Gorgias vs Richpanel (2026): Which Ecommerce Help Desk Should You Pick?

Gorgias is the better pick for Shopify stores whose agents take order actions (refunds, cancels, edits) inside the ticket, while Richpanel fits stores that want customers to self-serve and an AI agent to close tickets on its own. On price, Gorgias starts at $10 a month for the help desk alone (50 tickets) or $40 a month with AI Agent added, and Richpanel charges $0.20 per AI-handled conversation plus $99 per seat per month (both vendors' pricing pages, checked 24 September 2026).

How do Gorgias and Richpanel compare at a glance?

How much do Gorgias and Richpanel cost?

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 help desk tiers with AI Agent billed by automated interaction. On gorgias.com/pricing (checked 24 September 2026), the help desk alone costs $10/mo on Starter (50 tickets), $60/mo on Basic (300 tickets), $360/mo on Pro (2,000 tickets) and $900/mo on Advanced (5,000 tickets), billed monthly. Adding AI Agent gives the bundles on the plan cards: Starter $40/mo, Basic $77/mo, Pro $471/mo and Advanced $1,227/mo billed annually ($90, $550 and $1,430 billed monthly for the top three). Each bundle includes a set number of automated interactions (30 on Starter and Basic, 190 on Pro, 530 on Advanced); past that, AI Agent costs $1.50 per automated interaction, and extra tickets cost $0.40 each ($0.36 on Pro and Advanced). Gorgias never prices per agent. The per-outcome 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 approach rather than fixed public tiers. Per richpanel.com/pricing (checked 24 September 2026), there are two line items: $0.20 per AI-handled conversation, charged once per conversation, and $99 per seat per month for human agents, with no per-ticket fee on top. The pricing page no longer shows the $200 monthly AI minimum or the $300 sample setup from earlier captures. Richpanel attaches a guarantee of 50% automated in 30 days or every dollar back, and lists its QA AI, Social Media Agent and Self-Service Portal as free add-ons; Returns & Exchanges starts at $99 a month. Richpanel also claims 70 to 80% of conversations resolved end to end, which is a vendor figure, so test it on your own tickets.

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-interaction AI billing means your automation spend scales with success. The incentive is worth naming: both vendors earn more AI revenue the more conversations their agent handles, so neither has a reason to tell you which tickets it should leave alone. For a fuller breakdown of the Gorgias side, see our Gorgias pricing explained guide.

Which has deeper Shopify integration?

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)?"

Which AI agent resolves more tickets?

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; Gorgias's AI Agent page cites 60% of tickets auto-resolved, while its own industry breakdown shows 48% to 53% of conversations automated depending on vertical, a reminder that outcomes vary by store and ticket mix. Gorgias AI is strongest on email and chat; SMS and voice are add-ons priced by call and text volume. 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.

Which covers more channels?

Richpanel wins on breadth out of the box: email, chat, social, SMS, and WhatsApp run on the same meter, which is attractive if you sell to regions where WhatsApp is the default support channel. Richpanel's pricing page doesn't list voice, so confirm phone support on a call if you need it. Gorgias covers email, chat, and social natively, with SMS and voice as paid add-ons billed by volume. 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.

Which is easier to set up and use?

Richpanel earns consistent praise for a clean, intuitive interface and quick onboarding on G2, where it has held a rating around 4.7 out of 5, 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 has rated around 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.

What are the pros and cons of each?

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-interaction AI and ticket overages) can climb at high volume; AI concentrated on email/chat; SMS/voice cost extra; some rule/reporting rough edges.

Richpanel pros: self-service portal included free; email, chat, social, SMS and WhatsApp on one meter; autonomous AI with a 50%-in-30-days guarantee; clean UI and quick onboarding; strong G2 rating. Cons: thinner Shopify action set than Gorgias; no native internal notes/collision detection; reported analytics inconsistencies; no voice listed; seat cost of $99 a month adds up for larger teams.

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 $1.50 per automated interaction past your allowance. It's also the safer pick if you want the largest ecommerce help-desk ecosystem; our Gorgias review goes deeper.
• Pick Richpanel if your strategy is deflection through self-service, you want WhatsApp and SMS on the same meter as email and chat, you value a money-back resolution guarantee, and you have a smaller agent team where $99 seats stay affordable.
• 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 runs on Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Front, HubSpot or Intercom. 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. (Macha bills per ticket: one conversation, charged once however many messages it takes, never per resolution, from $299 a month for up to 750 tickets. The bill never hangs on an outcome definition you don't control.)

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 charges $0.20 per AI-handled conversation plus $99 per seat per month, with no per-ticket fee. Gorgias's help desk starts at $10/mo for 50 tickets; with AI Agent the annual-billed bundles are Starter $40, Basic $77, Pro $471 and Advanced $1,227 a month, then $1.50 per automated interaction past the allowance. Both checked 24 September 2026; confirm 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? WhatsApp, yes: Richpanel meters email, chat, social, SMS and WhatsApp together. Its pricing page doesn't list voice, so ask sales. 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, with 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.