Four months ago, our analysts were dealing with a barrage of questions. "What's our ARR by segment?" "Build me a dashboard for this quarter's pipeline." Quick asks piled up behind complex deep dives. Stakeholders waited for answers that should have taken seconds, and analysts spent their time fielding requests instead of doing the strategic work that creates the most value.
Today, anyone at Gorgias can ask a question in plain language and get an accurate, contextualized response in seconds. Not from a colleague or dashboard, nor from a generic answer from the internet. But a response built on our business context. We call it Cortex, our flagship internal AI agent.
In two months, Cortex went from an idea to fielding thousands of questions every week, recommending actions across the business, and deprecating the need for manual dashboard creation. While most companies right now are treating AI as an initiative — at Gorgias, AI is already part of how we work. 72% of Gorgias employees use Cortex each week, and that number is only growing.
We didn’t achieve this by simply plugging a large language model into our stack. LLMs are a critical part of the equation, but they aren't the driving force — it’s everything else under the hood: the infrastructure, context, platform architecture, and the team that brings it all together.
The framing problem most companies get wrong
The instinct across many companies today is to start with the model, pick a provider to solve a specific challenge, or invest heavily in getting the data right. All reasonable starting points, but most of them solve for one use case. Underneath that approach is a framing problem: seeing AI as an initiative — something you assign and measure. Seeing AI as another tool your company uses versus how your company operates.
We started somewhere different. Every company is built on four pillars: customers, people, product, and decisions. AI investments tend to place heavy emphasis on the first three. We started with the fourth. Our bet was that if we built everything around the need to make effective decisions first, asking what Gorgias needed to know to operate well, then our AI would become dramatically more powerful.
Cortex is that philosophy in practice
Cortex is our flagship internal AI agent, and the product where we established the tenets that now run through everything else we build: composable and modular infrastructure, governed context, and accessible from wherever decisions happen. Cortex lives in Slack, as well as across LLM vendors, in its own browser extension, and even on its own dedicated internal site.
Cortex doesn’t stop at answering questions. It can read and write to Notion, file Linear tasks, create HTML apps, automate signal delivery, and more. It operates across every layer of our stack, from dashboards to data pipelines, because we designed it as one integrated system. It is this connection that adds remarkable depth to what people can ask, and what they get in return.
A Sales Lead is pitching and asks Cortex for the full picture of the merchant. In a customized PDF, Cortex lists coverage gaps, pre-sale intent signals, and product fit options. Everything the sales lead needs to walk in with confidence.
A Senior Product leader asks, "How are we performing against OKR #1, and what can my team do to help accelerate it?" Cortex returns a full ARR breakdown, projected end-of-month attainment, segment-level findings, and connects it all back to company-level strategies. A suite of recommendations customized to the leader, the performance, and the signals that bridge how they can support our goals. The kind of answer that used to take someone a week to put together.
These aren't simple lookup queries. They require deep business context spanning multiple areas. Cortex handles these because its Decision Engine gives it the information to reason against governed data, metric definitions, and business context, turning a generic answer into a credible one.
Overnight, teams have built Cortex into how they work. They’re spending less time searching and more time finding answers, not because they were told to, but because Cortex reduced the distance between question and decision.
Flexibility as the foundation
Cortex’s modular infrastructure allows us to experiment and add new capabilities freely. We’ve already built two more internal AI agents made for entirely different use cases, but using the same Decision Engine as Cortex.
GAIA, our internal experimentation AI Agent, helps our customers identify opportunities in their AI Agent Guidance design. It takes institutional knowledge across our teams and turns it into a scalable system that drives automation and value to our customers. Our CEO, Romain Lapeyre, has been its most vocal advocate since day one.
When we needed a platform for investor readiness and board preparation, we built Oracle. Our board decks and talk tracks are informed and built with the same AI, and our numbers are validated every step of the way.
We’re continuing to expand new AI agents internally, exploring how they can create value for customers and our own teams.
AI has transformed how data teams create value, and we’ve already shifted to account for it
When AI handles thousands of analytical questions each week, the highest-value work for a data team shifts permanently. Late 2025, we repositioned from a Data Analytics function into a Decision Intelligence function — a structural change in what we own and how we operate.
