The 6 best Gorgias alternatives for online stores in 2026
Gorgias prices by ticket, not by seat, which is a bargain at low volume and painful when you scale. Here are six alternatives compared on published pricing and store integration depth.
Last updated August 20, 2026
Gorgias is built for ecommerce and it shows. The Shopify integration is the deepest in the category and the ticket-based pricing means you are not punished for adding people. The problem is the other side of that model: Starter is $10 a month for 50 tickets, Basic $60 for 300, Pro $360 for 2,000 and Advanced $900 for 5,000, with overage on anything past your allowance. A good month for your store is an expensive month for your help desk. Starter and Basic also cap you at three seats.
We build one of these tools, so read accordingly. Every price below is from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on the date at the bottom, and we have given HelpStack one category rather than all six.
The short version#
| Tool | Best for | Entry price |
|---|---|---|
| HelpStack | Stores selling through social DMs and across languages | €29/month, unlimited agents |
| Tidio | Stores that want a bot resolving the first line | $24.17/month |
| Crisp | The widest channel coverage per euro | $45/month for 4 seats |
| Help Scout | Email-heavy stores that care about tone | $25/user/month |
| Zendesk | Large retail operations with complex routing | $55/agent/month |
| Chatwoot | Stores that want to self-host | Free self-hosted |
1. Tidio — if you want a bot handling the easy questions#
Tidio is the closest thing to Gorgias in spirit for a smaller store: strong Shopify presence, good on-site chat, and Lyro, an AI agent that resolves common questions without an agent involved. Plans are free (50 conversations a month), Starter $24.17, Growth from $49.17 and Plus from $300, with every plan including email, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The thing to model is Lyro, which is billed separately from $32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations. So your real cost is a plan plus AI, not one number.
Choose it if: you want autonomous AI resolving routine questions and your support is mostly on-site chat.
2. Crisp — most channels, flat workspace price#
Crisp covers email, chat, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, X, Line, Viber and phone, which is more than anything else here. It prices per workspace, not per ticket or seat: $45 a month for Mini, $95 for Essentials, $295 for Plus, with a free tier for two seats. It is EU-based in Nantes with data stored in the Netherlands and Germany.
The limit is seats per tier: four on Mini, ten on Essentials.
Choose it if: your customers message on channels most help desks ignore, and you want one predictable bill.
3. Help Scout — for stores where the writing matters#
If your brand voice is part of the product and most of your support is email, Help Scout is the best-designed inbox on this list. Standard is $25 per user per month, Plus $45, Pro $75, free for five users with one inbox. AI Answers bills at $0.75 per resolution.
It is per-user pricing and its store integrations are shallower than Gorgias, so it suits considered, lower-volume support rather than high-throughput order chasing.
Choose it if: email is most of your volume and tone matters more than throughput.
4. Zendesk — for large retail operations#
Worth listing for completeness at the top end. If you are running support across several brands or regions with complex routing and SLA requirements, Zendesk handles it. Suite Team is $55 per agent per month on annual billing, Suite Professional $115, no free plan.
For most stores leaving Gorgias over cost, this is the wrong direction.
Choose it if: you have outgrown ecommerce-specific tooling and need enterprise ticketing.
5. Chatwoot — if you want to own it#
Open source and self-hostable, so your data sits on your infrastructure and you can modify anything. Cloud is $19 per agent per month for Startups, $39 for Business, $99 for Enterprise on annual billing; the free Hacker plan is live chat only.
Store integration is via integrations or custom work rather than built in, and self-hosting means you own upgrades and backups.
Choose it if: you have engineering capacity and want control more than convenience.
6. HelpStack — social DMs and multiple languages#
Ours, so here is the specific case rather than a pitch. HelpStack charges per organisation with no seat limit: €29 a month on Starter, €79 Growth, €199 Scale, plus a free plan that also does not cap agents. Instagram DMs, Messenger, WhatsApp, email and chat land in one inbox. The AI reads live Shopify and WooCommerce order, tracking and customer data mid-conversation so "where is my order" gets answered without an agent switching tabs, and it drafts the reply for a human to approve rather than sending alone. Two-way translation across 40+ languages is included.
Where it does not win: Gorgias's Shopify integration is still deeper on the merchandising side, and our reporting is basic.
Choose it if: a real share of your orders start as an Instagram DM, you sell across languages, and you have several people answering messages.
When Gorgias is still the right answer#
If your ticket volume is steady and modest, Gorgias is genuinely hard to beat on price. Fifty tickets for $10 is cheaper than every alternative here, and if you are a Shopify-only store where support is mostly order status, the native integration does real work. The teams who should leave are the ones getting surprised by overage, hitting the three-seat cap on Basic, or paying $360 a month for 2,000 tickets that a flat plan would cover.
All competitor pricing verified against each vendor's own pricing page on 20 August 2026, at annual-billing rates where offered. Plans change often, so confirm before you buy.
Try HelpStack free or read the detailed HelpStack vs Gorgias comparison.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is Gorgias so expensive at higher volumes?
- Because it bills by ticket rather than by seat. Starter covers 50 tickets for $10, Basic 300 for $60, Pro 2,000 for $360 and Advanced 5,000 for $900, and tickets past your allowance bill as overage. That model is cheap when volume is low and steady, and it is the thing that surprises people during a busy season.
- Which Gorgias alternative has the best Shopify integration?
- Gorgias itself still has the deepest one, which is worth saying on a page about leaving it. Among the alternatives, HelpStack reads live Shopify order, tracking and customer data inside conversations through built-in AI tools, and Tidio has a strong Shopify presence on the chat side. If native Shopify depth is the only thing you are buying for, staying on Gorgias is a defensible choice.
- Is there a Gorgias alternative with unlimited seats on cheap plans?
- Gorgias caps Starter and Basic at three seats and only goes unlimited from Pro at $360/month. HelpStack does not limit agents on any plan including free. Crisp prices per workspace but caps seats per tier at four on Mini and ten on Essentials. If your problem is that too many people need access, that is the specific thing to compare.
- What about handling Instagram DMs and WhatsApp?
- Gorgias, Tidio, Crisp, Help Scout and HelpStack all cover Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Chatwoot covers them from its Startups plan up rather than on the free tier. Channel coverage is rarely the deciding factor between these tools now; pricing model usually is.
- Which of these keep data in the EU?
- HelpStack is EU-based and EU-hosted by default, and Crisp is French with data in the Netherlands and Germany. Self-hosted Chatwoot puts residency entirely in your hands. Gorgias, Zendesk, Tidio and Help Scout are US-based, so check their current DPA terms if EU residency matters for your compliance posture.