Barcode Scanners vs M2Quared Retail
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Barcode Scanners
This app offers robust barcode scanning capabilities, supporting over 30 different types including QR, UPC, and Data Matrix. It provides powerful parsing for industry-standard formats like driver's licenses and GS1 codes, simplifying data extraction.
- Scan over 30 barcode types
- QR code scanning
- UPC scanning
- Data Matrix scanning
- GS1 code parsing
- Driver's license data parsing
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Barcode scanning made simple! Use this powerful app to easily scan over 30 different types of barcodes, including QR, UPC, GS1, Data Matrix, PDF417, DotCode, and many others. The Cognex Barcode Scanners application reads all major barcode symbologies, including Aztec Code, Codabar, Code 11, Code 25 (Interleaved, Industrial, COOP, Matrix and ITF-14), Code 39, Code 93, Code 128, Data Matrix, DotCode, EAN, ISBN, GS1 DataBar, MaxiCode, MSI Plessey, PDF417, Micro PDF417, Postal Codes, QR Code (Micro and Standard), TELEPEN and UPC barcode types, as well as GS1 sub-types like GS1 QR Code, GS1 Data Matrix and GS1-128. The app also provides powerful parsers to examine industry standard formatted barcodes more easily such as AAMVA (US and Canadian Driver’s Licenses), GS1, IUID, Structured Carrier Messages (MaxiCode), and more! To learn more about Cognex's high-speed barcode scanning and computer vision solutions, visit https://www.cognex.com.
M2Quared Retail
This mobile application monitors retail activations, ensuring compliance and facilitating the scanning and checking in of installations. It empowers business professionals to perform their job duties efficiently.
- Monitor retail activation compliance
- Scan installations
- Check in installations
- Job execution for business people
- Effective task performance
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This is Smollans retail activations mobile application which is used for monitoring compliance of activations as well as scanning and checking in of installations. This is used for Smollan business people to execute their job effectively.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: M2Quared Retail at 5.0 against Barcode Scanners's 4.6. Barcode Scanners's advantage is ratings volume (810 vs 1) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 14.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
M2Quared Retail holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Barcode Scanners has 810 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Barcode Scanners ships an update every 5 months, M2Quared Retail every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Barcode Scanners | M2Quared Retail |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (810 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 87.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 810 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 35 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cognex Corporation | Steven Stuart |
Customer experience
Barcode Scanners
M2Quared Retail
Bugs and requests
Barcode Scanners
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashing after iOS 12.3.1 update
- Unable to scan certain barcode types (e.g. GS1 DataMatrix)
- Frozen camera view after initial scan
Requested features
4 requests- Option to disable tips/tooltips on startup
- Batch export/logging of scan history
- Ability to display non-readable characters
- Deeper Shortcuts integration
M2Quared Retail
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Barcode Scanners
No in-app purchases
M2Quared Retail
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Barcode Scanners free?
Is M2Quared Retail free?
Which has better reviews, Barcode Scanners or M2Quared Retail?
Do Barcode Scanners or M2Quared Retail have ads?
Which is updated more often, Barcode Scanners or M2Quared Retail?
Other comparisons
