Everyday · Head-to-Head

Gorgias vs. Re:amaze for a Small Shopify DTC Store's Helpdesk

Two Shopify-first helpdesks a small DTC owner is realistically choosing between in 2026. We compared current pricing, billing math, AI pricing, and channel coverage from the vendors' own pages to say which one fits a small store, and when.

Tested by Hannah Osei·October 16, 2026·4 rounds

Gorgias

1round

83 / 100 overall

Re:amaze

3rounds

80 / 100 overall

The verdict

For a small Shopify DTC store with one or two support people and steady, predictable ticket volume, Re:amaze is the safer monthly bill: $29 per seat on Basic, unlimited conversations, and an AI Agent that charges $0.85 per extra resolution with no per-ticket surcharge sitting underneath it. Pick Gorgias if your store's edge is pre-sales chat and ad-driven volume you expect to grow, if you want an AI Agent that already resolves whole conversations in-platform, or if one or two agents will handle hundreds of tickets a month (Gorgias's unlimited seats on Basic beat Re:amaze's per-seat math once the team grows). Both are month-to-month with no contract, both integrate deeply with Shopify, and neither is wrong for a small store. The choice is really about whether your bill should scale with tickets or with people.

This is the comparison a lot of small Shopify owners actually run right before they commit a helpdesk to a credit card. Gorgias is the Shopify-native option most paid-ad brands default to. Re:amaze is the quieter per-seat alternative that keeps turning up in "cheaper than Gorgias" threads. Both are month-to-month, both ship a shared inbox across email, chat, and social, and both now bundle an AI agent of some kind into every plan. The real question is which pricing model fits your store.

Note the method up front: this is a documentation and pricing comparison, not a hands-on bake-off. We read both vendors' current official pricing pages, their public billing documentation, and their support help centers in October 2026. We didn't install either tool for this piece, so every claim below is cited to the primary source it came from, and the rounds stick to the decisions a small Shopify owner can actually make from documentation: billing model, included channels, how the AI agent is priced, and how the bill behaves as the store grows. If you want our broader take on this category, see the [best AI customer support helpdesks for small Shopify DTC stores](/rankings/2026-10-06-the-best-ai-customer-support-helpdesks-for-small-shopify-dtc-stores/).

Round by round

Entry price and billing model

WinnerRe:amaze

How we testedWe read both vendors' current pricing pages (gorgias.com/pricing and reamaze.com/pricing) in October 2026 and recorded the lowest paid plan, what's included at that price, and how the plan scales (per ticket vs. per seat).

Re:amaze starts cheaper and scales more predictably for a small team. Its Basic plan is $29 per team member per month ($26.10 billed annually) with unlimited email inboxes, live chat, social channels, chatbots, and the Re:amaze AI Agent included. Gorgias starts at $10/month on Starter with 50 tickets, and its Basic tier includes 300 tickets per month. A solo owner answering fewer than 50 tickets a month pays less on Gorgias Starter. A one- or two-person team answering several hundred emails a month usually pays less on Re:amaze Basic, and the price is tied to headcount they already know rather than to a ticket meter they've to watch.

What the AI agent costs

WinnerRe:amaze

How we testedWe compared the published AI pricing on each vendor's own pricing page: what's included per plan, what overages cost, and how the AI usage interacts with the base plan's ticket or conversation count.

Re:amaze's AI pricing is simpler per interaction. On the Re:amaze pricing page, Basic includes 5 AI Agent resolutions per user per month, Pro includes 10, and Plus includes 20, with additional resolutions billed at $0.85 each. Gorgias bundles AI Agent into every plan with prepaid allotments (30 automated interactions on Starter and Basic, 190 on Pro, 530 on Advanced). Here's the important wrinkle, documented on Gorgias's own billing help page: when AI Agent fully resolves a ticket without handing it to a human, that single ticket is charged both a helpdesk ticket fee and an automation fee. If you expect to lean on AI, that compounding bill is the single biggest cost difference between the two.

Shopify fit and channel coverage

WinnerGorgias

How we testedWe read each vendor's pricing-page feature lists and official product pages for Shopify integration depth, included channels per tier, and what counts as an add-on versus included.

Gorgias is more clearly built around Shopify-first ecommerce, and the numbers reflect it. Its pricing page states Gorgias powers customer conversations for 40% of Shopify brands. Gorgias's billing documentation lists helpdesk channels including email, chat, contact forms, and integrations with social channels like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with Voice and SMS available as paid add-ons on any plan. Re:amaze is also Shopify-friendly, but on Basic you get unlimited email, live chat, social, chatbots, and Cues. SMS and voice channels don't appear until the Pro tier at $49 per seat per month. For a small DTC store whose growth engine is paid ads and whose support team doubles as a pre-sales channel, Gorgias covers more of that work closer to the entry tier.

How the bill behaves at a growing store

WinnerRe:amaze

How we testedWe modeled a hypothetical small Shopify store with 2 agents and 400 tickets a month against each vendor's current published rates: Re:amaze Basic at $29/seat with unlimited conversations plus any AI overages, and Gorgias Basic with 300 included tickets and $0.40 per extra ticket, per the Gorgias billing documentation example. All figures are from the vendors' pricing and documentation pages in October 2026; the model is illustrative, not a result from running the tools.

