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CRM · head to head

Apptivo vs Cresta

Apptivo logo

Apptivo

CRM

A bundle of around fifty business apps sold on one per-user subscription

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Cresta logo

Cresta

Customer Support

Real-time AI coaching and autonomous agents that sit on top of an existing contact centre platform

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Apptivo the tiers gate the number of apps rather than only the depth, so a business that buys Lite at 15 US dollars because of the CRM and later needs an app in the 46-app Premium set faces a 67 per cent per-seat increase to unlock it.; Cresta cresta depends on the CCaaS platforms it integrates with, and NICE, Genesys and Five9 are all shipping native real-time assist and auto-QA of their own, so at renewal you may be paying twice for capability your platform vendor will bundle at a discount.
  • They diverge on capability: Apptivo covers CRM core, Cresta covers Real-time agent assist.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Apptivo and Cresta actually diverge.

Attributes where Apptivo and Cresta differ
AttributeApptivoCresta
Pricing modelPer user per monthquote
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, API
CategoryCRMCustomer Support

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Apptivo

  • CRM core
  • Invoicing and estimates
  • Project management
  • Field service
  • Help desk
  • Procurement and inventory
  • Custom apps and fields
  • Workflow automation

Only in Cresta

  • Real-time agent assist
  • Autonomous AI Agent
  • Conversation intelligence
  • Automated quality management
  • Behavioural coaching
  • Knowledge surfacing
  • Multilingual deployment
  • Supervisor dashboards

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Apptivo

  • A ten-person consultancy that wants CRM, project timesheets and invoicing on one subscription instead of stitching three tools togethernot Cresta
  • A distributor needing quotes, purchase orders and stock levels against the same customer record without an integration projectnot Cresta
  • A service business replacing a spreadsheet-driven help desk that also wants the ticket history visible on the sales contactnot Cresta
  • A business already paying separately for CRM, invoicing and project tools that wants to cut vendor count and consolidate billingnot Cresta

Cresta

  • A 1,500-seat telecommunications sales centre that wants conversion lift from live agent prompting without migrating off an incumbent Genesys deploymentnot Apptivo
  • An insurance contact centre replacing manual QA sampling of two per cent of calls with automated scoring of every call for regulatory evidencenot Apptivo
  • A retail support operation deploying autonomous voice agents on high-volume order status calls while keeping humans on complex claimsnot Apptivo
  • A contact centre director who needs to prove which specific agent behaviours drive outcome differences, rather than relying on post-call survey scoresnot Apptivo

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Apptivo

  • The tiers gate the number of apps rather than only the depth, so a business that buys Lite at 15 US dollars because of the CRM and later needs an app in the 46-app Premium set faces a 67 per cent per-seat increase to unlock it.
  • Workflow automation is capped at 25 rules on both Lite and Premium, which is low for any business automating more than a basic sales process, and lifting it means jumping to Ultimate at 40 US dollars.
  • Each app is shallower than the dedicated product it replaces, so teams that outgrow one module end up buying a specialist tool anyway and lose the single-record advantage that justified the suite.
  • There is no free tier, only a 30-day trial, so evaluating the breadth properly against real data requires paying or rushing the trial window.
  • The interface is dense and inconsistent between apps because they were built over many years, which lengthens onboarding and produces persistent user complaints in teams that are not technically confident.

Cresta

  • Cresta depends on the CCaaS platforms it integrates with, and NICE, Genesys and Five9 are all shipping native real-time assist and auto-QA of their own, so at renewal you may be paying twice for capability your platform vendor will bundle at a discount.
  • Pricing is not published and contracts are seat-based and annual at enterprise scale, which in practice means six-figure commitments and a procurement cycle measured in months rather than weeks.
  • Real-time guidance only pays back where conversation outcomes are measurable and repeatable, so support teams handling long, varied, low-volume cases rarely recover the licence cost.
  • Deploying real-time assist requires agents to accept on-screen prompting mid-call, and contact centres with strong union representation or experienced tenured agents frequently see adoption resistance that no amount of model quality fixes.
  • Automated quality scoring changes what agents are measured on, and organisations that switch from human QA without rewriting their evaluation rubric and appeals process create industrial-relations problems that surface months after go-live.

Pricing, plan by plan

Apptivo

On request
  • Lite$15/month
    • 18 apps
    • 100 custom fields per app
    • 25 workflows
  • Premium$25/month
    • 46 apps
    • 250 custom fields per app
    • 25 workflows
  • Ultimate$40/month
    • All apps
    • 350 custom fields per app
    • 150 workflows
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • 500 custom fields per app
    • 300 workflows
    • 100 custom dashboards

Cresta

On request
  • Cresta$undefined/year
    • AI Agent
    • Agent Assist
    • Conversation Intelligence

Which should you pick?

Choose Apptivo if

  • You need crm core.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want invoicing and estimates.
Apptivo review

Choose Cresta if

  • You need real-time agent assist.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want autonomous ai agent.
Cresta review

Questions people ask

Is Apptivo or Cresta better?
Neither clearly leads. Apptivo starts at On request and Cresta at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Apptivo or Cresta?
Apptivo starts at On request and Cresta at On request.
Does Apptivo or Cresta run on more platforms?
Apptivo runs on Web, iOS, Android. Cresta runs on Web, API.
What is Apptivo best used for?
Apptivo is most often used for a ten-person consultancy that wants crm, project timesheets and invoicing on one subscription instead of stitching three tools together, a distributor needing quotes, purchase orders and stock levels against the same customer record without an integration project, a service business replacing a spreadsheet-driven help desk that also wants the ticket history visible on the sales contact, a business already paying separately for crm, invoicing and project tools that wants to cut vendor count and consolidate billing. Of those, a ten-person consultancy that wants crm, project timesheets and invoicing on one subscription instead of stitching three tools together and a distributor needing quotes, purchase orders and stock levels against the same customer record without an integration project are not what Cresta is typically brought in for.
What can Apptivo do that Cresta cannot?
Apptivo covers CRM core, Invoicing and estimates, Project management, Field service. Cresta covers Real-time agent assist, Autonomous AI Agent, Conversation intelligence, Automated quality management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Apptivo: Does Apptivo have a free plan?

No. There is a 30-day free trial; the cheapest ongoing plan is Lite at 15 US dollars per user per month billed annually.

Cresta: Does Cresta replace my contact centre platform?

No. It is designed to sit on top of NICE, Genesys, Five9, Amazon Connect and similar platforms, which is why it is chosen where a full CCaaS migration is not feasible.

Apptivo: What is the real difference between Lite and Premium?

Mostly app count and dashboards: Lite opens 18 apps, Premium opens 46 with custom dashboards. Check which specific app you need before choosing on price.

Cresta: What does it cost?

Cresta does not publish pricing. Contracts are seat-based and annual, and at the enterprise scale it sells into they are typically six figures per year.

Apptivo: Is monthly billing more expensive?

Yes, by roughly a third. Lite is 15 annually versus 20 monthly, Premium 25 versus 30, Ultimate 40 versus 50.

Cresta: Is it viable for a contact centre under 100 seats?

Rarely. The commercial model, implementation effort and required outcome measurement all assume several hundred seats or more.

Apptivo: Are all fifty apps really included?

Only on the top tiers. The lower tiers include a subset, and the app list per tier is the thing to verify before buying.

Cresta: Who owns Cresta?

It is an independent venture-backed company, having raised roughly 282 million USD in total including a 125 million USD Series D in November 2024 co-led by World Innovation Lab and the Qatar Investment Authority.

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