Why merchants leave Gorgias: the short version
All 81 one- and two-star reviews with text, tagged by theme. One review can mention several themes.
| Complaint theme | Reviews mentioning it |
|---|---|
| 1. Slow or unhelpful support | 53 |
| 2. Price rises and billing | 39 |
| 3. Missing features and unreliable integrations | 27 |
| 4. Bugs, outages and the mobile app | 25 |
| 5. AI agent and automation quality | 20 |
Source: Gorgias: AI, Helpdesk & Chat reviews, Shopify App Store, all 1★ and 2★ reviews, collected 14 Oct 2026. Quotes are verbatim excerpts under 25 words; store names are as shown publicly on the App Store. Gorgias has 579 five-star reviews, and 51 of the 82 negative reviews are from 2024 or later, so the complaints are recent, not just historic.
Head to head: Gorgias vs Helpwise: per-ticket vs per-user pricing →
Each complaint, and what fixes it
1. Slow or unhelpful support (53 of 81 reviews)
“Oh and BTW the support team doesn't have a live chat, they reply to your emails "within 48 hours"”
“How ironic that a so-called CX app is giving me the worst customer experience ever.”
What fixes it: Support quality is hard to verify from outside. Try any replacement on a real ticket during its trial: Helpwise affiliate link and Tidio affiliate link both let you start without a sales call. Helpwise has no Shopify App Store reviews yet, so there is no rating to compare.
2. Price rises and billing (39 of 81 reviews)
“If you ignore the spam call but it leaves a voicemail, you still get charged for a Voice ticket.”
“And if predictable costs matter to you, read the AI pricing very carefully before you commit.”
What fixes it: Gorgias prices by ticket: its listing shows Starter at $10/month for 50 tickets plus $0.40 per extra ticket, and Basic at $60/month for 300. Helpwise affiliate link prices by user instead ($15 or $25 per user per month on its listing), which is easier to predict for a small team with many tickets. If you mainly need chat, Shopify Inbox is free.
3. Missing features and unreliable integrations (27 of 81 reviews)
“The Shopify integration is marketed as seamless, but in practice you get basic customer data and past orders - that is all.”
“There are so many missing features.”
What fixes it: Write down the three integrations you can’t work without and check them in each listing before switching. Helpwise’s listing names HubSpot, JustCall, Pipedrive, Twilio, Zapier and Zoho. To match a tool to your team size and channels, use the live chat picker.
4. Bugs, outages and the mobile app (25 of 81 reviews)
“The mobile app can be glitchy, talk-to-text is unreliable, and Voice doesn’t work through the mobile app.”
“I started a trial while using Shopify Plus, and they still haven’t been able to fix a store sync issue after a full week.”
What fixes it: If phone support matters, test voice and the mobile app first, whichever tool you choose. A lighter setup with fewer moving parts, such as a shared inbox (Helpwise affiliate link) plus free Shopify Inbox chat, has less to break, but also does less.
5. AI agent and automation quality (20 of 81 reviews)
“Meanwhile the entire focus seems to be on AI.”
“both ai-agent and human support are dumb and waste your time”
What fixes it: If you don’t need an AI agent, you don’t need to pay for one: Helpwise is a shared inbox first. If you do want AI, Tidio affiliate link lists its Lyro AI chatbot from $39/month (200 Lyro conversations), so you can test it on a small allowance.
Honest comparison
| Gorgias | Helpwise | Tidio | Shopify Inbox | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Helpdesk with chat, email, voice and AI | Shared inbox / helpdesk | Live chat and AI chatbot | Free chat by Shopify |
| App Store rating | 4.3 (704) | No reviews yet | 4.8 (1,355) | 4.6 (5,818) |
| Share of 1–2★ reviews | 12% (82) | n/a | 6% (75) | 5% (289) |
| Listed price | Starter $10/mo (50 tickets); Basic $60/mo (300) | $15 or $25 per user/month | Free plan; paid from $29/mo | Free |
| Pricing model | Per ticket | Per user | Per conversation / feature | Free |
| Our relationship | Affiliate | Affiliate | Affiliate | None |
From each app’s Shopify App Store listing, checked 14 Oct 2026. Gorgias does far more than Shopify Inbox (email, voice, social, automation); the table compares cost and fit, not feature depth. Listings: Gorgias, Helpwise, Tidio, Shopify Inbox.
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