Top Customer Support Apps for Shopify in 2026

Best Shopify Customer Support Apps: Comparison Table

Here is a quick comparison of the 10 best customer support apps for Shopify in 2026. Each app has been evaluated on Shopify integration depth, feature set, pricing, and merchant reviews.

10 Best Customer Support Apps for Shopify (2026)

We have tested, implemented, and worked alongside these tools across our Shopify client stores. Here are our picks for the best customer support apps for Shopify in 2026, with honest assessments of what each does well and who they suit best.

1. Gorgias

• Price: From $60/month (Starter plan)
• Shopify Rating: 4.3/5 (700+ reviews)
• Best For: Shopify stores wanting a purpose-built ecommerce helpdesk
• Free Trial: 7 days

Gorgias is the standout customer support app for Shopify and the one we recommend most to our clients. Built specifically for ecommerce, it connects directly to your Shopify store in a way that generic helpdesks simply cannot match. Your support team can view customer order history, process refunds, cancel orders, and edit shipping details without ever leaving the Gorgias dashboard.

The AI capabilities in Gorgias have matured significantly in 2026. Their AI agent can automatically handle common queries like "where is my order?" and "how do I return this?", reducing ticket volume by up to 30% for many stores. The system learns from your past responses and adapts to your brand voice, so automated replies feel natural rather than robotic.

What makes Gorgias particularly valuable for growing Shopify stores is its revenue tracking. The platform attributes revenue to support interactions, showing you exactly how much money your support team generates through upsells, cross-sells, and saved orders. This turns customer support from a cost center into a revenue driver.

Gorgias also supports omnichannel communication including email, live chat, social media DMs, SMS, and phone. Every conversation lives in one unified inbox regardless of channel, giving agents full context on every customer interaction.

Key features: Deep Shopify integration, AI-powered auto-responses, revenue tracking, omnichannel inbox, macros and automation rules, customer sentiment detection.

Why choose Gorgias: If you want a helpdesk built from the ground up for Shopify ecommerce with deep order data integration and AI that actually works, Gorgias is the clear leader.

2. Tidio

• Price: Free plan available (paid from $29/month)
• Shopify Rating: 4.7/5 (1,150+ reviews)
• Best For: Stores wanting AI chatbots with live chat in one platform
• Free Trial: 7 days on paid plans

Tidio has become one of the most popular customer support tools on the Shopify App Store, and the reviews back up the hype. With over 1,150 reviews and a 4.7 rating, it consistently ranks among the highest-rated support apps available.

The standout feature is Lyro, Tidio's AI chatbot. Lyro learns from your FAQ content and support documentation to answer customer questions automatically. It handles routine queries like order tracking, shipping policies, and product questions without human intervention. For smaller teams that cannot staff live chat around the clock, Lyro fills the gap effectively.

Tidio's visual chatbot builder lets you create automated conversation flows without any coding. You can set up welcome messages, cart abandonment triggers, product recommendations, and discount offers based on visitor behavior. These automations work in the background to capture leads and recover sales even when your team is offline.

The free plan is genuinely useful too. It includes live chat for up to 50 conversations per month and basic chatbot functionality, making it a solid starting point for new Shopify stores that are not yet ready to invest in a premium helpdesk.

Key features: Lyro AI chatbot, visual flow builder, live chat widget, email integration, visitor tracking, cart abandonment automation, Shopify order preview.

Why choose Tidio: If you want a combination of AI chatbot and live chat with a generous free plan and easy setup, Tidio delivers excellent value for Shopify stores of all sizes.

3. Help Scout

• Price: From $25/user/month
• Shopify Rating: 4.3/5
• Best For: Brands wanting a clean, simple shared inbox that feels personal
• Free Trial: 15 days

Help Scout takes pride in keeping customer support human. Their shared inbox is designed so that every reply looks like a personal email rather than a generic ticket response. For DTC brands that value a personal touch in their customer relationships, this philosophy resonates strongly.

The Shopify integration pulls customer and order data into a sidebar alongside each conversation. Agents can see order history, lifetime value, and customer details at a glance. It is not as deep as Gorgias (you cannot process refunds directly), but it provides enough context for efficient support.

