# CStore Essentials Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Is CStore Essentials the right Convenience Store solution for you? Explore 17 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/145877/CStorePro/reviews

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CStore Essentials

2.6 (17)

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Last updated March 13th, 2026

# Reviews of CStore Essentials

Ease of use

3.4

Customer Service

2.3

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 1-17 of 17 Reviews

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Rating

Company Size

Reviewer's Role

Length of Use

Frequency of Use

DL

Dan L.  
Owner  
Retail  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Great Product for Beginners"

July 14, 2020

4.0

I don't know how I would manage my business without the use of this app.

Pros

I would have to say that the product itself is intuitive and easy to use. I did not use the support department to setup my software, I simply did it on my own and I found it easy to setup. I track my lottery, sales, inventory, and price-book through the program. I am slowly teaching my employees to use the program as well. The app is nicer than some of the others that I have seen.

Cons

There is always room for improvement and this software is no exception. To being with, user permission levels are not customizable. They do give you a list of "levels" that have worked so far, but there is not a detailed list of what levels have for permissions, you have to kind of go about it through trial and error. When I asked CS about the different levels, the answer I received was that the levels name says it all, but that is not the case. The app that you can use on your phone has several faults.... When creating custom price or promo groups, you can not edit existing names or delete duplicates, which is EXTREMELY annoying. When adding new groups, you get an error, but I has really created the group, so not knowing any better in the beginning, I have multiple groups of the same nature. When making promo changes, you have to log into the website in order to send changes to promo groups, but you can send price changes directly from the app. On the website, multiple reports do not work properly if at all. It is very hard to customize the Day Closing feature. No customizable reports!! Scan Data is nice, but I keep having issues with RJR reports.

Reason for choosing CStore Essentials

The price

Review Source

IK

Imran K.  
Director  
Retail  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great program with even better management and support"

June 1, 2017

5.0

It is a complete program and make managing the business much easier. Everything is at your fingertips. Very well designed program and even better support staff.

Pros

You can count on these guys. They have a wonderful onboarding process where they hold your hand through the installation and setup. I highly recommend this program as it is a complete system. Also Alvin is wonderful to work with.

Review Source

MS

Manish S.  
owner  
Retail  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Horrible tech support"

May 24, 2023

1.0

I been trying to reach the tech support since last one month. Contacted there tech support, chat support, sales team but no one willing to take the responsibilities and help.

Pros

Very nice software which can deliver all reports in no time.

Cons

Horrible tech support for basic needs of inventory and margin.

Review Source

HP

Hitesh P.  
OWNER  
  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Best software, Worst customer service"

November 9, 2016

2.0

I would say they have done an awesome job creating this software, I mean they have paid attention to all the detail work that, as an owner want in a software. I would say there is not that many company offer what they offer for a price and features. they had mess up in one department and that is their customer service. I mean really if you know that you had cover everything in your software and such an unprofessional service. that is totally unexpected by users. if you call or email their tech support you will not get an answer for few days and even if you call them and ask for the status they may not even remembered it and you might have to explain you problems over and over. in case if you get lucky enough, where they fixed your problem, they will not notify you that its been resolved. I would not bad mouth them at all , but I would tell them to pay attention to their customer service. for people I would say that this software is a one of a kind in c-store back office software industries. it got a bright future for sure if they take care their customer.

Pros

software features, delivery scan , plu management, lotto report , lotto scan gas delivery gas price change etc

Cons

seriously there is nothing I can point at it and say I don't like this section.

Review Source

Response from PDI Technologies

February 7, 2017

Mr. Patel Thank you for your kind feedback regarding the product and functionalitys. With regards to the customer support, I am happy to inform you that as of Dec 31, we hired 3 new support reps to meet our demands and are now trained for basic support issues. We have seen a reduction in our support wait time from 12-15 hours to 30 to 45 minutes for most issues. We continue to look for support agents so we can get that time down to 15-30 minutes but its important that we find someone who has cstore experience as well as a technical background. Please continue to provide us any feedback so we can continue to import our product and support. Have a wonderful day.

NP

Nick P.  
Multi store Owner  
Retail  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "C Store Pro "

October 27, 2016

1.0

I have been using for 4 years, service has gone from bad to worst. Used to friendly service and the owner himself was interested, have grown too large and they can not handle it. I WOULD NOT SUGGEST. Thay stretched themselves beyond capacity. you might have a question that why I am still with them ? Because of the owner's DAD, hell of a nice person and used to be very personalized service. Thinking about changing, hate do to it all again after this long period, but have no choice.