Today, our analysts focus on the most sensitive, complex, and forward-looking decisions and analyses. They partner more deeply with stakeholders by driving next steps from signals. They're even building entirely new capabilities that didn't exist in their role descriptions months ago. Things like AI skills for Cortex, context curation, and insight and recommendation delivery. The role of the analyst hasn't diminished. It's expanded to encompass the most meaningful work an analyst can do: driving outcomes and ensuring those decisions can achieve them.
Our business support model has changed, too. Instead of embedding analysts and dedicated engineers within functional teams, we align capacity to the highest-impact company objectives and move fluidly across them. This model works even better because Decision Intelligence brings together both analytics and engineering teams under one roof.
Elliot Trabac leads our Data, Context and AI Engineering teams. The Decision Engine, Cortex, GAIA, and the platforms I've described exist because of the infrastructure his team innovated and built from the ground up. Noemie Happi Nono leads our Decision Strategy and Operations team, driving decision outcomes with stakeholders, advancing the development of Cortex skills and capabilities, and pushing into new areas of analysis every day.
Together, they're shaping what a modern data function looks like when AI becomes a standard building block for how a company operates.
What’s next for the Decision Intelligence team
The question of ROI is long gone. AI has opened the floodgates to more trusted and meaningful signals than ever. The natural next evolution is Proactive Intelligence, signals surfaced toward what you need to know, before you ask. And we're already building this because our architecture is designed to support it.
In the coming weeks, members of the Decision Intelligence team will go deeper into themes I've touched on here. Yochan Khoi, a Senior Analytics Engineer on our team, recently published a technical walkthrough of our context layer and will go further into building context strategies that scale. Others will cover infrastructure, analytical partnerships, evolving data assets into decision assets, and the cost and efficiency gains that make sustained AI investment viable.
AI hasn't changed the most important element of data and analytics functions — delivering outcomes — but it has raised the bar for what it looks like and how far we can take it. We’re just getting started.
Newsletter Signup
The best in CX and ecommerce, right to your inbox
Featured articles
Conversations Are Becoming a Revenue Channel: The Data Proves It
TL;DR:
- Customer journeys are collapsing to a single conversation. The traditional browse-and-buy journey is giving way to AI-guided shopping that moves from discovery to purchase in a single exchange.
- 79% of brands say AI-driven conversational commerce has increased their sales and purchase rates.
- AI-only influenced orders grew 63% in a single year, from 2.7 million in Q1 to 4.4 million in Q4.
- Brands treating conversation as a revenue channel. They’re not just a support function, generating higher AOV, shorter buying cycles, and stronger retention.
The page-based shopping experience dominated for decades. Customers would search, browse, compare, abandon, get retargeted, return, and eventually buy (sometimes).
That journey is no longer the only option.
Shoppers are turning to chat, messaging, and AI-powered tools to find what they need. Instead of clicking through product pages or reading static FAQs, they ask questions, have back-and-forth conversations, and get answers that move them closer to a purchase in real time. The path to checkout has changed, and the brands that recognize this are pulling ahead.
Read our 2026 State of Conversational Commerce Report to learn more about conversation commerce trends from 400 ecommerce decision-makers and 16,000+ ecommerce brands using Gorgias.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
The shopping journey has collapsed into a single thread
The traditional shopping journey was a solo experience. A shopper had a need, searched for options, browsed across sessions, and eventually made a decision — often days later, after being retargeted multiple times. Support only entered the picture after the purchase.
The conversation-led journey collapses that timeline:
- A shopper recognizes a need and starts a conversation via chat, messaging, or a search-triggered prompt
- An AI agent asks clarifying questions about preferences, budget, and constraints
- The AI provides personalized product recommendations in real time
- The shopper validates concerns about fit, compatibility, delivery, and returns, all inside the conversation
- The shopper completes the purchase directly within or immediately after that exchange
- The AI picks up the conversation post-purchase for order tracking and proactive support
- A human agent steps in only when the situation calls for it
What used to take days now takes minutes. Discovery, evaluation, and purchase happen in a single thread.
Conversation is a revenue strategy, not a support upgrade
79% of brands agree that AI-driven conversational commerce has increased sales and purchase rates in their business. When brands were asked to rank the highest-return areas:
- 38% cited improved customer support efficiency
- 23% pointed to higher customer retention and loyalty
- 20% saw improved purchase rates
Those numbers reflect something important: the value of conversation compounds. Faster support reduces friction. Better retention raises lifetime value. More confident shoppers buy more often and spend more per order.
