Softwr

Customer Support · head to head

Cresta vs Kayako

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
Kayako logo

Kayako

Live Chat

Effortless customer service

From
$30/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • 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.; Kayako the AI agent is billed at $1 per resolved ticket, so support cost scales with ticket volume rather than being a fixed subscription
  • They diverge on capability: Cresta covers Real-time agent assist, Kayako covers Unified inbox.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cresta and Kayako actually diverge.

Attributes where Cresta and Kayako differ
AttributeCrestaKayako
Starting priceOn request$30/month
Pricing modelquotesubscription
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, Ios, Android
CategoryCustomer SupportLive Chat
FoundedUnknown2001

Identical on both: 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 Cresta

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

Only in Kayako

  • Unified inbox
  • Live chat
  • Help center
  • Customer journey
  • Automation
  • Reporting
  • Slack
  • Salesforce

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 Kayako
  • An insurance contact centre replacing manual QA sampling of two per cent of calls with automated scoring of every call for regulatory evidencenot Kayako
  • A retail support operation deploying autonomous voice agents on high-volume order status calls while keeping humans on complex claimsnot Kayako
  • A contact centre director who needs to prove which specific agent behaviours drive outcome differences, rather than relying on post-call survey scoresnot Kayako

Kayako

  • Help desk ticketing with a unified inbox and knowledge basenot Cresta
  • Resolving support tickets automatically with an AI agentnot 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.

Kayako

  • The AI agent is billed at $1 per resolved ticket, so support cost scales with ticket volume rather than being a fixed subscription
  • A resolution counts when the AI solves the issue without human involvement, so the definition of a billable event is set by the vendor's own system
  • No per agent monthly price is published for the full Kayako One platform
  • Full platform pricing requires talking to an expert

Pricing, plan by plan

Cresta

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

Kayako

$30/month
  • Inbox$30/month
    • Email & live chat
    • Help center
    • Basic automation
  • Growth$60/month
    • Everything in Inbox
    • Customer journey
    • SLA management
  • Scale$100/month
    • Everything in Growth
    • Advanced reporting
    • Custom roles

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 Kayako if

  • You need unified inbox.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want live chat.
Kayako review

Questions people ask

Is Cresta or Kayako better?
Neither clearly leads. Cresta starts at On request and Kayako at $30/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cresta or Kayako?
Cresta starts at On request and Kayako at $30/month.
Does Cresta or Kayako run on more platforms?
Cresta runs on Web, API. Kayako runs on Web, Ios, Android.
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 Kayako is typically brought in for.
What can Cresta do that Kayako cannot?
Cresta covers Real-time agent assist, Autonomous AI Agent, Conversation intelligence, Automated quality management. Kayako covers Unified inbox, Live chat, Help center, Customer journey.

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.

Kayako: How much does Kayako charge?

Kayako uses results-based pricing where customers pay $1 per resolved ticket when Kay AI Agent solves the issue without human intervention. There are no seat fees or setup fees. Kayako One helpdesk platform pricing requires contacting sales.

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.

Kayako: What counts as a resolved ticket for Kayako pricing?

A resolution occurs when Kay solves the customer's issue without human agent involvement, whether by taking action or providing an answer the customer confirms solves their problem. Escalations to humans and simple deflections do not count.

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.

Kayako: What is Kayako's AI resolution rate?

Kayako reports a 68 percent AI resolution rate for Kay AI Agent. The platform claims a cost advantage of $1 per resolution versus $4.60 for competitors, with reported CSAT improvement of 14 points.

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.

Share

Related pages

More on Cresta

More on Kayako

Keep looking

Other head to heads