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Customer Support · head to head

Cresta vs tawk.to

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
tawk.to logo

tawk.to

Live Chat

100% free live chat software

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only tawk.to 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.; tawk.to removing the Powered by tawk.to branding costs an extra $29/month even on the free plan
  • They diverge on capability: Cresta covers Real-time agent assist, tawk.to covers Live chat.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cresta and tawk.to actually diverge.

Attributes where Cresta and tawk.to differ
AttributeCrestatawk.to
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotefreemium
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, Ios, Android, Windows, Mac
CategoryCustomer SupportLive Chat
FoundedUnknown2013

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 Cresta

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

Only in tawk.to

  • Live chat
  • Ticketing
  • Knowledge base
  • CRM
  • Video chat
  • Screen sharing
  • WordPress
  • Shopify

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

tawk.to

  • Website live chat and visitor engagementnot Cresta
  • Customer support automationnot 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.

tawk.to

  • Removing the Powered by tawk.to branding costs an extra $29/month even on the free plan
  • Enhanced AI Assist chatbot is a paid add-on starting at $29/month rather than included free
  • Human staffed chat agents are billed at $1/hour as a separate add-on

Pricing, plan by plan

Cresta

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

tawk.to

Free
  • Free Core SoftwareFree
    • Live chat software with no feature limitations
    • Chat pages
    • Knowledge base (hosted help center)
  • Branding Removal$29/month
    • Remove Powered by tawk.to widget branding
  • AI Assist Premium$29/month
    • AI-powered chatbot automation
  • Hired Chat Agents$1/hour
    • Professional trained agents 24/7/365

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 tawk.to if

  • You need live chat.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Windows, Mac.
  • You also want ticketing.
tawk.to review

Questions people ask

Is Cresta or tawk.to better?
Neither clearly leads. Cresta starts at On request and tawk.to at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cresta or tawk.to?
tawk.to has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Cresta and Free for tawk.to.
Does Cresta or tawk.to run on more platforms?
Cresta runs on Web, API. tawk.to runs on Web, Ios, Android, Windows, Mac.
Can I use tawk.to for free?
Yes. tawk.to 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 tawk.to is typically brought in for.
What can Cresta do that tawk.to cannot?
Cresta covers Real-time agent assist, Autonomous AI Agent, Conversation intelligence, Automated quality management. tawk.to covers Live chat, Ticketing, Knowledge base, CRM.

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.

tawk.to: How much does tawk.to cost?

tawk.to is free for core live chat, knowledge base, ticketing, and CRM. Premium add-ons start at $29/month for branding removal or AI Assist, and $1/hour for hired chat agents.

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.

tawk.to: Is tawk.to free forever?

Yes, tawk.to's core software including live chat, knowledge base, ticketing, and contacts is free forever with no feature limitations.

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.

tawk.to: How are tawk.to's hired chat agents priced?

Hired chat agents are billed at $1 per hour with professional trained staff providing 24/7/365 support.

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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