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MicroBiz costs less at one register and posts to QuickBooks today. UpChannels goes further on the truck, the tender list and the books.
These two are closer than any other pair on this site, so the choice turns on four things. Price: MicroBiz Cloud Standard is $65 a month for a store with one register and unlimited back-office users, plus $32.50 for each further register; UpChannels Basic is $99 a month for a store with two users, plus $29 for each pack of five more — so MicroBiz costs less for a one-register store, the two are within $2 at two registers, and past that it depends on whether you add registers or people. Accounting: MicroBiz publishes each register batch to QuickBooks Online as a mapped journal entry today, while UpChannels keeps a double-entry ledger with a profit-and-loss and a balance sheet inside the app on Pro and Premium and its QuickBooks Online sync is coming soon. The truck: UpChannels routes the day, sends the driver a link, captures a signature and photos at the door and texts the customer a tracking link; MicroBiz hands the sequence to Google Maps and prints delivery slips, and proof of delivery and automatic customer texts are not on its pages. The tender list: UpChannels records lease-to-own by provider and reconciles it at cash close, while MicroBiz runs house-charge accounts with statements, credit limits and aging, which UpChannels does not. Both track serial numbers, both run repair work orders with deposits and a service calendar, both do layaway, special orders and multi-store, and both publish their prices, offer a free trial without a card and run month-to-month (all checked 6 November 2026).
Comparing UpChannels Basic ($99/mo per store, 2 users included) with MicroBiz MicroBiz Cloud Standard ($65/mo, one store and one register, unlimited back-office users). Every fact about MicroBiz below was read from their own published pages on . Prices change — check theirs before you decide.
At a glance
A mark for MicroBiz means the feature is on their own pages as read on ; a mark for UpChannels means it ships today. "Partly" is a higher plan, an add-on, or part of the job. "Not documented" means we could not find it on their pages — not that they lack it. The detail for every row is in the table further down.
| What you need | UpChannels | MicroBiz |
|---|---|---|
| Published monthly price, no setup feeMicroBiz Standard $65/mo for one register; UpChannels Basic $99/mo for a store with two users. | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial without a card14 days on UpChannels; 21 days on MicroBiz (receipt email and integrations off during the trial). | Yes | Yes |
| Every unit tracked by serial number | Yes | Yes |
| A condition per unit — open-box, scratch-and-dent, used — with photosNot on the MicroBiz serial-number or appliance pages. | Yes | Not documented |
| Purchase orders, receiving and reorder pointsMicroBiz also auto-replenishes from min/max; UpChannels lists what is low and you raise the order. | Yes | Yes |
| Repair work orders with parts, labour, deposits and a calendar | Yes | Yes |
| The technician’s day on their phone, no app to installNo technician-facing mobile workflow is described on the MicroBiz work-order page. | Yes | Not documented |
| Warranty or protection-plan claim filled in from the jobMicroBiz keeps service history per item and mentions warranty questions; a claim form is not described. | Yes | Not documented |
| Delivery routing inside the systemMicroBiz sends the addresses to Google Maps and the sequence is arranged there. | Yes | Partly |
| Proof of delivery — signature and photos at the door | Yes | Not documented |
| Automatic texts to the customer at each delivery or service stepUpChannels texts on Pro and Premium, emails on Basic; MicroBiz describes emailed quotes and invoices only. | Partly | Not documented |
| Layaway, deposits and special orders | Yes | Yes |
| House-charge accounts with statements, credit limits and agingUpChannels tracks a balance due per order; it has no customer credit accounts or statements. | No | Yes |
| Lease-to-own tenders by provider, reconciled at cash closeFinancing and lease-to-own are not mentioned on the MicroBiz payments or appliance pages. | Yes | Not documented |
| A card rate published on the siteMicroBiz shows a representative 2.4% + 10¢ that "may be higher or lower"; UpChannels shows Stripe’s rate plus its fee in the app. | No | Partly |
| Keep the card processor you already useMicroBiz names BlockChyp and Global Payments and says terminals come from those partners. | Yes | Not documented |
| Commission on sales or gross profit per personUpChannels also splits a sale between up to three people and runs manufacturer spiffs; MicroBiz’s pages do not mention spiffs. | Yes | Yes |
| Books inside the system — P&L and balance sheetUpChannels on Pro and Premium; MicroBiz publishes to QuickBooks Online instead and describes no P&L of its own. | Partly | Not documented |
| QuickBooks OnlineMicroBiz publishes each register batch today; the UpChannels sync is coming soon and the team connects it meanwhile. | Partly | Yes |
| Online store from the same stockMicroBiz syncs with WooCommerce; the UpChannels storefront is built by its team and quoted. | Partly | Yes |
| Staff time clock and pay runs | Yes | Not documented |
| A team that runs your ads and builds your websiteA quoted service on UpChannels; nothing of the kind is on MicroBiz’s pages. | Yes | Not documented |
Strengths and limits, both sides
Written to the same standard for each: a limit of ours is stated as plainly as a limit of theirs. MicroBiz’s strengths are what their pages document; ours are what ships.
