Alternatives
Gorgias alternatives.
Seven tools a small store considers instead of Gorgias, with what each is for and what it costs, from each vendor's own pricing page on 30 October 2026.
Written by the team behind Thredo, which is first on the list and says so. Gorgias gets a fair paragraph too: a page that only lists a product's faults is not worth reading.
Why people look
Why a store leaves Gorgias.
Usually the bill. Gorgias charges for the helpdesk by tickets and for the agent by automated interaction, and a store that only wanted the agent is paying for both. Some leave because the AI could not verify an anonymous shopper; most because $10 to $900 a month plus $0.85 to $1.00 an interaction is a Shopify Plus price on a Shopify Basic store.
What Gorgias still does better than everything below: Six documented write actions on an order, a full ecommerce helpdesk underneath, and the one every Shopify Plus brand has already heard of.
The alternatives
Seven, each for a different store.
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1. Best for stores whose customers message on whatsapp and instagram
Thredo
- Price
- $29–$269/mo
- What it meters
- Per reply the agent sends
Where it wins: WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, web chat and email on one thread per customer; order tracking that checks who is asking; cash-on-delivery confirmation and cart reminders on WhatsApp; no seats, no per-user fee. About $0.063 a conversation at 4 replies on the $79 plan.
Where it does not: Reads orders but never changes them. No helpdesk layer: no macros, SLAs or CSAT. No broadcasts or marketing campaigns. No SMS or voice.
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2. Best for shopify stores that only need storefront chat
Shopify Inbox AI
- Price
- Free
- What it meters
- Not metered
Where it wins: Included with Shopify, already installed, and it answers product questions from the catalogue with no setup at all.
Where it does not: Storefront chat only: no WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram or email. No order actions, no helpdesk.
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3. Best for teams already running intercom
Intercom Fin
- Price
- $0.99 per outcome, plus seats
- What it meters
- Per resolved conversation, plus seats
Where it wins: The most mature agent in the category, on a platform that does tickets, product tours and outbound too, and since 2026 sold on its own for teams on another helpdesk.
Where it does not: Seats on top of outcomes: $29 to $132 a seat a month, or a minimum monthly commitment of outcomes on the standalone plan. WhatsApp is a pay-as-you-go add-on per message. Priced for teams several times the size of a two-person store.
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4. Best for whatsapp broadcasts and campaigns at scale
Wati
- Price
- $39–$199/mo per workspace, 3–5 users included
- What it meters
- Per plan, per user; AI by credit
Where it wins: A mature WhatsApp platform: broadcasts, campaign automations, click-to-WhatsApp ads, Instagram and TikTok DMs, a shared team inbox, 3 to 5 users on the plan. The marketing side is what it is built around and it is strong at it.
Where it does not: The AI answers on credits on top of the plan (250 to 1,500 a month included, then $20 per 1,000), its newer AI agents are a separate add-on with no published price, extra users are $24 to $59 each, and Meta's conversation charges are billed on top of all of it.
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5. Best for an agent for any website, not only a store
Chatbase
- Price
- $40–$500/mo, 700–15,000 message credits
- What it meters
- Message credits
Where it wins: The easiest way to put an agent on any site from a handful of documents and pages, with WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Slack and Shopify on every paid plan, and a very large base of users who will tell you how it behaves.
Where it does not: It is not built around a store: no order lookup with identity checks, no cash-on-delivery confirmation, no cart reminders. Extra credits are $40 per 1,000, a second agent is $300 a year, and taking its badge off the widget is $1,188 a year. No free plan, a 7-day trial.
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6. Best for larger teams standardised on zendesk
Zendesk AI agents
- Price
- $1.50–$2.00 per automated resolution, plus $55–$149 a seat
- What it meters
- Per automated resolution, plus seats
Where it wins: Included in every Suite plan with a handful of resolutions a seat, on the most widely deployed helpdesk there is.
Where it does not: Seats first, then $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go per resolution, with WhatsApp carrying extra fees. Aimed well above a small store.
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7. Best for teams already on freshdesk
Freshdesk with Freddy
- Price
- $19–$89 a seat, 500 AI sessions once, then $49 per 100
- What it meters
- Per seat, plus AI sessions
Where it wins: The first 500 AI sessions come with any plan, so a small Freshdesk team can try the agent without a new line item.
Where it does not: Email-shaped: a session is a 72-hour email window, WhatsApp is not on the pricing page, and the 500 sessions are once per account, not per month.
Prices are each vendor's own published rate on 30 October 2026. Where a vendor publishes none, the card says so.
Questions
Questions people ask before switching.
What is the cheapest alternative to Gorgias?
For a Shopify store that only needs storefront chat, Shopify Inbox AI, which is free. For a store whose customers are on WhatsApp and Instagram, Thredo: $29 to $269 a month with no per-interaction fee, about $0.063 a conversation on the $79 plan.
Which alternative can change orders like Gorgias?
Intercom Fin and Zendesk can take actions when they are built for them. Thredo, Chatbase, Wati and Shopify Inbox read orders and hand changes to a person. If order actions are why you chose Gorgias, the honest answer is to stay.
Can I keep Gorgias and add one of these?
Yes. Gorgias for email and tickets, and an agent like Thredo on the storefront widget and WhatsApp, where the conversation is anonymous and the per-interaction fee bites. They do not fight over one inbox.
Try the first one on your own queue.
50 messages free, no card. The comparison that counts is the one on your own last twenty conversations.
50 messages free. No card.
Prices read from the vendors' own pages, updated .