Tidio vs Gorgias for Shopify stores

Tidio and Gorgias both promise to help Shopify merchants answer customers faster and let AI handle the repetitive questions. They come at it from different directions, though. Tidio started as a website live-chat widget and grew into a helpdesk with an AI agent. Gorgias was built from day one as an e-commerce helpdesk, the place where a support team works all day. That difference shows up in pricing, set-up effort and who each tool suits.

This guide compares the two on what matters to a small store: how they work, how they charge, what their AI does, and when each one is the sensible choice. Pricing details were checked on the official pricing pages and the official Shopify App Store listings in October 2026. Prices are listed in US dollars, so UK merchants should expect the sterling amount to move with exchange rates, and VAT may apply.

Tidio vs Gorgias at a glance

How Tidio works for a Shopify store

Tidio adds a chat bubble to your storefront. When a shopper asks a question you can reply live from the web dashboard or the mobile app. On top of that sit two kinds of automation. Flows are rule-based: you design them in a drag-and-drop builder, for example a welcome message with a discount code for first-time visitors, or a button that asks for an order number. Lyro is Tidio's AI agent: it reads the support content you give it and writes natural answers to questions it has not seen word-for-word, handing over to a human when it cannot help.

The billing model is worth understanding. On the customer-service side, Tidio counts "billable conversations", which it defines on its pricing page as conversations that include a reply from a human agent. Unanswered spam does not count, and replies from Flows or Lyro do not count as agent replies. Lyro has its own quota of AI conversations; every account starts with 50, and you need a Lyro plan for that allowance to refresh monthly. Flows are limited by the number of unique visitors they reach, which on the free plan is 100 a month.

For a small store this is a gentle on-ramp. You can start free, add Lyro when you have a decent FAQ page to train it on, and only pay more as conversations grow. Tidio says self-serve plans support up to 10 agents, which is plenty for most small shops.

See our full Tidio review for the score breakdown.

How Gorgias works for a Shopify store

Gorgias is a helpdesk first. Every message, whether email, chat, Instagram or Facebook comment, SMS or phone call, becomes a ticket in one shared inbox. The big advantage for Shopify merchants is the sidebar: next to each ticket you see the customer's orders, and agents can do things like refund, cancel or edit an order from inside the conversation. Rules and macros (saved replies with variables) let a small team handle a lot of tickets quickly.

Gorgias charges by the number of tickets you handle each month rather than per agent seat. Its pricing page describes tiers that scale from 50 to 5,000 tickets a month, with overage fees above your allowance. Its AI Agent is billed separately per automated interaction: as of October 2026 the official pricing FAQ lists $0.90 per interaction on annual plans and $1.00 on monthly plans, and each automated interaction also counts as a helpdesk ticket. There is a 7-day trial and no free plan.

That model rewards stores where several people share support duties, because adding a teammate does not add a seat fee. But it also means costs follow your ticket count closely, so a busy sale weekend shows up on the bill. Gorgias also supports BigCommerce, Magento and WooCommerce, and says customer data is hosted in the US, EU or Australia depending on region, which some UK and EU merchants will appreciate for data-protection planning.

See our full Gorgias review for the score breakdown.

AI agents: Lyro vs Gorgias AI Agent

Both tools now lead with AI, and both make big claims about how many conversations their AI resolves. We have not run controlled tests of either, so we will not repeat those numbers as fact. What we can say is how they differ in practice:

• Training material matters more than the brand. Both agents answer from the content you provide: shipping and returns policies, FAQs, product information. A store with thin or outdated policies will get poor AI answers from either tool.
• Lyro is easier to switch on. It is designed for a small team to set up quickly, and Tidio's Shopify App Store listing mentions native Shopify actions on the Lyro plan.
• Gorgias AI Agent is closer to the order system. Because Gorgias is built around order data, its AI is aimed at fully resolving order-related tickets (tracking, returns, edits) rather than just answering questions.
• Billing differs. Tidio sells Lyro in conversation quotas; Gorgias charges per automated interaction. If your AI handles a lot of volume, model both costs with your own numbers before committing.

Pricing: which is cheaper for a small store?

For a store handling a modest number of conversations, Tidio is usually the cheaper route because its free plan is a real starting point and its entry paid plans are aimed at small businesses. Gorgias's Starter tier is inexpensive on paper, but it includes a small ticket allowance (the Shopify App Store listing shows 50 tickets a month and 3 agents), so a store with steady volume will quickly look at the next tier up.

The fairest way to compare is to count last month's customer messages, estimate how many an AI could handle, and plug both numbers into each vendor's pricing page: Tidio pricing and Gorgias pricing. Remember both are billed in USD.

Who should pick which?

Choose Tidio if…

• You are a one- to three-person store and support is one of many jobs.
• Most questions are pre-sale (sizing, stock, delivery times) and simple order checks.
• You want to start free and add AI later.
• You value quick set-up over a deep helpdesk.

Choose Gorgias if…

• You handle hundreds of tickets a month across several channels.
• Agents regularly refund, cancel or edit orders as part of support.
• You have, or plan to hire, people whose main job is customer service.
• You want detailed reporting on support performance.

Consider neither (yet) if…

You get a handful of messages a week. Shopify's own free Inbox app and a clear FAQ page may be enough, and Shopify's built-in AI, covered in our Shopify Magic review, can help you write those FAQs. Our guide to the best AI chatbot for a small Shopify store in the UK covers that route in more detail.

Switching later

A common pattern is to start on Tidio and move to Gorgias as volume grows. If you think that might be you, keep your FAQs and saved replies in a document you control, not just inside the tool, so they are easy to move. Both tools can be uninstalled from Shopify, but check each vendor's terms for exporting your conversation history before you switch.

Bottom line

Tidio is the better fit for most small Shopify stores today: free to start, quick to set up, and its Lyro AI agent is a practical way to take the edge off repetitive questions. Gorgias is the more powerful helpdesk and earns its price once support is a team activity with real volume. Start with the tool that fits your current volume, not the one you hope to need in two years.

Frequently asked questions

Prices and plan limits change frequently. We note the date we checked each fact; always confirm on the vendor's official pricing page before buying. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.