AfterShip vs Gorgias

AfterShip is a post-purchase platform for ecommerce brands, started in Hong Kong around 2011 to 2012 by Teddy Chan, Andrew Chan and Dante Tsang after Teddy built a script to cut where-is-my-order emails in his own store. It raised a $66M Series B led by Tiger Global in 2021. Its core job is keeping shoppers informed after checkout and reducing support tickets about deliveries, returns and delays.

The suite is sold as separate products: Tracking (branded tracking pages, delivery notifications, estimated delivery dates and analytics across 1,300+ carriers), Returns (self-serve returns and exchanges), Shipping (label printing and rate comparison), Protection (shipping insurance), plus personalization and warranty tools. AI features and an MCP server give assistants read access to shipment and return data. Each product has its own tiers, and the Shopify App Store versions are priced differently from direct plans.

AfterShip fits Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce brands that ship thousands of orders a year and want to turn tracking emails and pages into a marketing channel. Brands mainly needing cheap labels should look at Shippo, Easyship or ShipStation, and EU merchants often pick Sendcloud.

Buying tip: in mid-2026 AfterShip cut its direct Tracking plans from four to three, renamed Pro to Premium at $59 a month billed yearly, and moved to annual shipment quotas (6,000 a year on both paid tiers). API and webhooks start on Premium. On Shopify, compare the app's own plans, which include a free tier for 50 shipments a month.

Gorgias is a help desk built specifically for e-commerce brands, especially those on Shopify. The company was founded in Paris and is now based in San Francisco. Its core idea is that support agents should see and act on order data inside every conversation: tickets from email, live chat, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, SMS and voice appear in one inbox next to the customer's orders, and agents can edit orders, issue refunds or apply discounts without switching to the store admin.

Rules and macros automate repetitive work such as tagging, routing and replying to order status questions, and the AI Agent can resolve common requests like "where is my order", returns and product questions on its own, billed per automated resolution. Gorgias also tracks revenue generated through support conversations, so teams can show sales influenced by chat. Pricing is based on billable tickets per month rather than agent seats, starting with a small Starter plan and scaling through Basic, Pro and Advanced to custom Enterprise tiers.

Gorgias fits Shopify, BigCommerce and Magento brands with seasonal spikes, because adding agents for peak periods does not raise the bill. Costs grow with ticket volume, and the AI Agent is a separate charge. It is less suited to SaaS or B2B support, where Zendesk, Help Scout or Intercom offer better knowledge bases and workflows. Among e-commerce help desks, Re:amaze and Richpanel are the closest competitors, and Tidio is a cheaper option for small stores.