ZendeskGorgiasZendesk vs Gorgias

Zendesk vs Gorgias: help desk suite or ecommerce help desk

A help desk suite against an ecommerce help desk: Gorgias is $215 a month cheaper for five people. Where Zendesk and Gorgias split, and a third option for small teams.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

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The short answer

Pick Zendesk if your support is ticket-first and email-heavy, with SLAs and a queue to manage. Pick Gorgias if you sell on Shopify, BigCommerce or Magento and want refunds and order edits from the ticket. For five people, Gorgias is $215 a month cheaper than Zendesk ($275 a month on Zendesk against $60 on Gorgias), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45, comes in $15 below Gorgias. Zendesk and Gorgias both include website chat, email and Instagram in the price; only Gorgias has WhatsApp. Neither Zendesk nor Gorgias includes Telegram outright. For a team of two to ten weighing Zendesk against Gorgias, the third option below puts chat and tickets at one workspace price.

At a glanceZendeskZendeskGorgiasGorgias
Built aroundTickets and a queue · messaging came laterShopify orders · tickets priced by volume
Entry plan$19/agent/mo · Support Team: email and tickets$10/mo · Starter: 50 tickets
Chat in the price$55/agent/mo · Suite Team$60/mo · Basic: 300 tickets, any agents
AI agentPer automated resolution · rate quoted, not printedAbout $1 per resolution · and it counts as a ticket
Copilot for agents$50/agent/moIncluded · AI-assisted replies
Free planNone · 14-day trialNone · trial offered

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    ZendeskZendesk

    As a ticket. Every channel, chat included, becomes a ticket with a status, a priority and an SLA clock. Gorgias raises tickets too, from Shopify orders.

    GorgiasGorgias

    As a ticket with the Shopify order beside it, so an agent can refund or edit without leaving. Zendesk raises tickets too, from tickets and a queue.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    ZendeskZendesk

    $19 buys email and tickets. Live chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and AI agents start at Suite Team, $55. $275 for five people, against $60 on Gorgias.

    GorgiasGorgias

    There are no seats: $60 buys 300 tickets a month for any number of agents, and about $0.40 a ticket past that. $60 for five people, against $275 on Zendesk.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    ZendeskZendesk

    AI agents are priced per automated resolution on top of seats, and the rate comes from your quote. Gorgias meters AI (about $1 per resolution) above the seats as well.

    GorgiasGorgias

    AI Agent is about $1 per resolved conversation, and each resolution also counts as a ticket. Zendesk meters AI (per automated resolution) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    ZendeskZendesk

    Email, chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and voice on Suite plans; WhatsApp conversation fees still apply. Gorgias adds WhatsApp, which Zendesk lacks.

    GorgiasGorgias

    Email, chat, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and SMS, with the store's order data in every one. WhatsApp is here and not on Zendesk.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    ZendeskZendesk

    A contact center: voice, workforce management, QA, and a marketplace of over a thousand apps. Gorgias is an ecommerce help desk instead.

    GorgiasGorgias

    Revenue reporting, order actions, convert campaigns and deep Shopify, BigCommerce and Magento apps. Zendesk is a help desk suite instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    ZendeskZendesk

    A project. Queue, SLAs, routing and macros are set up before the first ticket is answered. Gorgias is hours for a Shopify store.

    GorgiasGorgias

    Hours for a Shopify store: install the app, connect the mailbox, turn on the macros. Zendesk is a project.

Sources: Zendesk pricing · Gorgias pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Zendesk Agent Workspace: a ticket view with the customer, the thread and the fields
ZendeskZendesk. The Zendesk Agent Workspace: a ticket view with the customer, the thread and the fields
The Gorgias ticket view: the customer thread with the Shopify order and actions on the right
GorgiasGorgias. The Gorgias ticket view: the customer thread with the Shopify order and actions on the right

Pricing references: Zendesk pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); Gorgias pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06; needs verification). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

