gorgias.comcontributed by Samuele Ongaro
The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying.
A help desk for online stores: the order, the refund button and the customer history sit inside the ticket, so support answers without leaving the reply.
Do not build this if you run a busy shop. The store actions inside the ticket are the product.
An agent seeing the order, the tracking, the items and a refund button in the reply pane answers in thirty seconds instead of three minutes with two tabs. Multiplied across a support queue, that is the entire value, and it is an integration per platform kept working as each changes.
WHEN TO KEEP PAYING
- Real ticket volume with orders behind it, where seconds per reply matter
- More than one shop platform, or a platform whose API changes often
WHEN TO BUILD
- One shop, modest volume, and you are already building the inbox. Then the shape is under Chatwoot and Help Scout elsewhere in this catalogue
WHAT TO IMPLEMENT IF YOU DO
- **The customer panel is the whole feature.** On opening a conversation, look the person up by email in the shop and show their recent orders, each with its status, tracking and items. Cached briefly, refreshed on demand
- Actions behind explicit permission and confirmation: refund, cancel, resend the confirmation, edit the address. Every one recorded with the actor and the amount, append-only
- A refund confirmation that states the amount and the order out loud. That single sentence prevents the most expensive support mistake there is
- Macros with variables filled from the order — 'your order shipped on {date} and the tracking is {number}' — because the top few questions are almost always the same three
- Email threading by Message-ID with a fixture per client, and bounces detected rather than answered
AND THE THING THAT REDUCES TICKETS MORE THAN ANY HELP DESK
Look at what people actually ask. Half of a shop's support volume is 'where is my order', and a self-service order-status page linked from the confirmation email removes most of it. Build that before the inbox — it is an afternoon and it changes the queue.
THE ONE-LINE VERSION
Buy it for volume. Whatever you do, build the order-status page first and watch the queue shrink.What you lose
- Refunds, cancellations and order lookups performed from inside the ticket, which is most of the time saved
- Deep integration with store platforms, maintained as their APIs change
- Macros that combine a reply with a store action in one click
If you would rather not build
- Your store admin in a second tab, which is free
What it costs
read from their page 15 Aug 2026
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Last read |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | $10/mo | — | 15 Aug 2026 |
Their pricing page is where these came from. Seeing a different price? Tell us.
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
FreeScout
$0A light help desk with a module system for custom sidebars.
freescout-help-desk/freescoutfree · open source
Chatwoot
$0Supports custom dashboard apps in the conversation sidebar.
chatwoot/chatwootfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
28/100
Verdict no at 28. The sidebar is buildable and worth building; a full commerce help desk with macros and maintained integrations is not.
History
tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Questions about Gorgias
answered from the record above
Is Gorgias free?
No — the plan we track is $10 a month. Starter at around $10/month billed monthly for a low ticket volume; higher tiers are priced per ticket.
Can you replace Gorgias by building your own?
KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 28 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Gorgias cost?
$10 a month on Starter — $120 a year. Recorded 10 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Gorgias?
Refunds, cancellations and order lookups performed from inside the ticket, which is most of the time saved; Deep integration with store platforms, maintained as their APIs change; Macros that combine a reply with a store action in one click. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Gorgias?
Yes: FreeScout, Chatwoot. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
Related entries
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