Help Scout's knowledge base tool, Docs, is one of the best in the category. It creates clean, searchable help centers that match your brand. The Beacon widget embeds on your Shopify store and suggests relevant articles before customers open a conversation, deflecting simple queries effectively.

Based in Boston, Help Scout has built a loyal following among American DTC brands who appreciate their focus on simplicity and customer-first design. The platform also includes basic automation through workflows, saved replies, and collision detection so two agents do not accidentally reply to the same customer.

Key features: Shared inbox, knowledge base (Docs), Beacon widget, workflows and automation, customer profiles, collision detection, satisfaction ratings.

Why choose Help Scout: If you value simplicity, personal customer relationships, and a clean interface over enterprise complexity, Help Scout is a refined choice that DTC brands love.

4. Zendesk

• Price: From $55/agent/month (Suite Team)
• Shopify Rating: 3.0/5 (111 reviews)
• Best For: Larger Shopify stores needing enterprise-grade support infrastructure
• Free Trial: 14 days

Zendesk is the industry heavyweight of customer support software. If your Shopify store has outgrown simpler tools and needs enterprise-level capabilities, Zendesk provides the infrastructure to support complex, high-volume operations.

The Shopify App Store rating of 3.0 deserves context. Zendesk is not a Shopify-native tool, and merchants expecting plug-and-play simplicity sometimes find the setup more involved than lighter alternatives. The Shopify integration works through a sidebar app that pulls order data into tickets, but it requires proper configuration to get the most from it.

Where Zendesk excels is depth. The ticketing system handles complex workflows with automations, triggers, SLAs, and custom fields that simpler apps cannot replicate. The knowledge base builder is best-in-class, letting you create comprehensive self-service portals that deflect tickets before they reach your team.

Zendesk's AI features have improved dramatically with their acquisition of AI capabilities. The Answer Bot can resolve common questions from your knowledge base, and the agent workspace uses AI to suggest responses and surface relevant articles during conversations.

Key features: Advanced ticketing system, knowledge base builder, AI-powered Answer Bot, SLA management, custom reporting, omnichannel support, 1,000+ integrations.

Why choose Zendesk: If your Shopify store processes high ticket volumes, needs complex workflows, or requires enterprise reporting capabilities, Zendesk provides the infrastructure that purpose-built Shopify apps cannot match.

5. Richpanel

• Price: Free plan available (paid from $29/month)
• Shopify Rating: 5.0/5 (125+ reviews)
• Best For: Stores wanting AI-powered self-service to reduce ticket volume
• Free Trial: 14 days

Richpanel takes a different approach to customer support by putting self-service at the center of everything. Their customer self-service portal lets shoppers track orders, initiate returns, exchange products, and resolve issues without ever contacting your team. For stores drowning in repetitive tickets, this is a game-changer.

The self-service portal looks and feels like a native part of your Shopify store. Customers can log in and see their complete order history, tracking information, and available actions. Need to exchange a size? The portal handles it automatically. Want a refund? The workflow guides the customer through the process based on your return policy rules.

Richpanel's AI has been trained specifically on ecommerce data, so it understands the context of customer queries better than generic AI tools. It can resolve up to 50% of tickets automatically according to Richpanel's data, and the tickets it does pass to agents come with full context and suggested responses.

The multi-channel inbox covers email, live chat, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Everything feeds into one dashboard where agents can manage conversations alongside the self-service analytics.

Key features: Customer self-service portal, AI-powered automation, multi-channel inbox, automated returns and exchanges, order tracking, revenue analytics.

Why choose Richpanel: If reducing ticket volume through intelligent self-service is your priority, Richpanel's approach is genuinely innovative and delivers measurable results for Shopify stores.

6. Gladly

• Price: Custom pricing (typically enterprise)
• Notable Clients: Allbirds, Crate & Barrel, Warby Parker, Ralph Lauren
• Best For: Mid-market to enterprise DTC brands wanting people-centered support
• Free Trial: Demo available

Gladly is built around a fundamentally different idea: customer support should be organized around people, not tickets. Instead of assigning ticket numbers to every interaction, Gladly creates a single, continuous conversation thread for each customer across every channel. This means your agent sees the full history of every interaction, whether it happened over email, chat, phone, or social media.

