Customer support · checked 2026-10-13

Can I vibecode Gorgias?

KINDA· weekend project

For a store where one person answers email, the core is small: pull the support mailbox, thread messages into tickets, show the customer's Shopify orders beside them and reply with templates. An agent can build that over a weekend. The gaps are the other channels (chat widget, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, SMS, voice), one-click refunds and the AI Agent. With Starter at $10 a month, building pays off mainly if you want to own your data or stop paying per ticket.

$10/moprice

$120you'd save a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.

TimeAn afternoon for the inbox, plus about 30 minutes in Shopify's Dev Dashboard

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
Your support mailbox's IMAP and SMTP detailsGmail and Microsoft 365 need an app password or an admin-enabled IMAP login.
Owner or staff access with app permissions in ShopifySince January 2026 new custom apps are created in the Dev Dashboard, which gives a client ID and secret instead of a fixed token.
A machine that stays onMail is polled every minute; a laptop works only while it's awake.

Before you buildGorgias Starter is $10 a month for 50 tickets, which may be cheaper than your time for a small store. Chatwoot self-hosted already has a Shopify order panel if you want to own the data without building.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a support inbox for my Shopify store to replace Gorgias. Requirements:

- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: Fastify with server-rendered pages and htmx on
  http://127.0.0.1:4900; storage in better-sqlite3 at ./data/helpdesk.db and
  attachments in ./data/files/.
- Email in: poll the support mailbox every minute with imapflow, parse with
  mailparser, and thread messages into tickets by Message-ID, In-Reply-To and
  References. Ticket statuses: open, waiting, closed; tags; snooze until a date.
- Email out: replies go through nodemailer over the same mailbox's SMTP and stay
  threaded, so the customer sees one conversation in their own mail app.
- Shopify panel beside each ticket: find the customer by email through the Admin
  GraphQL API and show their last 5 orders with total, payment and fulfillment
  status, tracking links and a link to the order in Shopify admin.
- Shopify auth: an app created in the Dev Dashboard and installed on my store.
  Read SHOPIFY_STORE, SHOPIFY_CLIENT_ID and SHOPIFY_CLIENT_SECRET from .env, get
  a token with the client-credentials grant and refresh it before it expires
  (24 hours). Scopes: read_customers, read_orders.
- Macros: saved replies with liquidjs variables ({{ customer.first_name }},
  {{ order.name }}, {{ order.tracking_url }}), filled from the panel and editable
  before sending.
- Full-text search over all tickets with SQLite FTS5; keyboard shortcuts for next
  ticket, close and insert macro.
- Single user. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first; listen on 127.0.0.1 only.
- Out of scope: refunds and order edits (link to Shopify admin instead), live
  chat, social channels, SMS, voice and AI auto-replies.
- README: the Dev Dashboard steps (budget 30 minutes), the mailbox app password,
  and how to back up ./data.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Gorgias.

Add a website chat widget to the support inbox in this folder. Requirements:

- A widget script under 15 KB that I paste into my Shopify theme; it asks for
  an email first, then opens the chat.
- Messages travel over WebSockets (the ws package) to a second port
  (CHAT_PORT in .env) that serves only the widget and the socket, rate-limited
  per IP.
- Each chat becomes a ticket with channel "chat"; my replies appear live in
  the widget, and a chat left unanswered for 10 minutes is answered by email.
- Update the README with exposing the chat port through a Cloudflare Tunnel.

Add AI reply drafts to the support inbox in this folder. Requirements:

- A Draft button sends the thread, the customer's last 3 orders from the
  Shopify panel and my macros to the LLM configured in .env.
- The draft lands in the reply box for me to edit; nothing is sent
  automatically.
- Drafts may only use tracking numbers, dates and amounts from the order data,
  and must say when data is missing.
- Log token usage per draft and show the monthly total in settings.
- Update the README.

Add order actions to the Shopify panel of the support inbox in this folder.
Requirements:

- Add the write_orders scope to the Dev Dashboard app and document the change.
- Actions: cancel an unfulfilled order, and refund chosen line items or a
  custom amount, through the Admin GraphQL API.
- Every action opens a confirmation showing the exact items and amount, and is
  written to an append-only log with the ticket id.
- Refuse refunds above what is still refundable on the order.
- Update the README.

Add an importer for Gorgias exports to the support inbox in this folder.
Requirements:

- Accept the CSVs from Analytics > a metric's drill-down > Export with message
  content (30 days per file) and the ticket export from an inbox view.
- Read the header first, show the column mapping and ask before importing.
- Group rows into tickets by ticket ID, keep the original dates, and mark
  them closed and "imported from Gorgias".
- Skip tickets already imported, so overlapping files are safe.
- Update the README with the export steps and the custom-export request to
  Gorgias support for older history.

