Gorgias vs Richpanel (2026)

At a glance

Pricing, head to head

Both vendors have moved toward usage-based billing, but they express it very differently, so read the fine print for your own ticket volume.

Gorgias sells ticket-based helpdesk tiers plus separate per-resolution AI billing. As of capture, the published plan cards on gorgias.com/pricing show Starter at $40/mo, Basic at $77/mo, Pro at $471/mo, and Advanced at $1,227/mo, with AI Agent and Automate billed per resolved conversation on top. (Gorgias iterates its pricing frequently — its live page has at times shown a lower ticket-tier entry point — so confirm today's numbers before you commit.) The per-resolution AI model is a real, citable design choice: you pay for outcomes rather than seats, which suits collaborative teams, but reviewers on Capterra note that overage and per-conversation AI charges can push a bill from a few hundred dollars into four figures during a peak season.

Richpanel takes a usage-based calculator approach rather than fixed public tiers. Per richpanel.com/pricing, the model is "two line items, one plan": $0.20 per AI conversation with a $200/mo minimum, plus $100/seat/mo for human agents. A common starting setup — one AI agent plus one seat — lands around $300/mo as of capture, and Richpanel attaches a resolution guarantee (a stated minimum of 50% of tickets resolved by AI in the first 30 days, or your money back). The trade-off some reviewers flag is that once you add the self-service portal, WhatsApp, and social moderation, the "two line items" can grow into several, so model your real channel mix.

The honest read: at low seat counts with heavy AI deflection, Richpanel's calculator can be predictable and competitive. At higher agent counts, Gorgias's ticket-based, unlimited-seat model often wins on cost per person — but its per-resolution AI billing means your automation spend scales with success. For a fuller breakdown of the Gorgias side, see our Gorgias pricing explained guide.

Ecommerce & Shopify depth

This is where the two diverge most. Gorgias was built Shopify-first, and it shows: agents get a native order sidebar and a large library of Shopify actions — refunds, cancellations, order edits, address changes, discount codes, even order creation — that they trigger without leaving the ticket. Independent comparisons peg Gorgias at a notably larger set of native Shopify actions than Richpanel, which is the single most-praised capability in Gorgias reviews. If a large share of your tickets require an agent to do something in Shopify, that depth is hard to beat. (New to the platform? Start with what is Gorgias.)

Richpanel covers the core ecommerce workflows well — it pulls Shopify order context, handles address edits and order drafts, and integrates with Loop, Recharge, TikTok Shop, AfterShip and more — but its center of gravity is the self-service portal. Customers log in, see their orders, and resolve routine requests (WISMO, returns, cancellations) without ever opening a ticket. Reviewers say the portal alone can cut inbound email meaningfully. So the framing is less "who has more Shopify actions" and more "do you want to empower agents (Gorgias) or empower customers to help themselves (Richpanel)?"

AI & automation

Both platforms now lead with an AI agent, and both claim strong deflection, so treat vendor headline numbers as ceilings, not guarantees. Gorgias's AI Agent reads the full conversation, pulls live Shopify data, and can take actions to resolve a ticket end to end; the company cites up to ~60% instant resolution, though at least one public case study lands lower — a reminder that outcomes vary by store and ticket mix. Gorgias AI is strongest on email and chat; SMS and voice are add-ons. For the mechanics, see our Gorgias AI Agent explained piece.

Richpanel positions its agent as autonomous — designed to resolve tickets fully across channels — and backs it with the money-back resolution guarantee above. That guarantee is a genuine differentiator for risk-averse buyers. The category context matters too: whichever vendor you evaluate, the underlying capability is a form of AI agents for customer service, and the real question is how well each one grounds answers in your policies and your order data rather than a generic FAQ.

Channels

Richpanel wins on breadth out of the box: email, chat, social, SMS, WhatsApp, and voice are part of the platform, which is attractive if you sell to regions where WhatsApp is the default support channel. Gorgias covers email, chat, and social natively, with SMS and voice as paid add-ons billed separately. For a WhatsApp-first or truly omnichannel brand, Richpanel's included channels can simplify both the stack and the invoice; for a store where email and chat carry 90% of volume, Gorgias's core coverage is usually plenty.

