Pooch vs Shopify Inbox

Where Shopify Inbox is strong

Written honestly. If one of these matters more to you than anything below, they are the better choice.

• Free and already in your admin — nothing to install or integrate
• Its agent answers autonomously rather than only suggesting replies to staff
• Answers product questions, recommends products, and can add to cart
• Reads back order status for signed-in customers
• Replies in the shopper’s language

What merchants report as trade-offs

Published pricing, plus recurring themes in public reviews. Anything drawn from reviews is described as reported rather than stated as fact.

• Shopify’s documented agent actions cover answers, recommendations, order lookup and add-to-cart — returns, refunds, cancellations, order edits and discounts are not among them
• Shopify’s documentation states the “powered by Shopify / chatting with AI” notice is displayed automatically and cannot be removed or customised
• Documented conversation caps: 100 messages per conversation for shoppers who are not signed in, and 50 conversations per customer per day
• No public Inbox API, no webhooks and no transcript export — a merchant request open since 2023
• Shopify documents that merchant-authored content such as FAQs and greetings is not translated, even though the agent mirrors the shopper’s language

What Pooch costs

One meter. No separate AI charge, no per-seat fee, no automatic top-ups.