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Drag vs Gorgias: flat per seat, or a bill that rises with your best months?
By Nick Timms, Co-founder·Reviewed by Duda Bardavid, Co-founder·Updated July 2026
Gorgias is the deepest Shopify helpdesk in the category: agents look up orders, process refunds, and edit orders without leaving the support tool, and nothing here replaces that. The catch is the pricing. Gorgias bills by ticket, so a sale, a viral product, or Black Friday raises your support bill in step with your revenue, the success tax. Drag is the opposite trade: flat per-seat pricing with AI included, for stores whose support actually arrives as email in Gmail. Here is the honest comparison, including exactly where Gorgias is the right call.
4.5 on G2200,000+ usersSets up in minutesFor email-first ecommerce stores on Gmail, Drag is the better Gorgias alternative: flat per-seat pricing with AI included, versus a ticket meter that rises with your best months. Gorgias stays the right call when you need to look up orders, process refunds, and edit orders inside the support tool: that Shopify integration is the deepest in the category and Drag does not have one. This page will not pretend otherwise.
Choose Drag if you…
- Your store's support arrives as email, at support@, returns@, and orders@, and your team works in Gmail.
- You want boards per address, auto-tagging by order number, assignment, templates, help center, live chat, and WhatsApp.
- You want six AI assistants included from $18 a seat, flat, so your Black Friday month costs the same as February.
- You are done with a support bill that rises with your ticket volume.
Choose Gorgias if you…
- Your team needs to look up orders, process refunds, and edit orders inside the support tool.
- That deepest-in-category Shopify integration is essential, and Drag does not have one.
- In-helpdesk order actions matter more than flat pricing, so Gorgias (or an ecommerce-native rival) is the right call.
What you are actually paying for
Gorgias and Drag price two different things. Gorgias bills the tickets: $10 for 50 a month, $60 for 300, $360 for 2,000, $900 for 5,000, with ~$0.36 to $0.40 overages, plus ~$0.90 per AI-resolved conversation. Unlimited seats, but the meter runs on volume, so a sale, a viral product, or Black Friday raises your support bill in step with your revenue. Merchants call it the success tax. Drag bills the seats: $12 to $24 a month each, AI included from $18, no meter, no overage, no seasonal jump. Our computed example (same 4-agent store, 300 AI conversations): Gorgias $630 in a normal 1,500-ticket month and $1,170 in a 4,500-ticket Black Friday month; Drag $72 in both. At very low volume the math flips, honestly: under a couple hundred tickets a month, Gorgias’s $10 entry beats almost everyone. Run your own months in the cost calculator.
Drag vs Gorgias at a glance
Verified July 2026; confirm on each vendor’s site. A star marks where Gorgias, or Drag, genuinely wins.
| Feature | Drag | Gorgias |
|---|---|---|
| Drag vs Gorgias | ||
| Pricing model | Flat per seat, $12 to $24 | Per ticket, $10 to $900 tiers + overages (peak-month risk) |
| AI | Six assistants included from $18, no meter | AI Agent ~$0.90/resolved add-on |
| Store integration | None (works order emails in Gmail) | Deepest Shopify/BigCommerce: order lookups, refunds, edits in-helpdesk |
| Channels | Email, help center, live chat, WhatsApp | Email, chat, social, SMS/voice add-ons |
| Where the team works | Gmail (native) + standalone apps | The Gorgias helpdesk |
| Seats | Free plan; no minimums | Unlimited seats on every tier |
| MCP / AI clients | Own MCP server (47 tools, 12 categories incl. WhatsApp) | None |
| SLAs | Response-time analytics | No native SLA management |
| G2 rating | 4.5 | 4.6 |
Why Gmail stores pick Drag over Gorgias
Six reasons, each with the honest trade-off named.
Pricing
Flat pricing that ignores your best months
The whole point: seats, not tickets. Your team size sets the bill; your success does not.
AI
AI included, not metered
Drafts, tagging by order number and intent, summaries, sentiment, in the seat from $18. No per-resolution meter, no credit maths.
Email-first
Built where store email already lives
Boards for support@, returns@, and orders@, assignment, collision detection, internal notes, templates for order-status and returns. Your team keeps Gmail.
