Thredo, honestly compared.
Four AI support agents for small ecommerce teams, including the free one Shopify already gave you. Prices are the vendors' own published rates, each read on 17 August 2026.
Where a competitor does something Thredo does not, this page says so. That is not modesty — a comparison you cannot check is worth nothing, and the fastest way to find out we were wrong is a customer who already uses the other one.
Side by side
| Thredo | Shopify Inbox AI | Gorgias AI Agent | Intercom Fin | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it meters | Replies the agent sends | Nothing | Resolved conversations | Resolved conversations |
| Headline price | $29–$199/mo | Free | $0.90 per resolution | $0.99 per resolution |
| Roughly, per resolution | ~$0.063 at 4 replies | $0 | $0.90 | $0.99 |
| Seat fees | None | None | None | Per seat, on top |
| Free tier | 50 messages, no card | Included with Shopify | Trial only | Trial only |
| Channels | WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, web chat, email | Shopify storefront chat | Email, chat, social, SMS, voice | Chat, email, social, phone |
| Changes orders | No — escalates | No | Yes, six actions | Yes |
| Full helpdesk | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Verifies identity in anonymous chat | Yes, two factors | Logged-in only | Not documented | Not documented |
Sources: Gorgias AI Agent pricing, Intercom pricing, Shopify Editions Spring 2026. Read 17 August 2026. Vendors change prices without notice; check before you commit.
The row that matters is the first one, not the second
Everyone quotes a price per resolution. Thredo quotes a price per reply. Putting those two numbers next to each other without a divisor is how comparison pages lie, so here is ours: we assume 4 agent replies to settle one conversation.
If your threads are short
Two or three replies and done — a tracking link, a shipping cut-off. Per-reply billing is dramatically cheaper, because you pay for the two replies rather than the outcome.
If your threads are long
Sizing, compatibility, a returns argument over ten messages. Per-resolution billing caps your cost and per-reply billing does not. At ten replies the gap narrows to about $0.16 against $0.90.
If a human steps in
Gorgias does not bill a conversation a human resolves. Thredo does not bill replies you send yourself either — only the ones the agent sent before you took over.
In detail
All eight tools, ranked
Thredo, Gorgias, Intercom Fin, Shopify's free agent, Tidio and three enterprise options — on price, order actions and channels.
Thredo vs Gorgias
The closest comparison, and the one where Gorgias wins on capability and loses on price. What each actually does to an order.
Thredo on Shopify
What the agent reads, what it never reads, and how a shopper proves an order is theirs before it says anything about it.
Thredo pricing in full
What counts as a message, what is free, and where each plan's ceiling sits.
Questions people ask before switching
Is Thredo cheaper than Gorgias?
Per conversation resolved, yes, by roughly an order of magnitude — but the two meters measure different things and that is the part worth understanding. Gorgias bills $0.90 per resolution and does not bill when a human takes over. Thredo bills per reply the agent sends: on the $79 Growth plan that is about $0.016 a reply, so a 4-reply conversation costs about $0.063. If your conversations run long, Thredo's meter runs faster than the headline suggests; if they are short, it runs slower. Gorgias's meter does not care either way.
Why compare against Shopify's free agent at all?
Because it is the honest floor. Shopify Inbox has included a native AI agent since the Spring 2026 edition on 17 June 2026, at no cost, already installed, and it answers product and order questions from your admin data. Any paid tool has to be worth more than free, and a comparison page that omits the free option is selling rather than comparing.
What can Gorgias do that Thredo cannot?
Write actions. Gorgias can cancel an order and restock it, edit a shipping address, remove or replace an item, send a free reshipment and add an order note. Thredo reads — order status, delivery, tracking — and escalates anything that would change the order. If your top ticket driver is address changes and cancellations, Gorgias resolves those today and Thredo hands them to a person.
Does Thredo replace a helpdesk?
No. There are no macros, no SLAs, no views, no assignment rules and no CSAT reporting. Thredo is the agent and a shared inbox to watch it work. Teams that already run Gorgias or Zendesk should not expect to remove them, and nobody should rip out a working helpdesk to get a different bot.
Which one verifies who it is talking to?
This is the one place Thredo is ahead, and it only matters on an anonymous channel. In web chat there is no account behind the visitor, so before returning anything about an order Thredo asks for two facts that must both match, fails closed on a miss, and gives an identical answer whether the order is missing or the details are wrong — so the widget cannot be used to test whether an order exists. Vendors whose agents live in email inherit identity from the sending address instead, which works right up until the channel is a public chat box.
Try it against your own tickets.
50 messages free, no card. The comparison that counts is the one on your own queue, not on anyone's table.