Pros

Awesome, can do lot.

Cons

things changing on its own, which includes account payables. Paid bills change.

Review Source

Response from PDI Technologies

February 7, 2017

Mr Patel Thanks for submitting this review. As owners of the company, its always good to get direct feedback from our customers. Your concerns about support with regards to grown too large and they can not handle it are valid. We under estimated our growth and did not do an accurate job of projecting our HR needs. I am happy to inform you that our support has now gotten better and we have hired 3 new agents to speed up the support time. With regards to features and functionality, we have also hired 2 new engineers to help with it so we can make improvements to our product based on your feedback. Please continue to provide us feedback so we can continue to improve. Thanks are valid and we have now made significant improvements to our support to speed up the process

lD

laxman D.  
owner  
Consumer Services  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "customer service really bad"

August 16, 2023

1.0

Pros

daily and lotto sheet are good but customer service bad

Cons

product is good but customer service bad

Review Source

DP

Dan P.  
owner  
Retail  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Use only if youre operating one store"

December 4, 2021

2.0

This was a good system to use as a beginner but the developers still seem challenged to fix issues that have been going on for over a year.

Pros

It is relatively easy to use and learn. Be prepared to teach yourself. Would be great if it was dependable.

Cons

This is not great software if you have multiple stores. The central pricebook is useless to a multi store user. Too many bugs go along with this software that the developers can not fix. New features have come out that were never communicated and training is not something you should count on.

Review Source

ZA

Zakir A.  
owner  
Consumer Goods  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "CStore Pro - Review"

September 8, 2021

3.0

Moderate. If lottery Module is fixed, than this product can become a very desirable product.

Pros

Inventory Management and lie sales reporting

Cons

Lottery Module. It is not compatible with Hoosier Lottery scratch offs. For Hoosier lottery, the way scratch off are designed, you dispense tickets from high to low serial number. Whereas, in Cstore pro, it does not allow that or it does not have this flexibility.

Review Source

AK

Akram K.  
Owner  
Retail  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "bad experience review"

January 18, 2017

1.0

Training less than adequate. Support variously non-existence. Voice attendant very boring and very far from customer's experience. (they don't love to help, they simply don't care). Follow up is not a familiar term to any of their engineers. from a user's perspective, too many mouse clicking to accomplish one simple task. Should I go on......

Pros

Remote access and smart-phone application

Cons

in accurate inventory system. Changes inventory on it's (or someone messes with it in the cloud). takes too long to send changes to the POS system. i.e. it has to update the server before it updates the POS.

Review Source

Response from PDI Technologies

February 7, 2017

Hi Akram We are sorry you feel that way. I had a chance to look at our records and unless im mistaken, it doesn't appear you have attended our training classes. I highly recommend you attend the classes as they will eliminate most of your frustrations. Also I see that you have contacted our support team numerous times but its important to keep in mind that the support team is there for basic trouble shooting issues (15-30) minutes max. Most of the issues you called about were regarding training and they are not at that level yet (hopefully they will get there in a few :-) more months). Please signup for our webinars and I am confident that will help you significantly. If you need one on one training, we would be more than happy to offer you limited 1 on 1 training but only for a few hours. After that, we can provide 1 hour 1 on 1 classes at an hourly rate. Thanks.

NP

Niraj P.  
Manager  
Retail  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "THINK 50K times before getting into this"

December 16, 2018

1.0

Great program, lack of stability. Been for a longtime and don't want to change to new company but looks like I am being forced to do so.

Pros

Great Features but still have to do a lot

Cons

When you want to work on something like inventories adding new items etc, the message keeps coming NPR Pipes not responding. Your whole day got ruined because nu help on saturday or sunday.

Review Source

kB

kinjal B.  
owner  
Retail  
Used the software for: I used a free trial

### "CUSTOMER SERVICE"

November 28, 2018

4.0

As i said i am been using SSCS and PetroSoft back office system over more than 5 years so i have good idea how to use back office software , but i would like add to comments . Cstorepro customer service very very poor. they do not call back or if they do then you have to wait few hours or sometime a day.or as customer you keep on trying to reach out to them. but compare to prices they offering you can beat their system. they can charge little extra for monthly subscription and hire some extra people to improve customer service.

