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ayArbynFree plan + $99/month
VS
GdGladlyPer-hero licensing + custom contract

Gladly bills $120 a seat plus $1.50 per resolution, or a custom annual contract. Arbyn charges $99, flat.

Gladly is built for high-touch, relationship-driven retail, with the enterprise contract to match.

Starting
~$180/hero/mo (annual)
Minimum
10 heroes + annual contract
AI
Sidekick priced separately
Arbyn
Free plan + $99/mo, unlimited

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 is $99 flat at every one.

Solo store
500conversations/mo
Gladly total~$870/mo
Arbyn at this volume: $99 flat
Save~$771/mo
MOST COMMON
Growing DTC
2,000conversations/mo
Gladly total$3,000+/mo
Arbyn at this volume: $99 flat
Save$2,901+/mo
Scale
5,000conversations/mo
Gladly total$7,500+/mo
Arbyn at this volume: $99 flat
Save$7,401+/mo

Gladly's enterprise per-hero rates and 10-hero minimum come from third-party pricing trackers, checked 2026-07-03 (Gladly's own pricing page at gladly.ai/pricing is demo-gated and lists no prices). Its self-serve Shopify plan is published on the Shopify App Store: $120/mo per seat plus $1.50 per AI resolution and $0.25 per AI assist, after a 30-day free-to-install trial with a self-set spend cap. gladly.ai/pricing.

Pricing model decoded

Per hero. Times ten, minimum. Then AI on top.

Gladly licenses its enterprise platform by "hero" (agent), billed annually, with a ten-hero minimum, so the meter starts near $1,800/month before its Sidekick AI, which is quoted separately. It also sells a public, self-serve Shopify plan billed month to month: $120/seat plus usage ($1.50 per AI resolution, $0.25 per assist), under a spend cap you set.

Plan
Hero
Superhero
Sidekick AI
Enterprise
Price per hero
~$180/hero/mo
~$210/hero/mo
,
Custom
AI agent (Sidekick)
Add-on
Add-on
Quoted per resolution
Negotiated
Minimum commitment
10 heroes
45 heroes
Annual
Annual
Self-serve signup
No
No
No
No
Contract term
Annual
Annual
Annual
Multi-year
Where the bill actually grows
10× min

Ten-hero minimum, even if you need one. Gladly's floor is ten hero licenses. A lean store that only staffs one or two people still pays for ten, roughly $1,800/month before any AI.

Sidekick

The AI agent is priced separately. Sidekick, Gladly's AI, is not included in hero licensing. It's quoted on its own, so the headline per-hero number is never the whole bill.

Not Shopify

Gladly is not built for Shopify store owners. Order lookup, refunds, cancellations, and other Shopify actions run through integrations or a human hero, not native, in-thread, the way a Shopify-first tool handles them.

Annual

Enterprise: annual contracts, five-figure minimums, no public price. Gladly's enterprise tier sells through a sales team on annual terms with five-figure minimums and no published rate card. Its self-serve Shopify plan is different: month-to-month with published pricing on the Shopify App Store at $120 per seat per month plus $1.50 per AI resolution and $0.25 per AI assist, under a spend cap you set.

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.

CapabilityArbyn$99 flatGladly
Pricing modelFlat $99/moPer hero + contract
Cost predictabilityFully flatAnnual commitment
Unlimited conversationsYesContract-based
Unlimited AI resolutionsYes
Email + chat + IG + FBEmail + chat, IG/FB soon
Acts inside ShopifyYes, in-threadVia integration, not native in-thread
Replies in your voiceVoice Fingerprint
Free planYes, 150/moNo
Setup timeIn minutesWeeks for enterprise; minutes via the self-serve Shopify app

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 a flat $99 a month (or $0 to start) and an agent that can act on the order, and switch anyway.

Where Gladly is genuinely ahead, stated plainly.

Gladly has had more time in market: a deeper integration library in some cases, more edge cases tuned, and occasionally phone support Arbyn does not offer yet. If your stack already leans on that today, it is worth weighing seriously.

It is also part of why these tools bill by the ticket or the resolution: more surface area to maintain, more infrastructure to pay for. Arbyn is built narrower on purpose, one agent that acts on the order (refunds, cancellations, address changes) right inside the conversation, in your brand voice, across email and chat, for $99 a month flat or $0 to start. For most Shopify store owners, that trade wins.

None of that changes the math for most Shopify store owners: Arbyn acts on the order, in your voice, for $99 a month flat, or $0 to start.

  • 01Support built around the customer, not the ticket.
  • 02Built-in phone support and every channel in one place.
  • 03White-glove customer service at large scale.

Where Arbyn wins

Three reasons store owners actually switch.

01 / Public $99, flat

Public $99, flat

No sales call, no annual lock-in.

02 / Self-serve

Self-serve

Install and go, in minutes.

03 / Shopify-native

Shopify-native

Acts on your store directly.

Done comparing?

Skip the pricing math. Try Arbyn today.

$99 flat. Install from Shopify in a few minutes. Cancel anytime from your Shopify admin.

Free plan included. Cancel anytime from Shopify.