The brands seeing the biggest returns aren't just using AI to deflect tickets. They're using it to create one-to-one shopping experiences at scale.
What the data shows about AI-influenced orders
Looking at AI-only influenced orders across key verticals like Apparel and Accessories, Food and Beverages, Health and Beauty, Home and Garden, and Sporting Goods, the growth across a single year was significant.
Across industries, ecommerce brands saw AI step into conversations, reduce shopper hesitation, and drive higher QoQ conversion rates.
Learn more about AI-powered revenue generation in the full 2026 Conversational Commerce Report.
Why brands are making this a strategic priority
84% of brands say the strategic importance of conversational commerce is higher than it was a year ago. 82% agree it will be mainstream in their sector within two years.
That shift is registering at the leadership level because of what conversational commerce does to the buying experience. Creating one-to-one touchpoints earlier in the journey drives higher AOV, shorter buying cycles, and stronger purchase rates. Shoppers who get real-time answers to their questions are more confident.
What this looks like in practice: TUSHY
TUSHY, known for eco-friendly bidets and bathroom essentials, is a useful example of what happens when you take conversational commerce seriously.
Bidets aren't an impulse purchase. Shoppers have real questions about fit, compatibility, and installation. Those questions used to go unanswered until the CX team could respond, often after the customer had abandoned the cart.
TUSHY used Gorgias's AI Agent and shopping assistant capabilities to automate pre-sales support. AI Agent engaged shoppers in real-time conversations, addressed their concerns directly, and built confidence at the moment of highest intent.
This resulted in a 190% increase in chat-based purchases, a 13x return on investment, and twice the purchase rate of human agents.
How to apply this to your strategy
You don't need to overhaul your entire operation to start seeing results. The most effective approach is to start where the impact is clearest and expand from there.
A few places to begin:
- Pre-sales chat. Identify your most common pre-purchase questions (sizing, compatibility, shipping timelines) and ensure your AI can answer them confidently and promptly.
- Product page engagement. Use proactive chat prompts triggered by page behavior to start conversations before shoppers leave.
- Post-purchase follow-up. Let AI pick up the conversation after checkout with order updates and proactive support, reducing inbound volume and building trust.
- Human escalation. Define clearly which situations require a human agent – complex issues, emotional exchanges, high-stakes decisions.
Want to see the full picture of where conversational commerce is headed in 2026? Read the full report to explore the data, trends, and strategies shaping the next era of ecommerce.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
AI Is Table Stakes for Ecommerce: What the Data Tells Us About 2026
TL;DR:
- AI adoption is rapidly accelerating. 96% of ecommerce professionals now use AI in their roles, up from 69% in 2024.
- AI has moved beyond support automation. Use cases have evolved into revenue generation, personalization, and logistics.
- Brands are tying AI success to profit-and-loss outcomes. 60% of brands consider AOV a top indicator of AI effectiveness.
A year ago, ecommerce brands were still debating whether AI was worth the investment. That debate is over. Today, nearly every ecommerce professional uses AI to do their job.
The shift isn't just about adoption. It's about what AI is used for and how brands measure its impact. Support automation was the entry point. Now, AI is embedded across the full operation, from product recommendations to inventory control to real-time shopping conversations.
In our 2026 State of Conversational Commerce Report, we break down trends on AI usage among 400 ecommerce decision-makers and 16,000+ ecommerce brands using Gorgias.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
AI adoption has reached a tipping point
If we rewind 12 months ago, the industry was still split on AI. Some ecommerce professionals were excited, but most were still hesitant. In 2024, 69% of ecommerce professionals used AI in their roles. By 2025, that number reached 77%. In 2026, it hit 96%.
The confidence numbers back it up. 71% of brands say they are confident using AI for ecommerce, and 73% are satisfied with its business impact.
In early 2025, only 30% of ecommerce professionals rated their excitement for AI at 10/10. Today, zero percent of respondents describe themselves as hesitant about AI.
AI use cases now span the full ecommerce stack
Using AI in ecommerce is not new. In fact, it dates back to the 1980s with the invention of algorithms and expert systems. And if you’ve ever leveraged similar product recommendations or chatbots, you’ve already integrated AI into your ecommerce stack.
