Guide
How Richpanel compares, in detail
Richpanel is an ecommerce helpdesk with AI agents that act on orders. The agents can refund and cancel Shopify orders, edit unshipped orders, change addresses, and skip or pause Recharge, Loop, and Skio subscriptions. Each action has its own permission and policy cap. If your queue is mostly these jobs, Richpanel is built for you and is hard to beat.
Most people searching for Richpanel alternatives have a different queue. Their customers mostly ask “where is my order?”, “does this fit?”, and “what’s your return policy?”. This guide helps you work out which kind of queue you have, explains what Richpanel costs under its current model, and shows where a lighter tool such as Fetchply fits. Fetchply publishes this guide. We reviewed Richpanel’s pricing guide, product pages, changelog, and public reviews on November 9, 2026.
What Richpanel is
Richpanel describes itself as an AI support team bundled with a helpdesk.
- Customer AI handles conversations either autonomously or by drafting replies for approval.
- Agent Copilot drafts, summarizes, and translates for human agents.
- QA AI reviews every closed conversation.
- AI Manager builds your brand voice and standard procedures from your website, past tickets, and help center.
Channels include email, chat, Messenger, Instagram DMs and comments, WhatsApp, X, and SMS. Richpanel Voice is in beta.
It connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and many subscription and returns apps. It also offers importers for Gorgias, Zendesk, Kustomer, Gladly, and Re:amaze. The Shopify App Store listing shows 4.9 stars from 136 reviews.
Why stores look for Richpanel alternatives
1. You can’t buy the AI without the helpdesk
Richpanel says plainly that its helpdesk is never sold on its own. Adopting the AI means moving your whole support operation, including macros, views, and team habits. That is reasonable when you want a new helpdesk anyway. It’s a lot of work if you only wanted an AI to answer chats.
2. The minimum is high for a small store
Richpanel’s July 28, 2026 pricing guide sets:
- Helpdesk seats: $99 per seat per month on an annual commitment.
- AI: about $0.20 per conversation on the reference model.
- Minimum: $200 a month in AI spend.
The guide also says it prices less well below about 1,000 conversations a month. Its example puts a one-person shop with 200 conversations at about $299 a month.
3. Prices are hard to pin down
Four pricing models were public during 2025 and 2026:
- Seat tiers.
- A $500 monthly minimum. This is still shown on a Richpanel pitch page.
- The current seat plus usage model.
- An $89 plan through the Shopify App Store. This was reported by a third party and we could not verify it.
Ask for your quote in writing and confirm which model it uses.
4. Credits expire and costs rise with volume
AI credits expire after 90 days on annual terms and after 15 days on monthly terms. A peak-season spike raises the bill along with volume.
5. Setup takes effort
Reviews on G2 and the Shopify App Store mention complicated setup. Most of those reviews predate the 2026 relaunch. Richpanel now says rollout takes about four weeks.
Audit your queue: actions or answers?
This audit decides which tool fits. Export your last 200 resolved tickets and tag each one:
- Answer: the reply only needed information, such as order status, tracking, sizing, a policy, or stock.
- Action: resolving it required changing something in another system, such as a refund, cancellation, address change, order edit, subscription change, or return label.
Then read the action share:
- Above 40 percent: you need AI that can write to Shopify and your subscription apps. Richpanel, Gorgias, and similar helpdesks are designed for that.
- Below 20 percent: you’re mainly paying for answers. A tool that answers well across channels and hands the rest to a person may cost much less.
How Fetchply compares with Richpanel
Scroll sideways to see every column.
| Item | Richpanel | Fetchply |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | Helpdesk with AI agents | AI agent with an omnichannel inbox |
| Order lookups and tracking | Yes, with live tracking via AfterShip | Yes, Shopify and WooCommerce, with live shipment updates and customer verification |
| Refunds, cancellations, order edits | Native AI actions with policy caps | Not built in. A custom Function can call your own or a third-party API, which you build and test |
| Subscription changes | Recharge, Loop, Skio, Juo, Subscribfy | Not built in |
| Channels | Email, chat, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, X, SMS, voice (beta) | Website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Slack, Discord, business email |
| Product recommendations | Yes | Yes, from the live catalog, with Add to cart on Shopify storefronts |
| Quality review | QA AI on every closed conversation | Unanswered-questions report, satisfaction ratings, and a “Fix this answer” control in the Shopify app’s Playground |
| Ticketing depth | Macros, SLAs, round-robin, multi-brand workspaces | Labels, tags, assignment, notes, shortcuts. No SLAs or ticket workflows |
| Migration help | Importers for five helpdesks; contract buyout | No automatic import |
| Free option | Not offered for direct purchase | Ongoing free plan |
Pricing at three sizes
Each Richpanel figure below comes from Richpanel’s own worked examples (annual commitment, reference model). The Fetchply estimates assume four AI replies per conversation on the default model. Measure your own ratio before relying on them.
Scroll sideways to see every column.
| Monthly volume | Richpanel (vendor example) | Fetchply estimate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 seat, 200 conversations | about $299 | about 800 AI messages: Free (200) is too small, Starter at $18 |
| 3 seats, 1,000 conversations | about $497 | about 4,000 AI messages: Pro at $49 (8,000 messages, 5 seats) |
| 10 seats, 5,000 conversations | about $1,990 | about 20,000 AI messages: Business at $99 (15,000 messages, 20 seats) plus a one-time 5,000-message pack at $39 in months you go over |
These are not the same product at different prices. Richpanel’s figure includes write actions, QA on every conversation, and a full helpdesk. Fetchply’s doesn’t. The comparison is useful only if your audit showed a low action share.
Fetchply bills for the replies its agent sends. Your team’s replies are free. When the allowance runs out, AI replies pause and conversations move to your inbox. There are no automatic overage charges.
When Richpanel is the better choice
- Refunds, cancellations, exchanges, and subscription changes make up a large share of your queue.
- You handle more than about 1,000 conversations a month, where Richpanel’s own pricing works best.
- You run several brands and want separate workspaces with shared reporting.
- You want QA on every conversation and a written autonomous-resolution guarantee.
- You’re leaving Gorgias or Zendesk and want migration help and a contract buyout.
When Fetchply is the better fit
- Most of your tickets are status, tracking, product, and policy questions. Fetchply handles verified order lookups without a helpdesk underneath.
- You’re below Richpanel’s comfortable volume and don’t want a $200 AI minimum plus seats.
- You want to start free and test answers on your own content before you commit.
- WhatsApp matters to you, along with cash-on-delivery confirmation or Instagram Comment to DM.
- You sell on WooCommerce or a non-Shopify site and still want verified order lookups.
Before you switch
- Run the action audit above. It is the deciding number.
- List every Richpanel macro and rule your team uses daily. Fetchply has shortcuts and Guided Flows but no ticket workflows.
- Plan what happens to action requests. Either your team handles them from the inbox, or you build a custom Function against a returns app’s API.
- Test the order lookup on a guest order, a split shipment, and an order with a changed address.
- Export Richpanel conversation history before you cancel. Fetchply doesn’t import it.
Mostly answering, not refunding?
Start on Fetchply’s free plan and point it at your top 50 “where is my order?” and product questions before you commit to a new helpdesk.
Start on the free planSources
Checked . Vendor pages can change after this date.