Gorgias vs Zendesk: Which Customer Support Platform is Better for Your Ecommerce Brand?

Here's what happens when you run customer support from Gmail.

Someone emails asking where their order is. You copy the email, switch to Shopify, search for the customer, find the order, copy the tracking number, switch back to Gmail, paste, and send.

Meanwhile, the same customer DMs you on Instagram with the same question. You didn't see it. Three hours pass. Now they're annoyed.

You're bouncing between Gmail, Shopify, Instagram, and Facebook. Things fall through the cracks. Customers wait too long.

This is how support breaks. Not from hard questions — just from too many tabs.

You need a help desk that brings everything into one place.

Two of the most common options for ecommerce teams are Gorgias and Zendesk, each built with a different approach to support.

Gorgias is built for ecommerce. You can manage orders, refunds, and subscriptions right inside support tickets.

Zendesk is a general platform with enterprise features and deep customization, but it's not designed specifically for online stores.

If you're on Shopify or BigCommerce and tired of tab-switching, Gorgias makes more sense. If you need heavy customization or run multiple business models, Zendesk might be worth the extra setup.

What is Gorgias?

Gorgias is a help desk built specifically for ecommerce brands.

It doesn't try to serve SaaS companies or call centers or agencies. It's laser-focused on online stores selling physical products that need to handle order-related questions fast.

The whole platform is designed around one core idea: your support team shouldn't have to leave the help desk to take action on customer orders.

Best For

If you run an ecommerce store on Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento and handle 50+ support tickets a month, Gorgias is for you.

It's also ideal if you want deep store integration and prefer paying based on ticket volume instead of per-person fees.

How It Actually Works

When a customer emails "Where's my order?", your agent doesn't need to open Shopify.

The ticket shows the customer's full order history, current order status, shipping tracking, and past conversations. 

Your agent can issue a refund, cancel the order, update the address, or pause a subscription without switching tabs.

As one Capterra reviewer put it: "We can see all Shopify data next to each conversation and even automate order lookups and edits. It's not just another shared inbox."

That saves real time. Your team stops copy-pasting order numbers and toggling between windows.

Gorgias pulls everything into one inbox: email, live chat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, SMS, phone calls. If a customer DMs you on Instagram then follows up via email, your agent sees the entire conversation thread in one place.

Another user said it plainly on Capterra: "Our marketing team suggested Gorgias instead of Zendesk. When we started using it, our staff fell in love with it. Having the customer's Shopify sale within the screen while chatting, emailing, or calling is amazing."

Pricing is ticket-based, not per-person. Most plans let you add unlimited team members. You pay for how many tickets you handle each month, starting at $10/month for 50 tickets and going up to $900/month for 2,000+ tickets.

Gorgias AI Agent can auto-resolve common questions like "Where's my order?" and return requests. Many stores see 40–60% of their tickets handled automatically.

The Downsides

Gorgias only makes sense if you're running an ecommerce store. If you're not selling products online, it's not for you.

The ticket-based pricing can spike during busy periods. A big month (Black Friday, a viral product launch) can push you over your ticket limit quickly. Overage charges run about $0.40 per extra ticket.

Some users mention that ticket load times can slow down when many rules or integrations are running at once, especially during peak seasons.

AI costs extra. The AI Agent is billed separately at roughly $1 per automated conversation on top of your base ticket fee.

Some users say it takes a little time to get comfortable with the interface, especially when first setting up workflows. Several reviewers mentioned a learning curve, but noted that the features make it worthwhile.

What is Zendesk?

Zendesk is a customer service platform that's been around since 2007.

It's built to work for any business in any industry. Airlines, SaaS companies, healthcare providers, agencies, retail stores, nonprofits. If you need customer support software, Zendesk can probably handle it.

That flexibility comes at a cost: time. 

Every field, rule, and workflow is something you have to build and maintain. If you don’t have ops resources, Zendesk can feel like a bigger setup effort than expected.

Best For

If you run an enterprise with complex support needs or have multiple brands or business models, Zendesk is for you.

It's also ideal if your team needs heavy customization and can handle the setup complexity.

How It Actually Works

Zendesk is built for flexibility and control.