Modern AI is far more sophisticated.
With the rise of agentic commerce and conversational AI, brands began leveraging AI agents to automate the processing of repetitive support tickets. That’s still happening today, but the scope has expanded beyond the support queue.
Ecommerce brands are deploying AI across every layer of their operation:
- Customer support automation: 96%
- Product recommendations: 88%
- Automated tracking and status updates: 69%
- Personalization: 64%
- Inventory control: 51%
- Dynamic pricing and discounting: 36%
- Order fulfillment: 18%
When brands were asked which channels contribute most to their AI success, conversational channels dominated. Social media messaging led at 78%, followed by SMS at 70%, and website live chat at 51%. Shoppers want fast, personal conversations, and AI is the best way to deliver that at scale.
Learn more about AI adoption, perception, and use case trends in the full 2026 Conversational Commerce Report.
How AI is changing CX success metrics
For decades, customer support success meant fast response times and high satisfaction scores. Those are still important indicators of success, but leading brands are adding revenue-focused metrics to their dashboards.
91% of brands still track CSAT as a measure of AI's impact. But 60% now include AOV as a top indicator, and higher-revenue brands earning $20M+ are focusing on metrics like total operating expenses, cost per resolution, incremental revenue, and one-touch ticket rate.
AI can now start a conversation, ease customer doubts, sell, upsell, and recover abandoned carts in a single conversation. When you’re only measuring CSAT, you’re ignoring the real ROI of conversational AI investment.
AI makes every conversational channel a storefront
Virtual shopping assistants now proactively engage shoppers, adapt to their needs in real time, and offer contextual product recommendations and upsells. When the moment calls for it, they can close the deal with a targeted discount.
Gorgias brands using AI Agent's shopping assistant capabilities nearly doubled their purchase rates and converted 20–50% better than those using AI Agent for support only.
Orthofeet, the largest provider of orthopedic footwear in the US, is a concrete example of this in practice. Using Gorgias, they achieved:
- 56% of support tickets automated in 2 months
- Email response times down from 24 hours to 35 seconds
- Double-digit revenue growth without adding headcount.
What this means for your AI strategy
The data tells a clear story: AI has evolved beyond a tool for handling tier 1 support tickets. It’s a core part of your revenue generation strategy.
57% of brands are already using AI for 26–50% of all customer interactions, and 37% expect that share to rise to 51–75% within the next two years. The brands building toward that range now are the ones who will have the operational advantage when it matters most.
The practical question isn't whether to invest in AI. It's where to focus first. Based on where brands are seeing the most impact, three priorities stand out:
- Start with high-volume, low-complexity tickets. WISMO (where is my order) inquiries, return policy questions, and order status updates are where AI delivers the fastest return. Automate these first.
- Expand into conversational channels. Social messaging and SMS are where AI is driving the most success right now.
- Connect AI performance to revenue metrics. If you're only measuring CSAT and response time, you're missing half the story. Add AOV, conversion rate, and incremental revenue to your reporting.
Want to go deeper on the full 2026 conversational commerce trends? Read the complete report for data across every major AI use case in ecommerce.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
The State of Conversational Commerce: 5 Trends Reshaping Ecommerce in 2026
TL;DR:
- AI is resolving tickets, not just replying. AI now handles 31% of customer interactions for ecommerce brands, and that number is expected to nearly double within two years.
- Every channel is becoming a storefront. Conversations are replacing the traditional browse-and-buy journey, with 79% of brands reporting sales from AI-driven interactions.
- AI is shortening the buying cycle. 93% of AI-influenced purchases happen within the first 48 hours of the conversation.
- CX teams are changing, not shrinking. Ecommerce brands are actively hiring for more technical roles to implement, coach, and maintain AI.
- The winning model is hybrid. AI handles volume and speed, while humans handle complexity and judgment.
The way shoppers buy online has shifted and customers are at the center.
They no longer want to scroll through product pages, dig through FAQs, or wait 24 hours for an email reply. They open a conversation, ask a specific question, and expect a useful answer in seconds. Brands that can’t deliver these experiences at scale are seeing customer hesitation turn into abandoned carts and lost revenue.
This shift has a name: conversational commerce. It's the practice of using real-time, two-way conversations as your primary sales channel, through chat, AI agents, messaging apps, and voice.
