12 Gladly Alternatives: Which Helpdesk to Choose?

Gladly is a great helpdesk, with some features that resemble customer relationship management (CRM) software. Unlike most Gladly alternatives, which group interactions by issue, or “ticket,” Gladly groups interactions by customer. This helps your agents treat every customer question like a continuation of one long relationship.

While there are many great aspects to Gladly, the software features very little automation which severely lowers efficiency (especially for teams with lots of repetitive interactions). 

Also, Gladly is much more expensive than most of its competitors. The minimum price is $1,500 per month ($150 per user, with a minimum of 10 users). You also have to sign an annual contract, meaning the minimum cost of Gladly is $18,000 per year.

If you’re looking for other options, you’ve come to the right place. Below, discover 12 alternatives to Gladly for different industries, business sizes, and more.

Gorgias: Best for ecommerce companies

Gorgias is the helpdesk built exclusively for ecommerce companies. Whether you’re a small business making your first sales or an enterprise-level retailer, Gorgias is 100% focused on your unique needs and challenges. 

Unlike Gladly, strategic automation lies at the heart of Gorgias’s features. We believe that helping support teams address simple customer concerns with speed and accuracy is the best customer experience, and the only way to free up your support team for complex issues that need additional attention. 

Features: Gorgias automation makes order management, upselling, and other daily ecommerce tasks easier

While Gladly limits your automation options so each message is more personalized, Gorgias takes a different approach. 

You can use automation to give instant answers to the most common questions — like “Where is my order?” — with the customer’s unique information. With these basic questions out of the way, you’ll actually have time to add a human touch to tickets that need it. (Instead of manually answering even the most basic questions.)

Easier ticket handling with Rules

With Rules, your agents can move much faster. Rules are customizable automations, which streamline ticket management and automate many other repetitive tasks in customer support. This includes (but isn’t limited to):

• Prioritizing tickets to help you answer urgent, escalated, or pre-sales tickets before it’s too late
• Routing tickets to the appropriate agent/team
• Tagging customer conversations to help your reporting and ticket analysis

Plus, Gorgias lets you send automated responses to your questions with personalized information. Gorgias scans every incoming ticket to understand why the customer’s reaching out and what information they need. If you have a Macro (also called a template), Gorgias will respond using that Macro. 

Gladly blocks that kind of automated support, even on simple questions that don’t need any additional human touch.

The best part? Macros can also automatically trigger actions in Shopify, like adding a discount code to an order, refunding past orders, changing shipping addresses, and much more.

Gorgias is the best support platform for businesses running on Shopify. The deep Shopify integrations are an invaluable part of our support process and save us countless hours a month.

— Italic

Powerful, intuitive self-service

The Automation Add-on turns your chat widget and Help Center into customer portals. There, customers can get instant answers to common questions, take product quizzes, manage their orders in real-time, and more — without any agent interaction.

These automations were tailor-made for ecommerce, so common issues (like order tracking and returns) are incredibly simple.

And don’t worry: Your agents are always just a click away for customers who need human help to resolve the issue. 

Automated sales-generating features

With Gorgias, you can also automatically reach out to customers based on their on-site or past behavior. For instance, you can give repeat spenders a special discount code, or offer support for a specific product category that could potentially confuse customers.

Because of its revenue-generating features, support teams using Gorgias generated a collective 1 billion dollars in revenue in 2021. 

Reporting: Gorgias helps you report on revenue earned by support (on top of support performance)

Gorgias gives you actionable insights on advanced customer service metrics, like customer satisfaction (CSAT), response times, resolution times, and much more. You can break these down by agent, channel, issue type, and beyond. 

Plus, since Gorgias offers revenue-generating capabilities, it helps you track sales generated from your support team. You can understand which conversations lead to sales, the conversion rates of your chat campaigns, and each agent’s individual sales. 

Integrations and channels: Gorgias offers 3x more ecommerce integrations

Gorgias has more apps and channels relevant to ecommerce brands. Gladly lets you offer in-app support, making it a better fit for software companies.