MicroBiz
Strengths
- Lower entry price: $65 a month for a store with one register, with unlimited back-office users, and $95 for Enterprise; 12 months for the price of 10 on an annual plan.
- A 21-day free trial with no credit card, four hours of free setup and training, two hour-long training sessions, and phone, email and chat support included.
- QuickBooks Online today: each register batch publishes as a journal entry to mapped GL accounts, sales tax as a sales receipt, and vendor shipments as bills.
- House-charge accounts run natively — balance-forward or open-item, statements by print or email, credit limits that block the sale, aging buckets.
- Per-store prices and costs, transfers between stores, and a WooCommerce sync that shares products and pulls online orders in.
- A representative card rate on the page (2.4% + 10¢ card present through BlockChyp, no monthly or PCI fee), and vendor price lists imported from CSV.
- Software sold since 1985; the company says it has been purchased by more than 25,000 retailers.
Limits
- Delivery routing happens in Google Maps, not in MicroBiz, and proof of delivery, a driver view and automatic customer texts are not on its pages.
- Serialized units carry no documented condition grade or photos, so open-box and scratch-and-dent are not distinguished on the record.
- Financing and lease-to-own tenders are not mentioned anywhere we read; house accounts are the credit option.
- No profit-and-loss or balance sheet of its own is described; the books live in QuickBooks Online, and QuickBooks Desktop is not supported.
- Each extra register is $32.50 a month, and there are no refunds on the unused part of an annual plan.
- Its own pages disagree in three places — a "$60/mo" header above a $65 plan, an annual card marked "billed monthly", and late fees listed as a feature that the FAQ says are not automatic.
UpChannels
Strengths
- The truck is in the system: one-click route order, a driver link with no app, signature and photos at the door even without signal, and a tracking link texted to the customer at five points.
- Every serialized unit carries a condition and a status with photos and history, every movement is a permanent ledger entry, and a one-click audit finds and corrects drift.
- Lease-to-own by provider, with the approval number kept on the awaiting-funding list at cash close until the provider pays.
- Service, delivery, stock, commissions, spiffs, the time clock and pay runs on every plan; a double-entry ledger with P&L and balance sheet on Pro and Premium.
- Per-store pricing with no per-register fee; two users included and $29 for each pack of five more.
- A team that builds the website, runs Google and Meta ads and connects your other systems, quoted separately.
Limits
- Higher entry price: $99 a month against $65 for a one-register store, and the two are within $2 at two registers.
- No house-charge accounts, customer statements, credit limits or receivables aging; a balance is tracked per order.
- The card rate is not published on the site; it is Stripe’s rate plus a platform fee shown in the app.
- The QuickBooks Online sync is built and coming soon, not switched on; the team connects QuickBooks for you meanwhile.
- The online store is built by the team and quoted, not a self-serve sync; customer texts are on Pro and Premium only; the phone app is coming soon.
- A 14-day trial against MicroBiz’s 21.