For Shopify stores with high customer lifetime values, this people-centered approach pays dividends. Agents never ask customers to repeat themselves. They see the full context instantly, leading to faster resolutions and more personalized interactions. Brands like Allbirds, Warby Parker, and Crate & Barrel use Gladly for exactly this reason.

The Shopify integration connects order data, customer profiles, and transaction history into the Gladly interface. Agents can view and manage orders alongside conversations, though the integration is designed for larger operations rather than small stores.

Gladly also includes built-in voice capabilities, so you can handle phone support within the same platform. For brands that offer phone support alongside digital channels, this eliminates the need for a separate call center solution.

Key features: People-centered conversation model, omnichannel support (including voice), Shopify integration, customer timeline, task management, built-in IVR and call routing.

Why choose Gladly: If your brand prioritizes personalized customer relationships and needs a platform that treats customers as people rather than ticket numbers, Gladly delivers a premium experience for mid-market and enterprise Shopify stores.

7. Freshdesk

• Price: Free plan available (paid from $15/agent/month)
• Shopify Rating: 3.3/5
• Best For: Growing stores wanting a scalable ticketing system at a fair price
• Free Trial: 14 days

Freshdesk is a well-established helpdesk from Freshworks that competes directly with Zendesk at a lower price point. Their free plan supports up to 10 agents with basic ticketing, making it one of the most generous free offerings in the category.

The Shopify integration is available through a dedicated app that syncs customer and order data into the Freshdesk interface. Like Zendesk, it is not a Shopify-native tool, so the integration is functional rather than seamless. Agents can view order details alongside tickets but cannot perform Shopify actions directly.

Where Freshdesk shines is its ticketing workflow. The system handles ticket routing, prioritization, SLA management, and team collaboration cleanly. The Freddy AI assistant helps agents draft responses and can automate resolution of simple, repetitive tickets.

Freshdesk also offers a marketplace with over 1,000 integrations, a knowledge base builder, community forums, and field service management for brands that need on-site support capabilities. The breadth of features at each price tier represents strong value.

Key features: Ticket management, Freddy AI assistant, knowledge base, SLA management, team collaboration, multi-channel support, free plan for up to 10 agents.

Why choose Freshdesk: If you want Zendesk-level capabilities at a fraction of the cost, or need a free helpdesk that supports multiple agents, Freshdesk is an excellent option for budget-conscious Shopify stores.

8. Kustomer

• Price: From $89/user/month
• Notable Clients: Glossier, ThirdLove, UNTUCKit, Ring
• Best For: DTC brands wanting CRM-powered customer service
• Free Trial: Demo available

Kustomer blends CRM and customer service into a single platform. Acquired by Meta in 2023 and later spun back out, Kustomer brings a data-rich approach to support that goes beyond traditional ticketing. Every customer interaction is stored in a comprehensive timeline alongside purchase history, browsing behavior, and custom data points.

The Shopify integration is robust, pulling in order data, fulfillment status, and customer information automatically. What sets Kustomer apart is how it uses this data. Agents see a complete customer timeline that includes not just support conversations but also orders, returns, loyalty points, and marketing interactions. This 360-degree view enables genuinely personalized support.

Kustomer's AI capabilities include intelligent routing based on customer value and query type, automated responses for common questions, and sentiment analysis that flags unhappy customers for priority attention. The platform can automatically categorize and prioritize tickets based on urgency and customer lifetime value.

Popular DTC brands like Glossier, ThirdLove, and UNTUCKit use Kustomer because it bridges the gap between support and customer relationship management. If you believe customer service should be proactive rather than reactive, Kustomer's CRM-first approach aligns with that philosophy.

Key features: CRM-powered customer timeline, omnichannel support, AI routing and automation, Shopify deep integration, sentiment analysis, proactive outreach, custom reporting.

Why choose Kustomer: If you want customer service that doubles as a CRM, giving agents a complete picture of every customer relationship, Kustomer provides a depth of customer insight that traditional helpdesks lack.

