Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Cresta: Enterprise contact-center AI platform combining real-time agent assist, autonomous AI agents, and conversation intelligence. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Balto when guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements matters most, and Cresta when analyzing every interaction to identify behaviors that drive outcomes matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls.
Enterprise contact-center AI platform combining real-time agent assist, autonomous AI agents, and conversation intelligence.
Balto is a contact-center AI platform centered on real-time guidance during live customer and sales calls. Rather than focusing on post-call review, Balto listens to conversations as they happen and surfaces dynamic prompts, objection-handling cues, compliance checklists, and knowledge-base answers to the agent in the moment. Its Agent Assist pulls relevant information so reps can respond to customer questions instantly, while real-time QA automatically scores interactions across all calls and flags compliance risk early, maintaining an audit trail for supervisors. Coaching automation tailors recommendations to each agent's performance, and real-time note generation produces call summaries without manual write-ups. Balto also offers voice AI agents to handle high-volume, repeatable calls and supports omnichannel context across voice and digital channels. It integrates with CRMs and telephony systems such as Salesforce and RingCentral. The platform is used across industries including healthcare, insurance, banking, collections, and home improvement, and is aimed at contact centers and sales teams that want in-the-moment guidance, compliance assurance, and automated quality management at scale. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Cresta is an enterprise customer-experience AI platform that unifies human and AI agents across voice and digital channels. It captures conversations through integrations with major contact-center systems such as Genesys, NICE, Salesforce, Twilio, and Amazon Connect, then analyzes those interactions at scale to surface behavioral insights and deliver real-time guidance. Its Agent Assist listens to live conversations and provides agents with in-the-moment suggestions, knowledge, and next-best actions, while a Knowledge Agent proactively surfaces context-aware answers without manual prompting. Cresta's conversation intelligence analyzes 100% of interactions to identify the behaviors that drive outcomes, and its automated quality management scores conversations across the board so supervisors gain visibility without manual sampling. The platform also offers autonomous AI agents that can resolve customer conversations end to end, plus an Agent Operations Center that gives supervisors real-time visibility and intervention tools across both human and AI-led conversations. Cresta is built for large enterprise contact centers in industries such as financial services, travel and hospitality, telecommunications, insurance, and healthcare that need real-time assistance, coaching, and analytics at scale. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Balto is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Cresta is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Balto | Cresta |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Real-time, in-call guidance with dynamic prompts and objection cues | Real-time Agent Assist with live suggestions and knowledge |
| Standout feature | Agent Assist that surfaces knowledge-base answers live | Conversation intelligence analyzing 100% of interactions |
| Team usage | Automated quality assurance scoring across 100% of calls | Automated quality management and scoring across all calls |
| Integrations | Real-time compliance monitoring with audit trails | Knowledge Agent that proactively surfaces context-aware answers |
| Languages & capture | Automated call summaries and coaching recommendations | Autonomous AI agents for end-to-end conversation resolution |
| Best-fit workflow | Integrations with CRMs and phone systems such as Salesforce and RingCentral | Integrations with Genesys, NICE, Salesforce, Twilio, and Amazon Connect |
Balto
Choose Balto if you need guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements — strengths include guides agents during the call rather than only analyzing afterward.
Cresta
Choose Cresta if you need assisting contact-center agents in real time during customer conversations — strengths include delivers real-time guidance during live conversations, not just post-call review.
Balto
Cresta
It depends on your workflow. Balto is strong for guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements, while Cresta is strong for assisting contact-center agents in real time during customer conversations. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Balto is a free tier with paid upgrades and Cresta is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
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