For a steady, predictable small store, Re:amaze is usually cheaper. Two agents on Re:amaze Basic is $58 a month ($29 × 2) with unlimited conversations and 10 included AI resolutions. On Gorgias Basic, the billing docs give the example of $60/month for 300 tickets plus $0.40 per extra ticket, so 400 tickets would be $60 + $40 = $100 before any AI Agent spend. Flip on Gorgias AI Agent and, per Gorgias's billing docs, any ticket AI Agent fully resolves without a human handoff is charged both the helpdesk ticket fee and an additional automation fee. The pattern flips, though, once your team grows: Gorgias doesn't charge per agent, so a 5-person support team on Gorgias Basic is still the same helpdesk fee while Re:amaze Basic is $145. The honest answer is that the "winner" here depends on which number grows faster at your store, tickets or people.

This is the comparison a lot of small Shopify owners actually run before they commit a helpdesk to a credit card. Both tools are legitimate choices for a small store in 2026, and neither will embarrass you in front of your customers. The question is which pricing model fits the way your store is growing.

Where Re:amaze wins

Re:amaze is the simpler bill. Basic is $29 per team member per month ($26.10 billed annually) with unlimited email inboxes, live chat, social media channels, chatbots, workflow automation, and Re:amaze AI Agent included. On the AI side, Basic includes 5 AI Agent resolutions per month per user, Pro includes 10, and Plus includes 20, at $0.85 per additional resolution. There’s no second meter running underneath. A resolution is a resolution.

The flat-rate Starter plan is a specific, useful edge case. Re:amaze’s Starter plan gives you all Basic features for unlimited team members at $59 a month flat, limited to 500 responded conversations per month. If you’re a founder with a part-time VA and a seasonal spike, that’s a cleaner answer than any Gorgias tier.

Where Gorgias wins

Gorgias wins on Shopify-first depth, and on seat economics once your team gets past one or two people. The pricing page and billing docs are explicit about both: AI Agent is on every plan, the Helpdesk scales from 50 to 5,000 tickets a month across tiers, and billing is based on tickets rather than seat count. A support team of five on Gorgias Basic pays the same helpdesk fee as a team of two; the same team of five on Re:amaze Basic is five seats at $29 each.

Channel coverage is wider too. Gorgias’s billing documentation describes helpdesk channels including email, chat, contact forms, and integrations with social channels like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with Voice and SMS available as paid add-ons on any plan. On Re:amaze, SMS and voice channels don’t appear until the Pro plan at $49 per team member per month. For a small DTC store running Meta and TikTok ads, that gap is real.

The thing to go in with your eyes open about is how Gorgias counts. Per Gorgias’s billing docs, a helpdesk ticket is any ticket with at least one message sent from the helpdesk, whether that message comes from a human agent, AI Agent, or a Rule. And when AI Agent fully resolves a ticket without handing it to a human, that same ticket is charged both a ticket fee and an automation fee. A conversation the AI fully handles can show up on both meters, which is a defensible design choice but changes the AI math substantially.

Who should pick which

Pick Re:amaze if you’re a one- or two-person team with steady ticket volume, you want a bill that moves with headcount instead of a ticket meter, and you’re mostly looking for a strong shared inbox plus proactive chat. The $0.85-per-resolution AI pricing is the cleanest in this comparison, and the Starter plan is a real deal for stores whose volume is low but spiky.

Pick Gorgias if your store’s advantage is pre-sales chat and ad-driven volume, if your inbox needs SMS from day one via the add-on, or if your support team is already more than two people. AI Agent is on every plan, the Helpdesk scales from 50 to 5,000 tickets a month, and the bill is tied to ticket volume rather than seat count. That ceiling is where Gorgias quietly becomes the cheaper tool.

One note on everything downstream of the helpdesk. The helpdesk you choose is the frontline for every review request, SMS flow, and refund experience your store ships. If you haven’t already picked those tools, our guides to the best AI review request tools for local service businesses chasing Google reviews and the best AI SMS marketing platforms for small Shopify DTC stores are the companion reads to this one. Pick the helpdesk based on how your bill is going to grow, not on who has the better landing page.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Is Gorgias or Re:amaze cheaper for a small Shopify store?

It depends on how you grow. Re:amaze Basic is $29 per team member per month with unlimited conversations, so a one- or two-person team with a few hundred tickets a month usually pays less there. Gorgias Basic includes 300 tickets a month and isn't priced per agent, so once your support team is three or more people answering steady volume, Gorgias's seat-free pricing often comes out ahead. The AI Agent changes the math on both sides.

How does Gorgias AI Agent pricing actually work?

Gorgias bundles AI Agent into every plan with a prepaid allotment of automated interactions (30 on Starter and Basic, 190 on Pro, 530 on Advanced). The gotcha, documented on Gorgias's own help center, is that when AI Agent fully resolves a ticket without handing it to a human, that single ticket is charged both a helpdesk ticket fee and an automation fee.

Does Re:amaze integrate with Shopify as deeply as Gorgias?

Both integrate with Shopify, but Gorgias is more clearly Shopify-first. Its pricing page claims Gorgias powers customer conversations for 40% of Shopify brands. Re:amaze supports Shopify natively on all plans; it's a strong fit for Shopify stores but positions itself as a horizontal helpdesk, not a Shopify-first product.

Can I cancel either plan if it isn't working?

Both are month-to-month. Re:amaze's pricing page says there are no contracts, no cancellation fees, and you can cancel at any time; its help docs add that annual plans are billed upfront for the year and that uninstalling the Shopify app doesn't cancel the subscription.