9. Shopify Inbox

• Price: Free (included with all Shopify plans)
• Shopify Rating: 4.7/5 (5,500+ reviews)
• Best For: New Shopify stores wanting free, native live chat
• Free Trial: N/A (always free)

Shopify Inbox is Shopify's own free live chat and messaging tool. It comes included with every Shopify plan and provides a surprisingly capable starting point for stores that have not yet invested in dedicated support software.

The integration is seamless because it is built by Shopify. Agents can see customer details, cart contents, and order history directly within conversations. The app even shows what products a customer was browsing when they started a chat, giving agents valuable context for sales-oriented support.

Shopify has added AI-powered suggested replies that help agents respond faster to common questions. The automated greetings and FAQ responses handle basic queries when your team is unavailable, though these are simpler than what dedicated chatbot platforms offer.

The mobile app lets you respond to customer messages from anywhere. For solo founders or small teams who cannot sit at a desktop all day, this flexibility means you never miss a sales opportunity.

Shopify Inbox is not a replacement for a full helpdesk. It does not include ticketing, knowledge bases, or advanced automation. But as a free live chat tool that works perfectly with your Shopify store, it is hard to argue against installing it.

Key features: Free live chat, AI suggested replies, cart visibility, product sharing in chat, automated greetings, mobile app, performance metrics.

Why choose Shopify Inbox: If you are just starting out and need a free, zero-friction live chat that integrates perfectly with your Shopify store, install Shopify Inbox today. You can always upgrade to a dedicated helpdesk later.

10. Front

• Price: From $19/user/month (Starter)
• Notable Clients: Shopify merchants, Y Combinator companies, fast-growing startups
• Best For: Teams wanting collaborative email management with shared context
• Free Trial: 7 days

Front reimagines the shared inbox by combining personal email with team collaboration. Unlike traditional helpdesks that feel like ticketing systems, Front feels like using email, with the added power of shared inboxes, internal comments, and assignment workflows. For teams that find helpdesks overly structured, Front offers a refreshing middle ground.

The Shopify integration brings order and customer data into the Front sidebar, giving agents context without switching tabs. While it is not as deep as Gorgias or Richpanel for Shopify-specific actions, it provides the essential order information agents need for most support interactions.

What makes Front unique is its collaboration model. Team members can discuss customer issues privately within conversation threads using internal comments. They can share drafts for review before sending, assign conversations to specific team members, and set up rules to route messages automatically. This collaborative approach works particularly well for brands where support requires input from multiple departments.

Front also excels at handling non-support communication alongside customer service. If your team manages partnerships, vendor relationships, and customer support through the same tool, Front handles all of it cleanly. This versatility makes it popular with fast-growing startups that need one tool for all external communication.

Key features: Collaborative shared inbox, internal comments and drafts, assignment and routing rules, Shopify integration, analytics and SLA tracking, multi-channel support, workflow automation.

Why choose Front: If your team finds traditional helpdesks too rigid and wants a collaborative inbox that feels like email with superpowers, Front bridges the gap between personal communication and structured support.

Why Customer Support Matters for Shopify Stores

Customer support is one of the biggest drivers of repeat purchases in ecommerce. Research consistently shows that customers who receive fast, helpful support are significantly more likely to buy again and recommend a store to others.

For Shopify stores specifically, support quality directly affects several critical metrics. Pre-sale inquiries that go unanswered represent lost revenue. A customer who cannot get a sizing question answered will buy from a competitor. A store that responds within minutes converts significantly more inquiries into sales than one that takes hours.

Returns and refunds are another area where good support tooling pays for itself. A smooth, well-handled return experience actually increases customer lifetime value. Shoppers who have a positive return experience are more likely to buy again than customers who never returned anything at all. The right support app makes these processes efficient for both customers and your team.

Support also plays a growing role in brand reputation. Social media has made it easy for customers to share bad experiences publicly. One poorly handled complaint can reach thousands of potential customers within hours. Investing in the right support tools and processes protects your brand while building genuine advocacy.

We have seen this across our Shopify client stores at Charle. Brands that invest in proper customer support infrastructure consistently outperform those that treat it as an afterthought. The apps on this list make it easier to deliver the kind of support that builds lasting customer relationships.

Essential Features in a Shopify Customer Support App

Not every support app suits every store. Here are the features that matter most when choosing a customer support tool for your Shopify business.

