CStore Essentials vs MicroSale
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
MicroSale
Access live sales data, labor costs, and top-selling items directly from your phone. Set custom alerts for discounts and voids to manage your business effectively. Visualize sales trends with hourly graphs and detailed reports.
- Live sales and labor cost tracking
- Discount and void alerts
- Sales by the hour graphs
- Top/bottom selling products
- Batch settlement notifications
- Graphical analytics
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**ReportingAnywhere module is required. Please contact your dealer for pricing and Customer ID code** Analyze time-sensitive information to make money-saving decisions with ReportingAnywhere. Get instant access to live sales, voids, discounts, labor percentage, top selling menu items, easy-to-read summary reports and more directly from your phone. Features and Functionality Use it with Ease Tap the app and scroll through the dashboard to see all of your pertinent information at a glance – net sales, discounts, voids, and labor cost. Set Alerts Set limits to get alerts on your phone to see when your discounts and voids exceed assigned thresholds. A notification is sent to you when the credit card batch has been settled and the day has been closed out. See your Numbers on Graphs Tap on the sales to see a visual breakdown of the sales by hour. The sales by the hour helps provide a clearer picture of your sales trends so that you can plan and respond accordingly. Other included Features ^ Net Sales ^ Labor Cost ^ Employees on the Clock ^ Employees Time Records ^ Department Sales ^ Sales by the Hour ^ Discount/Void Alerts ^ Batch Settlement Alert ^ Voids Report ^ Discounts Report ^ Transaction Average ^ Top Ten Products Sold ^ Bottom Ten Products Sold ^ Close Out Report ^ Plus Graphical Analytics ^ Plus Admin Contro
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: CStore Essentials at 2.8 against MicroSale's 2.1. CStore Essentials also leads on ratings volume (68 vs 7). MicroSale's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 30 months) and review sentiment (50% vs 40%). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.
CStore Essentials holds the better App Store score, 2.8 against 2.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CStore Essentials has 68 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 40% of CStore Essentials's written reviews are positive against 50% of MicroSale'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, MicroSale every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CStore Essentials | MicroSale |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (68 ratings) — better | 2.1 (7 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 39.5% of reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 68 — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Every 30 months | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Excentus | Microsale |
Customer experience
CStore Essentials
MicroSale
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
MicroSale
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
CStore Essentials
No in-app purchases
MicroSale
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CStore Essentials free?
Is MicroSale free?
Which has better reviews, CStore Essentials or MicroSale?
Do CStore Essentials or MicroSale have ads?
Which is updated more often, CStore Essentials or MicroSale?
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