Email, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram on Plus
Plus brings email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram into the same inbox as website chat, so replies go back on the channel the customer used.
Trained on your own store pages
Paste your URL and InChat reads product pages, size guides, shipping and returns policies. Upload PDFs such as care guides or wholesale terms on top.
Answers show their source
Each answer names the page it came from. Fix a weak answer by editing the page or adding a short instruction, then ask again.
How it works
Move from Richpanel in one afternoon
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1
Paste your store URL
InChat reads your public pages, FAQ and policies. Upload the PDFs and macros your Richpanel replies were built from.
-
2
Replay your real questions
Take the twenty questions shoppers ask most from your Richpanel inbox and ask them here. Where an answer is thin, add a page or a short instruction.
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3
Swap the chat widget
Remove the Richpanel chat script and paste the InChat script tag before the closing body tag. On Shopify it goes in theme.liquid as a single line.
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4
Invite the people who take handoffs
Add up to 3 teammates on Starter or 10 on Plus, set routing and switch the widget on before your Richpanel renewal date.
What is the best alternative to Richpanel?
The best alternative to Richpanel for a store that mainly needs website chat is a chatbot that includes AI conversations and the people who answer chats in one plan price. InChat covers 500 AI conversations, 3 team members and human handoff from $24 a month billed yearly. Plus adds 2,000 AI conversations, 10 team members and an inbox for email, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.
If your team lives in a full e-commerce help desk, with order edits, subscription changes and shopper self-service for returns, Richpanel or Gorgias is the closer match, and the table above says so. Most stores that look for a Richpanel alternative have a narrower job: answer pre-purchase and shipping questions fast, at any hour, and pass the hard ones to a person.
How much does Richpanel cost per month?
Richpanel lists one plan. The help desk is $99 per seat a month on an annual commitment, or $119 per seat billed monthly. AI is a separate meter with a $200 a month minimum and $100 top-ups, which puts the starting price for one seat plus AI at $299 a month on annual billing. Its page states no per-ticket fees and an average of about $0.20 per AI-handled conversation, with the figure depending on the model and token use.
Add-ons come on top, for example Returns & Exchanges from $99 a month. Figures are from richpanel.com/pricing, checked in October 2026. For plan-by-plan totals see Richpanel pricing.
Richpanel pricing compared with InChat
The simplest way to compare is by team size. At three seats Richpanel costs $297 for the help desk before AI, and the $200 AI minimum takes it to $497. InChat Plus at $149 includes 10 team members and 2,000 AI conversations. The gap widens with every seat, because InChat does not price seats one by one on Starter or Plus.
Compare the work you actually need done. Our pricing page shows what each plan includes, and the table above uses only public prices from both vendors.
Is Richpanel good for Shopify stores?
Yes, for stores that want the help desk to touch the order. Richpanel is built around Shopify data: order lookups, edits, cancellations and a self-service portal for returns and exchanges. Teams that process many returns and want shoppers to do it themselves get real value from that.
If your Shopify store mainly needs a chat that knows your catalog and policies, you are paying for a lot of help desk. InChat installs with one script tag in theme.liquid and answers from your own pages, with a person one click away.
When Richpanel is the better choice
Choose Richpanel when order actions inside conversations are the point: editing an address, cancelling an order or running exchanges without opening Shopify. Choose it when your agents work email, social comments and DMs in one e-commerce help desk and AI is one part of that.
Choose InChat when the job is answering shoppers on your site, capturing the sale or the lead, and routing the difficult chats to a few teammates, at a price that does not rise with seats or with how well the bot works.
Who are Richpanel competitors?
The usual names are Gorgias, Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk and Help Scout for full help desks, and chat-first tools such as Tidio, Re:amaze and InChat for website chat with AI. They split into two groups: help desks that charge by seat or ticket, and chatbots that charge by conversation. Decide which job you are hiring for first.
A minimum you pay before the first chat
A $200 AI minimum and a per-seat price make sense for a team that lives in the help desk all day. For a store where most volume is the same ten pre-purchase questions, the minimum is the bill, and the seats are extra. InChat folds the AI conversations and 3 or 10 team members into one price, so a quiet month costs the same as a busy one.
Who it is for
Teams that switch from Richpanel to InChat
Shopify and WooCommerce stores
Shoppers get sizing, shipping and returns answers from your store pages, and damaged-order chats go to a person who is already on the plan.
Stores with a small support team
Two or three people share one inbox without paying $99 each for seats they use mostly to read chat.
Brands in launch and holiday weeks
The same questions arrive hundreds of times in a week. The AI answers them without a per-conversation line growing on the invoice.
FAQ
Richpanel alternatives, common questions
Richpanel's pricing page does not list a free trial or a free plan. It offers a demo booking and a 50% guarantee instead. InChat offers a one-time 50-conversation demo with no card, then plans from $24 a month billed yearly.
Richpanel AI has a $200 a month minimum with top-ups in $100 blocks. Its page gives an average of about $0.20 per AI-handled conversation, where a conversation is the whole thread. Actual cost varies with the model and token use.
For website chat, yes: it answers from your pages and hands off to people. It does not edit Shopify orders or run a returns portal, so stores that depend on those should keep Richpanel or pair it with a lighter chat.
For the setups in the table above, yes. One seat plus AI on Richpanel starts at $299 a month on annual billing. InChat Starter includes 500 AI conversations and 3 team members from $24 a month billed yearly.
Yes. Paste the InChat script tag into theme.liquid and the widget appears on your storefront. It reads your public product and policy pages, so no integration is needed to answer pre-purchase questions.
Most stores finish in an afternoon: paste your URL, test the twenty most common questions, swap the script tag and invite the teammates who take handoffs.
Keep comparing
Richpanel pricing
Richpanel's one plan, AI minimum and totals for four team sizes.
Gorgias alternative
Ticket and AI Agent pricing against one chatbot plan.
Reamaze alternative
Per-resolution AI fees against a plan with AI included.
Tidio alternative
Lyro add-ons against a plan with AI conversations included.
Help Scout alternative
Per-user help desk pricing against a chat-first plan.
AI chatbot pricing
Every InChat plan, what it includes and the yearly price.
AI chats in the plan, your team in the inbox.
Paste your store URL, test the agent on your own pages and replace the Richpanel chat widget with one script tag. Plans from $24 a month billed yearly with 500 AI conversations, 3 team members, human handoff and no AI minimum.