Desk365
A Teams-native helpdesk whose changelog is mostly a marketing blog.
Comparison · Support
Richpanel vs Hiver
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Richpanel and Hiver — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Richpanel vs Hiver: at a glance
| Feature | Richpanel | Hiver |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Support | Support |
| Velocity score | 5.0 | 0.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | ecommerce integrations, shopify stack, actionable inbox, ai agent | customer-support, gmail, ai-knowledge, omnichannel |
| Last editorial update | 6h ago | 14h ago |
| Website | — | Visit → |
What is Richpanel?
Every merchant tool Richpanel absorbs is one more thing its AI agent can answer alone
Richpanel keeps wiring adjacent ecommerce tools directly into its support inbox. This window adds Onward shipping protection to a run that already includes Rivo loyalty, Klaviyo SMS, RingCentral voice, and the full AfterShip tracking, returns, and warranty suite. Each connector follows the same shape: customer and order data in the conversation sidebar, and where an API key is supplied, the ability to act — file a claim, adjust points, approve a return — without leaving Richpanel.
What is Hiver?
Gmail-based support tooling wiring internal docs into its AI and unifying search across channels
Hiver's April releases center on grounding its AI in a company's own material. Confluence pages, Google Docs and Google Sheets can be added as knowledge sources, and Ask AI can query an uploaded Sheet directly — answering questions like top customers by revenue without manual analysis. Alongside that, Omnichannel Search spans email, chat and Slack with unified results and channel attribution, and automations gained a trigger for conversations moved into a shared inbox. Each release appears twice in the feed.
Richpanel vs Hiver: editorial side-by-side
Richpanel
5.0SUPPORT
Every merchant tool Richpanel absorbs is one more thing its AI agent can answer alone
◆ Current state
Richpanel keeps wiring adjacent ecommerce tools directly into its support inbox. This window adds Onward shipping protection to a run that already includes Rivo loyalty, Klaviyo SMS, RingCentral voice, and the full AfterShip tracking, returns, and warranty suite. Each connector follows the same shape: customer and order data in the conversation sidebar, and where an API key is supplied, the ability to act — file a claim, adjust points, approve a return — without leaving Richpanel.
◆ Where it's heading
The strategy is breadth over depth. Rather than building new core support capability, Richpanel compounds value by making more of the Shopify-adjacent stack visible and controllable inside a conversation, which is exactly what its AI agent needs in order to resolve a question on its own instead of handing it to a human. Shipping protection lands as a read-then-act integration identical in structure to the AfterShip suite; SLA management back in May remains the one recent piece of native product rather than connective tissue.
◆ Prediction
The integration run will likely continue through the remaining Shopify-adjacent categories, with each new connector arriving in the same read-plus-act shape, since that is what makes it usable by the AI agent rather than only by a human agent.
Hiver
0.0SUPPORT
Gmail-based support tooling wiring internal docs into its AI and unifying search across channels
◆ Current state
Hiver's April releases center on grounding its AI in a company's own material. Confluence pages, Google Docs and Google Sheets can be added as knowledge sources, and Ask AI can query an uploaded Sheet directly — answering questions like top customers by revenue without manual analysis. Alongside that, Omnichannel Search spans email, chat and Slack with unified results and channel attribution, and automations gained a trigger for conversations moved into a shared inbox. Each release appears twice in the feed.
◆ Where it's heading
The product is extending past the shared-inbox job into being the place a support agent finds any answer. Knowledge sources make the AI useful on internal SOPs rather than generic replies; omnichannel search makes prior context findable regardless of where the conversation happened. Both reduce the reasons an agent leaves Gmail, which is the whole premise Hiver sells on.
◆ Prediction
Expect more knowledge source connectors on the pattern set by Drive and Confluence, since the Sheets query capability shows the ingestion path already handles structured as well as prose content.
Alternatives to Richpanel and Hiver
Other Support products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Richpanel or Hiver.
LiveAgent
AI Agents get a run log and a details view — the AI layer becomes something operators inspect
Hatz AI
Hatz adds every frontier model within days, and just dropped the license gate on its Phone Agent
Canny
Canny is wiring product feedback to revenue, and letting Autopilot collect it without anyone asking
Comm100
Comm100 publishes buyer-guide content, not releases — this feed is a marketing blog.
Bird
Monthly digests showing AI chat latency cut hard, in a feed that repeats itself
See all Richpanel alternatives → · See all Hiver alternatives →
Recent activity from Richpanel and Hiver
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoRichpanel🛡️ Onward Shipping Protection in Richpanel
- 8d agoRichpanelNew integration: Rivo Loyalty & Referrals
- 23d agoRichpanel📱New Integration: Klaviyo SMS
- 1mo agoRichpanel📞 RingCentral for Richpanel
- 1mo agoRichpanel🛡️ AfterShip Warranty in Richpanel
- 1mo agoRichpanel📦 AfterShip Tracking in Richpanel
- 3mo agoHiverRun queries on Google Sheets with Ask AI
- 3mo agoHiverGoogle Drive and Confluence as AI Knowledge Sources
- 3mo agoHiverNew Automation trigger and condition
- 3mo agoHiverGoogle Drive and Confluence as AI Knowledge Sources
- 3mo agoHiverRun queries on Google Sheets with Ask AI
- 3mo agoHiverIntroducing Omnichannel Search
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Richpanel and Hiver?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Richpanel is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Richpanel better than Hiver?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Richpanel is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Support products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Richpanel?
Top Richpanel alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Richpanel alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/richpanel for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Hiver?
Top Hiver alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Hiver alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hiver for the full list with editorial commentary on each.