# Zendesk Alternative for Shopify: No Seats, No AI Meter

> Zendesk bills Shopify stores per agent seat, then meters AI per resolution on top. Arbyn is $99/mo flat, unlimited, or $0 for 150 AI conversations.

Source: https://arbyn.app/compare/zendesk

## How Zendesk AI charges

Per seat, plus per resolution. $19 to $115 per agent per month billed yearly, and AI billed separately per automated resolution on top. Three agents on Suite Professional is $345/mo on an annual commitment, before a single AI resolution. Zendesk names the AI meter on its pricing page but does not publish a per-resolution rate, so the second half of the bill has no number attached to it.

Zendesk is the enterprise standard. It also runs two meters at once: the agent seats you can budget for, and the automated resolutions you cannot, because the rate is not published.

## Where Zendesk AI beats Arbyn

- Their entry seats cost less than Arbyn. Support Team is $19 per agent per month and Suite Team is $55, both billed yearly. For a one-person team that barely touches AI, that is a smaller line item than $99.
- Compliance, reporting and scale. Zendesk has been doing this since 2007 and carries the certifications, routing, and agent tooling that large support organisations need. Arbyn is built for Shopify stores, not for a 200-seat contact centre.
- Voice. Zendesk Talk gives you phone support, and Zendesk publishes a Contact Center add-on at $83 per agent per month. Arbyn does not do voice at all.

Switch to Arbyn anyway when: you want one bill you can forecast, you want the AI to actually re-address the order inside the conversation on its own and hand you refunds and returns to approve in one tap, and you do not need phone support.

## Where Arbyn wins

### One meter, not two

$99 a month, flat. Unlimited conversations and unlimited AI resolutions. There is no second per-resolution rate to hunt for, because there isn't one.

### Shopify-native actions

Arbyn changes the shipping address inside the conversation on its own, and issues refunds and starts returns with your approval, then logs it to the Shopify order timeline. It acts on the order, not around it.

### Start at $0

The free Starter plan gives you 150 AI conversations a month with full features, permanently. No seats to buy before you find out whether it works.

## Cost at real volumes

| Scenario | Volume | Their cost | You save with Arbyn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small team | 500 conversations/mo | $230/mo + AI | $131+/mo |
| Growing DTC | 2,000 conversations/mo | $345/mo + AI | $246+/mo |
| Scale / BFCM | 5,000 conversations/mo | $690/mo + AI | $591+/mo |

Source: [zendesk.com/pricing](https://www.zendesk.com/pricing/). Verified July 2026. Support Team $19, Suite Team $55 and Suite Professional $115 per agent per month billed yearly are from zendesk.com/pricing. The Suite Growth ($89) and Suite Enterprise ($150) seat prices, which zendesk.com withholds, are published on Zendesk's own Shopify App Store listing. Included AI allotments (5, 10 and 15 automated resolutions per agent per month) are from Zendesk's documentation. Zendesk publishes no per-resolution rate anywhere, so this page states none. Verified against

## Pricing

- **Arbyn Starter** - $0/month, permanently free. 150 conversations / month. Resets 1st of each month.
- **Arbyn Agent** - $99/month flat, unlimited conversations. Or $990/year (2 months free, saves $198, 17% off).
- **There is no trial.** Billing starts immediately on the Agent plan. The free Starter plan is permanent.
- The conversation cap is the only difference between plans. There is no feature gating.

## Channels

Live today: **support email** and **on-site live chat**. That is the complete list.

SMS, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Voice are on the roadmap and are NOT live. Arbyn does not edit orders or change line items. Money-moving actions (cancel, refund, discount, gift card, reship, return) require the store owner's approval, and then Arbyn performs them. Running them fully autonomously is a beta authorization and is in development. Shipping address changes are already autonomous.

## What Arbyn does on a Shopify order

- **Change the shipping address**: Live. Arbyn does this on its own. Arbyn updates the shipping address on the Shopify order itself, inside the conversation, and writes the change to the order timeline.
- **Cancel an order**: Live. You approve it, then Arbyn cancels the order. Anything that moves money waits for the store owner's approval. That is a deliberate control, not a missing feature. Once you approve, Arbyn fires Shopify's order cancellation itself and confirms it to the customer.
- **Issue a refund**: Live. You approve it, then Arbyn issues the refund. Arbyn prepares the refund against the original payment method and sends it to you. On approval it files the refund in Shopify. You can cap the value it is allowed to prepare, per channel.
- **Apply a discount**: Live. Arbyn creates a real Shopify discount and applies it to the cart, handing the shopper a checkout with the code already on it. It can also issue a discount code on an order once you approve it.
- **Send a gift card, or reship an order**: Live. You approve it, then Arbyn does it. Arbyn creates the gift card, or raises the replacement order, in Shopify once you approve.
- **Start a return**: Live. You approve it, then Arbyn opens the return. Arbyn opens the return in Shopify on your approval.
- **Look up a gift card or store-credit balance**: Live. Arbyn does this on its own. "Do I have store credit left?" is a question most support tools answer with a human. Arbyn reads the balance itself, for a verified customer or from the code they give you, and reports the masked card, the balance and the expiry. If there is no card, it says so rather than guessing.
- **Handle a subscription question**: Live. You choose what it does. Arbyn knows which of your products are sold as a subscription, shows that on the product card in the conversation, and sends a subscriber to their subscription management page to pause, skip or cancel. It answers how your subscriptions work from your own knowledge, but it does not read an individual customer's contract, so it will not state their renewal date or status. Most cancels are a customer with product piling up, and the fix is getting them to the page where they can slow the cadence down. Reading the contract itself is on the roadmap.
- **Answer support email and live chat**: Live. Arbyn reads every inbound support email and every chat, works out the intent, pulls the live Shopify context, and replies in your brand voice.

Money-moving actions (cancel, refund, discount, gift card, reship, return) require the store owner's approval, and then Arbyn performs them. Running them fully autonomously is a beta authorization and is in development. Shipping address changes are already autonomous.