Comparison

CStore Essentials vs CSympl

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Remote store management
  • Live transaction monitoring
  • Full transaction receipts
  • Live department and gas sales
  • Add new items
  • Change item prices
Features
Read full description

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

About

CSympl

Remotely manage your convenience store's POS system from your iPhone. Effortlessly update prices, manage inventory, schedule price changes, and print labels. Optimize profits and save time with this intuitive business management tool.

Highlights
  • Mobile price changes
  • Unscanned/new item management
  • Label printing
  • Price scheduling
  • Inside and outside pricing management
  • Inventory management
  • Group pricing
  • Margin tracking
Features
Read full description

Imagine the freedom to remotely manage your Verifone Commander and Gilbarco Passport POS system from the convenience of your iPhone. CSympl mobile App provides an intuitive interface to effortlessly manage your C-store. Save time and money managing your C-store from anywhere. This iPhone application was created for C-store owners by a C-store owner! CSympl implements several key features with endless customization options. - Mobile Price Changes o Maximize profits with simple and intuitive mobile price change feature. - Unscanned/New Item o Easily find out unscanned and add to the price book from your phone. - Labels Printing o Any changes to the products automatically print labels or you may create custom labels - Price Scheduling o Never miss a vender communicated price change again with price scheduling. - Manage Inside and Outside Pricing o Price change capability for all inside products and fuel pricing. - Inventory Management o Mitigate shrinkage on top categories with our inventory management tool. - NAXML/Group Pricing o Easily create an unlimited number of group pricing categories to update large groups of products with a single touch. - Robust Search Capability o Effortlessly find an Item or PLU by utilizing the intuitive search feature. - Margin Tracking o Easily recognizable margin feedback optimizes product target margins. - Multi-Product Promotions o Regain your competitive edge with aggressive and easily executed Multi-Product promotions. - Unmatched Reliability o Connectivity status communicates connection errors and price changing validation. UPC label printer compatibility. Do not wait on your vendor or wholesale rep to bring you a label when you can print it yourself. Reports dashboard option available with the Pro package, including digital receipts, Credit/Debit transaction report, category sales report, and a transaction sales report. Compatible Label Printers: Brother QL-810W and QL-710W Come Enjoy The Sympl Life!

Screenshots

CStore Essentials4 screens
CSympl4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: CSympl at 100% against CStore Essentials's 40%. CSympl also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.8) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 30 months). CStore Essentials's advantage is ratings volume (68 vs 16) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

CSympl holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 68 and 16 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 40% of CStore Essentials's written reviews are positive against 100% of CSympl's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CStore Essentials ships an update every 30 months, CSympl every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
CStore Essentials versus CSympl: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCStore EssentialsCSympl
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.8 (68 ratings)5.0 (16 ratings) — better
Positive reviews39.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings68 — better16
Update frequencyEvery 30 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB77 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperExcentusObjectSourceInc

Customer experience

CStore Essentials

All ratings62 ratings
Positive40.3%
Neutral12.9%
Negative46.8%
Written reviews43 reviews
Positive39.5%
Neutral14.0%
Negative46.5%

CSympl

All ratings16 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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
Show 13 more
  • 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
Show 6 more
  • 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

CSympl

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

CStore Essentials

No in-app purchases

None

CSympl

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CStore Essentials free?
CStore Essentials is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is CSympl free?
CSympl is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, CStore Essentials or CSympl?
CSympl is rated higher. CStore Essentials averages 2.8 out of 5 from 68 ratings, while CSympl averages 5.0 from 16 ratings.
Do CStore Essentials or CSympl have ads?
Neither CStore Essentials nor CSympl shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CStore Essentials or CSympl?
CStore Essentials ships an update every 30 months, and CSympl every 3 weeks. Most recently, CStore Essentials was updated on November 1, 2026 and CSympl on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons