Gorgias is the helpdesk e-commerce brands actually want — automated, fast, and deeply tied to Shopify.
Gorgias is a customer support helpdesk launched in 2015 in San Francisco by Romain Lapeyre and Alex Plugaru. The founders started it because they were running a Shopify store and were drowning in repetitive support tickets — order status, refund requests, "where is my package?" — and the existing helpdesks (Zendesk, Freshdesk, etc.) treated those tickets as plain text. Gorgias was built from day one to understand that an incoming message about an order is not just a message — it's a link to a real order, with line items, a fulfillment status, and a refund button.
Since then, Gorgias has grown into a leading helpdesk for direct-to-consumer brands and is one of the most-installed apps in the Shopify App Store. It pulls in email, live chat, social DMs (Instagram, Facebook, Messenger), SMS, and even voice into a single agent view, and surrounds every conversation with the relevant store context.
Every ticket that mentions an order gets a side panel showing the customer's last 5 orders, lifetime spend, line items, and tracking status. You can issue a refund, cancel an order, or create a discount — all without leaving the ticket.
Macros are templated replies with merge tags. You can attach them to rules so that, for example, any ticket containing "where is my order" auto-replies with the tracking link pulled live from Shopify.
Gorgias' AI can detect the intent ("WISMO", "return request", "address change") and either draft a reply for the agent to approve or send a fully automated response. It learns from your macros and edits over time.
On-site chat that ties back to the customer's order history. You can also build triggered chat campaigns (e.g., 20% off coupon shown after 60 seconds on a high-AOV page).
Cloud phone system that pops a caller's order history on the agent's screen. Useful for premium brands with a phone-first support culture.
Tracks how much revenue support agents recover or generate (e.g., saved sales from a discount code, recovered abandoned carts). Helps prove support as a revenue center.
Gorgias prices on a per-month subscription that scales with the number of tickets and the level of automation you need, not strictly per agent. Always check Gorgias' pricing page for the latest numbers — public tiers are roughly:
Expect an additional per-seat charge for extra agents on lower tiers, and a usage cap on AI-generated responses that you can buy down with add-on credits if you go heavy on automation. There's no free plan, but Gorgias does run periodic promos — including a discount on your first month that you can verify at checkout.
| Feature | Gorgias | Zendesk | Kustomer | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for e-commerce | Yes (Shopify-native) | No (general) | Yes (CRM-first) | No (general) |
| Order actions in ticket | Native | App required | Native | App required |
| AI auto-responder | Built-in | Add-on cost | Limited | Add-on (AI Drafts) |
| Live chat included | Yes | Add-on | Yes | Yes (Beacon) |
| Voice built-in | Add-on | Add-on | No | No |
| Best fit | Shopify/Magento DTC | Large enterprises | Omnichannel retail | SaaS & service SMBs |
| Starting price | Check current page | ~$19/agent/mo | Custom (premium) | ~$20/user/mo |
If you don't sell physical products, Help Scout is a friendlier, cheaper helpdesk. If you need enterprise governance and a sprawling ticketing system with hundreds of custom fields, Zendesk is still the safer pick. Kustomer is the closest direct competitor to Gorgias in e-commerce, but it leans more into a CRM model and is priced for larger retail ops.
Create a workspace at the official Gorgias site and connect Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, or WooCommerce in one click. Your products, orders, and customers will sync within minutes.
Use the importer to pull in historical tickets from your previous helpdesk (Zendesk, Front, Help Scout, etc.). Rebuild your top 5–10 macro templates — these are what the AI will learn from.
Start with the AI suggesting replies rather than auto-sending. Once you trust the accuracy, switch specific intents to fully automated mode.
Route WISMO ("where is my order") tickets to an order-tracking macro. Tag refund requests automatically. Auto-respond to shipping confirmation inquiries.
Add Instagram, Facebook, and SMS to centralize inbound. Install the chat widget on your storefront, ideally on the cart and PDP pages.
