unitQ Support QA vs Cresta
An independent grader for in-house teams, BPOs and AI agents, versus an AI platform for CX with live assist and its own AI agents.
unitQ Support QA scores 100% of your support conversations, not a sample, so coverage doesn't depend on reviewer hours. unitQ Support QA leads on scoring accuracy: every check has a plain-language definition, fail values and worked examples, and you validate it in Testbench on your own past conversations next to your own reviewers before it goes live. unitQ Support QA is an independent grader that isn't tied to the vendor whose bot or agents it scores. Custom rubrics in Tag Studio are checked on real conversations in Testbench. Bot conversation checks are configured for your workspace. unitQ Support QA supports all your support channels, including chat, email, messaging, voice and IVR (automated phone menus), through integrations with platforms such as Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Freshdesk, Kustomer, Amazon Connect and Five9. Rubrics and scorecards can be shared across in-house teams, BPOs and AI agents, or split out with bot-specific checks.
Updated October 19, 2026
unitQ Support QA vs Cresta, side by side
unitQ Support QA scores 100% of your support conversations, not a sample, so coverage doesn't depend on reviewer hours. unitQ Support QA leads on scoring accuracy: every check has a plain-language definition, fail values and worked examples, and you validate it in Testbench on your own past conversations next to your own reviewers before it goes live. Cresta describes itself as the AI operating system for CX, where human and AI agents power the entire customer lifecycle (cresta.com). unitQ Support QA supports all your support channels, including chat, email, messaging, voice and IVR (automated phone menus), through integrations with platforms such as Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Freshdesk, Kustomer, Amazon Connect and Five9. AI-agent conversations are scored on a shared standard or on bot-specific rubrics, whichever your policies require.
| Capability | unitQ Support QA | Cresta |
|---|---|---|
| Independent of the vendor being graded | ✓unitQ doesn't sell the AI agent, the helpdesk or the labor it grades, so scores stay neutral for humans and AI. | ~Cresta also builds and runs AI agents (cresta.com). |
| Coverage | ✓100% coverageunitQ Support QA scores 100% of your support conversations, not a sample, so coverage doesn't depend on reviewer hours. | –Not a stated focus. |
| Custom rubrics | ✓Your team owns the rubric in Tag Studio. Each check has a plain-language definition, fail values and worked examples, and rubric groups can be weighted. You can attach policy or SOP docs as reference. | –Not a stated focus. |
| Test and update checks before go-live | ✓Try a check on real past conversations in Testbench before it goes live. Your team edits checks as drafts, and unitQ sets a check live when you're ready. | –Not a stated focus. |
| All support channels | ✓All your support channels (chat, email, messaging, voice, IVR) via integrations such as Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Freshdesk, Kustomer, Amazon Connect and Five9 | –Not a stated focus. |
| One scorecard across BPO and in-house teams | ✓One scorecard you own for in-house and BPO teams, broken down by BPO vendor vs in-house team using the team and vendor mapping set up for your workspace. AI agents can share your human standard or get bot-specific checks. | –Not a stated focus. |
| Scores AI agent conversations | ✓AI-agent conversations can be scored on your shared standard or on bot-specific checks, independent of the bot vendor: real containment, wrong information, loops, escalations that shouldn't have happened, inaccurate resolutions and recovery after reaching a person. Configured for your workspace during setup. | ✓Cresta offers conversation intelligence and quality management for human and AI agents (cresta.com). |
| Process and policy adherence | ✓Pass/fail checks for required steps and policy adherence, not just tone and empathy, with every miss linked to the conversation. It grades what shows in the conversation. | –Not a stated focus. |
| Compliance checks | ✓Pass/fail compliance checks you define, such as required disclosures, privacy handling and policy adherence. | –Not a stated focus. |
| Scoring accuracy | ✓unitQ Support QA leads on scoring accuracy: every check has a plain-language definition, fail values and worked examples, and you validate it in Testbench on your own past conversations next to your own reviewers before it goes live. | –Not a stated focus. |
