Zoho Desk vs Gorgias is a choice between two different kinds of cheap. Zoho Desk keeps its per-seat price low. A team of three agents or fewer even qualifies for its free plan. Gorgias keeps seats free past a point, but it charges by ticket volume instead. Its bill depends on how busy the store gets, not on headcount.
This guide compares the two for a small or midsize online store. It covers what each is built for, where ecommerce-specific tools actually help, what a normal month costs on each, and when the general-purpose option beats the specialist. Zoho Desk prices here were checked in August 2026. Gorgias prices were checked in September 2026, both against the vendors’ own pricing pages. For the full feature breakdown, see our Zoho Desk comparison and Gorgias comparison.
What is Zoho Desk?
Zoho Desk is a help desk built as part of the larger Zoho suite, alongside Zoho CRM, Zoho Books and dozens of other business apps. Ticketing, a knowledge base, live chat and automation come standard, and Zia handles the AI side of the product.
For an ecommerce team, Zoho Desk’s strength is its ecosystem rather than ecommerce features specifically. A support agent can see CRM history without leaving the ticket, as long as the store already runs other Zoho apps. Order data from a store platform needs a separate integration. How deep that integration goes then depends on which app is used, so it’s worth testing before committing to a plan.
Zoho Desk is free for up to 3 agents, and paid plans add a 15-day trial. Standard starts at $14 per user monthly on annual billing, and Professional adds Zia’s AI at $23. Prices vary by region, so confirm the local rate before comparing. Zoho Desk holds a 4.4 out of 5 rating on G2.
What is Gorgias?
Gorgias is a help desk built for Shopify, BigCommerce and Magento stores. Order details, refunds and subscription changes show up inside the ticket itself. An agent handling a “where’s my order” question doesn’t have to leave the conversation to look it up.
Its pricing follows ticket volume instead of seats. Every plan includes a set number of monthly tickets, and Basic through Advanced allow up to 500 seats, so a growing team doesn’t pay more just for adding agents. What moves the bill is how many tickets the store handles in a month, and that count includes AI Agent interactions, which also bill as tickets.
Gorgias has no published free plan and offers a 7-day trial. Starter runs $10 a month for 50 tickets and three seats. Basic starts at $50 a month billed annually for 300 tickets, with the same 500-seat allowance as the tiers above it. Gorgias holds a 4.6 out of 5 rating on G2, from a smaller review base than Zoho Desk’s.
Key differences for an ecommerce team
Order data inside the ticket
Gorgias shows order status, item details and payment history beside the conversation for Shopify, BigCommerce and Magento stores. An agent can issue a refund or check a tracking number without switching tabs. Zoho Desk needs a separate integration for the same view. How much of an order an agent can edit, versus just see, then depends on which app is connected.
Test the exact actions a team performs daily, like partial refunds or subscription pauses, before assuming either product handles them out of the box. A demo screen and a working refund flow are not the same thing.
Pricing meter: seats vs tickets
Zoho Desk’s bill grows with headcount. Adding a fourth or fifth agent on Standard costs another $14 a month each, whether they handle ten tickets or a thousand. Gorgias’ bill grows with ticket volume instead. Adding agents is close to free once a store is on Basic or higher. A slow month with heavy ticket traffic still pushes the bill up, though, regardless of headcount.
A store with a small, stable team and modest ticket volume usually does better on Zoho Desk’s per-seat price. A store with unpredictable order spikes may prefer Gorgias’ seat flexibility, even knowing the ticket meter can climb too.
Free plan and entry cost
Zoho Desk is free for up to 3 agents, so a very small team can run its whole support operation without paying anything. Gorgias has no free tier. Its cheapest option, Starter, costs $10 a month but caps out at 3 seats and 50 tickets, tight for anything beyond testing. A store outgrowing Starter moves to Basic at $50 a month annually, a bigger jump than Zoho Desk’s tiers.
AI: token allowance vs per-interaction billing
Zia comes included with Zoho Desk’s Professional plan, with 30 million tokens allowed each month before usage fees of about $1 per additional million apply. Gorgias’ AI Agent resolves ecommerce-specific requests like order status automatically. It’s billed at $1 per interaction monthly, or $0.90 annually, and every interaction also counts toward the plan’s ticket allowance.
That last detail matters for budgeting. Heavy AI Agent use on Gorgias raises both the per-interaction fee and the odds of a ticket-volume overage in the same month. Zia’s token allowance, by contrast, is harder to exhaust at a small team’s typical volume.
Ecosystem vs ecommerce specialization
Zoho Desk’s advantage shows up if a store already runs other Zoho apps. CRM records, billing history and tickets then share the same data model. Gorgias’ advantage shows up regardless of other tools, since its ecommerce automations, like abandoned cart recovery and post-purchase follow-up, are built into the product itself rather than assembled from separate integrations. One rewards an existing ecosystem; the other rewards being ecommerce-only from the start. Our live chat guide for ecommerce covers more specialists in the same category.
Reviews and reputation
Gorgias edges Zoho Desk on G2, 4.6 out of 5 against 4.4, though the two ratings come from different sample sizes. Read a handful of recent reviews from stores close to your own size rather than trusting the headline number alone. A five-person shop and an enterprise support team rarely rate the same product for the same reasons.