What started as an experiment for early adopters has become a key growth lever, with 84% of ecommerce brands treating conversational commerce as a strategic pillar this year vs. last year.
We surveyed 400 ecommerce decision-makers across North America, the U.K., and Europe to understand how conversational commerce and AI are reshaping the ecommerce landscape. These findings are complemented by aggregated and anonymized internal Gorgias platform data from 16,000+ ecommerce brands.
The State of Conversational Commerce in 2026 trends report breaks down all of the findings, including five key trends shaping the ecommerce landscape.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
Trend 1: AI is table stakes for ecommerce and it’s no longer just about efficiency
A few years ago, adding an AI chatbot to your site that could provide tracking links and Help Center article recommendations was a differentiator. Today, it's table stakes. McKinsey found that 71% of shoppers expect personalized experiences, and 76% get frustrated when they don't get them.
Right now, most ecommerce professionals use AI, with 93% having used it for at least 1 year. Enthusiasm is accelerating quickly, with only 30% of ecommerce professionals rating their excitement for AI at 10/10 in April 2025. Similarly, while AI adoption rose steadily year over year, it reached a clear peak in 2026.
The use cases driving this adoption are practical and high-volume:
- Order tracking and status updates
- Returns, exchanges, and refund requests
- Shipping FAQs and delivery estimates
These are the tickets that flood brands’ inboxes every day. AI agents resolve them instantly, without pulling teams away from conversations that actually require human judgment.
Explore AI adoption and use case data in more depth in the full report.
Trend 2: Conversations are the new path to checkout
The traditional ecommerce funnel, visit site, browse products, add to cart, check out, is losing ground. Shoppers now discover products on Instagram, ask questions via direct message, and complete purchases without ever visiting a website.
Conversational AI is actively increasing revenue, with 79% of brands reporting that AI-driven interactions have increased sales and conversion in their business.
The practical implication is that every channel is becoming a storefront. Creating personalized touchpoints with customers earlier in the journey, through proactive engagement, is impacting the bottom line.
Read the full report to explore how AI conversions have increased QoQ by industry.
Trend 3: AI is accelerating the purchase cycle
Pre-purchase hesitation is one of the biggest conversion killers in ecommerce. A shopper lands on your product page, has a question about sizing or compatibility, can't find the answer quickly, and leaves. That's a lost sale that had nothing to do with your product.
Conversational AI changes that dynamic. When a shopper can ask a question and get an accurate, personalized answer in real time, the friction disappears.
Brands using Gorgias saw this play out at scale in 2025. When AI Agent recommended a product, 80% of the resulting purchases happened the same day, and 13% happened the next day.
Brands are further accelerating the buying cycle through proactive engagement. On-site features such as suggested product questions, recommendations triggered by search results, and “Ask Anything” input bars drove 50% of conversation-driven purchases during BFCM 2025.
Explore how AI is collapsing the purchase cycle in Trend 3 of the report.
Trend 4: AI is making CX teams more technical
There's a persistent narrative that AI is making CX teams redundant. The data tells a different story. 62% of ecommerce brands are planning to grow their teams, not cut them. But the scope of those teams is changing.
New roles are emerging around AI configuration and quality assurance. Teams are investing in technical members to write AI Guidance instructions, develop tone-of-voice instructions, and continuously QA results.
CX teams are also bridging the gap between support goals and revenue goals, as the two functions increasingly overlap.
The result is CX teams that are more technical than they were before. Agents who once spent their days answering repetitive tickets are now spending that time on higher-value work: complex escalations, VIP customer relationships, and improving the AI systems and knowledge bases that handle the volume.
Learn more about the evolution of CX roles in Trend #4.
Trend 5: The future is hybrid: AI-first, humans when it counts
Despite increasing AI adoption, data shows that ecommerce brands shouldn’t strive for 100% automation. Winning brands are building systems in which AI handles repetitive tier-1 tickets, and humans handle complex, sensitive cases.
AI handles speed and scale. It resolves order-tracking requests at 2 a.m., processes return-eligibility checks in seconds, and answers the same shipping question for the thousandth time without compromising quality.
Human agents handle conversations that require context, empathy, or decisions that fall outside the standard playbook. There are several topics where shoppers still prefer human support.
Successful hybrid systems require continuous iteration, meaning reviewing handover topics, Guidance, and reviewing AI tickets on a weekly basis.