| Score granularity | ✓Each check is scored on each conversation, rolled up into one quality score with competency and compliance views, and broken down by contact reason, team, BPO vendor, region, manager and agent. Breakdowns depend on the team and vendor mapping set up for your workspace. | –Not a stated focus. |
| Evidence behind every score | ✓Every scored miss links back to the conversation behind it. | –Not a stated focus. |
| From insights to coaching | ✓Managers get an evidence-linked coaching brief per agent and a roster of strengths and gaps by skill. Results roll up by team, manager and BPO vendor. AI-agent conversations get their own bot audit, with findings and a suggested owner such as conversation design. | –Cresta describes AI-driven coaching (cresta.com). Coaching rollups by BPO site are not stated. |
| Coaching effectiveness over time | ✓The Coaching overview tracks coaching sessions, session rate, coached vs pending vs past-due, focus areas and history by manager, and follows coached agents' scores after a session. | –Not a stated focus. |
| Real-time in-call agent assist | ✕Not what unitQ Support QA does. Teams that need live assist pair it with an assist tool. | ✓Real-time agent assist, Agentic Assist (cresta.com). |
Also running unitQ Monitor? Quality themes from unitQ Support QA can sit beside contact reasons and product issues, so support and product work from the same view.
Choosing an AI agent too? Grade every vendor on your own rubric with the AI agent POC playbook.
Where Cresta falls short
- Cresta sells AI Agent, Agentic Assist and Conversation Intelligence together, so the vendor that runs the AI agent also provides the quality layer (cresta.com).
- Cresta says pricing is custom, based on deployment scope, and that there is no public self-serve tier (cresta.com).
Why teams choose unitQ Support QA
unitQ Support QA scores 100% of your support conversations, not a sample, so coverage doesn't depend on reviewer hours. unitQ Support QA leads on scoring accuracy: every check has a plain-language definition, fail values and worked examples, and you validate it in Testbench on your own past conversations next to your own reviewers before it goes live. Cresta is a serious enterprise platform for running a large contact center better in real time. unitQ Support QA is the pick when you need an independent grader for in-house teams, BPOs and AI agents, rather than a real-time contact-center platform. unitQ doesn't do real-time in-call assist or run AI agents. Teams that need those pair the two.
- Real-time agent assist grounded in your own best agents' transcripts
- Autonomous AI agents across voice, chat, and SMS, with escalation
- AI-driven QA and coaching for large enterprise contact centers
- unitQ Support QA scores 100% of your support conversations, not a sample, so coverage doesn't depend on reviewer hours.
- unitQ Support QA leads on scoring accuracy: every check has a plain-language definition, fail values and worked examples, and you validate it in Testbench on your own past conversations next to your own reviewers before it goes live.
- An independent grader that isn't tied to the vendor whose bot or agents it scores
- Custom rubrics in Tag Studio, checked on real conversations in Testbench
- Bot conversation checks configured for your workspace
- All your support channels (chat, email, messaging, voice, IVR) via integrations such as Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Freshdesk, Kustomer, Amazon Connect and Five9
- As many rubrics and scorecards as your policies require, shared across in-house teams, BPOs and AI agents or with bot-specific checks
- Evidence linked to every scored miss
Independent support QA
unitQ Support QA is an independent grader for support conversations. unitQ Support QA scores 100% of your support conversations, not a sample, so coverage doesn't depend on reviewer hours. unitQ Support QA supports all your support channels, including chat, email, messaging, voice and IVR (automated phone menus), through integrations with platforms such as Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Freshdesk, Kustomer, Amazon Connect and Five9. It grades those conversations on your standards, runs as many rubrics and scorecards as your policies require, scores AI agents on a shared standard or on bot-specific rubrics, and backs every miss with evidence from the conversation. unitQ also offers unitQ Monitor, unitQ Impact, unitQ Compete, unitQ Research and unitQ Social.
From every customer signal to one quality score
Point tools hand you six dashboards and leave you to connect them. unitQ runs every signal through one intelligence layer in real time, so an issue caught in support flows into your metrics, your competitive benchmarks, and your roadmap. Hover or tap a product to see its job.
