Gorgias vs Zendesk
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Gorgias is usage-based pricing, Zendesk is from $50/user/mo.
- How to start: Gorgias is usage-based pricing, Zendesk is from $50/user/mo.
- Where they differ: on what we checked they match — both offer public api, mobile app and sso (saml).
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Gorgias is
What Gorgias isGorgias is an ecommerce-focused helpdesk that brings connected store and order data into support tickets. Shopify accounts can expose order history and selected refund, cancellation, edit and duplication actions; billing is based on replied-to tickets, with separate automation and add-on events in applicable subscriptions.
What Zendesk is
What Zendesk isZendesk transforms customer service from a chore into a competitive advantage. It centralizes requests from email, phone, chat, and social media into a single 'ticket' system. It allows you to build a self-service portal so customers can find answers before they even contact you. With advanced analytics, it measures team performance and provides all the data needed to increase customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores.
Side by side
| Gorgias | Zendesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Customer Service | Customer Service |
| How to start | Usage-basednot a monthly price | $50/user/moverified |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes |
| Open source / self-hostable | No | No |
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | Yes |
| Visit | Gorgias ↗ | Zendesk ↗ |
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What Gorgias is built to do
- Unified ecommerce inbox
- Handles supported customer channels with connected shopper and order context.
- Shopify order actions
- Supports selected refund, cancel, edit, create and duplicate operations from tickets.
- Macros and rules
- Reuses response templates, store variables and supported workflow actions.
- Usage monitoring
- Tracks billable tickets, automated interactions and add-on consumption.
What Zendesk is built to do
- Ticketing System
- Track and assign every customer request based on priority levels.
- Zendesk Guide
- Build a help portal for your customers containing FAQs and articles.
- Answer Bot
- Automatically close tickets by suggesting relevant help articles via AI.
- Explore Analytics
- Get deep reports on metrics like first-response time and satisfaction.
Choose Gorgias if
- Ecommerce support teams that grow between 50 and 5,000 tickets a month
- Shops with many agents: the helpdesk is priced by ticket volume, never per agent
- Teams that want AI deflection billed only on resolved conversations
Skip Gorgias if
- You need to budget from a published price — the plan table is not rendered on the pricing page
- Your ticket volume is spiky; volume-based pricing punishes seasonal peaks
- You handle far more than 5,000 tickets a month — that is the top published band
Choose Zendesk if
- Support teams that need ticketing, help centre and channels as one product
- Organisations that will use the AI agent, billed per resolved request rather than per seat
- Trying it first: 14-day trial on the Professional plan
Skip Zendesk if
- You are price-sensitive — Suite Team is $55/agent/month billed annually and there is no free tier
- You need Copilot or workforce tools: those are $50/agent/month EACH on top of the plan
- You want predictable AI cost; AI agents bill per automated resolution, not per seat
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Gorgias: pros & cons
- Shopify context: Customer profiles and order history appear alongside supported tickets.
- Order actions: Authorized agents can perform selected Shopify changes without leaving Gorgias.
- Usage rather than seats: Core helpdesk pricing scales by billable ticket allowance, not agent count.
- Rules and macros: Store variables and supported actions can automate repeat workflows.
- Overage exposure: Replies beyond the included ticket allowance produce additional charges.
- Multiple billable events: One conversation can incur helpdesk, automation, voice and SMS charges.
- Shopify action limits: Some refunds, old orders, currencies and multi-store profiles restrict actions.
- Store dependency: The documented AI Agent workflow requires a connected Shopify store.
Zendesk: pros & cons
- Omnichannel Support: Agents respond to every channel from one single screen.
- Help Center: Build a professional, searchable self-service portal for your customers.
- Scalability: Services everyone from a 5-person team to a 5000-seat call center.
- AI Integration: Lighten the load with smart bots that answer basic questions.
- High Entry Cost: The initial cost of entry is quite high for small startups.
- Interface Complexity: Properly configuring every feature takes significant time and expertise.
- Tiered Reporting: The most useful reporting features are locked behind high-tier plans.
Our verdict on Gorgias
Choose Gorgias when its store-side actions reduce real ecommerce support work; model every applicable ticket, automation, voice and SMS event against seasonal volume.
Our verdict on Zendesk
The global standard for professional, scalable, and omnichannel customer support.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
Gorgias
No published plan prices verified. Gorgias either quotes on request or renders its prices in a way we could not read from the pricing page.
Zendesk
- Workforce Engagement$50/user/mo
add-ons: Copilot $50/agent/month, Workforce Engagement $50/agent/month, Contact Center $83/agent/month
- Suite Team$55/user/mo billed annually
Suite Team $55/agent/month billed annually
- Contact Center$83/user/mo
add-ons: Copilot $50/agent/month, Workforce Engagement $50/agent/month, Contact Center $83/agent/month
- Suite Professional$115/user/mo billed annually
Suite Professional $115/agent/month billed annually
Gorgias vs Zendesk: common questions
- Does Gorgias or Zendesk have a free plan?
- Gorgias has no free plan listed, while Zendesk has no free plan listed.
- What is the difference between Gorgias and Zendesk?
- On the criteria we check, on what we checked they match — both offer public api, mobile app and sso (saml). The table above lists every criterion side by side.