Customer-facing
Customer-facing included
Help center, live chat, and WhatsApp ship with it, no channel add-ons.
AI + MCP
Six AI assistants included, plus an MCP server
Every Drag Plus seat ($18) includes draft, tag, sentiment, compose, summarise, and co-pilot with no metering, no add-on, no expiring credits. Gorgias bills its AI Agent ~$0.90 per resolved conversation on top of the tickets.
@dragapp/mcp-server47 tools across 12 categories, including WhatsApp. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Cursor, or Claude Code to your Drag inbox: search, draft, assign, reply, triage, and automate, all from the AI client. Gorgias has no MCP server for operating the helpdesk from AI clients.
Drag Agent
An autonomous AI agent that reads, classifies, retrieves context, takes action, and resolves or escalates. Early access.
Honest fit
No Shopify order panel, and we say so
If your support is email and your problem is teamwork and cost, this is the tool. If it is order operations, it is not. We rank that trade-off honestly in the section below.
Where Gorgias is the better choice
Three things, plainly. The Shopify integration is the category’s best: agents act on orders without leaving the helpdesk, and nothing at Drag replaces that. Unlimited seats means big teams on modest volume can be genuinely cheap. And at small-store volume, under a few hundred tickets a month, the $10 to $60 tiers are hard to beat on price. Merchants who need those three should stay, and the ones who leave usually cite the meter (the full alternatives guide has the field and the math).
Moving from Gorgias to Drag is quick
No migration project: Drag installs into the Gmail your store email already flows through. Connect the shared addresses, set up boards, import templates, invite the team. Most stores are working the queue the same afternoon. Free plan and trial answer the fit question faster than any comparison page.
What customers say
4.5 on G2 (259 reviews)“Drag keeps all our client communication visible and organized in Gmail. We stopped dropping emails the first week.”
“We tried three shared inbox tools before Drag. It is the only one my team actually kept using because it is right inside Gmail.”
“The AI drafts save us hours every day. Having them included in the price instead of metered per use was the deciding factor.”
Frequently asked questions
Is Drag a good Gorgias alternative?
For email-first stores on Gmail, yes: flat per-seat pricing with AI included versus a ticket meter. For stores that need in-helpdesk order actions, no, Gorgias's Shopify integration is the category's deepest and Drag has no store integration.
How much does Gorgias really cost?
Ticket tiers: $10/50, $60/300, $360/2,000, $900/5,000 monthly, overages ~$0.36-0.40 per ticket, and the AI Agent adds ~$0.90 per resolved conversation. Unlimited seats. The bill scales with volume, which is the complaint merchants name most.
What is the Gorgias success tax?
Ticket-based billing rising exactly when business is good: our computed 4-agent example jumps from $630 to $1,170 in a Black Friday month. Per-seat tools, Drag included, do not move.
Does Drag integrate with Shopify?
No. Drag works your store's order emails in Gmail (auto-tagging by order number, boards, templates) but cannot look up or edit orders in Shopify. Teams that need that should choose Gorgias, Re:amaze, or Richpanel.
Does Drag include AI?
Yes, six assistants in the seat from $18: drafting, classification and tagging, summaries, sentiment, with no per-resolution meter.
Can AI tools run Drag?
Yes, Drag ships its own MCP server (47 tools across 12 categories, including WhatsApp), so Claude or ChatGPT can operate the inbox. Gorgias has no MCP server.
What does Drag cost?
$12 (Starter), $18 (Plus, AI included), $24 (Pro) per seat monthly, free plan, no seat minimums, and the price is the same in your peak month.
What about live chat and a help center?
Included: help center, live chat, and WhatsApp ship with Drag. On Gorgias, voice and SMS are add-ons.
Who else should an ex-Gorgias merchant consider?
Re:amaze for a direct per-seat swap, Richpanel for an AI-native platform with a resolution guarantee, Yuma to keep Gorgias and upgrade only the AI. Full comparison with computed pricing: the alternatives guide.
Is switching hard?
Drag has no migration project: it installs into Gmail where your store email already arrives. Boards, templates, and the team are usually live the same day, and the free plan settles fit before any commitment.