Side by side, in detail
| What you need | UpChannels | MicroBiz |
|---|---|---|
| What do I pay a month for a small shop? | Basic is $99/mo per store (list $199), month-to-month, with two users included; Pro is $149 and Premium $199. No setup fee. Free 14-day trial, no credit card. | Published on their pricing page: Standard "$65/mo" and Enterprise "$95/mo", each including "store and one register license"; "$650/yr" and "$950/yr" on annual plans ("12 months for the price of 10"). Enterprise raises the product-record limit from 25,000 to 150,000. The page header says "Starting at a Monthly Price of $60/mo" while the lowest plan listed is $65, and the Enterprise annual card reads "billed monthly" (checked 6 November 2026). Four hours of setup and training are included; complex data imports are $200 per four-hour block. |
| What does another register, user or store cost? | Nothing per register. The price is per store; two users are included and extra users come in packs of five at $29/mo a pack. A second store is a second subscription. | "Extra Register Licenses" are "$32.50/mo" ($300/yr) and "Additional Stores" "$65/mo" ($600/yr); back-office users are unlimited and only a computer that runs the register needs a licence (checked 6 November 2026). So MicroBiz costs less for one register, the two are within $2 at two, and from three registers up it depends whether you add registers or people. |
| Does it track every unit by serial number, with its condition? | Yes. Serialized units follow their serial from receiving through reserved, sold and delivered; each carries a condition (New, Open box, Used, Damaged) and a status from your own list, with notes, photos and history. Every movement is a permanent ledger entry; a one-click audit finds and corrects drift; a cycle count records the variance and the reason. | Yes. Serial numbers are entered or scanned at receiving, can be made required, are picked from the available list at the register, and a return "automatically adding the serial number back to the pool"; the Serial Number History report ties a serial to its customer and transaction, and the appliance page adds returns, transfers and adjustments. A condition or grade per unit, open-box or scratch-and-dent tracking, photos per unit and an audit trail are not stated (checked 6 November 2026). |
| Can it run the repair bench — work orders, parts, a technician? | Yes, on every plan. A service job with a lead technician and crew, a no-login link that gives each technician their day on their phone, parts from stock or ordered on a purchase order from the job, a price book for the trade, recurring visits, the customer’s equipment with its warranty dates and every visit since, and a warranty or protection-plan claim filled in from the job. | Yes, and documented in detail: "check in and track customer-owned items", "add parts, labor, and other charges directly to a work order", "Assign an employee", an estimated completion date, deposits "using the same tender types used for register transactions", customizable statuses, printed or emailed quotes and invoices with a payment link, service history per item, and a monthly, weekly and daily calendar with drag-and-drop by employee. A technician-facing mobile workflow, text notifications, recurring jobs and a warranty-claim form are not stated (checked 6 November 2026). |
| Can it route a delivery and prove it was delivered? | Yes, on every plan: arrange a driver’s stops in one click, send the driver a private link with no app to install, capture a signature, photos and notes at the door even with no signal, let the delivery settle the order, and message the customer at five points with a tracking link. | Partly, through Google Maps. Delivery orders are filtered "by order status, order date, due date, assigned employee, or store", selected addresses are sent to Google Maps where you "Arrange the sequence of deliveries", the optimized route shows in the driver’s Google Maps app, and delivery slips print in bulk. Proof of delivery, a driver view inside MicroBiz, partial deliveries and automatic customer notifications are not stated; the page describes staff notifying the customer when a special order is ready (checked 6 November 2026). |
| How do customers pay — layaway, deposits, house accounts, lease-to-own? | Deposits with the balance collected later, layaway-style holds, special orders from the customer who asked, store credit and gift cards, trade-in credit, loyalty points, and lease-to-own by named provider — Acima, Progressive, Snap, Katapult, FlexShopper, Okinus, American First — kept on the awaiting-funding list at cash close. No house-charge accounts, statements or receivables aging. | Layaway "and holds and take multiple payments on a customer order", full or partial deposits, special orders linked to the vendor shipment, store credits and gift cards, and house-charge credit accounts run natively: balance-forward or open-item, statements printed or emailed, a credit limit that blocks the sale, aging buckets and service charges. Financing and lease-to-own are not mentioned on the payments or appliance pages; the credit-account page lists percentage late fees as a feature and its FAQ says they are not calculated automatically (checked 6 November 2026). |