Shopify integration depth varies dramatically between apps. At minimum, your support tool should display customer order data alongside conversations. Better integrations let agents process refunds, edit orders, and view browsing history without switching tabs. Apps like Gorgias and Richpanel offer the deepest Shopify connections, while tools like Zendesk and Freshdesk require more setup.

Omnichannel support consolidates messages from email, live chat, social media, SMS, and phone into a single inbox. Modern customers expect to reach you on their preferred channel. Managing separate inboxes for each channel creates inefficiency and risks messages slipping through the cracks.

AI and automation capabilities have become essential in 2026. Look for AI that can automatically respond to common queries, suggest responses to agents, and route tickets to the right team member. The best AI tools learn from your historical data and improve over time.

Self-service options like knowledge bases, FAQ pages, and order tracking portals let customers resolve issues without contacting your team. Every ticket deflected through self-service is time your agents can spend on complex, high-value interactions.

Reporting and analytics help you understand support performance and identify areas for improvement. Track metrics like first response time, resolution time, customer satisfaction, and ticket volume trends. Good reporting reveals whether your support operation is getting better or worse over time.

Scalability matters as your store grows. The app that works for 50 tickets a week may struggle at 500. Consider pricing models (per agent vs per ticket vs flat rate) and whether the platform can handle your projected growth without requiring a painful migration later.

How to Choose the Right Customer Support App

Picking the right support app starts with understanding your store's specific needs. Here are the factors we recommend considering when making your decision.

Start with your ticket volume. Stores handling fewer than 100 tickets per month can get by with simpler tools like Shopify Inbox or Tidio's free plan. Once you pass that threshold, a dedicated helpdesk like Gorgias or Help Scout starts paying for itself through efficiency gains. Enterprise volumes (1,000+ tickets per month) typically require Zendesk, Gladly, or Kustomer level infrastructure.

Consider your channels. If most support comes through email, a shared inbox like Help Scout or Front works beautifully. If you need live chat, social media, and SMS alongside email, you need an omnichannel platform. If you want phone support integrated too, Gladly handles voice natively.

Evaluate your budget honestly. Free tools like Shopify Inbox and Freshdesk's free tier are genuinely useful, not just demos for paid products. Mid-range tools like Tidio and Richpanel offer strong value between $25 and $80 per month. Enterprise tools like Zendesk, Gladly, and Kustomer cost more but deliver proportionally more capability.

Test before you commit. Every app on this list offers a free plan or free trial. Install your top two or three choices and run them in parallel for a week. The best way to evaluate a support tool is to use it with real customers. Pay attention to how intuitive the interface feels, how quickly your team adapts, and whether the Shopify integration works as expected.

Think about migration. Switching support platforms is disruptive. Choose a tool that can grow with your store for the next two to three years rather than picking the cheapest option today and migrating in six months. The cost of migration (lost data, retraining, downtime) almost always exceeds the savings from a cheaper tool.

AI in Shopify Customer Support (2026)

AI has moved from a nice-to-have to a core feature in customer support tools. In 2026, the best Shopify support apps use AI in several meaningful ways.

Automated ticket resolution handles common queries without human involvement. "Where is my order?" questions, return requests, and shipping policy inquiries can be resolved automatically when AI has access to your Shopify order data. Gorgias, Tidio, and Richpanel all offer this capability with varying degrees of sophistication.

Agent assistance uses AI to help human agents work faster. Suggested responses, automatic summarization of long email threads, and sentiment detection help agents resolve tickets more quickly and consistently. Freshdesk's Freddy AI and Zendesk's agent workspace both excel here.

Intelligent routing directs tickets to the most appropriate agent based on the query type, customer value, and agent expertise. This ensures your best agents handle your most valuable customers, while routine queries go to team members who can resolve them efficiently.

Predictive support identifies potential issues before customers complain. If a shipment is delayed, AI can proactively notify affected customers before they contact support. This reduces ticket volume and improves customer experience simultaneously.

The key consideration with AI is that it works best when it has good data to learn from. Start with the manual processes, build up a library of great responses, and then let AI learn from your team's best work. Jumping straight to AI without this foundation often produces generic, unhelpful automated responses that frustrate customers.

