CStore Essentials vs Core
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CStore Essentials
Monitor and manage all your retail stores remotely from your smartphone. Get real-time insights into sales, transactions, and inventory changes, even when you're away.
- Remote store management
- Live transaction monitoring
- Full transaction receipts
- Live department and gas sales
- Add new items
- Change item prices
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Manage all your stores from your phone. Stay on top of everything happening in your store even when you are not present. - View full day reports - See live transactions as they are happing on your register - See full transaction receipts with line voids, full transaction voids and no sale register openings - See live department and gas sales - Add new items and change prices for existing item
Core
Streamline your business ordering process with this intuitive iOS application. Access your full catalog, track order history, and stay informed about promotions and new items. Improve accuracy and efficiency in managing your business operations.
- Full catalog visibility with costing
- 8-week order history tracking
- Promotional notifications and deals
- Reorder from past orders/invoices
- Barcode scanning via camera
- Access to promotional flyers
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Core-Mark’s revolutionary ordering application makes ordering easy and fun with any iOS device. Generate orders with greater accuracy and have access to important promotional information and tools to manage your business more efficiently. Key Features Include: • Full visibility to your entire ordering catalog along with costing information. • Access to 8-week order history, including average and last order quantities. • Notifications of pre-orders and deals. • Ability to create an order from a previous order or invoice. • Ability to use your camera to capture barcodes. • Promotional flyers and new item introductions. • Featuring Core-Mark PromoPowers and Smart Sets! Start ordering with Core-Mark for iOS today! Contact your Core-Mark representative for your unique log-in credentials.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Core at every 2 months against CStore Essentials's every 30 months. Core also leads on rating (3.1 vs 2.8). CStore Essentials's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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.
Core holds the better App Store score, 3.1 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 68 and 59 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 40% of CStore Essentials's written reviews are positive against 33% of Core's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
CStore Essentials ships an update every 30 months, Core every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CStore Essentials | Core |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (68 ratings) | 3.1 (59 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 39.5% of reviews — better | 33.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 68 — better | 59 |
| Update frequency | Every 30 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Excentus | Tiva Software, LLC |
Customer experience
CStore Essentials
Core
Bugs and requests
CStore Essentials
Reported bugs
18 issues- App doesn't work for a week
- Sign in problem after new app download
- Session expired, infinite relog loop
- Service down for over a week
- Live data doesn't work first hour of sales
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- Live data doesn't work past 12am
- Camera not focusing while scanning
- iOS scan for price change not working
- Live Sales stops updating every few days
- Sales data upload crashes
- Random charges to credit card
- Back office not working every week
- Desktop site and app layout incongruent
- Cost updating iffy, deletes cost
- Adding new items creates 12 UPC digits, causing errors
- App not updated for a year (iOS)
- Screen inaccuracy on iPad
- No optimization for iPhone X
Requested features
11 requests- Ability to change gas prices from the app
- Add ability to scan tags
- Add tender detail in live transactions
- Add departments and categories view
- Add ability to see departments and categories overall
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- Standalone lottery app for nightly reading
- Lottery app for non-gas station stores
- Bulk update for cost price
- Update app for iPhone X optimization
- Update software for iPad compatibility
- Update app to show clock, battery, signal
Core
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
CStore Essentials
No in-app purchases
Core
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CStore Essentials free?
Is Core free?
Which has better reviews, CStore Essentials or Core?
Do CStore Essentials or Core have ads?
Which is updated more often, CStore Essentials or Core?
Other comparisons
