Pros & Cons
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- Highly customizable
- Advanced AI assistant
- Detailed analytics
- Uses machine learning protocols to improve data analysis
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- Sheer number of features can be overwhelming
- Complicated pricing and expensive for SMBs
Creatio Specs
| 24-Hour Support | |
| Automated Responses | |
| Automatically Collects Social Networking Data | |
| Creates Pipelines for Leads | |
| Document Library | |
| Multi-Currency Support | |
| Phone Support | |
| REST API | |
| User Forums |
Creatio is a no-code platform for automating key aspects of your business, such as customer service, customer relationship management (CRM), and omnichannel marketing. We focus on the CRM aspect here, which falls under its sales component. Creatio handles all the customer and campaign management tasks you might expect with little issue, and we appreciate its abundance of customization options and specialized AI tools. Its in-depth reporting capabilities are a highlight, too. That said, its steep cost puts Creatio out of reach for many small or growing businesses. Zoho CRM remains our Editors' Choice winner because it offers more accessible pricing while still providing plenty of AI features and flexibility.
How Much Does Creatio Cost?
Creatio’s pricing structure is different than most other CRM software I've tested. First, you must pay to access the platform with a Growth ($25 per user per month), Enterprise ($55 per user per month), or Unlimited ($85 per user per month) plan. The Growth and Enterprise tiers require a minimum of five users, whereas the Unlimited level requires at least 50 people.
The base Growth plan includes the core user interface designer and supports an unlimited number of applications, records, and workflows. You can execute 50,000 workflow actions per month and get a lifetime allowance of 100,000 Creatio AI tokens (I will discuss these later). Each user gets 1GB of database storage, and you can create up to 50 roles for your team members. This plan is most suitable for SMBs.
The Enterprise tier includes unlimited workflow actions and API calls, along with a lifetime allowance of 200,000 Creatio AI tokens. Each user, for which you can create an unlimited number of roles, gets 2GB of database storage. This tier unlocks custom branding, HIPAA compliance, and single sign-on (SSO) support. Finally, the Unlimited plan offers unlimited use of most Creatio features and a lifetime allowance of 300,000 Creatio AI tokens. You also get a dedicated cloud instance and advanced support for on-site installation.
All Creatio plans include access to the Online Academy, online community, and basic support via email. That all is in addition to a dedicated representative who can guide you through the setup process and help you learn the platform. Paying more for Business or Premium Support add-ons lets you call Creatio for support and get help via screen sharing or guided walkthroughs; you have to contact support directly to negotiate the price for those add-ons.
After you decide on the platform level, you need to pay to access Creatio's products, such as the Sales app that includes the CRM functionality I discuss here. Access to that product costs an additional $15 per user per month. However, Creatio requires a minimum spend of $10,000 per year for new customers, which works out to 21 users with access to both the Growth plan and the Sales product. The combined per-month price is $840.
Using AI features requires Creatio AI tokens, and the cost depends on the complexity of the task. Each plan includes a certain lifetime allowance of Creatio AI tokens, but you will need to buy more once you exceed those limits. A pack of 10 million credits goes for a one-time cost of $150.
Creatio is much more expensive than other enterprise-level CRM solutions. Apptivo and Zoho CRM, respectively, start at $15 and $14 per user per month (billed annually), with no minimum number of users or requirements to buy the apps separately from their platforms. Both Apptivo and Zoho CRM offer similar levels of flexibility and come with built-in AI assistants—albeit less advanced ones than Creatio’s. As such, Creatio makes sense only if your company has a significant budget and you’re confident that you can take advantage of all its features.
Getting Started With Creatio
Signing up for Creatio requires only your email address, name, and some basic information about your company. You don’t need to enter credit card information for the free trial.
When you log in to your account, Creatio opens to a dashboard with essential statistics, such as a breakdown of your employees’ performance, projected earnings for this month, and your current opportunity count. You can access tools for almost every aspect of your business via a drop-down sidebar menu with large text and easy-to-understand icons. Selecting the Workspace Setup option lets you customize this menu so that it shows only the tools you actively use.
(Credit: Creatio/PCMag)However, you won't find a couple of important things in the sidebar. For example, the user management area—where you can add team members—is instead accessible via the Settings section (click the gear icon in the top menu). The process of adding users is straightforward, at least. You start by creating Organizational Roles (departments in your company) and Functional Roles (job titles). You can then assign Licenses for various Creatio apps, such as the Sales app, to either type of role.
(Credit: Creatio/PCMag)With these roles in place, you can create new accounts for your team members, assigning them a name, username, password, operational role, and functional role. It's also possible to customize their permissions by adding licenses that you didn't associate with their default roles. A Rights Delegation section allows for further customization. Here, you can assign permissions for individual tasks, such as creating reports. All these tools give you full control over how each member of your team interacts with Creatio.
Working With Contacts
The Contacts area includes highly visible links for manually creating users, importing users via a spreadsheet, and importing user data from landing pages on platforms like WordPress. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to import contact records from another CRM.
I uploaded a spreadsheet, and Creatio automatically mapped most of the data to the correct fields; the only thing I had to specify was the type of phone number (business, home, or mobile) for each contact. Oddly, Creatio requires all imported contacts to have a Full Name field despite having both a First Name and Last Name field. This was an easy fix, and the actual import process took just a few seconds.