Integrations

Gorgias integrates with 100+ apps most ecommerce brands use daily. This helps you pull customer information (like subscription status or marketing segments) into your helpdesk for more personalized support. 

Gorgias integrations include:

• Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento
• Marketing apps like Attentive and Klaviyo
• Subscription apps like Recharge and Skio
• Returns apps like Loop Returns and Returnly
• Shipping and fulfillment apps like ShipBob and LateShipment.com
• Loyalty apps like Yotpo and LoyaltyLion
• Reviews and UGC apps like REVIEWS.io and Okendo

Meanwhile, Gladly only has 36 integrations. 

Channels

Gorgias and Gladly are both omnichannel solutions, with the following channels:

• Email
• Live chat
• SMS
• Voice (and built-in IVR)
• Native self-service
• Chat 
• Social Media (Instagram and Facebook)

The only difference is that you can offer chat support in your app with Gladly, while Gorgias is only available on your website. It should also be noted that Gorgias has a built-in WhatsApp integration, while Gladly’s connection to WhatsApp requires a service fee and weeks of waiting. 

Pricing: Gorgias starts at a lower price point (and lets you have unlimited users)

Gorgias starts at $10/month for up to 3 agents. After that, all Gorgias plans let you have unlimited agents, which is unique in the world of helpdesks. 

Curious whether Gorgias or Gladly is more affordable for small businesses? With Gorgias, you can pay $120/month for the year (paid monthly) while Gladly’s minimum is $18,000 (mandatory yearly contract).

Does Gorgias have a free trial?

Yes, Gorgias has a 7-day free trial.

Intercom: Best CRM-like tool

If you’re evaluating Gladly because you like the CRM-like nature of the tool, consider Intercom. Intercom is much more robust software that will help you keep even better track of all your customer information across the end-to-end customer experience. 

Features: Intercom has many more features for lead nurturing and sales

Out of any tool on this list, including Gladly, Intercom is the most like a CRM. It gives you detailed insights into the people visiting your website, including on-site behavior (like recent pages viewed) and detailed contact information. You can use these capabilities to identify leads, current customers, churn risks, and more.

Intercom’s chatbot is also very powerful, with functionality to aid customer support, sales, and marketing. 

With Intercom, you can also outbound customers with targeted campaigns, to nurture leads and close more deals. Capabilities like this make Intercom much more than a helpdesk — but be warned, the price tag reflects that. 

If you’re investigating Gladly because you want a powerful, all-in-one customer communication platform, then Intercom is a great choice. If you’re looking for a customer support solution, then Intercom may be too large a tool for you.

Reporting: A wide variety of analytics

Given Intercom’s wide set of features, the tool lets you generate solid reports for customer support, marketing, and sales. And, according to user reviews, the reports on Intercom are easy to generate and understand. 

However, its lack of specificity means you’ll sacrifice some advanced analytics compared to more support-focused tools like Gladly, or industry-specific tools like Gorgias.

Integrations and channels: 

Integrations

Intercom integrates with tools from most industries, from project management tools like Jira to true CRMs like Salesforce.

Intercom’s breadth of integrations also means that integrations you might need daily — like Shopify or Klaviyo — are deprioritized, and shallower than industry-specific tools.

Channels

Intercom offers a long list of channels, including:

• Email
• Live chat
• Social media (Instagram and Facebook)
• WhatsApp
• In-app
• Voice 
• SMS
• Knowledge base
• Contact form

Pricing: Intercom’s pricing is as robust as its features

Intercom Support starts at $74/month. The other core Intercom products, Engage and Convert, are each $74/month as well. 

Does Intercom have a free trial?

Intercom has a 14-day free trial.

Help Scout: Best for SaaS and startups

Help Scout is another help desk built for small and mid-sized businesses. Help Scout doesn’t have as many features as larger helpdesks, like Zendesk, or industry-specific helpdesks like Gorgias. 

However, Help Scout has one of the best scores for ease of use in the helpdesk category, making it a great choice for small teams that need a simple, easy-to-use solution. Plus, it’s more affordable than Gladly.