Discover how leading brands are balancing human and AI systems in Trend #5.
Where conversational commerce is heading by 2030
The 2026 trends are about expansion and standardization. The 2030 predictions are about what comes next.
Voice-based purchasing is the biggest bet on the horizon. Only 7% of brands currently use voice assistants for commerce, but 89% expect it to be standard by 2030. The vision is a customer who can reorder a product, check their subscription status, or manage a return entirely over the phone.
Proactive AI is the other major shift. Rather than waiting for a customer to reach out, AI will anticipate needs based on browsing behavior, purchase history, and where someone is in their relationship with your brand. Think of it as the digital equivalent of a sales associate who remembers what you bought last time and knows what you're likely to need next.
Explore where ecommerce brands are allocating their AI budgets in the full report.
Start building your conversational commerce strategy today
The brands winning in 2026 are creating smart, scalable systems where AIhandles volume and humans handle nuance. They’re treating every conversational channel as an opportunity to serve and sell.
The data is clear: AI adoption is accelerating, customer expectations are rising, and the revenue impact of getting this right is measurable.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
Further reading
Outlook support & New editor
9 Help Scout Alternatives: Best Options, Comparisons, and How to Choose
TL;DR:
- Why teams switch from Help Scout: It’s easy to use, but reporting is basic, omnichannel support is limited, and structured workflows like SLAs and escalations are missing.
- Who Help Scout is best for: Small to mid-size, email-first teams that want a simple shared inbox, quick setup, and lightweight collaboration without a lot of complexity.
- Top Help Scout alternatives by use case: Gorgias (ecommerce), Freshdesk (budget-conscious omnichannel teams), Intercom (product-led SaaS), and Zendesk (enterprise support ops).
- Key gaps to watch: Help Scout can become limiting if you need deeper analytics, more channel coverage, stronger automation, or a more flexible knowledge base.
- What to consider before switching: Compare pricing predictability, channel needs, SLA requirements, reporting depth, and how well the platform connects to your ecommerce or CRM stack.
Whether you're outgrowing Help Scout or shopping for your first helpdesk, you're probably looking for the same thing: a tool that brings all your customer conversations into one place without the chaos.
Help Scout is a solid starting point, but contact-based pricing gets unpredictable as you grow, reporting is limited, and omnichannel support is an afterthought.
This guide covers nine alternatives to help you find the right fit.
What you need to know about Help Scout
Help Scout is a shared inbox platform built for small to mid-size teams that want simple, email-first customer support. It comes with a built-in knowledge base (Docs) and a chat widget (Beacon), and it's known for being easy to set up and easy to use.
Where it works well:
- Clean, intuitive interface that's easy to learn
- Docs module for building a knowledge base
- Beacon widget for embedded chat and Self-service
- Collision detection to prevent duplicate responses
Where it falls short:
- Basic reporting with limited customization
- No native SLA enforcement or escalation rules
- Single knowledge base template
- Minimal support for phone, SMS, or social channels
- Some users report connection reliability issues
Pricing:
Help Scout charges per user, not per contact. Standard starts at $20/user/month, Plus at $40/user/month. Both plans include unlimited mailboxes, but costs can get unpredictable as your customer base grows.
Why consider Help Scout alternatives
Help Scout is easy to love at first, but here's where it tends to fall short as you grow:
- Reporting is too basic. No custom dashboards, no real-time analytics, and limited ability to track agent performance or spot customer trends. As one G2 reviewer put it, the reporting "doesn't allow for much drilldown or custom views."
- One knowledge base template. Limited customization and no collaborative editing make it hard to scale your self-service content. One reviewer noted it "limits how we can structure our help content."
- Reliability hiccups. Some users report connection drops and image handling issues during busy periods, making it "frustrating to use during busy periods" according to one G2 reviewer.
- Pricing gets unpredictable. Contact-based pricing means seasonal spikes or marketing campaigns can inflate your bill without warning.
- No SLAs or escalation rules. If your team needs structured workflows as you grow, Help Scout doesn't have the tools to support them.
Best Help Scout alternatives at a glance
9 Best Help Scout alternatives (deep dive)
Gorgias
Gorgias is built specifically for ecommerce brands that need to manage customer conversations across multiple channels while accessing order data in real time. The platform integrates deeply with Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce. This lets support teams view order details, process refunds, and update shipping addresses without leaving the help desk.