What you lose

Chat, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, SMS and voice in the same inbox
The AI Agent that answers and closes routine tickets
Refunds, cancels and order edits from inside the ticket
Rules, collision detection and a shared team inbox
The help center and revenue reports

Why people still pay

Shopify brands pay because every channel lands in one inbox with the order next to the message, and agents can refund or cancel without opening the Shopify admin. Above a few hundred tickets a month the time saved per ticket covers the bill, and the AI Agent takes the routine where-is-my-order questions off the team.

Moatintegrations collaboration execution polish

Do the math

Gorgias or your own copy?

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Gorgias, 1 yr$120

Your own copy, 1 yr$44running + build session

You keep$77pays for itself in 2 months

Estimate · Free on a machine you already run; a small VPS is about $5 a month. The Shopify Admin API costs nothing for your own store. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving Gorgias

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Gorgias

1Inbox: open a view, select all tickets, click the three dots and choose Export tickets. A CSV link arrives by email and works for 14 days; up to 1 million tickets, metadata only.
2For message text, go to Analytics, open a report, click a metric to open its drill-down, then Export > Export with message content. Each export covers the last 30 days of the period, up to 100,000 tickets, public messages only.
3For anything else (older message history, macros, help center articles, customer notes), email support@gorgias.com with your subdomain and ask for a custom export.

2 · Cancel Gorgias

1Click Settings in the bottom-left corner, then Account > Billing and usage, and click Manage on the Helpdesk card.
2Click Cancel auto-renewal, review what you lose, pick a reason and click Continue To Cancel.
3Tick the box to accept the terms and click Confirm Auto-Renewal Cancellation. On a managed plan, use Contact us to reach your CSM instead.

Cancelling the helpdesk also ends AI Agent, Voice and SMS at the same time.
Uninstalling Gorgias from Shopify does not cancel: the renewal is still owed.
There is no refund for the rest of the cycle, and overages already incurred are billed.
Export message history in 30-day slices before access ends, or ask support for a custom export early.
Point your support address forwarding and any chat widget elsewhere before the end date.

Checked 2026-10-13 against Gorgias's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

ChatwootOpen sourceSelf-hosted inbox for email, website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and more, with a Shopify integration that shows a customer's orders.★ 38k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
Web, iOS, AndroidVisit ↗LibredeskOpen sourceSupport desk shipped as a single binary: shared inbox for email, live chat and WhatsApp, plus a help center.★ 3.0k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗FreeScoutOpen sourceLightweight PHP shared inbox for email that runs even on cheap shared hosting; extras come as modules.★ 4.6k · active Oct 2026 · self-host, real ops
WebVisit ↗

All 5 free alternatives to Gorgias ›

The numbers

Gorgias pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Starter	$10	—	50 billable tickets a month, 3 users; $0.40 per extra ticket.
Basic	$60	$50	300 tickets a month; $0.40 per extra ticket.
Pro	$360	$300	2,000 tickets a month; $0.36 per extra ticket.
Advanced	$900	$750	5,000 tickets a month; $0.36 per extra ticket.
Enterprise	custom	—	For more than 5,000 conversations a month.

Free tier: No free plan; a free trial with no card required.
Billing: Monthly or yearly (about 17% off); Starter is monthly only. Priced by billable tickets a month, not by agent; a ticket is billable when a customer writes in and your team or a rule acts on it.
Hidden costs: Overages have no cap: $0.40 per extra ticket on Starter and Basic, $0.36 on Pro and Advanced. AI Agent costs roughly $0.85-1.00 per automated interaction depending on plan, and each one also counts as a ticket. Voice (from $25/mo) and SMS (from $17/mo, both on annual pricing) are add-ons. Uninstalling the Shopify app does not cancel billing.
Source: www.gorgias.com

Also on the list

Zendesk$25/mo · Customer supportKINDA

Intercom$39/mo · Customer supportKINDA

Help Scout$30/mo · Customer supportKINDA

Questions

Gorgias, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: Chat, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, SMS and voice in the same inbox, The AI Agent that answers and closes routine tickets.

About $10 a month on the Starter plan, $120 a year (checked 2026-10-13).

Chat, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, SMS and voice in the same inbox; The AI Agent that answers and closes routine tickets; Refunds, cancels and order edits from inside the ticket; Rules, collision detection and a shared team inbox; The help center and revenue reports. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.