Every signal flows through unitQ into the six products below. Hover or tap a product to see its job.
Questions to ask Cresta before you buy
unitQ Support QA scores 100% of your support conversations, not a sample, so coverage doesn't depend on reviewer hours.
Your team owns the rubric in Tag Studio. Each check has a plain-language definition, fail values and worked examples, and rubric groups can be weighted. You can attach policy or SOP docs as reference.
Try a check on real past conversations in Testbench before it goes live. Your team edits checks as drafts, and unitQ sets a check live when you're ready.
Pass/fail checks for required steps and policy adherence, not just tone and empathy, with every miss linked to the conversation. It grades what shows in the conversation.
Pass/fail compliance checks you define, such as required disclosures, privacy handling and policy adherence.
unitQ Support QA leads on scoring accuracy: every check has a plain-language definition, fail values and worked examples, and you validate it in Testbench on your own past conversations next to your own reviewers before it goes live.
Each check is scored on each conversation, rolled up into one quality score with competency and compliance views, and broken down by contact reason, team, BPO vendor, region, manager and agent. Breakdowns depend on the team and vendor mapping set up for your workspace.
Managers get an evidence-linked coaching brief per agent and a roster of strengths and gaps by skill. Results roll up by team, manager and BPO vendor. AI-agent conversations get their own bot audit, with findings and a suggested owner such as conversation design.
The Coaching overview tracks coaching sessions, session rate, coached vs pending vs past-due, focus areas and history by manager, and follows coached agents' scores after a session.
They can. Cresta is built for contact-center conversations. unitQ Support QA scores 100% of the support conversations you connect. unitQ Support QA supports all your support channels, including chat, email, messaging, voice and IVR (automated phone menus), through integrations with platforms such as Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Freshdesk, Kustomer, Amazon Connect and Five9. AI-agent conversations are scored on a shared standard or on bot-specific rubrics, whichever your policies require.
No. Real-time in-call assist is part of Cresta's platform. unitQ Support QA focuses on independent quality scoring with evidence.
Yes. unitQ Support QA scores 100% of your support conversations, not a sample, so coverage doesn't depend on reviewer hours. unitQ Support QA supports all your support channels, including chat, email, messaging, voice and IVR (automated phone menus), through integrations with platforms such as Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Freshdesk, Kustomer, Amazon Connect and Five9.
Both do. Cresta describes one platform for human and AI agents (cresta.com). unitQ Support QA scores AI agents on a shared standard or on bot-specific rubrics, independent of the vendor that built them.
unitQ doesn't publish pricing for unitQ Support QA.
Talk to unitQ about an evaluation on your own data. If you're running a POC of AI agents, the free AI agent POC playbook shows how to grade every vendor on a rubric you own.
Setup covers connecting the support conversations you want graded, drafting your checks in Tag Studio, the rubric editor in unitQ Support QA, and trying each check on real past conversations in Testbench before it goes live. Your team saves and edits checks as drafts, and unitQ sets a check live when you're ready. For AI agents, Bot Audit is configured for your workspace during setup. Talk to unitQ about an evaluation on your own data.
Yes. unitQ Support QA scores AI-agent conversations on a shared standard or on bot-specific rubrics, whichever your policies require, independent of the vendor that sold the bot. Checks look at whether containment was real, and flag wrong information, loops, escalations that shouldn't have happened and inaccurate resolutions, plus how often conversations recover after reaching a person. Bot Audit is configured for your workspace during setup.
unitQ Support QA scores 100% of your support conversations, not a sample, so coverage doesn't depend on reviewer hours. unitQ Support QA supports all your support channels, including chat, email, messaging, voice and IVR (automated phone menus), through integrations with platforms such as Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Freshdesk, Kustomer, Amazon Connect and Five9.
See unitQ Support QA
Run as many rubrics and scorecards as your policies require: one shared standard for in-house teams, BPOs and AI agents, or bot-specific checks for loops, false containment and handoffs.