Key features:
- Multichannel support for email, Live Chat, phone, SMS, and social media (Facebook Messenger, Instagram)
- Deep ecommerce integrations with Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, and apps like Yotpo and Smile.io
- Powerful automation with Macros, Rules, and customer sentiment tagging
- Mobile apps on Google Play and Apple App Store for on-the-go support
- Ticket management with search, assignment, tags, and resolution tracking
Pricing: Starts at $50 per 350 tickets per month, billed annually.
Free trial: 7 days. No credit card required.
Best for: Ecommerce businesses that need ecommerce-focused integrations and ticket-based pricing aligned with store size.
What makes Gorgias better than Help Scout:
- Ticket-based pricing that scales with volume, not contacts
- Ecommerce-focused integrations designed for online stores
- Pricing plans consistent with store size and support needs
- Feature-rich ticket management with tags and automation
{{lead-magnet-1}}
Zendesk
Zendesk is an enterprise-grade platform with deep automation capabilities and AI-powered support tools. It's designed for large teams that need advanced routing, comprehensive reporting, and integration with thousands of third-party apps.
Key features:
- Omnichannel ticketing across email, chat, voice, and social media
- AI Copilot for automated triage and response suggestions
- Skills-based routing and advanced SLA management
- Access to over 1,000 integrations through the Zendesk marketplace
- Custom reporting with flexible data visualizations
Pricing: Suite Team plan starts at $55 per agent per month.
Free trial: 14 days. No credit card required.
Best for: Large teams, regulated industries, and companies with complex workflows.
Zendesk vs Help Scout: HeliosX, a Zendesk customer, noted that "automation was much easier to set up in Zendesk compared to our previous platform. We could create rules and triggers without needing developer help, which saved us weeks of onboarding time."
Freshdesk
Freshdesk offers a budget-friendly alternative with omnichannel support and AI-powered automation. The platform includes a free plan for up to 10 agents, making it accessible for growing teams that aren't ready for enterprise pricing.
Key features:
- Free plan available for up to 10 agents
- Freddy AI for ticket triage, chatbots, and sentiment analysis
- Built-in telephony and WhatsApp support
- Automation rules and SLA management with escalation workflows
- Connect with Freshworks products like Freshsales and Freshchat
Pricing: Free plan available. Growth plan starts at $15 per agent per month.
Free trial: 21-day free trial for paid plans. No credit card required.
Best for: Growing teams needing multichannel support without high costs.
Freshdesk vs Help Scout: Freshdesk's multichannel approach and free tier make it easier for budget-conscious teams to test omnichannel support before committing to paid plans.
Intercom
Intercom is designed for product-led SaaS companies that need to support customers within the app. Its Fin AI chatbot handles complex queries, and in-app messaging lets you guide users through features without email back-and-forth.
Key features:
- Fin AI chatbot for automated responses to complex questions
- In-app messaging and product tours for onboarding
- Unified inbox with full customer context
- Custom bots for lead qualification and routing
- Outbound messaging for proactive support
Pricing: Starter plan at $39 per user per month.
Free trial: 14 days. Credit card required.
Best for: SaaS companies focused on in-app support and customer onboarding.
Intercom vs Help Scout: Intercom's strength lies in product-led growth strategies, where Help Scout focuses on traditional email support. If your product requires in-app guidance, Intercom offers tools Help Scout doesn't provide.
Front
Front brings an email-style interface to team collaboration, making it feel familiar for teams transitioning from Gmail or Outlook. It combines a shared inbox with internal comments, shared drafts, and real-time collaboration features.
Key features:
- Shared inbox with internal comments and collaborative drafts
- AI Topics for automatic categorization and routing
- Calendar and scheduling integration
- Familiar email-style interface
- Collision detection to prevent duplicate work
Pricing: Starter plan at $25 per seat per month (up to 10 seats).
Free trial: 7 days
Best for: Teams wanting an email-like interface with real-time collaboration.
Front vs Help Scout: Both platforms prioritize email support, but Front's collaborative features - like shared drafts and internal comments - make it easier for teams to work together on complex replies.
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk offers budget-friendly pricing and low-code customization tools for teams that need to tailor workflows without hiring developers. It integrates natively with the Zoho ecosystem, including Zoho CRM, for unified customer data.
