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Customer Support · head to head

Cresta vs Hiver

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
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Hiver logo

Hiver

Customer Support

Gmail-based help desk

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Hiver has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Hiver hiver tiers as captured 28 December 2023: Lite at $15/user/month capped at 2 shared inboxes (up to 10 users each), Pro at $39/user/month capped at 5 shared inboxes and 50 shared labels, Elite at $59/user/month, all annual pricing with higher month-to-month rates of $19/$49/$69
  • They diverge on capability: Cresta covers Real-time agent assist, Hiver covers Shared inbox.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cresta and Hiver actually diverge.

Attributes where Cresta and Hiver differ
AttributeCrestaHiver
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotesubscription
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, Chrome-extension
FoundedUnknown2011

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Customer Support).

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 Cresta

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

Only in Hiver

  • Shared inbox
  • Email assignment
  • Collision detection
  • Email notes
  • Templates
  • Analytics
  • Gmail
  • Google Workspace

What people use each for

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

Cresta

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

Hiver

  • Shared inbox managementnot Cresta
  • Customer support via Gmailnot Cresta
  • Team email collaborationnot Cresta

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Hiver

  • Hiver tiers as captured 28 December 2023: Lite at $15/user/month capped at 2 shared inboxes (up to 10 users each), Pro at $39/user/month capped at 5 shared inboxes and 50 shared labels, Elite at $59/user/month, all annual pricing with higher month-to-month rates of $19/$49/$69

Pricing, plan by plan

Cresta

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

Hiver

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 2 users
    • Email management
    • Basic analytics
  • Lite$19/month
    • Unlimited users
    • Email templates
    • Notes & @mentions
  • Pro$49/month
    • CSAT surveys
    • SLA management
    • Custom reports
  • Elite$69/month
    • Round-robin
    • Skill-based routing
    • Okta SSO

Which should you pick?

Choose Cresta if

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

Choose Hiver if

  • You need shared inbox.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Chrome-extension.
  • You also want email assignment.
Hiver review

Questions people ask

Is Cresta or Hiver better?
Neither clearly leads. Cresta starts at On request and Hiver at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cresta or Hiver?
Hiver has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Cresta and Free for Hiver.
Does Cresta or Hiver run on more platforms?
Cresta runs on Web, API. Hiver runs on Web, Chrome-extension.
Can I use Hiver for free?
Yes. Hiver has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Cresta starts at On request.
What is Cresta best used for?
Cresta is most often used for a 1,500-seat telecommunications sales centre that wants conversion lift from live agent prompting without migrating off an incumbent genesys deployment, an insurance contact centre replacing manual qa sampling of two per cent of calls with automated scoring of every call for regulatory evidence, a retail support operation deploying autonomous voice agents on high-volume order status calls while keeping humans on complex claims, a contact centre director who needs to prove which specific agent behaviours drive outcome differences, rather than relying on post-call survey scores. Of those, a 1,500-seat telecommunications sales centre that wants conversion lift from live agent prompting without migrating off an incumbent genesys deployment and an insurance contact centre replacing manual qa sampling of two per cent of calls with automated scoring of every call for regulatory evidence are not what Hiver is typically brought in for.
What can Cresta do that Hiver cannot?
Cresta covers Real-time agent assist, Autonomous AI Agent, Conversation intelligence, Automated quality management. Hiver covers Shared inbox, Email assignment, Collision detection, Email notes.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

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.

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.

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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