You’re not tied to any specific workflow. You can customize ticket fields, automation rules, team permissions, SLA policies, routing logic, and reports. Pretty much everything.

It covers every channel you use: email, chat, phone, social, you name it. All of it flows into one workspace for your team.

One G2 reviewer explained it simply: "The user experience is simple. It consolidates all communications in one place, whether through email, live chat, or phone."

You get things other platforms upsell you for like SLAs, advanced routing, and multi-brand support.

The marketplace has 1,000+ integrations, from CRMs and project tools to ecommerce platforms.

The Downsides

Zendesk gets expensive pretty quickly. 

Pricing is per person, and most ecommerce teams end up on Suite Professional at $55 per agent per month. If you have a 10-person team, you're already at $550/month before you add anything extra.

And the extras stack up. 

AI tools, workforce features, quality tracking, and advanced reporting each come with their own per-person fees. A lot of teams say Zendesk feels affordable at first, then jumps once you add the features you actually need.

Setup also takes time. 

Zendesk gives you a ton of flexibility, but you’re the one building the workflows, routing rules, and automation. Several users mention that the learning curve is real, especially when you start customizing the help center or fine-tuning automation.

For ecommerce, there’s no built-in order management. If someone asks about their order, your team still has to switch to Shopify or BigCommerce to check it or issue a refund. There’s no “refund” or “update order” button inside the ticket.

And because Zendesk is built for so many different industries, some teams say it needs more admin work to keep everything organized compared to tools made specifically for ecommerce support.

Head-to-Head Breakdown

Now let's get specific about how these platforms actually compare when you're running an ecommerce brand.

Ecommerce Integration

This is where the biggest difference shows up.

With Gorgias, order details appear automatically in every ticket. Your agent sees the customer's purchase history, current order status, shipping tracking, and can process refunds or cancel orders without leaving the help desk.

One G2 reviewer explained the benefit: "Having all our channels (Shopify, email, and social media) in one place is a game changer and lets us reply faster with more context."

Zendesk can connect to Shopify and BigCommerce through marketplace apps, but it's not built for ecommerce. Your agents still need to open Shopify in another tab to look up order details and take action.

There's no native "issue refund" or "cancel order" button in the ticket. It's an extra step every single time.

If most of your tickets are order-related, Gorgias cuts the back-and-forth by putting everything your agents need inside the ticket.

Pricing

The pricing works completely differently between these two, and which one costs you less depends on your team size and how many tickets you get.

Gorgias charges by tickets. You pay based on volume, not how many people are on your team. Most plans let you add unlimited team members.

Plans start at $10/month for 50 tickets and go up to $900/month for 2,000+ tickets. Go over your limit and you pay about $0.40 per extra ticket.

This is great if you have a small team handling lots of tickets. Three people processing 500 tickets? You pay for the tickets, not the people.

But busy months can spike your bill. Black Friday week could double your tickets and your cost.

Zendesk charges per person. Every support team member costs $19-$115/month depending on your plan.

Suite Team starts at $19 per person per month but doesn't include live chat or phone. Most teams need Suite Professional at $55 per person per month to get what they actually need.

A 10-person team on Suite Professional pays $550/month. Then add-ons like AI, workforce management, or quality tracking cost another $25-$50 per person per month.

This pricing is predictable if your team stays the same size, but it grows fast. Hiring five more support people immediately adds $275/month to your bill.

Quick example: with 500 tickets a month, Gorgias costs about $300 whether you have 3 agents or 10. Zendesk starts cheaper at small team sizes, but jumps to $550/month the moment you have a 10-person team.

That’s the real takeaway:

Gorgias scales with workload. Zendesk scales with payroll.

Choose the one that won’t surprise you during busy seasons—or hiring sprees.

AI and Automation

Both platforms have AI that can auto-reply to common questions, but they work differently.

Gorgias AI Agent is built for ecommerce. It automatically answers "Where's my order?", handles return requests, sends tracking info, and covers basic FAQ questions.

Many stores using Gorgias see 40–60% of their tickets answered automatically without anyone on their team touching them.

But it costs extra. The AI Agent is billed separately at about $1 per auto-resolved ticket on top of your base fee. If it's handling 200 tickets per month, that's an extra $200 on top of your base plan.

