CStore Essentials vs uPunch
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
uPunch
Easily calculate employee payroll by scanning timecards with your mobile device. Correct errors, input time manually, and customize pay periods for weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or semi-monthly cycles. Supports overtime calculations per day or pay period.
- Scan timecards with mobile camera
- Calculate time worked per pay period
- Edit timecards and correct errors
- Manually input time
- Calculate overtime per day or pay period
- Customize pay period and workday format
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The uPunch Mobile App makes calculating payroll a breeze Scan your employee’s timecards directly from your mobile device using the built-in camera. This app provides everything you need to quickly calculate time worked per pay period. Option to calculate overtime per day or pay period. Manually input time or scan paper time cards to calculate the hours worked. If there’s an error on the timecard or a punch is missing, the app will enable you to make a correction.No monthly subscription required. uPunch Mobile App is compatible with uPunch FN1000 time cards only. Payroll in your pocket Scan your employee’s timecards directly from your mobile device using the built-in camera. From your office or on the go, this app provides everything you need to quickly calculate time worked per pay period. Custom control if there’s a missing punch, no problem. Edit it directly through the app and make changes as needed. Supports a weekly, biweekly, monthly or semimonthly period. Easily customize the workday hour format and pay period to fit the needs of your business. Math made easy Option to calculate overtime per day or pay period. Add or edit employees as you choose. Manually input time or scan paper time cards to calculate the hours worked. If there’s an error on the timecard or a punch is missing, the app will enable you to make a correction. uPunch Mobile App is compatible with uPunch FN1000 time cards only.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: CStore Essentials at 2.8 against uPunch's 1.7. CStore Essentials also leads on review sentiment (40% vs 0%) and ratings volume (68 vs 6). uPunch's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 30 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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 1.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CStore Essentials has 68 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 40% of CStore Essentials's written reviews are positive against 0% of uPunch's.
CStore Essentials ships an update every 30 months, uPunch every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CStore Essentials | uPunch |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (68 ratings) — better | 1.7 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 39.5% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 68 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 30 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 81 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Excentus | Workwell Technologies, Inc. |
Customer experience
CStore Essentials
uPunch
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
uPunch
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
CStore Essentials
No in-app purchases
uPunch
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CStore Essentials free?
Is uPunch free?
Which has better reviews, CStore Essentials or uPunch?
Do CStore Essentials or uPunch have ads?
Which is updated more often, CStore Essentials or uPunch?
Other comparisons