Tips for Integrating Support Apps with Shopify

Getting the most from your support app requires proper setup. Here are the integration tips we share with our Shopify clients at Charle.

Connect all your sales channels. If you sell through Shopify POS, social media shops, or marketplace channels, make sure your support app captures messages from all of them. Customers do not care which channel they bought through. They expect the same support experience regardless.

Set up automation rules early. Configure auto-tagging, ticket routing, and priority rules from day one. Assign VIP tags to high-value customers automatically. Route technical queries to your most experienced agents. Set SLA timers so urgent tickets get flagged before they breach your response targets.

Build your knowledge base before launch. Populate your FAQ and knowledge base with answers to your 20 most common questions. This gives AI tools content to work with and provides customers with self-service options from the start. Update it weekly based on recurring ticket themes.

Train your team properly. A powerful tool used badly is worse than a simple tool used well. Invest time in training your support team on the new platform. Cover shortcuts, macros, and workflow features that save time. The difference between a trained and untrained agent using the same tool is enormous.

Monitor and adjust. Review your support metrics weekly for the first month after implementing a new tool. Track response times, resolution times, customer satisfaction, and ticket volume. Use this data to refine your automations, improve your knowledge base, and identify training gaps.

Common Customer Support Mistakes on Shopify

We have seen these mistakes across hundreds of Shopify stores. Avoiding them will put you ahead of most competitors.

Relying solely on email. Many Shopify stores still funnel all support through a shared Gmail inbox. This works until you have more than one person handling support. Without collision detection, ticket assignment, or response tracking, messages get missed and customers get duplicate or contradictory replies.

Ignoring mobile. Over 70% of Shopify traffic comes from mobile devices. If your live chat widget is clunky on mobile or your support pages are not responsive, you are failing the majority of your customers. Test every support touchpoint on mobile before going live.

Slow response times. Customer expectations for response times have tightened significantly. For live chat, customers expect a response within 60 seconds. For email, within four hours during business hours. If you cannot meet these benchmarks, use automation and AI to bridge the gap rather than leaving customers waiting.

No self-service options. Every support ticket that could have been avoided through a good FAQ page costs you time and money. A well-maintained knowledge base reduces ticket volume by 20 to 40% for most stores. Tools like Help Scout, Richpanel, and Freshdesk make self-service setup straightforward.

Not measuring anything. If you do not track customer satisfaction scores, response times, and resolution rates, you cannot improve. Every app on this list includes basic reporting. Use it. Set benchmarks. Review them monthly. Support quality tends to drift downward without active measurement.

Choosing tools based on price alone. The cheapest option is rarely the most cost-effective. A tool that costs $40 per month but saves your team five hours per week is far better value than a free tool that creates manual work. Factor in time savings, not just subscription costs, when evaluating options.

Measuring Customer Support Performance

Tracking the right metrics helps you understand whether your support operation is delivering for your customers and your business.

First response time measures how long customers wait before receiving an initial reply. This is the single most important metric for customer satisfaction. Aim for under one minute for live chat and under two hours for email during business hours.

Resolution time tracks how long it takes to fully resolve a ticket from first contact to closure. This varies by complexity, but monitoring trends helps you spot bottlenecks. If resolution times are creeping up, investigate whether your team needs better tools, more training, or additional headcount.

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) captures how customers feel about their support experience. Most helpdesks include post-conversation surveys. Aim for a CSAT score above 85%. Anything below 75% suggests systemic problems that need immediate attention.

Ticket volume trends reveal whether your support operation is becoming more or less efficient. Rising ticket volumes alongside growing sales is normal. Rising ticket volumes without sales growth suggests product, shipping, or website issues that need fixing at the source.

Tickets per order is a useful ratio that normalizes ticket volume against sales. A healthy Shopify store typically sees 5 to 15 support tickets per 100 orders. If your ratio is significantly higher, investigate the root causes rather than just hiring more support staff.

Self-service resolution rate measures how many customer queries are resolved through knowledge bases, chatbots, and self-service portals without human involvement. This metric matters increasingly as AI capabilities improve. A high self-service rate means your automation and documentation are working effectively.