Zoho Desk is the value option, and honestly so — it is inexpensive per agent and covers an enormous amount of ground. The catch is the same as the appeal: it is designed for people living inside Zoho, and a WooCommerce store that only wants a support inbox ends up administering a suite.
| Relay Panel | Zoho Desk | |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | ✓One inbox for a store | A ticketing suite inside a larger platform |
| WooCommerce | ✓First class: orders, stock, customers, draft orders | Through an extension or a webhook you maintain |
| Where an answer comes from | ✓Your live product pages and policies, cited | Knowledge base articles you write and keep current |
| Setup | ✓Connect the store, forward an address, paste one script tag | Departments, layouts, workflows, SLAs, then content |
| Interface | ✓One screen for every channel | Powerful, and a lot of it |
| Self-hosting | ✓Yes | No |
| Shape of the bill | ✓Per seat, per company | Per agent per month, tiered by feature |
If cost per agent is the deciding number, Zoho Desk wins and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What Relay Panel argues is that the cost of support is mostly the time your people spend, not the licence — and that an assistant which already knows the answer to "is this in stock" saves more than the difference.
CRM, Books, Inventory, Desk — one login and one bill is a real advantage, and no support inbox is worth breaking it for. Relay Panel is for stores whose system of record is WooCommerce.
The honest way to compare an assistant is to ask it something only your store can answer. That is what the waitlist is for — you will get one email when signups open, and nothing else.
Moving from Zoho Desk? Your conversations are yours; there is nothing here that holds them.