Pros

i used to use SSCS and Ptero soft and i still use in some of my other store. SSCS and Petro Soft are very time consuming and complicated to use compare to cstorepro. in store pro there are amazing features like live transaction, bulk price change,even you can do live inventory to.

Cons

if you are new to back office system you will not find easy to use. Cstorepro software offer everything a c-store need. but for the first time user will not be easy task. its like comparing ios-android.

Review Source

DL

Don L.  
  
  
Used the software for:

### "Has its issues but is the best bang for the buck"

February 7, 2017

4.0

I have been using the product for about 4 months now and have a lot to learn still but the features and functionality are amazing so far. Like many products I have tried in the past, this product has its issues but they are not unbearable. I love their mobile app and the fact that I can change prices from anywhere and see my business sales in realtime no matter where I am. I worked with a lady when I got setup and she was very friendly and prompt. Support does have its challenges but it has gotten better lately. When I first started in November, I was having a hard time getting help or assistance and was ready to throw in the towel, but i got assurances from the owner that they recently hired 3 agents that are going thru training and that they would be trained by end of Dec. Since January support has gotten better but there is still a 1-2 hour response time during peak hours. If they can get support right (and im sure they will) it will be the best software in the market.

Pros

pricing, features, and ease of use

Cons

If I had to pick one it would be support. If they can hire a few more agents, their response time can be cut during peak hours to less then 10 minutes. But love it as is.

Review Source

SS

Sandy S.  
Owner  
Retail  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Excellent for my little store!"

November 28, 2018

5.0

Sales tracking has been simplified, and we are now using the inventory system. A much needed improvement for us.

Pros

This software is a great addition to my bare bones Ruby2 system. I am now able to get my bookkeeping duties done in half the time - before I had to rely on the Ruby 2 reports which were not very intuitive. This software helps us to track our sales much faster and easier than before. I also like the price - its very affordable.

Cons

I just wish this software tracked house charge accounts - but then Verifone's Ruby 2 is lacking in that regard also.

Review Source

AF

Al F.  
Owner  
Retail  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Trouble customer service and support "

February 21, 2020

1.0

It took them two weeks to get back to me about a technical issue we had and we stop using them

Pros

Nothing it does not have shift break It takes a lots of times to start Support is not there Their technical staff is non technical

Cons

Item level is very primitive I took us more than three weeks to enter the cigarettes products item level information

Reason for choosing CStore Essentials

Advertising

Review Source

DD

Darshin D.  
Owner  
Retail  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Review for the company"

November 27, 2018

1.0

Worst customer service I have seen. I tried working with them for 2 months to see if issue can be fixed but always had to begthem to answer my queries. In the last 2 weeks they stopped resonding at all. Will never recommend them. I already cancelled their membership

Pros

Ease of navigation around the software.

Cons

Compatibility with the POS system and customer service

Review Source

Response from PDI Technologies

November 28, 2018

Hi Darshin, First and foremost, I would like to apologize on behalf of the CStorePro team for your unsatisfactory experience. I looked into your cancelled account and noticed you had several conversations with our team members, in which your queries were acknowledged in a timely manner. However, I did see that an issue was unable to be resolved, and for that, I personally apologize. We pride ourselves on being customer centric and continue to strive to improve our services. If for any reason you decide you'd like to chat regarding the service you've received, please don't hesitate to reach out. All good things, Justin @ CStorePro

AP

Avi P.  
  
  
Used the software for:

### "was great one time"

February 19, 2017

5.0

i have c store pro for now allmost 3 year. i have my own 4 store as weel as my family 3 store with c store pro. it is nice system but need improvement i have suggested several time to the support team but i dont think they care anymore . i want to be 100 percent on this software but can not due to lack of help in customer service. and specially last year its like you plan something to do but no one is free to help.

Pros

very friendly GUI , logical, easy to use

Cons

very worst customer service, need inprovement specially on invoice scanning from upon delivery and multi store price book management.

Review Source

BD

Biren D.  
Owner  
Consumer Goods  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "No shift report"

November 27, 2018

4.0

Pricing issues solved.

Pros

Easy to use. Awesome support. The people make t hy e software. All software is the same but level of support is what matters.

Cons

No shift report. Have multiple stores and would be a 10 if they could take shift reports.

Review Source

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