Zendesk AI is available as an add-on at $50 per person per month. It suggests responses, summarizes long ticket threads, and can build automated conversation flows.

Zendesk’s AI is powerful, but you need to configure it before it’s useful for ecommerce.

For simple ecommerce automation (order tracking, returns, shipping questions), Gorgias works right away. For more complex automation across different types of businesses, Zendesk gives you more control.

Setup

Gorgias gets you live fast.

Most Shopify stores can connect it and start using it within an hour. It's already set up for ecommerce, so you're mostly turning things on and tweaking settings.

Zendesk takes longer. 

You’re building fields, tuning automation, and wiring up routing rules.

The trade-off is time: Zendesk requires more of it upfront.

If you’re willing to spend a few weeks setting it up, Zendesk gives you exactly what you want. But if you need something working this week, Gorgias is better. 

Customization

Zendesk gives you way more control over how things work.

You can build custom ticket fields, unique roles and permissions for your team, complex automation rules, custom reports, and workflows for multiple brands.

One G2 user appreciated this: "I like the customization functions and all the optimizations you can play with. It's pretty friendly and intuitive."

Gorgias keeps things simpler. You're working within an ecommerce framework with less room for deep customization.

You can set up quick replies, automation rules, and tags, but you're not rebuilding the entire system from scratch.

If your support process has unique needs that don't fit standard ecommerce patterns, Zendesk is the better fit. If you want something that works well for ecommerce right away without tons of setup, Gorgias wins.

When to Choose Gorgias

Gorgias makes sense if your situation looks like this:

1. You're running an ecommerce brand on Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento. Your support volume is growing (50+ tickets per month and climbing).
2. Your team wastes time every day switching between your help desk and Shopify just to look up order details, check shipping status, or process refunds.
3. You want your team to resolve order issues fast without needing admin access to your store backend. You'd rather they handle everything from the ticket itself.
4. You’d rather pay for tickets, not people. You want the flexibility to grow your support team without worrying about per-person fees eating into your budget.
5. You need something working this week, not next month. Fast setup matters more to you than deep customization.

If most of your tickets are order-related and you're tired of the constant tab-switching, Gorgias fixes that problem immediately.

When to Choose Zendesk

Zendesk makes more sense if your business looks like this:

1. You're an enterprise with complex requirements, multiple brands, or non-ecommerce business models alongside your store.
2. You need maximum flexibility and customization. Your workflow doesn’t fit the usual patterns, and you need to build something specific to how your business operates.
3. You have a larger support team (10+ people) with moderate ticket volume. Zendesk's per-person pricing works better at scale when ticket counts aren't spiking unpredictably.
4. You need features like SLA tracking, automatic routing based on who's best at what, advanced reports, workforce tools, and quality checking built into the platform.
5. You're okay with complex setup and ongoing maintenance. 
6. You have the resources (time, budget, maybe a dedicated ops person) to set it up properly and train your team.

But be realistic about the costs. One Capterra user noted: “It starts to get expensive when you move beyond the most basic plans.”

If you're a growing ecommerce brand without complex enterprise requirements, Zendesk may be more platform than you actually need. You may end up paying for capabilities that go beyond what a typical ecommerce workflow requires.

But if you need that level of control and can handle the complexity, Zendesk will get you there.

Integrating Gorgias or Zendesk in Your Mobile App

Your support tools shouldn’t work one way on your site and another way in your app. With MobiLoud, they don’t.

Gorgias and Zendesk both plug in cleanly, no extra configuration or custom development required. The same inbox, automations, tags, macros, and order data your team relies on in the browser work the exact same way inside your app.

Nothing breaks. Nothing is missing.

Your users get support right where they need it, and your team keeps its normal workflow.

Learn more about why MobiLoud is the best way to build ecommerce apps.

Which Customer Support Platform is Better for Your Ecommerce Brand?

Here's what it comes down to.

If your inbox is full of ‘Where’s my order?’ questions, go with Gorgias.

If you live in spreadsheets and workflows, Zendesk will feel like home.

Want to see what your store would look like as a real mobile app? Request a free preview.

Need help deciding whether an app makes sense for your business? Book a consultation.