(Credit: Creatio/PCMag)Once you import them, your contacts appear in a table. Creatio doesn’t let you switch this to a Kanban view by default, but you can install a Kanban View App via the Creatio Marketplace, which offers hundreds of compatible apps and connectors. Keep in mind that you have to reach out to the developers of those add-ons (rather than Creatio) if you experience issues. Creatio lets you customize this area with additional data fields for other phone numbers, social media profiles, and the like.
Profiles include a contact's basic information (such as their name and job title) in the main area, while separate tabs organize things like sales and subscription information. I especially like the Timeline tab, where you can view and filter past interactions with the lead.
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(Credit: Creatio/PCMag)You can customize the contact profile with interactive components like attachments or buttons, specialized information fields, and widgets that help you visualize the customer relationship. It's also possible to drag and drop existing elements to new areas to optimize the layout for your needs. Other highly customizable CRMs, including Apptivo, don't offer this level of flexibility.
Opportunity Management
Opportunities in Creatio are the equivalent of deals in other CRM solutions. Clicking on the Opportunities menu item brings you to a dashboard that shows the deals you currently have in progress and lays out key information about them in an easy-to-read table. Like in the Contacts area, you can customize this table with any information you want to see at a glance.
(Credit: Creatio/PCMag)You also get separate tabs for Processing (invoices and payments processed), Products (items a person purchased and recommendations of products suitable for them), and History (a comprehensive history of your interactions). Finally, the Opportunity Insights tab provides more detailed information about what your contact needs, why they need it, and engagement tactics you can use to sell them these products or services.
The Next Steps button—which you use to create new tasks—is small and easy to overlook by default (it's above the progress bar to the right). However, you can move this button or adjust its appearance to make it more visible. You can also customize the opportunity profile layout with additional data fields, widgets, and more.
(Credit: Creatio/PCMag)The Playbook button in the same area opens a drop-down menu where you can access guides for interacting with specific types of customers or deals. It's possible to create Playbook documents in the Knowledge Base section of Creatio, which is also where you create other process and training documentation for your team. This extra layer of customization, which can simplify the onboarding process for new staff, isn't something I have seen in other CRM apps.
Email and Automation
Creatio's inbox management tool integrates with popular email programs like Gmail and Microsoft Outlook. You can use this to create and manage inboxes for departments or for individuals on your team. You can also build email templates and schedule emails for individuals here. Creating bulk emails—including fully automated, multi-email campaigns—is possible within the Campaigns section via a visual workflow designer. The Email and Campaign apps let you view relevant analytics.
(Credit: Creatio/PCMag)Creatio supports automation via Processes, premade collections of actions for tasks such as building product recommendation lists, creating scripts for various interactions, and generating product descriptions. The process designer is simple to use and visually intuitive, letting you drag and drop various tasks into a workflow. You can use it to modify premade processes or build custom workflows for your business. You can also ask the Creatio AI to create processes and workflows based on simple information about your business operations.
(Credit: Creatio/PCMag)Reporting and Analytics
In-depth analytics are available via the Dashboards section. Here, you get tabs for overall statistics, case management (team success metrics), current opportunity status, email totals, and more. The tabs and data representation tools make it easy to digest the data, and you can customize the visualizations to better fit your priorities. You can also ask the Creatio AI to summarize your data or make suggestions based on the information.
Such AI integrations are what make Creatio's reporting capabilities unique. You can even set up machine learning protocols to analyze your team’s activity for things like productivity and conversion success and then use the information to create sales forecasts. You don’t need to be a machine learning expert to use these features, either; Creatio provides extensive FAQs and virtual consultations to help you build effective protocols.
(Credit: Creatio/PCMag)Creatio AI
Creatio’s AI assistant can answer questions based on open pages. For example, if you’re on the Opportunities page, you can ask, “How much can we expect to earn in the next three months.” The AI analyzes your open opportunities and provides a detailed answer based on the data—far more detailed than you get from AI assistants in competitors like Freshsales. Zoho CRM's Zia assistant can also predict outcomes based on previous deals, but again, the information it presents might not be as comprehensive.
Creatio also offers advanced AI content generation tools. Instead of creating generalized content like Zoho CRM’s AI-based Smart Prompt feature, Creatio AI generates content based on previous documents you created. This means it will automatically use words and sentence structures in line with communications you've already sent out, thus cutting down on editing time.
This versatility and level of personalization help Creatio’s AI tools stand out from the competition. However, there's a catch. As mentioned, you must spend Creatio AI tokens for every task (the cost depends on the complexity and time it takes). You will likely need to buy more tokens at some point since the allocation of credits for all accounts is finite.
Additional Integrations
Creatio supports basic integrations with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, certain Zoho tools (like Zoho Mail), and other popular office software. These integrations allow you to sync your inboxes, calendars, and other key aspects of your business (like your accounting information). You can access most of these integrations through the Creatio settings or purchase them via the Creatio Marketplace.
You can also integrate Creatio with your WordPress site, most landing page tools, and Facebook to track all of your visits, interactions, and user data. The platform automatically connects this data to your contacts, leads, and opportunities to improve your sales process.
Creatio's API tools let you integrate it with other business tools, too. It provides extensive tutorials to help you build these connections.