Gorgias

Gorgias is cloud-only SaaS. No self-hosted option in current public materials. For ecommerce merchants comfortable with cloud SaaS, this is standard and acceptable. For regulated ecommerce (financial products, healthcare items), cloud-only is a limitation. Switching cost is moderate: your conversation history and Shopify configuration are portable, but retraining support automation on another platform requires setup effort.

Rasa supports cloud, on-premise, and hybrid deployment out of the box. Your data never leaves your infrastructure unless you choose to send it elsewhere. On-premise deployment is included in the open-source edition at no cost; enterprise support adds dedicated implementation specialists and SLAs. Unlike managed services, Rasa gives your team full control: choose your hosting provider, VPC, Kubernetes distribution, or even air-gapped environments. Compliance teams approve faster because your security team reviews the architecture. No vendor dependency on SaaS uptime. For regulated industries (healthcare, finance, legal), on-premise is non-negotiable. Rasa delivers it without premium surcharge or complex licensing.

For ecommerce stores processing payment data, PCI-DSS is critical. For stores selling regulated products (healthcare, financial), additional compliance may be required. Cloud-only means compliance depends on Gorgias's infrastructure, not your oversight.

Rasa runs on your infrastructure or your chosen cloud provider. You control encryption at rest (your key management), encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+), and access controls (IAM). Rasa does not hold customer data in a shared multi-tenant system. Enterprise Rasa includes SOC 2 Type II compliance, GDPR readiness, and audit-ready logging via OpenTelemetry. For HIPAA, you implement HIPAA-compliant infrastructure; Rasa is platform-agnostic. For PCI-DSS, on-premise deployment gives your compliance team full visibility. Rasa's architecture is inspectable: every webhook, every API call, every data flow is traceable. This transparency enables fast audit cycles and regulatory approval.

Gorgias is designed for Shopify store owners, not engineers. For Shopify merchants, setup is straightforward (app install + config). For developers needing custom logic or non-Shopify platforms, Gorgias integration may be complex. Learning curve is low for non-technical users; advanced customization is limited.

Rasa is built for engineers. Start in VS Code or your IDE of choice; deploy via GitHub Actions or Jenkins. Rasa provides SDKs (Python, JavaScript), OpenAPI specs, and REST APIs. Extend via custom Action Servers (Python, JavaScript, Go). Integrate any CRM, database, or third-party service via REST or MCP. No low-code UI required; if your team prefers code, Rasa is fully scriptable. Rasa Playground and Rasa Studio provide visual debugging for non-engineers. For large teams, Rasa's dialogue state is event-based and queryable—understand exactly why the AI made a decision. CI/CD integration is native. Deployment is reproducible: commit your models, test in CI, deploy to production via container orchestration.

Gorgias pricing is transparent: Starter $300/month (50 tickets), Standard $700/month (200 tickets), Professional $2,000/month (700 tickets), Enterprise $5,000/month (unlimited). Per-ticket model scales with volume. Gorgias also charges. Example: Starter + 2 agents =. For small DTC stores (under $1M revenue), Starter tier is affordable. For mid-market ecommerce (100+ tickets/month), Standard or Professional tier applies. No per-resolution or outcome-based pricing; predictable monthly cost.

Rasa Developer Edition is free, forever. One bot per company; up to 1,000 external conversations per month. Community support via GitHub and Rasa Forum. Rasa Enterprise is transparent annual licensing based on conversation volume (e.g., $50k/year for 1M conversations). Volume discounts apply. No per-agent fees. No per-resolution charges. No add-on surcharges. What you see is what you pay. Multi-year agreements available. Dedicated CSM, premium support (4-hour response SLA), and custom onboarding included at Enterprise tier. No vendor lock-in: if you outgrow Rasa, export your models and dialogue definitions; they are plain YAML and JSON.