| Can I take a card, and what does it cost? | Either bring the processor you already use — UpChannels takes no percentage of your card volume — or turn on the Stripe add-on and charge a countertop smart reader from the order, at Stripe’s rate plus a platform fee shown in the app before you turn it on. We do not publish a blended number, and MicroBiz showing one is a point in their favour. | Integrated payments through BlockChyp or Global Payments Integrated. A representative BlockChyp rate is printed — "Card Present Transactions: 2.4% + 10 cents per transaction", "Monthly or Annual Fee: None", "PCI Security Fee: None" — with the caveat that fees "may be higher or lower based on types of cards accepted" and card-not-present costs more. Terminals "must be purchased from one of our payment processing partners" (Equinox, Ingenico models named, no prices); payment links and a card vault come with BlockChyp. Global’s rates and a bring-your-own-processor option are not stated (checked 6 November 2026). |
| Does it close the month — P&L, balance sheet, QuickBooks? | Pro and Premium include a double-entry ledger with a chart of accounts, a profit-and-loss and a balance sheet printable to PDF, bills checked against purchase orders, and accounts payable; bank reconciliation is a paid add-on. The QuickBooks Online sync — one balanced journal entry per store day — is built and coming soon; until it is switched on, our team connects QuickBooks as part of system integration. | The books live in QuickBooks Online: a "one-touch publish model rather than automatic background syncing" sends each register batch as a journal entry to GL accounts mapped by sales category, payment method and tax jurisdiction, sales tax "as a sales receipt", and a received vendor shipment "as a vendor bill payable". It is summary-level, not transaction-level, and "does not support QuickBooks Desktop". A profit-and-loss, balance sheet or general ledger inside MicroBiz itself is not described (checked 6 November 2026). |
| Can I sell online from the same stock? | Through our team: we build your website on your own domain — a product storefront with checkout, a booking-first service site, or both — running on the same system as your counter. It is quoted, not published, and not self-serve. | Yes, with WooCommerce on WordPress: the integration shares product records and images, syncs inventory and pulls online orders into MicroBiz, and is included in both plans (disabled during the trial). Whether other platforms are supported is not stated (checked 6 November 2026). |
| More than one store? | Every plan: each location has its own profile, stock, tax rules and staff; stock is counted per location and transferred with the movement recorded; reports run per location or across all. Each store is its own subscription. | Yes: "a real-time, centralized view of inventory across all your stores and warehouses", separate inventory, prices and costs per location, transfers between stores, and reports toggled "between different combinations of stores and registers"; product and customer records "are not location specific". Additional stores are $65/mo, and five or more stores means "Contact us" (checked 6 November 2026). |
| Does it pay the staff — commissions, time clock, pay runs? | Yes, on every plan: commission on sales or gross profit to whoever sold and whoever did the work, split between up to three people, manufacturer spiffs run between two dates, a PIN time clock with breaks recorded, a published schedule, and a pay run that works out what each person is owed, exported for whoever files payroll. UpChannels is not a payroll provider. | Commissions "can be calculated for each item on the sales amount or the gross profit", sales are tracked by employee, and employee roles and restrictions are set. A time clock, schedules, pay runs and spiffs are not stated on the pages we read (checked 6 November 2026). |
| Who sets it up, and am I locked in? | Setup help comes with every plan from the same team; month-to-month, cancel any time, no setup fee, and the trial takes no card. | A launch-specialist call, "two hour-long free online training sessions", a free review of your import data and up to four hours of setup included; complex imports are $200 per four-hour block. "No long-term contracts required", cancel or change "at any time", "no refunds on unused portions of annual subscriptions"; phone, email, chat and an in-app form, with support hours not stated (checked 6 November 2026). |
Choose MicroBiz if
- You run one register and want the lowest monthly bill: $65 against $99, with unlimited back-office users, a 21-day trial and four hours of setup included.
- Your books are in QuickBooks Online and you want each register day posted there now, with vendor bills and sales tax carried across; ours is coming soon.
- You bill customers to house accounts and send statements — balance-forward or open-item, credit limits, aging. UpChannels has no customer credit accounts.
- You already sell on WooCommerce, or want to, and need the stock and the orders kept in step by a sync you switch on yourself.
- You want a card rate you can read before you call anyone. MicroBiz prints a representative 2.4% + 10¢; we show ours in the app.
Choose UpChannels if
- Delivery is half your week. Route order in one click, a driver link with no app, a signature and photos at the door even without signal, and a tracking text to the customer — none of which MicroBiz’s pages describe; its routing is Google Maps.
- You sell open-box, scratch-and-dent and used units and need the condition, the photos and the history on each serial, with a ledger and an audit behind the count.
- Your customers lease. Acima, Snap, Progressive, Katapult and the rest are tenders by provider, reconciled at cash close when the provider pays.
- You want the month to close inside the system — a P&L and a balance sheet off a real ledger on Pro — and the team’s pay, commissions and spiffs worked out in the same place as the sales.
- You want a team behind the software — ads run, website built, systems connected — rather than software alone.
