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Hobson vs Gorgias: an honest comparison for UK Shopify brands

Gorgias is one of the most complete Shopify helpdesks, with voice, SMS and a large app ecosystem. It charges per ticket, plus $0.90 to $1.00 for each AI Agent interaction.

Hobson drafts every conversation for a flat price in pounds with unlimited seats, and only sends on its own for categories that have proved accurate.

Choose Gorgias if you need voice, SMS or the widest set of integrations. Choose Hobson if you want AI on every conversation and a bill that doesn’t grow with it.

14-day free trial. Hobson starts in shadow mode, so nothing reaches your customers until you choose. Hobson is opening to new stores soon, so for now you join the waitlist.

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Updated 11 October 2026. Competitor prices checked on each vendor’s own site.

At a glance

FeatureHobsonGorgias
Pricing modelFlat monthly plans by conversations, every feature on every planPer billable ticket, plus a fee for each AI Agent interaction
Starting price£59 a month for 300 conversations (£590 a year billed annually)Starter $10 a month for 50 tickets. Basic $60 a month ($50 billed annually) for 300 tickets
AI feeNone. Drafting and auto-send are included in the plan$1.00 per automated interaction on monthly billing, $0.90 on annual. Each automated interaction also counts as a ticket
Over the limitNo overage charges. At the limit Hobson stops drafting new conversations until you upgrade or the next period startsExtra tickets at $0.40 each on Starter and Basic, $0.36 on Pro and Advanced
SeatsUnlimited seats on every planNot charged per seat
AI draftingA draft on every conversation, included—

Prices as listed on each vendor’s own pricing page, checked on the dates under Sources. Prices exclude VAT.

Gorgias pricing in the UK, explained

Gorgias prices in US dollars by billable tickets, so a UK store pays in dollars or at its card’s exchange rate. These are the list prices on gorgias.com/pricing on 11 October 2026, converted at £1 = $1.33 and excluding VAT.

PlanTicketsMonthlyAnnual, per monthExtra ticket
Starter50$10 ≈ £7.52Not listed$0.40
Basic300$60 ≈ £45.11$50 ≈ £37.59$0.40
Pro2,000$360 ≈ £271$300 ≈ £226$0.36
Advanced5,000$900 ≈ £677$750 ≈ £564$0.36

On top of the ticket price, the AI Agent costs $1.00 per automated interaction on monthly billing and $0.90 on annual, with 30 to 530 interactions included depending on the plan. Gorgias says each automated interaction also counts as a ticket. Voice and SMS are priced by usage on top. So a Gorgias bill has three moving parts: the plan, extra tickets and AI interactions. In a busy month all three can rise.

Hobson has one: a flat price in pounds for a number of conversations, with drafting and auto-send included. If you reach the limit, drafting pauses for new conversations rather than adding charges.

What it costs in practice

Three example stores on monthly billing at list prices. Each competitor figure counts its seats and its fee for each conversation its AI resolves, on the plan shown. Drafting add-ons are left out, which favours the competitors. US dollar prices are converted at £1 = $1.33. Hobson’s AI drafting pauses at your plan limit, and you’re never billed overage.

Small store

300 conversations, 2 agents, 30% (90) resolved by AI

Hobson Starter
£59
Gorgias Basic plan
≈ £90.23
  • Basic plan, 300 tickets includedUS$60
  • 60 AI Agent interactions × $1.00 (30 included)US$60
Change the numbers

Growing store

1,000 conversations, 3 agents, 40% (400) resolved by AI

Hobson Growth
£179
Gorgias Basic plan
≈ £414
  • Basic plan, 300 tickets includedUS$60
  • 300 extra tickets × $0.40US$120
  • 370 AI Agent interactions × $1.00 (30 included)US$370
Change the numbers

Busy store

3,000 conversations, 8 agents, 50% (1,500) resolved by AI

Hobson Scale
£399
Gorgias Pro plan
≈ £1,256
  • Pro plan, 2,000 tickets includedUS$360
  • 1,310 AI Agent interactions × $1.00 (190 included)US$1,310
Change the numbers

How the AI works

Hobson drafts every conversation and a person approves it. It recommends auto-send for a category, such as order status or returns, once it has at least 20 reviewed outcomes, a 95% confidence lower bound of 70% or more acceptable, and facts changed in no more than 10% of replies. Policy categories like refunds stay locked until your policy is in the knowledge base. Every auto-send waits a minute so you can undo it, and a category goes back to asking first if corrections rise.

Gorgias charges for its AI by usage, so the bill rises as it does more. Hobson’s price stays the same.

Where Gorgias is better

  • Voice and SMS. Hobson has neither.
  • A help centre and a large ecosystem of apps.
  • A pre-sales Shopping Assistant. Hobson only answers support conversations.
  • Years in the market and hundreds of public reviews.
  • Cheaper for very small stores: Starter is $10 a month for 50 tickets.

Where Hobson is better

  • One flat GBP price with AI drafting included. No per-ticket overage and no fee per AI reply.
  • Unlimited seats on every plan.
  • A draft on every conversation, not only the ones the AI closes on its own.
  • Shadow mode on your live Gorgias traffic with just an API key, so you can see Hobson’s drafts beside your team’s replies before you switch.
  • Auto-send is earned one category at a time, once Hobson’s drafts have a track record.

Switching

Run Hobson in shadow mode on your live Gorgias traffic with an API key, compare its drafts with your team’s replies, then move over one category at a time. Tickets, customers, macros and tags come across. See how switching from Gorgias works.

Questions

Yes. Give Hobson a Gorgias API key and it runs in shadow mode on your live Gorgias traffic. It drafts a reply to each new conversation, sends nothing, and shows its draft next to the reply your team sent in Gorgias. No DNS or mailbox changes.

One customer’s thread on any channel, however many messages go back and forth. Imported history and spam don’t count.

Hobson tells the owner at 80% and 100% of the plan’s conversations. At the limit it stops drafting replies to new conversations until you upgrade or the next period starts. Messages still arrive and your team can still reply. There are no overage charges.

No. Every plan is a flat monthly price that includes drafting, auto-send and every feature. There is no fee per AI reply.

Yes. Hobson can propose a refund, cancellation, address change, replacement order or discount code with its reply. Nothing runs until a person approves it, and agents have a money limit above which an owner or admin must approve.

Yes. Hobson imports your Gorgias tickets, customers, macros and tags, and learns your tone from your best past replies.

Attachments and raw inbound email are stored in AWS in Ireland (eu-west-1). Conversation text is stored in our database on Neon. AI drafting uses providers in the US under standard contractual clauses. OAuth tokens and API keys are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, each with its own key, wrapped by a master key held outside the database.

It depends on your volume. Gorgias Starter is $10 a month for 50 tickets, which is cheaper than Hobson for very small stores. From about 1,000 conversations a month with AI handling a share of them, Hobson’s flat Growth plan at £179 usually costs less. The calculator shows the line items for your own numbers.

Sources

  1. Gorgias pricing, checked 14 November 2026
  2. Gorgias on the Shopify App Store, checked 14 November 2026

Prices are list prices excluding VAT, voice, SMS and add-ons unless shown, and can change at any time. Check the vendor’s own page before you decide. Gorgias is a trade mark of its owner. Hobson is not affiliated with it. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@hobson.support and we’ll correct it.

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