Richpanel alternatives for DTC brands: helpdesks with AI, and AI that answers first

If you are leaving Richpanel because of the bill, you have two kinds of alternative. One is a cheaper helpdesk with AI built in: Gorgias, Re:amaze or eDesk. The other is an AI assistant that answers order and product questions in chat and DMs before a ticket exists, such as ChatPal, Shopify Inbox or Tidio, often next to a smaller helpdesk for email. We make ChatPal, and it is not a helpdesk, so this page says where it fits and where it doesn't.

What Richpanel costs now

Its own pricing page and its Shopify listing disagree. On October 19, 2026, Richpanel's pricing page listed every plan as helpdesk seats plus metered AI:

• $119 per helpdesk seat a month on a monthly commitment, or $99 on an annual one;
• AI billed in credits at $0.60 each monthly or $0.50 annually, which Richpanel says works out at about $0.20 for a whole conversation;
• an AI minimum of $200 a month, with top-ups in $100 blocks;
• so one seat plus the AI minimum starts at $299 a month on an annual commitment.

The Shopify App Store listing on the same day showed different plans: PRO at $89 a month plus $89 per additional user, PRO MAX at $119, and AI conversations from $0.20 each, with a 14-day trial. Ask Richpanel which one applies to you before you compare.

Returns are an add-on. Returns & Exchanges starts at $99 a month on top.

What you get for it is real. Richpanel's AI handles refunds, order tracking, cancellations and subscription changes end to end, and it imports Gorgias history in one click. Richpanel guarantees its AI resolves 50% of conversations within 30 days, or you get a full refund. That is its claim; we didn't test it.

When Richpanel is still the right choice

Stay if you sell subscriptions and want the AI to handle subscription changes and offer a discount before someone cancels, or if you want refunds and cancellations done by the AI without a person touching them. Stay too if several agents work a shared queue all day across email, SMS and social, and the per-seat price is small next to their wages. A brand at that size is usually comparing Richpanel with Gorgias or Zendesk; see our Zendesk alternatives for that list.

How we chose

We picked tools a Shopify DTC brand would shortlist instead of Richpanel and that publish prices. For each we read the pricing page, the help center and, where it exists, the Shopify App Store listing, and re-checked every price on October 19, 2026. We split them into helpdesks with AI, where every conversation becomes a ticket someone can work, and AI assistants that answer first and hand the rest on. We make ChatPal; we did not test the other tools hands-on.

We left out Zendesk and Intercom: both price per agent with AI billed per resolution or outcome, the same shape as Richpanel. If you are moving off Gorgias rather than Richpanel, our Gorgias alternatives page covers a small store's view.

Richpanel and six alternatives

One month for a DTC brand, priced on each tool

Assume three people on support, 800 conversations a month, and 400 of them about order status or products that an AI could answer. Prices are billed monthly unless we say otherwise, as listed on October 19, 2026. This is our arithmetic, not a quote.

• Richpanel, its pricing page: 3 seats at $119 is $357, plus the $200 AI minimum, so $557 a month. At Richpanel's own $0.20 a conversation, 400 AI conversations cost about $80, inside the minimum. On an annual commitment it is $497.
• Richpanel, its Shopify listing: PRO at $89 plus two more users at $89 is $267, plus 400 AI conversations from $0.20, so about $347.
• Re:amaze: Basic for 3 is $87 with 15 AI resolutions included. The other 385 at $0.85 add about $327, so about $414.
• eDesk: Essential for 3 is $147, plus 400 AI outcomes at $0.99, about $396, so about $543.
• Gorgias: 800 tickets is past Basic's 300, so Pro at $360 for 2,000 tickets is the plan to price. With AI Agent on, Pro is $550 with 190 automated interactions. The pricing page lists $1.50 for each one above that, so the other 210 add $315: about $865 in all. Each automated interaction also counts as one of the 2,000 tickets. Our Gorgias pricing page works the bills through.
• ChatPal: it counts AI replies, not conversations. At an assumed 3 replies per conversation, 400 conversations are 1,200 replies, which fits Standard at $50 (1,500). At 5 replies it is 2,000, which needs Pro at $120 (4,000).

ChatPal only covers the 400 chat and DM conversations. The other 400, and all your email, still need somewhere to go. One way is a flat-priced helpdesk for email, such as Re:amaze Starter at $59 a month for unlimited team members and 500 responded conversations. With ChatPal that is $109 to $179 a month. The catch is two inboxes: ChatPal has no Re:amaze or Gorgias connection, so a chat it hands over is answered in ChatPal's inbox, not in your helpdesk. ChatPal does connect to Zendesk, where it can answer tickets or draft replies for your agents.

What "answers before a ticket exists" looks like

A helpdesk AI works on a ticket. An assistant sits where the customer writes first: your site chat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger or Telegram. It answers what it can and hands the rest to a person, with the conversation attached.

Here is an example conversation showing how ChatPal handles an order question on Instagram for a clothing brand with its Shopify store connected:

Customer: hi, where's my order?

Assistant: Please sign in to your store account so I can check.

[Sign-in link]

Customer: K7Q2MX

Assistant: Thanks, you're signed in. Order #1043 has shipped and is on its way to you.

[Card: order #1043, tracking number, estimated delivery, 2 items]

Customer: can I still cancel it?

Assistant: Order #1043 has already shipped, so it can't be stopped before delivery; once it arrives, a return is the usual route. Shall I send the team a cancellation request for #1043 anyway?

[Buttons: Send request · Keep my order]

The six characters are the code the store's sign-in page shows; on the website widget this step happens on its own after one tap on Continue. The assistant never asks for an order number or email to identify the customer, and never says an order was cancelled or refunded. Cancellation, delivery-change and missing-parcel requests reach your team only after the customer says yes. Returns and refunds go to your team.

That is the trade against Richpanel: Richpanel's AI can do the refund, while ChatPal answers the question for a flat price and leaves the refund to you.

Richpanel or an assistant: which fits

Choose a helpdesk (Richpanel, Gorgias, Re:amaze or eDesk) if:

• a good share of your support arrives by email, SMS or phone;
• you want the AI to process refunds, returns, cancellations or subscription changes itself;
• more than one person works a shared queue every day.

Choose an assistant such as ChatPal if:

• most questions are where is my order, sizing, stock and shipping, in your site chat or DMs;
• your customers are happy to sign in to their store account to ask about an order, since ChatPal won't look one up by order number or email;
• you are happy for order changes to arrive with your team as a confirmed request, with the order number and the customer's own words.

On WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram, ChatPal answers only when the customer writes first, and takes no voice calls. For the order question itself, see how to answer "where is my order?" on Shopify.

Moving off Richpanel

1. Export before you cancel. Ask Richpanel what your plan lets you export and how long your data stays after the contract ends.
2. Pick where email goes. If you keep a helpdesk for email, choose it first, because it decides whether you need a connection to the assistant.
3. Connect your store and test on your own order. In ChatPal, open Integrations → Shopify, enter your store's Shopify address and click Connect Shopify. Order support is on from the moment you connect: Shopify asks for the permission on the same approval screen. Ask the assistant about one of your own orders on your site and on Instagram.
4. Turn on handoff. In Configuration, on the Handoff & leads tab, switch on Hand off to a human when needed, so a customer who asks for a person reaches your team.
5. Swap the chat widget, then the DMs. Take Richpanel's chat off your store when you add the new one, so each channel has one tool. Read the assistant's answers in Chats for a week or two before you move Instagram and WhatsApp.

If you are a smaller store choosing a chat tool rather than a helpdesk, the list of AI chatbots for Shopify stores compares six of them.