Every brand comparing Gladly and Gorgias starts from the same spot: a support inbox growing faster than the team behind it. Both platforms get recommended constantly, and both promise to fix the growth problem, but they solve different problems.
Gladly builds around the customer relationship, one continuous conversation carried across channels.
Gorgias builds around the ecommerce ticket, order data included, ready to act inside the conversation itself.
The honest answer today relies less on feature counts and more on how your team functions day to day to deliver customer support.
TL;DR
- While both Gladly and Gorgias deal with separate issues, they have dissimilar approaches.
- Gladly revolves around customer connections, which means there is only one chatting process across different platforms.
- Gorgias, however, revolves around the ecommerce tickets, which means order data and Shopify tasks are integrated in discussions.
- Gorgias suits brands involved in DTC business with significant volume of transactions.
- Gladly is perfect for brands concentrated on having constant interactions and that are not concerned about one particular case.
- Kim is for brands seeking automated solutions for their ecommerce issues and paying for resolved tickets.
Gladly vs Gorgias at a Glance
Gorgias fits Shopify-heavy DTC brands running steady ticket volume, needing order edits inside the same screen as the conversation. Gladly fits enterprise consumer brands built around voice and a single lifelong customer record across channels. Kim fits brands wanting ecommerce support handled for them, paying per resolved ticket instead of per seat or per platform.
| Option | Best for | How it prices | Order actions inside the ticket | Starting cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kim | Brands wanting support handled, not another platform to run | Per resolved ticket, no seats, no contract minimum | Works through your existing Shopify, Gorgias, or Zendesk setup | $0.70 per resolved ticket |
| Gorgias | Shopify DTC brands with steady, high ticket volume | By ticket tier, with AI Agent resolutions billed on top | Native Shopify refunds, edits, and cancellations inside the ticket | $10/month for 50 tickets |
| Gladly | Enterprise brands running voice-heavy relationship support | Per agent seat, annual contract, seat minimums apply | Connects to ecommerce systems rather than editing orders directly | Around $1,800/month at the 10-seat Hero minimum (third-party estimate) |
Prices checked September 2026. Gorgias publishes its pricing directly. Gladly doesn't, so the figures above come from third-party estimates rather than an official rate card.
The table sorts three options by fit, but it skips the number driving most of these searches: the monthly bill. Pricing gets a full breakdown further down, once the deeper product difference is on the table.
What Is the Real Difference Between Gladly and Gorgias
Both platforms answer customer messages. Neither answers them the same way.
Gladly organizes around the person, not the ticket. Every channel a customer uses feeds into one continuous conversation tied to their record.
An agent picking up a call sees the chat from three weeks ago, the return from last month, and the order sitting mid-transit, all in one thread instead of three separate tickets. Gladly calls this a lifelong customer conversation.
Gorgias organizes around the transaction. A ticket opens, order data loads next to it automatically, and the agent gets a set of ecommerce-specific actions right there: issue a refund, edit an address, resend a shipment, cancel a subscription line. The conversation exists to close the transaction attached to it.
Run a delayed order through both. With Gorgias, the representative looks at the ticket, reviews the delivery status, which is connected with Shopify, and processes the partial refund.
With Gladly, the representative also sees the same complaint but opens the entire customer history and finds two more late shipments from earlier this quarter.
So, the representative has enough information to decide on the nature of the remedy – whether it is going to be a refund or a credit. One optimizes for closing the ticket fast, the other for reading the relationship correctly.
A refund request follows the same split: Gorgias resolves it as a transaction tied to one order, while Gladly weighs it against everything known about the customer, useful when the decision hinges on lifetime value or repeat behavior.
Gorgias wins when ecommerce transactions drive most of the support volume. Gladly wins when the relationship, not the order, decides the right response.
Gladly vs Gorgias Feature by Feature
Beyond philosophy, the day-to-day differences show up in specific tools:
| Feature | Gladly | Gorgias |
|---|---|---|
| Omnichannel support | Voice, email, SMS, chat, and social unified into one thread per customer | Email, chat, SMS, and social, with voice added as a newer add-on |
| Native voice | Built in from the start, core to the product | Available, but treated as an extension rather than the core channel |
| Customer data model | One profile per person, following them across every channel and order | One ticket per conversation, with order data attached |
| Shopify order actions | General ecommerce support, without deep native order editing | Refunds, edits, cancellations, and subscription changes handled inside the ticket |
| AI | Sidekick, tuned to relationship context and cross-system actions | AI Agent, tuned to resolve transactional tickets, billed per resolution |
| Reporting and workflows | Strong for relationship and CSAT tracking, thinner for high-volume queue management | Strong automation rules and macros built specifically for ecommerce queues |
Three distinctions bear the greatest importance in the decision-making process. Since its inception, voice has been the main emphasis of Gladly, whereas Gorgias has considered it as an additional module layered on top of a ticketing system.
While the order actions lean in favor of Gorgias, as the latter can complete a refund and change an address without exiting the ticket, it should be noted that Gladly doesn't incorporate such functionality natively.
And the AI models charge differently. Gorgias bills by resolution, so automation savings show up alongside a new line item, while Gladly's Sidekick usage sits inside a broader seat-based contract.
Features alone don't settle this. The next question is what each platform costs to run for the support team in front of you.
