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CRM · head to head

Clay vs Cresta

Clay logo

Clay

CRM

Data platform for sales teams

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
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

  • Only Clay has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Clay two separate meters run at once, actions and data credits, and a plan can exhaust either independently; 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: Clay covers Data enrichment, 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 Clay and Cresta actually diverge.

Attributes where Clay and Cresta differ
AttributeClayCresta
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebWeb, API
CategoryCRMCustomer Support
Founded2021Unknown

Identical on both: 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 Clay

  • Data enrichment
  • Contact management
  • Workflow automation
  • Integration
  • API access
  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot
  • Zapier

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.

Clay

  • Data enrichment and intelligencenot Cresta
  • Growth campaign automationnot Cresta
  • CRM workflow integrationnot Cresta

Cresta

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

Where each one falls short

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

Clay

  • Two separate meters run at once, actions and data credits, and a plan can exhaust either independently
  • Data credit overage is sold at a 30% premium over the plan rate, so exceeding the allowance costs more per unit than planning for it
  • The free plan allows 500 actions, 100 data credits and 200 rows per table
  • The entry paid plan starts at $167 a month, and both paid prices are starting figures rather than fixed
  • The free plan cannot buy overage at all, so hitting the limit stops work rather than billing for 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.
  • 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

Clay

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 500 actions per month
    • 100 data credits per month
    • Unlimited seats
  • Launch$167/month
    • 15000 actions per month
    • 3000 data credits per month
    • Phone enrichment
  • Growth$446/month
    • 40000 actions per month
    • 6000 data credits per month
    • CRM sync
  • Enterprise$null/custom
    • Unlimited capabilities across most features
    • SSO
    • Role-based access control

Cresta

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Clay if

  • You need data enrichment.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want contact management.
Clay 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 Clay or Cresta better?
Neither clearly leads. Clay starts at Free and Cresta at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Clay or Cresta?
Clay has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Clay and On request for Cresta.
Does Clay or Cresta run on more platforms?
Clay runs on Web. Cresta runs on Web, API.
Can I use Clay for free?
Yes. Clay has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Cresta starts at On request.
What is Clay best used for?
Clay is most often used for data enrichment and intelligence, growth campaign automation, crm workflow integration. Of those, data enrichment and intelligence and growth campaign automation are not what Cresta is typically brought in for.
What can Clay do that Cresta cannot?
Clay covers Data enrichment, Contact management, Workflow automation, Integration. Cresta covers Real-time agent assist, Autonomous AI Agent, Conversation intelligence, Automated quality management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Clay: Can I use Clay for free?

Yes, Clay's free plan includes 500 actions and 100 data credits per month with unlimited seats and tables (200 rows max per table).

Source
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.

Clay: How much can I save with Clay's annual billing?

Clay offers significant annual discounts: Launch tier drops from $167/month to $54/month, and Growth tier drops from $446/month to $185/month when billed yearly.

Source
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.

Clay: What happens when I exceed my monthly actions or data credits on Clay?

Actions and data credits cost less than $0.01 each when purchased at scale, with unused data credits rolling over up to 2x monthly allocation on paid plans. Customers can bring their own API keys to avoid data credit costs.

Source
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.

Clay: Does the Growth plan limit the number of users or team members?

No, Clay's Growth plan supports unlimited seats with 40000 monthly actions, 6000 data credits, and CRM sync, designed for teams with CRM-based workflows and growth campaigns.

Source
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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