Zendesk, Gorgias and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureZendeskZendeskGorgiasGorgiasSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per agent; AI per resolution; add-ons extra
Per ticket volume; AI per resolution on top.
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
None; 14-day trial
Trial only.
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
Suite plans
Chat widget.
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
All plans
Yes.
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Suite plans, plus conversation fees
Yes.
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Suite plans
Yes, including comments.
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Third-party apps only
Not a channel.
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications and side conversations
Slack notifications.
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
All plans, trained on the help center
AI Agent with Shopify actions.
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
Per automated resolution, on top of seats
About $1 per resolution, plus the ticket.
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Escalates to agents
Hands to agents.
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Ticket-first
Ticket-first.
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Triggers and automations, form-based
Rules and macros.
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Explore; advanced on higher plans
Support and revenue stats.
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile only
Browser and mobile.
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Zendesk if

  • Your support is ticket-first and email-heavy, with SLAs and a queue to manage.
  • You need phone support and a contact center in the same tool.
  • Time to the first reply is a project here and hours for a Shopify store on Gorgias.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than Gorgias's: per agent per month, billed yearly. Monthly billing costs more. No free plan.

Pick Gorgias if

  • You sell on Shopify, BigCommerce or Magento and want refunds and order edits from the ticket.
  • Ticket volume is low and steady, so paying by ticket beats paying by seat.
  • Five people cost $215 a month less than on Zendesk ($60 against $275), before AI.
  • You need WhatsApp in the price, which Zendesk does not include outright.

The third option: Sellio

  • Your team is two to ten people on chat, messaging and email. Weigh workspace pricing against $275 a month on Zendesk against $60 on Gorgias for five people; the billing units and included features differ.
  • You want a ceiling on AI spend: Zendesk meters AI (per automated resolution) above the seats, Gorgias meters AI (about $1 per resolution) above the seats, and Sellio stops at the cap you set.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Zendesk nor Gorgias includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Zendesk on Suite Team: $110, $275 and $550 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Gorgias: $60 a month for five (300 tickets a month, any number of agents); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $230 less than Zendesk and $15 less than Gorgias for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $455 under Zendesk.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Zendesk is a help desk suite built around tickets and a queue; Gorgias is an ecommerce help desk built around Shopify orders. Neither has a free plan: Zendesk offers a 14-day trial of Suite Professional, Gorgias a free trial. Zendesk and Gorgias both include website chat, email and Instagram in the price; only Gorgias has WhatsApp. Neither Zendesk nor Gorgias includes Telegram outright. Zendesk (per automated resolution) and Gorgias (about $1 per resolution) both meter AI above the seats. Zendesk and Gorgias both raise tickets, and neither Zendesk nor Gorgias ships a desktop app. Zendesk is a project; Gorgias is hours for a Shopify store.

What each price leaves out

Zendesk: AI agents are billed per automated resolution on top of the seat price; the Copilot add-on is $50 per agent per month. Gorgias: AI Agent about $0.90 to $1.00 per resolved conversation on top of the plan; extra tickets about $0.36 to $0.40 each. Beside Zendesk's per automated resolution and Gorgias's about $1 per resolution, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How these figures were read

Gorgias does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Per ticket volume, not per agent. Gorgias renders its table in the browser, so these figures were confirmed from published summaries; check the vendor page.), so they are marked unverified here beside Zendesk's, and Gorgias's pricing page should be checked before you decide.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    ZendeskZendeskAssumed $1.5$720
    GorgiasGorgiasSee vendorNot quoted
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    ZendeskZendesk · 14-day trial of Suite Professional
    GorgiasGorgias · Free trial offered
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Zendesk vs Gorgias: the questions people ask

Zendesk is a help desk suite built around tickets and a queue; Gorgias is an ecommerce help desk built around Shopify orders. Zendesk and Gorgias both raise tickets, and neither Zendesk nor Gorgias ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Zendesk $19/agent/mo (Support Team: email and tickets); Gorgias $10/mo (Starter: 50 tickets).
  • Chat in the price: Zendesk $55/agent/mo (Suite Team); Gorgias $60/mo (Basic: 300 tickets, any agents).
  • Sellio: Telegram, which neither Zendesk nor Gorgias has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Zendesk and Gorgias rows is on the shared inbox page.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

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