Ease & onboarding

Richpanel earns consistent praise for a clean, intuitive interface and quick onboarding — it holds a 4.7/5 average on G2 across ~94 reviews, with reviewers singling out ease of use and responsive support. The notable gaps: reviewers report no internal notes/collision detection for looping in a teammate on a live conversation, and some flag inconsistent analytics data, which matters if you make staffing or SLA decisions off those reports.

Gorgias sits at 4.6 on both G2 and Capterra, with a large, mature review base for an ecommerce help desk. Praise centers on the Shopify sidebar and the ships-fast product cadence; the recurring complaints are cost at scale and occasional rule/automation quirks. Neither tool is hard to start; the difference is that Gorgias rewards teams who invest in rules and macros, while Richpanel rewards teams who invest in the self-service portal and knowledge base.

Pros and cons

Gorgias — pros: deepest native Shopify action library; unlimited agents on ticket-based pricing; fast-moving product; revenue-driving automation; huge review base. Cons: costs (especially per-resolution AI and overages) can climb at high volume; AI concentrated on email/chat; SMS/voice cost extra; some rule/reporting rough edges.

Richpanel — pros: excellent customer self-service portal; broad channels (incl. WhatsApp/voice) included; autonomous AI with a resolution guarantee; clean UI and quick onboarding; strong 4.7 G2 rating. Cons: thinner Shopify action set than Gorgias; no native internal notes/collision detection; reported analytics inconsistencies; add-ons can multiply the "two line items."

Which should you choose?

• Pick Gorgias if you're a Shopify or Shopify Plus store where a large share of tickets require real order actions (refunds, cancels, edits), you want unlimited agents, and you're comfortable paying per resolved AI conversation. It's also the safer pick if you want the largest, most battle-tested ecommerce help-desk ecosystem — our Gorgias review goes deeper.
• Pick Richpanel if your strategy is deflection through self-service, you need WhatsApp/SMS/voice included, you value a money-back resolution guarantee, and you have a smaller agent team where the usage-based calculator stays predictable.
• Still deciding? Our roundup of the best Gorgias alternatives sets both in the wider ecommerce field.

Whichever help desk you land on, the AI agent layer is where the real deflection happens — and you don't have to marry it to your help-desk vendor. Macha runs on top of the help desk you already use (including Gorgias) as an added AI agent layer — it's not a help desk you migrate to, and it's not one of the two tools compared above. It reads and writes the same tickets, grounds answers in your policies and live order data, and can look up order status through a custom tool that turns a REST API into an action the agent can call. If you go with Gorgias, our Macha + Gorgias integration shows how the layer sits on top. (Credits are consumed per AI action, not per resolution — see the pricing breakdown.)

FAQ

Is Gorgias or Richpanel better for Shopify? Both integrate with Shopify, but Gorgias has the deeper native action library — refunds, cancellations, order edits and more triggered from inside the ticket. Richpanel covers core Shopify workflows and leans on its customer self-service portal for deflection. If agents need to take many order actions, Gorgias; if you want customers self-serving, Richpanel.

How much does Richpanel cost vs Gorgias? Richpanel uses a usage-based calculator: $0.20 per AI conversation ($200/mo minimum) plus $100/seat/mo, with a sample setup around $300/mo as of capture. Gorgias uses ticket-based tiers (Starter $40, Basic $77, Pro $471, Advanced $1,227/mo as of capture) plus per-resolved-conversation AI billing. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's page.

Which has better AI automation? Both offer AI agents that resolve tickets end to end. Gorgias's AI reads live Shopify data and takes actions on email/chat; Richpanel markets an autonomous agent across channels with a money-back resolution guarantee. Real deflection rates vary by store, so pilot before committing.

Does Richpanel support WhatsApp and voice? Yes — Richpanel includes email, chat, social, SMS, WhatsApp and voice in the platform. On Gorgias, email, chat and social are native while SMS and voice are paid add-ons.

Can I add AI to Gorgias without switching help desks? Yes. An AI agent layer like Macha connects on top of Gorgias (and other help desks) and works the same tickets — no migration. It grounds replies in your policies and order data while your help desk stays the system of record.

Ready to add grounded AI agents on top of the help desk you already run? Start a free trial of Macha and connect it in minutes.