This guide compares Desku and Richpanel across AI chatbot support, live chat, shared inboxes, helpdesk ticketing, ecommerce workflows, automation, and pricing, so you can pick the platform that best fits your team size and budget.
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Richpanel has built its platform around AI agents that resolve ecommerce conversations end-to-end, things like order tracking, refunds, cancellations, and subscription changes, with a helpdesk underneath for your human team. It’s a strong choice for brands ready to hand off a large share of support volume to AI and pay per resolved conversation.
Desku takes a different approach. It gives small and growing ecommerce teams an AI-powered support workspace, live chat, shared inboxes, chatbot automation, helpdesk ticketing system, and social support at a fixed monthly rate. Your team stays closely involved in every conversation, and your bill doesn’t move with order volume.
If your team wants predictable costs and a workspace it can manage without handing resolution over to an AI agent, Desku is the simpler option to consider.
Here’s a quick breakdown to help you self-identify:
| Category | Better Fit | Better Fit |
|---|---|---|
| AI agents that resolve conversations end-to-end | - |  |
| Predictable pricing |  | - |
| Shopify or WooCommerce order support | | |
| The team wants to stay closely involved in support | | - |
| High order volume ready for AI-led resolution | - | |
| Simple setup for a small or lean team | | - |
| Live chat and AI chatbot included without per-resolution fees | | - |
You have a small or growing support team that needs faster replies without a heavy setup.
You want a predictable monthly bill that doesn’t change with conversation volume.
You want your team to stay closely involved in every customer conversation.
You want an AI agent to resolve routine conversations like order tracking, refunds, and cancellations on its own.
You have high order volume and want a self-service portal customers can use without contacting an agent.
You’re ready to pay per resolved conversation, even if the total cost shifts with volume.
You’re ready to let AI handle most conversations, with your team stepping in only for exceptions.
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Inbox |
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| HelpDesk Ticketing |
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| Live Chat |
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| AI Chatbot |
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| AI Agent Assist / Copilot |
(Paid add-on) |
(Paid add-on) |
| Social Inbox |
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| WhatsApp Integration |
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| Instagram / Facebook Integration |
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| Shopify Integration |
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| WooCommerce Integration |
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| Ecommerce Order Support |
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| Automation Workflows |
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| Reporting & Analytics |
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| Best For | Small businesses, ecommerce brands, SaaS teams, and lean support teams | Ecommerce brands ready for AI-led resolution |
Annual billing gives 2 Months Free and 14-day Free Trial on all paid plans.
Plans
Free
2 agents, 1 inbox, basic chat
$0
Growth
6 agents, Shared Inboxes, Eva AI
$39/mo
Advance
12 agents, Shopify, WooCommerce, social channels
$79/mo
Business
25 agents, full OmniChannel, SLA, AI Advanced Automation
$179/mo
Each plan is a fixed monthly price with a set number of agent seats included. In the Business plan, extra agents cost $10/agent/month.
Add-on
Eva AI Tokens
From 5M up to 50M tokens per month
From $59/mo
AI Copilot
Agents assist inside the Inbox. Unlimited AI usage with BYOK.
$29/agent/mo
Live Visitor Tracking
From 10K up to 100K visitors per month
From $9/mo
Extra Agent Seats
Available on the Business plan only
$10/agent/mo
All plans and add-ons are prepaid. Desku does not charge usage-based fees. If you run AI features with BYOK (bring your own key), any usage billing comes from your own AI provider, not from Desku.
Works best for
Small and growing teams, ecommerce brands with seasonal spikes, and SaaS teams that want predictable monthly costs.
From $250/mo
1 AI agent plus 1 helpdesk seat, billed monthly. Annual billing saves 17 percent.
Plans
Helpdesk Seat
Per human agent on your team
$100/seat/mo
AI Agent
Applies event at low volume (~1k conv/mo)
$250/mo
AI Usage Fee
Resolves conversations end-to-end
$0.25/conv
Enterprise
10+ agents, multi-brand, custom SLA, White-glove migration
Custom
Cost scales with the number of seats and the number of conversations the AI resolves. There are no fixed plan tiers to choose from.
Works best for
Ecommerce brands with 2,000 or more conversations a month, ready to hand off resolution to an AI agent.
Desku charges a fixed monthly fee for a set number of seats, so your bill stays steady within that range. Only the Business plan costs you $10 per additional agent per month. Richpanel charges per seat plus a per-conversation fee for AI resolution, so the total rises with both team size and volume. For teams that want one predictable number each month, Desku is easier to plan around.
Ecommerce support runs on a handful of repeat questions. Where’s my order? Can I return this? Can I change my subscription? Both platforms handle these well, but they take different paths.