Common questions
Switching from MicroBiz
I am on MicroBiz today. What actually moves across?
Products, customers and serialized units come in from a spreadsheet: MicroBiz exports its reports as CSV, and our importer takes CSV and Excel, treats the SKU as the product and the serial as the unit, and fills in product fields that are blank. Open work orders, layaways and house-account balances are usually re-entered rather than imported — the two systems model them differently — and a house-account balance has nowhere to go in UpChannels, which tracks a balance per order. Run the two side by side for a few weeks while the stock loads.
Am I locked in on either side?
Neither requires a long-term contract. MicroBiz is month-to-month with cancellation at any time, but an annual plan is not refunded for the unused part (their pricing page, 6 November 2026); UpChannels is month-to-month on every plan with a 14-day trial that takes no card. If you are mid-year on a MicroBiz annual plan, run the UpChannels trial anyway and switch at renewal.
Which is cheaper for my store?
Count registers on their side and people on ours. One register: MicroBiz $65 against UpChannels Basic $99. Two registers: $97.50 against $99. Three registers and six people: $130 against $128 (Basic plus one pack of five users). A second store: $65 more on MicroBiz, a second $99 subscription on UpChannels. Then add what you would buy separately: on MicroBiz, nothing we know of for delivery proof or lease tracking, because they are not offered; on UpChannels, nothing for WooCommerce, because we do not sync to it. Their prices are on their pricing page; ours are on /pricing.
What gets worse if I switch?
Four things, plainly. Your QuickBooks Online posting stops being a button until our sync is switched on; the team connects it for you meanwhile. House-charge accounts and customer statements go away; balances are per order. A WooCommerce store would need to be rebuilt as a storefront our team builds and quotes. And a one-register store pays $34 a month more.
Who should not switch?
A one-register store with no delivery truck, no leases and its books in QuickBooks Online, especially one billing regulars to house accounts. MicroBiz is cheaper for that store and does the two things it needs — QuickBooks and statements — that UpChannels does not. We would rather say so than sell you a delivery board you will never open.
Can I keep QuickBooks?
Yes, with either. MicroBiz publishes register batches, vendor bills and sales tax to QuickBooks Online at the press of a button and does not support QuickBooks Desktop. UpChannels keeps its own double-entry ledger on Pro and Premium, exports any report as CSV, Excel or PDF, and will send each store day to QuickBooks Online as one journal entry when that sync is switched on; until then our team connects QuickBooks for you as part of system integration.
Where these figures came from
- MicroBiz — Cloud POS pricing (Standard $65/mo and Enterprise $95/mo, $32.50 per extra register, $65 per additional store, annual $650/$950, four hours of setup, $200 import blocks, 21-day trial, no long-term contracts, no refunds on unused annual)
- MicroBiz — Serial number inventory (capture at receiving, sell by serial, returns to the pool, Serial Number History report; no condition, photos or audit trail stated)
- MicroBiz — Service department and work orders (check-in, parts and labour, deposits, statuses, service calendar; no technician mobile, texts, recurring jobs or warranty claims stated)
- MicroBiz — Order management (delivery filters, addresses to Google Maps, delivery slips, special orders, layaway, deposits, quotes; no proof of delivery or automatic notifications stated)
- MicroBiz — Integrated payments (BlockChyp 2.4% + 10¢ representative rate, Global Payments Integrated, terminals from partners, card vault, payment links; no financing or lease-to-own stated)
- MicroBiz — QuickBooks Online integration (one-touch batch publish, GL mapping, sales tax as a sales receipt, vendor bills; QuickBooks Desktop not supported)
- MicroBiz — Appliance store POS (serials on returns, transfers and adjustments; repair check-in; Google Maps delivery; layaway; house accounts; commissions on sales or gross profit; CSV price lists)
- MicroBiz — Multi-store (centralized view, per-store prices and costs, transfers, reports by store and register)
- MicroBiz — Customer credit accounts and A/R (balance-forward or open-item, statements, credit limits, aging; the late-fee feature its FAQ contradicts)
- MicroBiz — Support and launch services (launch call, two training sessions, import review, phone, email and chat)
- MicroBiz — Homepage (what the product covers, WooCommerce and QuickBooks Online, founded 1985, "purchased by 25,000+ retailers", the store types named)
Checked November 6, 2026. We re-check these every quarter, and we would rather be told we are out of date than leave a wrong number up — tell us.
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