I wasn't too sure about crates either but did some research and soon learnt the benefits

Puppy's feel safe and secure in a crate as well as speeding up toilet training and ensuring nothing gets chewed that shouldn't
Lolly did cry for the first 6 nights that she was in her crate and I'd say she learnt to tolerate her crate rather than love it. But she was toilet trained very fast with very few accidents. She only wee'd in her crate the first night. Lolly is nearly 7 months old now and we have just got rid of the crate now that we feel we can trust her not to destroy things if she's left alone.
I have to say that I would have been constantly worrying about what Lolly was up to when she was younger and we weren't around if we didn't have the crate. I would have been scared for her safety as well as my furniture!! lol
It's a very personal choice, so you need to do some research and decide what suits you, your family and your puppy.