Zoho Desk vs Gorgias at a glance
| Dimension | Zoho Desk | Gorgias |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Teams already on Zoho, general support | Ecommerce stores on Shopify, BigCommerce or Magento |
| Pricing model | Per user seat | Per month, by ticket volume |
| Free plan | Yes, up to 3 agents | None |
| Entry price | $7 per user monthly, annual (Express) | $10 monthly for 50 tickets, 3 seats |
| Mid-tier price | $14 per user monthly, annual (Standard) | $50 monthly, annual (Basic, 300 tickets) |
| Seats included | Priced per seat at every tier | Up to 500 seats from Basic |
| Free trial | 15 days | 7 days |
| Order data in ticket | Needs a separate integration | Built in for Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento |
| AI assistant | Zia, included from Professional | AI Agent, $1 or $0.90 annual per interaction |
| AI cost basis | 30 million tokens monthly, then about $1 per million | Per interaction, and each also counts as a ticket |
| Overage handling | Upgrade a tier | $0.36 to $0.40 per ticket over the plan limit |
| Regional pricing | Varies by region | Consistent in USD |
| G2 rating | 4.4 out of 5 | 4.6 out of 5 |
Pricing at different ticket volumes
Zoho Desk and Gorgias meter different things, so the fair comparison isn’t plan against plan. It’s cost at a given team size and ticket volume. The table below assumes Zoho Desk’s Standard tier on annual billing and Gorgias on annual billing with overage priced at $0.38 per ticket, the midpoint of its published range.
| Monthly tickets | Team size | Zoho Desk (Standard) | Gorgias |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 tickets | 3 agents | $42/month | $50/month (Basic) |
| 800 tickets | 5 agents | $70/month | $300/month (Pro, 2,000-ticket allowance) |
| 2,500 tickets | 8 agents | $112/month | About $490/month (Pro plus overage) |
Zoho Desk stays cheaper across all three scenarios here, since its per-seat price is low enough that even an 8-agent team costs less than Gorgias at moderate ticket volume. That comparison leaves out what the price difference buys, though. Gorgias’ order data and ecommerce automations are built in. Matching them on Zoho Desk means adding a separate integration and configuring it, which takes time even when the app itself is free.
Add AI usage and the picture shifts again. A thousand Gorgias AI Agent interactions at $0.90 each add $900 and likely push a store into ticket overage too, since each interaction also counts as a ticket. Zia’s 30-million-token allowance is harder to burn through at the same scale, so a store leaning on AI heavily may find the Zoho Desk side of this table even more favorable than it looks here. Run the store’s actual numbers through the help desk cost calculator before deciding which gap matters more.
When to choose Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk fits a team watching cost closely, especially one that doesn’t need ecommerce automation built into the ticket itself.
- The team already uses Zoho CRM, Zoho Books or other Zoho apps and wants shared data.
- Budget matters more than built-in ecommerce automation.
- The team is 3 agents or fewer and the free plan covers current needs.
- Ticket volume is unpredictable, and a flat per-seat price is easier to plan around than a ticket meter.
- Support spans more than one storefront or business line.
- A future switch, and Zoho Desk’s Zwitch migration tool can bring data over from another help desk.
When to choose Gorgias
Gorgias fits a store that lives and dies by order questions and wants that context built into the ticket from day one.
- The store runs on Shopify, BigCommerce or Magento and agents need order data without leaving the ticket.
- Team size is what grows, and Gorgias’ 500-seat allowance absorbs that for free.
- Built-in ecommerce automations, like abandoned cart recovery or subscription workflows, save real setup time.
- Paying more for automation beats assembling the same result from separate Zoho integrations.
- A short trial and fast Shopify setup matter more than a broad app ecosystem.
Where ThriveDesk fits
Neither Zoho Desk nor Gorgias is built for a small team that wants shared email, live chat and order context without pricing that punishes growth or a busy month. That’s the gap ThriveDesk fills for WooCommerce and SureCart stores. ThriveDesk is AI customer service software for ecommerce: an agentic omnichannel helpdesk, intelligent chatbot, modern help center and powerful reporting, plus Neo, the AI agent that answers customers around the clock.
ThriveDesk’s shared inbox and live chat run on plan-based pricing instead of either meter above, with order context built in for WooCommerce stores: Basic is $29 a month for two teammates and one inbox, Standard is $69 a month for five teammates and adds a public help center and workflow automation, and Unlimited is $129 a month for unlimited teammates. Neo ships on every plan with no per-resolution fee, unlike Gorgias’ AI Agent or Zoho Desk’s token allowance. ThriveDesk holds a 4.9 out of 5 rating on G2.
The limits are worth stating plainly. ThriveDesk has no free plan, so a team of one or two testing the waters for free should start with Zoho Desk instead. And a Shopify store that needs to edit orders and issue refunds inside the ticket, the way Gorgias does, will find ThriveDesk’s Shopify integration covers order lookup, not in-ticket editing.
For a WooCommerce or SureCart store that wants shared email, chat and order context without a bill that grows unpredictably, ThriveDesk’s plans are worth a look, backed by a 7-day trial and no card required. Browse the full comparison hub to see how other help desks stack up.