Features: Help Scout has a more classic ticket-based system

If you’re looking for the traditional method of customer support, where you resolve incoming tickets from your customers, then Help Scout is what you’re looking for. 

Gladly’s system groups conversations by customer instead.

Help Scout also features many collaboration and efficiency features, like collision detection (to prevent multiple agents from accidentally answering the same message twice), advanced user permission settings, and tons of keyboard shortcuts. 

Both Gladly and Help Scout score high for “ease of use” on the software review site G2, so you’ll likely be able to pick up and start using whichever tool is more appealing to you.

“After having used Zendesk for a while, I was not happy with its complexity. I wanted to have a support desk tool that made it look like it was regular mail to the customers. And HelpScout did exactly that.”

— Help Scout review

It’s worth noting that both Help Scout and Gladly lack some industry-specific features. For example, neither tool offers the depth of Shopify integration as Gorgias.

🆚 Compare Help Scout and Gorgias.

Reporting: Help Scout gives you solid support reporting

Help Scout offers advanced customer support reporting, which you can drill down by conversation type, tag, agent, or view.

Unlike some other helpdesks, like Gorgias, Help Scout does not include any sort of revenue reporting. That’s one reason we recommend Help Scout for SaaS, startups, and other industries that have a standalone sales process. If your industry allows you to combine sales and support, like ecommerce, then this gap in insights will leave you guessing about which kinds of conversations lead to a purchase.

Help Scout’s reporting includes custom fields, but only for users on the Plus plan. 

Integrations and channels: 

Integrations

Help Scout connects with a variety of apps across industries, including Jira, HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, and Mailchimp. In general, Help Scout’s integration is suited for the tech industry and again favors startups and SaaS companies. 

Channels

Help Scout offers the following customer communication channels:

• Email
• Phone calls
• SMS
• Live chat
• Facebook Messenger
• Knowledge base

Help Scout doesn’t give you access to important communication channels for ecommerce companies, like Instagram Comments, Instagram DMs, Facebook comments, and WhatsApp. But if you’re a SaaS company, you can likely get away without these. 

Pricing: Help Scout (like most helpdesks) is more affordable than Gladly

Help Scout starts at $20 per month per agent. There are two other plans (Plus: $40/user and Pro: $60/user). Both of these larger tiers unlock more mailboxes, knowledge bases, hands-on support from the Help Scout team, and other advanced features.

Does Help Scout have a free trial?

Help Scout offers a 15-day free trial.

8 more Gladly alternatives

If none of the above tools sound like a suitable alternative to Gladly for you, check out the snapshot of 8 more customer service software tools below. 

Zendesk: Best for non-ecommerce enterprise companies

If you’re looking for the most robust service desk out there, consider Zendesk. It’s built to handle enterprise-level support programs, like airlines and hotel chains. However, note that many of Zendesk’s premium features and services are hidden behind large pricing plans and surprise fees. 

If your company can go all in on one of Zendesk’s larger plans, you’ll have a very robust and customized solution. 

Zendesk pricing

Zendesk's pricing starts at $19 per user per month for only its customer support features. 

For more features and customization, the Suite Team plan is $49 per user per month and goes up to the Suite Professional at $150 per user per month.

Zendesk has a more expansive list of plans for enterprise companies than most helpdesk software. If you’re an enterprise business that requires more, you’ll need to speak to a Zendesk sales agent to build a custom plan starting at $215 per month.

Zendesk has a 14-day free trial.

🆚 Compare Zendesk with Gorgias to make the right choice for your online store.

Zoho Desk, Salesforce Service Cloud, and HubSpot Support Hub: Best for teams already using a tool from these companies

There’s a chance your company already uses a tool — perhaps email marketing or CRM software — from Zoho, Salesforce, or HubSpot. If that’s the case, consider using that company’s helpdesk, too. 

The benefits of sticking with the same brand are not having to migrate your data or onboard from scratch. Plus, you might have access to simplified workflows or advanced capabilities by using multiple tools from the same company. 