Key features:
- Low-code customization tools for workflows and ticket forms
- Zia AI for sentiment analysis and automated responses
- Multichannel support across email, chat, phone, and social media
- Native Zoho CRM integration
- GDPR compliance features
Pricing: Standard plan at $14 per agent per month. Free plan available for up to 3 agents.
Free trial: 15 days. No credit card required.
Best for: Teams using the Zoho ecosystem or needing custom workflows.
Kayako
Kayako uses a timeline-based interface called SingleView that shows a customer's full interaction history in one place. It's designed for IT and regulated industries that need on-premise deployment options and granular control over data.
Key features:
- SingleView timeline showing full customer interaction history
- Self-learning knowledge base that suggests articles based on ticket content
- On-premise deployment option for data security
- Guest collaborator access for external partners
- Facebook and Twitter integration
Pricing: Kayako One at $79 per month flat fee plus $1 per AI-resolved ticket.
Free trial: 14 days. No credit card required.
Best for: IT and regulated industries needing on-premise control.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent is built for global teams that need multilingual support. The platform offers 40+ language translations with automatic detection, plus a built-in call center and social media routing.
Key features:
- 40+ language support with automatic detection
- Built-in call center with recording and transcription
- AI chatbot and answer assistant
- Agent collision detection
- Unlimited mailboxes, automation rules, and chat buttons
Pricing: Small plan starts at $15 per agent per month. Free plan available.
Free trial: 14 days. No credit card required.
Best for: Global ecommerce, hospitality, and travel brands needing multilingual support.
Hiver
Hiver is a Gmail-native shared inbox that requires no separate login or interface. Teams already using Google Workspace can add shared labels, collision detection, and SLA reminders directly within Gmail.
Key features:
- Gmail-native interface with no separate platform
- Live Chat and WhatsApp channels
- Collision detection and shared drafts
- SLA reminders and automation rules
- Analytics dashboard within Gmail
Pricing: Lite plan at $19 per user per month.
Free trial: 7 days
Best for: Teams already using Google Workspace who want shared inbox features without leaving Gmail.
How to choose the best Help Scout alternative
The best way to find the right fit is to start by looking at where Help Scout may not meet your needs. Ask yourself:
- Is your pricing predictable? If seasonal spikes or a growing customer base are inflating your bill, look for seat-based or flat pricing instead of contact-based models. It's worth calculating the true cost of your customer support before committing to a new platform.
- Are you email-only or do you need more? If customers are reaching you on chat, social, or SMS and you're managing it outside Help Scout, you need omnichannel coverage.
- Do you need SLAs and structured routing? If tickets are falling through the cracks or the wrong agents are handling the wrong issues, look for platforms with native SLA enforcement and skills-based routing.
- Can you actually measure your team's performance? If you're making decisions without data, you need custom dashboards and real-time analytics, not just basic canned reports.
- Does it connect with your ecommerce stack? If your agents are switching tabs to check orders, look for platforms that embed Shopify or Magento data directly in the ticket view.
- What do you actually need from AI? Chatbots, auto-tagging, and sentiment analysis can cut ticket volume, but only if the pricing model makes sense for your usage. Read more on building an AI customer support strategy.
- How much migration support do you need? Most platforms offer import tools for tickets, articles, and customer data. One HappyFox customer migrated over 50,000 tickets and 200 knowledge base articles in under two weeks with the help of their migration team. If you're ready to move, here's how to migrate your helpdesk.
Which Help Scout alternative is right for you?
You've seen the alternatives. Now your decision boils down to your team's size, channels, and budget. Here's where to go from here:
- Still early-stage and email-focused? Help Scout might still work, but keep an eye on your contact count and reporting needs as you grow.
- Scaling fast and need omnichannel? Freshdesk or Zendesk gives you the channel coverage and SLA tools to keep up.
- Running an ecommerce brand? You need a platform built for it, like Gorgias. That means order data in the ticket view, no tab switching, and AI that handles the repetitive stuff.
Before committing, test a few platforms with a real support workflow and factor in migration costs and AI fees beyond the base price.
Ready to see what a helpdesk built for ecommerce looks like? Book a demo to see how Gorgias scales with your brand.
{{lead-magnet-2}}
Building delightful customer interactions starts in your inbox