Gorgias is the helpdesk we'd actually deploy for a fast-growing DTC brand. It cuts WISMO tickets, lets agents issue refunds without leaving the tab, and gives you an AI layer that genuinely learns from your macros. Click below to start a trial and see the order sidebar in action.
Get started with Gorgias →Yes — Shopify is Gorgias' deepest integration. It syncs orders, customers, products, refunds, gift cards, and discounts in real time, and lets agents take action (refund, cancel, edit address) directly from the ticket sidebar. There's also a top-rated Gorgias app inside the Shopify App Store.
Public tiers start at an entry-level Starter plan and scale up to Pro, Advanced, and Enterprise. Pricing is mostly ticket-volume-based, with optional per-seat fees. Check Gorgias' pricing page for the current numbers — they change occasionally.
For most e-commerce brands, yes. If you live in Shopify and your support is mostly order-related, Gorgias will be faster, cleaner, and often cheaper. If you're a large enterprise with custom workflows, SLAs across business units, or non-storefront products, Zendesk still has more governance and customization.
It depends on the intent. Most Gorgias customers start with the AI in "Suggest" mode (drafts only) and only flip categories like order tracking or subscription management to fully automated mode once the accuracy is verified. You can also gate auto-replies behind rules (e.g., only for repeat customers, only during business hours).
Yes, via the Voice add-on. Calls are routed through a cloud PBX, and the caller's order history appears in the agent view. Pricing is per-number and per-minute on top of your Gorgias plan.
Email, live chat, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, SMS, WhatsApp (on higher tiers), voice, and a contact-form widget. All of these collapse into a single threaded conversation per customer.
Yes. Gorgias has a guided importer for Zendesk, Front, Help Scout, Freshdesk, and a generic CSV path for anything else. Most brands complete a small-store migration in a day; larger ones with custom fields take a week.
No standing free plan, but Gorgias runs periodic promotions including a discount on the first month for new accounts. You can also test most features during a trial before committing.
Gorgias is the most focused e-commerce helpdesk on the market in 2026, and the gap between it and generalist tools like Zendesk is wider than ever for DTC brands. The combination of a real Shopify-native order sidebar, a learning AI auto-responder, and clean multi-channel routing is genuinely productive, not just marketing. Pricing climbs as you grow, but the math usually works: if Gorgias' automation removes 30% of your tickets and lets one agent do the work of two, the line item on the invoice is a bargain.
Where it's weaker — reporting depth, complex BPO/queue routing, anything outside of physical-goods e-commerce — those are real limitations. Just don't buy Gorgias for those reasons. Buy it because you sell on Shopify, your support inbox is full of WISMO and refund tickets, and you want an AI that learns your voice and your policies. For that team, it's a clear buy.
Founders of growing online stores use Gorgias to automate up to 50% of common support tickets, ensuring rapid responses 24/7 and allowing smaller teams to manage higher inquiry volumes.
Support teams leverage Gorgias's unified inbox and direct access to customer order data to resolve issues faster and provide personalized recommendations, improving customer satisfaction.
Marketing managers utilize Gorgias's pre-sale AI agent to answer product questions and offer personalized suggestions, guiding potential buyers through the purchase journey and boosting conversion rates.
Quarterly access to product leadership.
Bonus credits redeemable on partner tooling.
We re-verify the offer every quarter so it never goes stale.
Hit the button on this page — opens the partner site in a new tab.
Check your investor or accelerator benefits portal for the Gorgias partner code. Y Combinator, Sequoia, and most Tier 1 VCs have codes available.
Renewals stay at the same rate — verified by us, not the vendor.
| Feature | Gorgias |
|---|---|
| Free trial | 14 days |
| Cheapest paid plan | $0/mo |
| Annual discount | Up to 25% |
| Refund window | 30 days |
| Setup time | < 1 hour |
| Best for | Founders |
“Best investment for Shopify stores with 300+ monthly tickets”
“AI agent handles 40% of tickets autonomously during peak season”
“Gorgias is the only helpdesk built for Shopify merchants”
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25% CASHBACK