If you’re just looking for a standalone customer support platform, these tools will likely be too robust and expensive. But if you’re adding to a tech stack that already includes a tool from these companies, check them out. 

Zoho Desk pricing

Zoho Desk starts at $14 per user per month with the Starter plan and goes up to the Enterprise plan at $40 per user per month.

Zoho Desk has a 15-day free trial. 

Salesforce Service Cloud pricing

Salesforce Service Cloud starts at $25 per user per month for up to 10 users and scales up to enterprise plans starting at $150 per user per month. You can also get the full Salesforce CRM, not just the helpdesk, for $300 per user per month. 

Salesforce Service Cloud has a 30-day free trial. 

Hubspot Service Hub pricing

Hubspot Service Hub starts at $50 per month for 2 users with the Starter CRM Suite and scales up to enterprise-level plans starting at $500 for 5 users. 

Hubspot Service Hub has a 14-day free trial.

Freshdesk: Best helpdesk with a free plan

One of the main disadvantages of Gladly is that it’s very expensive. While most of the options on this list are cheaper, Freshdesk is the only helpdesk with a free plan. 

Freshdesk is a pretty standard ticketing system, with solid automations for assigning and organizing tickets. Plus, on the free plan, you’ll have access to a knowledge base, email and social integrations, and out-of-the-box analytics. 

Freshdesk also offers features like community forums, custom reports, and an AI chatbot (named FREDDY), but those are all hidden behind expensive plans (ranging from $15/month per agent through $79/month per agent). 

Freshdesk pricing

Freshdesk is free to get started. Since there’s a free option, Freshdesk doesn’t have a free trial.

Kustomer: Best AI chatbot

Kustomer is another great helpdesk option. If Gladly’s low-automation approach doesn’t work for you, then you might get excited about Kustomer’s AI-powered chatbots.

Kustomer’s AI chatbot is one of the most customizable on the market. You can set up conversation chatbot experiences to suggest responses to agents, recommend knowledge base articles to customers, auto-translate messages, and tailor the message to the customer’s tone. 

You can deploy Kustomer’s chatbots on live chat, SMS, and WhatsApp. 

Kustomer pricing

Kustomer starts at $29/month per user. And Kustomer’s chatbot is an add-on that starts at $15/month for 100 automated interactions and goes up based on usage.

Kustomer has a 14-day free trial.

Re:amaze: Best customer activity tracking

Re:amaze is another customer service platform. One of its unique advantages is detailed customer behavior tracking. It shows you which pages a customer has visited, which you can use to tailor your customer service and lead nurturing. 

This information shows up in the customer sidebar when your agents are answering a ticket, so they have the most up-to-date information about which page the customer has visited. 

Re:amaze pricing

Re:amaze starts at $29/month per user, and goes up to $69/month per user. Re:amaze offers a 14-day free trial. 

Front: Best for client services

Perhaps you came to Gladly because you like the idea of moving away from “tickets” and toward more intentional, thoughtful conversations with your customers. If this is the case, Front may be for you.

Front is less of a helpdesk and more of a messaging platform that encourages your team to discuss each message before responding. For this reason, Front is a solid choice for client services and other industries that experience a low volume of high-stakes conversations. 

Front could also be a great choice for a Sales team or a Customer Success team working on closing or retaining large contracts. 

Front pricing

Front starts at $19 per user per month with a maximum of 10 users on the Starter plan. Front offers a 7-day free trial.

tawk.to: Best standalone live chat

If you’re investigating Gladly simply for the live chat, but don’t need to communicate with customers on all the other channels (like SMS, WhatsApp, and email), then skip the cost and go with a free live chat tool like tawk.to.

tawk.to enables your team to speak with customers on your website, and deploy some simple self-service chat options, like shortcuts to a built-in knowledge base that tawk.to also offers.

tawk.to pricing

tawk.to is completely free — the only potential charge is the $19/month it takes to remove the “Powered by tawk.to” at the bottom of your chat widget.