Gorgias vs Front for Ecommerce Support in 2026
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Quick verdict: if ecommerce-specific AI that reads live Shopify order data and resolves tickets is what you need, Gorgias is the more purpose-built tool. If you want a genuinely collaborative shared inbox that works well across support, sales, or any team juggling shared addresses like support@ or sales@, Front is the stronger fit, even without Gorgias's order-data AI depth. Here's the full comparison.
Gorgias and Front both show up in Shopify's app ecosystem, but they solve different core problems. Gorgias is a ticket-based helpdesk built around ecommerce order data from the start. Front is a shared-inbox collaboration tool — turning email addresses multiple people need to work from into something closer to a team chat, with ticketing-style features layered on for teams that need them.
Comparison table
| Gorgias | Front | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Shopify stores wanting AI order actions | Teams wanting a collaborative shared inbox |
| Pricing model | Per ticket, unlimited agents | Per seat |
| Starting price | around $10/mo (ticket-based), before AI add-on | around $19/seat/mo reported on entry tier |
| AI order actions (status, returns, cancellations) | Yes, built around live Shopify data | No — AI leans toward draft assist and summarization |
| Built specifically for ecommerce support | Yes | No — general shared-inbox tool used across many team types |
| Internal collaboration on shared addresses | Supported | Core design strength |
Round 1: what each tool is actually built around
Gorgias's entire structure — ticketing, automation, its AI Agent — is built around a Shopify store's order data. Open a ticket and you see order history, customer value, and product details right there, and the AI reads that same data to act. Front's structure is built around making a shared email address collaborative: internal comments on a thread, assigning a message to a teammate, snoozing it for later, without any of that internal chatter leaking into the actual email reply. Front supports Shopify and ecommerce use cases well, but it wasn't designed exclusively for them the way Gorgias was.
Round 2: AI depth versus draft assistance
Gorgias's Automate reads live order data and can take real actions — checking status, starting a return, or cancelling an order — without a human writing the reply. Front's AI tools, by contrast, are focused on helping a human agent work faster: drafting a suggested reply based on the thread, summarizing a long back-and-forth before an agent jumps in. Both save time, but they save different kinds of time — Gorgias's AI can resolve a ticket end-to-end for certain request types, while Front's AI still expects a person to review and send.
Round 3: pricing model and where each wins
Gorgias charges per ticket with unlimited agents, so your base cost tracks ticket volume rather than headcount — a strong model for a lean team fielding a lot of order-status questions. Front charges per seat, with its entry tier reported starting around $19/seat/month and higher tiers adding automation, analytics, and a custom enterprise plan for larger teams. A small team with few agents but high ticket volume often does better on Gorgias's model; a larger team where ticket volume per agent stays moderate may find Front's flatter per-seat pricing easier to predict and budget for.
Round 4: collaboration features that go beyond support
This is where Front genuinely pulls ahead. Internal comments on a thread, @mentioning a teammate, assigning ownership, and snoozing a message until it's actually actionable are built deeply into Front's core experience — useful for a support team, but just as useful for a sales or operations team managing a shared inbox that isn't strictly "support tickets." Gorgias has collaboration basics (assignment, internal notes), but it's framed around ticket workflows rather than Front's broader team-communication layer sitting on top of real email.
Round 5: who ends up choosing which tool
Teams that pick Gorgias usually have a clear ecommerce support problem: order-status and returns questions dominate the queue, and AI resolving them directly is worth paying per ticket for. Teams that pick Front often have a broader need — multiple shared addresses across departments, a preference for working inside something that still feels like email, or a support load that doesn't (yet) justify a dedicated ecommerce helpdesk's AI depth. If neither quite fits, our Gorgias vs Freshdesk and Gorgias alternatives for Shopify pieces cover a few more options in between.
Round 6: scaling past the first hire
As a support team grows past one or two people, the two tools scale differently. Gorgias's per-ticket pricing means adding a third or fourth agent doesn't move your base bill — you're only paying more if ticket volume itself grows, which tends to track your store's actual order volume. Front's per-seat pricing means every new hire is a direct line-item increase regardless of how many tickets they personally handle, which can make budgeting more predictable for a stable headcount but costlier as a team scales up quickly. If you're expecting to add agents faster than your ticket volume grows, that difference is worth weighing before you commit to either plan.
Which should you pick?
- Order-status and returns dominate your queue, and you want AI resolving them: Gorgias.
- You need a collaborative shared inbox across more than just support: Front.
- Your team is small but ticket volume is high: Gorgias's per-ticket model.
- Your team size is stable but spans multiple shared addresses or departments: Front's per-seat model.
Try Gorgias if ecommerce-specific AI order actions are the priority, or try Front if a collaborative shared inbox across your whole team matters more.
Frequently asked questions
Is Front just an email inbox, or does it work like a real helpdesk?
Front started as a shared-inbox collaboration tool and has grown ticketing-style features on top — rules, assignment, analytics, and integrations with tools like Shopify. It functions as a helpdesk for many teams, but its design center of gravity is still making email collaborative across a team, which is slightly different from a ticket-first helpdesk like Gorgias built specifically around support tickets and order data from day one.
Does Front have AI features like Gorgias's Automate?
Front has added AI features, mainly around drafting reply suggestions and summarizing long threads, which speeds up an agent's work. It isn't built to read live Shopify order data and take actions like Gorgias's Automate does — checking order status or starting a return without a human in the loop. If AI resolving order-related tickets autonomously is the priority, Gorgias's AI is purpose-built for that in a way Front's current AI tools aren't.
Is Front cheaper than Gorgias for a small team?
It depends on your ticket volume versus your team size. Front bills per seat, with its entry tier reported starting around $19/seat/month; a 3-person team would be paying for 3 seats regardless of ticket volume. Gorgias bills per ticket with unlimited agents, from around $10/month before its AI add-on, so a small team with high ticket volume but few agents may find Gorgias's model cheaper, while a larger team with lower ticket volume per agent might find Front's flatter per-seat cost more predictable.
Can Front and Gorgias be used by the same company for different teams?
Some companies do run both — Front for internal team collaboration across departments like sales or ops, and Gorgias specifically for ecommerce customer support where Shopify order data and AI ticket resolution matter most. That's two subscriptions and two places agents need to check, so it only makes sense once the teams' needs are genuinely different enough to justify maintaining both tools rather than consolidating on one.