Gorgias alternative for stores tired of paying per ticket

Quick context: I am Tommy, the founder of Trigli. Gorgias is a legitimately good product, especially if you live inside the Shopify world. The reason people end up on this page is usually price scaling, the helpdesk-vs-Gmail decision, or both.

The short version

Gorgias is a helpdesk built for Shopify stores. The integration with order data is real and useful. Their AI Agent can resolve repetitive tickets autonomously and is priced at $0.40 per AI resolution on top of your plan.

Trigli is not a helpdesk and does not try to be one. We connect to Gmail, read your docs, and draft replies. The pricing is flat. We have a chat widget too. We are smaller in scope and that is the point.

For a lot of Shopify stores, especially small ones, the right move is "stay in Gmail, add Trigli on top." For larger ones with a real CX team, Gorgias makes sense. Both can be true.

The pricing math (read this carefully)

Gorgias plans start around $50/month for the base, then scale by ticket volume. Their AI Agent is an add-on at $0.40 per resolution.

If your store does 800 tickets/month and the AI handles 60% of them, that is 480 AI resolutions times $0.40 equals $192 in AI fees on top of your Gorgias plan. So roughly $250-400/month total depending on tier.

Trigli Growth is $149/month flat. That covers 2,500 emails, 1,000 chats, and 500 tickets across the team. Pro is around $349/month for 8,000 emails. Whether the AI handles 10% or 90%, the price does not move.

Where Gorgias wins

• You want order data, return data, and refund actions in the same UI as your support tickets. Gorgias is built for this.
• Your team is large enough that having a real helpdesk (queues, assignments, views, internal notes per agent) is worth the operational lift.
• You run a multi-store Shopify setup or have multi-channel volume (email, chat, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger) that you want centralized.
• You already have macros, rules, and views built up in Gorgias and migrating them is more work than the alternative is worth.

Where Trigli wins

• You are a small Shopify store (1-5 person team) and your support inbox is just Gmail. You do not want a second app.
• Most of your tickets are policy questions: shipping times, return windows, sizing, restocks, "where is my order". Trigli handles these by reading your policy docs.
• You want predictable monthly cost. Black Friday should not 3x your support tool bill.
• You want to be set up today, not next week.

The Shopify integration question

This is where Gorgias has a real advantage. They pull order data, refund actions, and customer profile into the helpdesk so an agent can answer "where is my order?" without leaving the screen. That workflow is good.

Trigli does not have a native Shopify app today. The way "WISMO" gets handled in Trigli: customers usually have an order number in their email. The AI extracts it, drafts a reply that says "your order is on its way, here is your tracking link", and either auto-sends or drafts based on confidence.

For a lot of stores, this is enough. The customer asked a question, they got an answer, and the link works. For stores where every ticket needs a structured order context (returns, exchanges, partial refunds), Gorgias is genuinely better.

I will not pretend otherwise. If structured Shopify actions are core to your support workflow, Gorgias is the right pick.

How the AI behaves differently

Gorgias AI Agent runs autonomously inside their inbox. It tries to resolve tickets end-to-end and you pay per resolution.

Trigli runs in your Gmail. Every reply gets a confidence score. You decide what auto-sends. By default we run in draft mode for the first week so you can see the model is using your docs correctly. After you trust it, you raise the auto-send threshold and most repetitive volume goes out without you touching it.

Both approaches work. The trade is autonomy speed vs. pre-flight verification. We default to verification because the failure mode of a wrong reply going to a customer is worse than the failure mode of a draft sitting in your inbox an extra few minutes.

When you should keep Gorgias

You should not switch off Gorgias if:

• You have a 5+ person CX team that lives inside Gorgias all day. The cost of moving them is not worth it.
• Your support depends on Gorgias actions like processing returns or refunds inside the same UI as the ticket.
• You run Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, or SMS through Gorgias and need a centralized inbox.
• You already have a tuned Gorgias setup and the AI Agent cost is not yet your main pain point.

When Trigli is the better fit

• You are a 1-5 person Shopify store and Gmail is still working fine for your team.
• You looked at Gorgias and the math does not work for your volume.
• You want AI to draft replies but you want to review them before they go out, at least at first.
• You want a chat widget on your site without standing up a full helpdesk to support it.

What Trigli does not do (be honest with yourself)

• No native Shopify app for orders, returns, or refunds inside the AI workflow. Order tracking yes, structured actions no.
• No social channels. We do email, live chat, and tickets. That is it.
• No multi-store setup inside one tenant. One brand per tenant for now.
• No deep CSAT/NPS reporting dashboards.
• Outlook is on the roadmap. Gmail only today.

How to actually compare them

1. Pull your last 30 days of support tickets.
2. Categorize: "policy question (return, shipping, sizing)", "WISMO with tracking link", "needs a Shopify action (refund, exchange)", "real edge case".
3. If buckets one and two are 60%+ of volume, Trigli will cover most of your repetitive load. Try the free tier on real email and see how the drafts look.
4. If bucket three (Shopify actions) is more than 30% of volume, the helpdesk integration matters. Gorgias is probably the right call.