Gladly vs Gorgias Pricing and Value
Gorgias has made its prices known. They have Starter, which costs $10 per month for 50 tickets; Basic, which is $50 per year (or $60 per month) for 300 tickets; Pro, which is $300 per year and provides 2000 tickets; and Advanced, which costs $750 per year, allowing for 5000 tickets. They do have a custom Enterprise pricing, but every plan provides unlimited seats.
However, there will be an extra fee of $0.90 for every complete conversation triggered by the AI Agent, which will be charged on annual billing. The number of resolutions also counts against the number of tickets used.
On the other hand, Gladly does not make its prices public. However, some estimates from third parties suggest the Hero plan costs around $180 per month, meaning it is somewhere around $1,800 on a monthly basis. The Superhero plan is priced at around $210 per seat, meaning at least $9,000. It is also worth noting that Voice and SMS will be billed separately and that contracts are done on an annual basis.
Run these numbers against three team sizes, modeled at roughly 400 tickets per agent monthly and a 30 percent AI resolution rate, a common range across ecommerce support teams:
| Team size | Gorgias (plan + AI fee) | Gladly (seat-based) | Kim (resolved tickets only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~5 agents, 2,000 tickets/month | Pro at $300, plus around $540 in AI fees, near $840 total | 10-seat Hero minimum forces roughly $1,800 regardless of headcount | About $450 for the 600 AI-resolved tickets |
| ~10 agents, 4,000 tickets/month | Advanced at $750, plus around $1,080 in AI fees, near $1,830 total | 10 seats at $180 lands at $1,800 | About $900 for the 1,200 AI-resolved tickets |
| ~25 agents, 10,000 tickets/month | Advanced tier plus overage and AI fees, roughly $5,000 to $5,500 total | 25 seats still under the Hero ceiling, near $4,500 | About $2,250 for the 3,000 AI-resolved tickets |
These numerical values are depicted based on modeled scenarios, It’s nnot quotes, and real ratios shift by brand. Still, the pattern holds.
Gorgias cost compounds as ticket volume and AI resolutions rise, since one resolution gets billed twice. Gladly cost holds flat until headcount crosses a seat minimum, then jumps in a block. Kim's cost tracks resolved tickets alone, with nothing owed for a ticket left open.
Small DTC teams often find Gladly's seat minimum outweighs its relationship features. Growing teams past a few thousand tickets a month watch Gorgias's AI fee turn automation into a cost center rather than a saving. Larger omnichannel operations feel both effects at once, since headcount drives cost on either platform regardless of ticket volume.
Where Kim Fits When Neither Platform Is Right
Gladly and Gorgias both solve support the same way: buy a platform, then staff it. Kim solves a different problem. It's a managed ecommerce support model, not a third helpdesk to configure, sometimes described as an agentic BPO for brands wanting to hand off day-to-day resolution instead of running another tool.
Unlike a traditional BPO, Kim doesn't scale by adding headcount at an hourly rate. It scales through AI paired with Sentinels, trained CX professionals who set up, train, and quality-check the AI against a brand's real tickets before any of it reaches a customer.
The distinction driving this model: a deflected ticket and a resolved ticket look identical on a dashboard, but only one keeps the customer from writing back. Reopen rates across the industry run close to half of AI-handled tickets, so a brand pays for the same ticket twice, once for the bot's first pass and again for the human cleanup after. Kim's Sentinels review every ticket the AI answers with under 90 percent confidence, and correct the model itself when it drifts, so the fix holds for every similar ticket going forward, not only the one in front of them.
This runs alongside an existing Gorgias or Zendesk setup rather than replacing it. Questions regarding the status of orders, requests for returns, approvals for refunds, and repetitive inquiries come through Kim’s Sentinels while either Gorgias or Zendesk serves as the record-keeping system. It is evident by looking at the more than 200 brands on Shopify that the cost of customer service reduces by almost 40% with the average CSAT score being equal to 4.8 too. The cost per resolved ticket comes at the price of $0.70-$0.90 with no cost for the unresolved tickets.
What We Would Pick
For Shopify and DTC support built around orders, refunds, and shipping questions, Gorgias remains the strongest ecommerce-native pick, provided the AI Agent's per-resolution fee gets modeled honestly before signing.
For enterprise omnichannel CX built around voice and one continuous customer relationship, Gladly earns its premium, as long as the seat minimum fits the team size already in place.
For brands preferring to hand off support instead of running another platform, Kim fits best, pairing AI with Sentinel oversight so resolution quality doesn't depend on hiring, training, or managing a queue internally.
FAQs
What's the main difference between Gladly and Gorgias?
Gladly organizes support around the customer relationship, with one continuous conversation across channels. Gorgias organizes around the ecommerce ticket, with order data and Shopify actions built into the conversation itself.
Do Gladly or Gorgias work with Kim?
Yes. Kim runs alongside an existing Gorgias or Zendesk setup, handling repetitive and resolved-outcome tickets through Sentinels while the underlying platform stays in place as the system of record.
Which platform has better AI, Gladly or Gorgias?
Gorgias's AI Agent resolves transactional tickets and bills per resolution. Gladly's Sidekick works across a customer's full history. Neither includes the human review layer Kim adds through Sentinels.
Which is easier to switch to, Gladly or Gorgias?
Ticket and customer history export cleanly from most helpdesks. Custom automation rules and Shopify-specific macros usually need manual rebuilding, regardless of which platform a brand moves toward.
Is Gladly a CRM?
Not exactly. Gladly functions as a customer service platform built around one profile per customer, closer to a CRM than most helpdesks, but without the sales pipeline tools a full CRM includes.
