Gladly alternative for Shopify, without seat fees and two AI meters.
Gladly bills $120 a seat plus $1.50 per resolution, or a custom contract. Arbyn charges $0, $59 or $99, flat.
Gladly is built for high-touch, relationship-driven retail. The seat is the floor, and the AI runs on two meters above it.
The real bill
What you’d actually pay.
Three real scenarios at three real volumes, using Gladly's published 2026 pricing and the automation rate their own team recommends. Arbyn's side is a flat monthly price you pick in advance, with nothing metered on top of it.
One team member seat plus AI Agent fully resolving 30% of conversations at their published rate, the same assumption the /pricing calculator uses for Gladly. At 500 conversations, Arbyn lands on the $59 Growth plan, not the $99 Agent plan.
The seat fee barely moves. The AI meter is what grows. Assumes AI Agent fully resolves 30% of conversations, the same assumption the /pricing calculator uses.
At volume, Gladly's bill is almost entirely AI Resolutions. Arbyn's is still $99. Assumes AI Agent fully resolves 30% of conversations, the same assumption the /pricing calculator uses.
Every Gladly figure on this page is verbatim from Gladly's own Shopify App Store listing, re-confirmed August 2026: "$120/mo per team member", "$1.50 per AI Resolution", "$0.25 per AI Assist", "Free to install" for 30 days with "100 AI interactions to test out" and "1 team member seat", and a spend cap you set ("Set your monthly limit and pay as you go"). Scenario totals assume one seat and that AI Agent fully resolves 30% of conversations, the same assumption the /pricing calculator uses; the spend cap means your real bill can stop below these numbers. We publish no enterprise per-seat figure because Gladly publishes none: gladly.ai/pricing lists no prices and its CTA is "Get a demo", and Gladly's billing documentation says rates are "negotiated in your agreement". apps.shopify.com/gladly.
Pricing model decoded
One seat fee. Two AI meters on top.
Gladly sells two ways. The self-serve Shopify plan prints its rates: $120/mo per team member, plus $1.50 every time the AI resolves something and $0.25 every time it merely assists, under a monthly limit you set. The enterprise platform prints nothing. Its pricing page carries no plans and no figures, only "Get a demo", and Gladly's billing docs say your rates live in your Order Form, "negotiated in your agreement". We will not guess at that number, and neither should anyone selling against them.
Two AI meters run at once. $1.50 per AI Resolution and $0.25 per AI Assist, both charged on top of the $120 seat fee. The seat price is never the whole bill.
The enterprise platform publishes no price. gladly.ai/pricing shows no plans and no figures. The CTAs are "Get a demo" and "Schedule a live tour", and Gladly's billing documentation says rates are "negotiated in your agreement" and live in your existing Order Form. You cannot budget for a number you are not allowed to see.
Some seats bill whether anyone uses them or not. Gladly's own billing documentation says Analyst users are billed "for the license (per Analyst user) regardless of utilization". Chat payment transactions, telephony, SMS and campaign registration carry their own fees on top.
Free to install is a 30-day window, not a free plan. Gladly's listing gives you 30 days, 100 AI interactions and one seat. Arbyn Starter is $0/mo with 150 AI conversations every calendar month, permanently, with every feature switched on.
Side by side
Feature for feature. Honestly.
Where Gladly and Arbyn actually differ. Not marketing checkboxes, just real features that work today, as of 2026.
| Capability | Arbyn$0, $59 or $99 flat | Gladly |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat, $0/$59/$99 per mo | $120/mo per team member plus $1.50 per AI Resolution and $0.25 per AI Assist, or a quote-only enterprise contract |
| Cost predictability | Fully flat | Two AI meters on top of the seat fee. You cap it by setting a monthly spend limit. |
| Unlimited conversations | Yes | Seats are flat. AI conversations are metered per resolution. |
| Unlimited AI resolutions | Yes | No. $1.50 each on the Shopify plan. Enterprise rates are negotiated in your agreement. |
| Email + chat + IG + FB | Email + chat, IG/FB soon | Their listing says "email, live chat, and more". No Instagram or Facebook claim on the listing. |
| Acts inside Shopify | Yes, in-thread | Their listing promises support conversations, not order actions taken in the thread. |
| Replies in your voice | Voice Fingerprint | No published brand-voice claim we could verify on their listing. |
| Free plan | Yes, 150/mo | No. Free to install for 30 days, capped at 100 AI interactions and 1 seat. |
| Setup time | In minutes | Minutes for the self-serve Shopify app. The enterprise platform starts with a demo. |
The honest part
Where Gladly actually wins.
A page that only says “we win” is a sales pitch, not a comparison. So here are three things Gladly genuinely does better than Arbyn today, no hedging. Take them seriously if they matter to your store. Most Shopify store owners weigh them against $0, $59 or $99 a month, flat, and an agent that can act on the order, and switch anyway.
Where Gladly is genuinely ahead, stated plainly.
If you run a big, high-touch support organisation with phone lines, SMS campaigns and a dedicated analytics team, Gladly is a serious platform and Arbyn is not trying to be it. Their whole design centre is the human relationship at scale.
Arbyn is built for the other store: the one where a small team, or one store owner, needs the AI to actually close the loop on email and chat without a support floor behind it, and needs the bill to be the same number every month.
Switch when you want the AI to take the order action itself and you want a price you can predict before the month starts.
- 01Every channel in one platform, including voice and SMS. Their billing docs itemise telephony, SMS and campaign registration fees, so those channels are real product, not roadmap.
- 02Support built around the customer, not the ticket. One lifetime conversation view instead of a queue of disconnected tickets is a genuinely better model for high-touch retail.
- 03Role-based licensing built for large support organisations. Support users, Task users and Analyst users are separately licensed, which is what a 200-person support floor actually needs.
Where Arbyn wins
Three reasons store owners actually switch.
$0, $59 or $99, flat, published
Every number on our pricing page, no demo call to see them. Not a price plus a resolution meter. Not a price plus an assist meter. $0, $59 or $99, and that is the bill.
Gladly's enterprise platform publishes no price at all. The CTA is Get a demo.
A real free plan, permanently
Arbyn Starter is $0/mo with 150 AI conversations every calendar month, full features, forever.
Gladly's free-to-install window runs 30 days and stops at 100 AI interactions and one seat.
Acts on the order, in the conversation
Arbyn re-addresses real Shopify orders inside the thread on its own, and issues refunds and starts returns with your approval, and logs every action to the Shopify order timeline.
Gladly's listing prices AI Assist at $0.25 and AI Resolution at $1.50, so an assist that does not resolve still bills.
Arbyn vs Gladly: common questions
Arbyn has three flat plans, $0, $59 or $99 a month, with no per-ticket, no per-resolution and no per-seat fee on any of them. Gladly is priced $120/seat plus per-ai-resolution fees, or a quote-only contract, so their bill moves with how much your store gets used and the gap widens as you grow. This page shows the maths at three real volumes. Arbyn's free plan includes 150 AI conversations a month, $59 buys 500, and $99 is unlimited.
Done comparing?
Skip the pricing math. Try Arbyn today.
Free plan, then $59 or $99 flat. Install from Shopify in a few minutes. Cancel anytime from your Shopify admin.
Free plan included. Cancel anytime from Shopify.