Richpanel’s AI agent can resolve order tracking, refunds, cancellations, and subscription changes on its own, without involving an agent. Its self-service portal lets customers make these changes themselves, directly reducing ticket volume. This suits brands with a steady stream of repetitive requests and the conversation volume to justify the AI baseline fee.
Desku gives ecommerce teams a shared inbox connected to Shopify and WooCommerce, so agents can view order details alongside the conversation. Eva AI handles common questions, such as shipping timelines and return policies, via chat and automation. Live chat covers pre-purchase questions, and social inbox support brings in WhatsApp and Instagram conversations.
With Desku set up, your team stays in the loop on every ticket, which some brands prefer during busy periods like product launches or holiday sales.
SaaS support looks different from ecommerce. Trial users ask product questions. Paying customers report bugs or ask about billing. Support leads need to spot churn risk before it happens.
Richpanel is built around ecommerce workflows, so it’s not the natural fit here. Its strengths, such as order actions and direct Shopify integration, don’t align with standard SaaS support needs.
Desku fits SaaS teams better. Helpdesk ticketing handles the routing of technical support requests and bug reports. Shared inboxes keep billing and onboarding questions organized by team. Automation can flag churn-risk conversations for follow-up, and AI chatbot software answers common product questions, so your team can focus on higher-value conversations.
Small teams need to do more with fewer people. Switching between tools wastes time that could go toward actually helping customers.
Desku’s AI Ecommerce helpdesk brings live chat, email, tickets, WhatsApp support, and social messages into one inbox. That reduces tool switching and makes it easier to maintain consistent response times. Automation handles repetitive tasks like tagging and routing, so agents can focus on conversations that require a human touch.
Richpanel can work for a small team too, but its seat fee plus metered AI resolution cost add up faster for teams still finding their footing. It’s built for brands ready to lean on AI for a large share of their volume, not necessarily for a two- or three-person team just getting support off email.
Unlike enterprise Ecommerce customer support software built exclusively for hands-off automation, Desku focuses on empowering growing teams with an all-in-one, highly accessible support workspace. Here is exactly why teams choose Desku:
Shared inboxes give your whole team real-time visibility into who is handling which conversation. This visibility becomes essential when a customer drops an initial email and later follows up via WhatsApp. Desku pulls the full history together, so nothing falls through the cracks.
Eva AI and advanced workflows reduce repetitive work without replacing your human workforce. Your agents still handle the primary conversation, but they spend significantly less time on routine questions, tagging, and manual ticket routing.
Desku is built to get your customer service operations up and running in under 60 minutes, with absolutely no technical background or complex developer resources required.
Our ecommerce helpdesk platform offers an intuitive no-code chatbot builder, quick setup wizards, and onboarding guides that allow your team to connect active support channels and launch live chat on your site effortlessly.
While Richpanel relies on human seat fees combined with variable, metered pay-per-resolution AI charges, Desku keeps your billing entirely predictable.
Desku charges a fixed monthly rate, so your invoice stays the same during seasonal order spikes, holiday sales, or major product launches. Only the Business plan costs you $10/extra agent/month.
Still having queries? Desku’s team can help you understand what your setup may need before switching.
Desku brings customer support automation for ecommerce together with live chat, helpdesk tickets, AI support, and social messages, all in one workspace.
No Coding Required • Set Up Your Support Workspace In Minutes.
“We replaced three different tools with Desku.io, and our team couldn’t be happier. We saved money and now have a single source of truth for all customer queries.”
Yes. Desku gives Ecommerce and SaaS teams AI-powered Shopify helpdesk software with live chat, shared inboxes, helpdesk ticketing, and automation, all at a fixed monthly rate. It’s a strong Richpanel alternative for teams that want to stay closely involved in support rather than handing resolution off to an AI agent.
Richpanel is built around an AI agent that resolves ecommerce conversations on its own and is priced per conversation. Desku is a fixed-rate, AI-powered support workspace where your team stays in the conversation, with automation to handle the repetitive parts.
Richpanel can work well for brands with high order volume and a steady stream of repetitive requests, since its AI agent is built to resolve these on its own. Whether it’s the better fit depends on how much of your support workflow you want to hand over to AI, and whether the per-conversation cost makes sense at your volume.
Desku is a strong fit for small and growing ecommerce teams. Fixed pricing means your bill doesn’t move with order volume, and your team keeps hands-on control of customer conversations.
Yes. Desku integrates with both platforms, giving agents order details right inside the conversation.
Yes. Eva AI powers Desku’s chatbot, and live chat is included across all plans to handle pre-purchase questions and real-time support.
Desku charges a fixed monthly rate based on your agent tier, starting at $39/mo. Richpanel charges a human seat fee plus a per-conversation fee for AI resolution, with an entry-level minimum starting around $250/mo that scales upward with volume. Desku’s model is significantly easier to predict month-to-month.
