CZ P10C vs Glock 19

When CZ introduced the P10c at the shot show, many hailed this gun as the fabled “Glock 19 Killer” and said it would unseat the popular 9mm compact-sized handgun on the market. Does the CZ P10c live up to this legend? Today, we’re going to compare the CZ P10c vs Glock 19 in detail and cover the pros and cons of both firearms.

Size

Concealed Carry P10c vs Glock 19

When looking for a concealed-carry firearm, one of the most important dimensions of the firearm is going to be the height (i.e. the distance from the bottom of the magazine base plate to the top of the slide).

In this category, the Glock 19 wins by a hair by being just one-tenth of an inch shorter than the CZ P10c.

Now, one-tenth of an inch doesn’t sound like a lot in practice, but it can make quite a difference for some people depending on their build and body type.

The P10c sits sizewise between a Glock 17 and a Glock 19. Although it’s definitely closer to the 19, it’s still just large enough that some shooters may have issues concealing it as opposed to the 19.

The weights of these guns are nearly identical — only an ounce of difference with the Glock 19 being the lighter of the two. Practically, that’s not going to make any difference when it comes to your concealed carry experience.

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One thing I will speak to the shape of the grip on the CZ P10c having an advantage with some clothing types. If the grip itself prints on the backstrap of the firearm and your clothing in turn hangs off rather than sticking to the firearm, it’s much more likely to blend in when you’re carrying the P10c vs. the square and blocky Glock 19. 

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Comparing concealed carry with the CZ P10c vs. the Glock 19, I’m going to have to say the Glock 19 is the winner here. It’s not the winner by much, but it will be the winner for anybody that’s having trouble concealing a firearm of this size.

The slightest dimension can make a big difference in this case.

Ergonomics

CZ P10C vs Glock 19 Frame

The frame on the Glock 19 is famous for feeling blocky and, frankly, like a two-by-four, while the CZ P10c gets its ergonomics from its ancestor, the 75, which is known to be one of the most ergonomically sound handguns ever produced.

There are three generations of the Glock 19. Depending on the generation you choose, you may or may not have the option of adjusting the gun’s backstraps. The Gen4 and Gen5 Glock 19s have a smaller grip but give you the ability to add extra backstraps and increase the overall size of the firearm.

Those generations also allow you to change the trigger reach of the firearm, which is a big advantage for large-handed shooters. You’ll find no adjustability on the G19 Gen 3, so it’s not really on par with the other two generations.

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Similarly, the CZ P10c has a replaceable backstrap with small, medium, and large options so you can adjust your grip of the firearm.

A great thing about the CZ P10c is that the shape of the grip forces your hand very high into the grip of the firearm, forcing even the most mediocre or inexperienced shooter to get a pretty decent grip on the gun.

That’s a huge advantage for the CZ P10c vs. the Glock 19.

Texture

The texturing on the Glock 19 is going to vary depending on the generations — the Gen 3 is very slick, the Gen 5 is very aggressive, and the Gen4 is something of a hybrid between the two. Comparatively, the CZ P10c has very aggressive texturing on both the front- and backstraps of the firearm.

I personally find the texturing on the Glock 19 Gen5 to be some of my favorite texturing out there. 

That said, the CZ P10c texturing is leaps and bounds better than the texturing on any of the Glock generations.

It locks your grip in place well, and the fact that there’s no aggressive texturing on the sides of the grips means that it won’t chafe your skin when you’re carrying concealed. The Glock 19 Gen 5 does a pretty good job with these things as well, but it’s just not as good as the P10c.

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Slide

Both of these guns featured nitrided slides, and the finish is quite slick.

Depending on the generation of Glock, you may or may not get forward serrations. The Glock 19’s serrations tend to be a bit unaggressive and always leave me wanting a more aggressive texture considering the slide itself is so slick.

Unfortunately, the CZ P10c has the same problem. The serrations on the P10c are a little more aggressive, but they don’t sit as high on the slide to grab as much area, meaning the slides are probably a tie when it comes to manipulation.

CZ P10C vs Glock 19 Sights

Stock

There are a couple of factory sight options for the CZ P10c: the standard three-dot sights that come on the base model, or the “optics-ready” model’s orange front sight with a tritium vial in the center and a blacked-out rear.

The P10c OR model sights are really fantastic, but the downside is that they will not co-witness with most of the many available red-dots on the market. 

A Glock 19, on the other hand, has a large variety of sight options, including the basic plastic slot fillers, which Glock is known for. There are also Glock night sights and the best option, Ameriglo night sights. If you choose to go to the Glock MOS, the only Glock MOSs I have seen come with the plastic sights, so they’ll need to be replaced.

Unfortunately, it’s probably going to be a tie in terms of factory sight options.

Aftermarket

This is where the Glock 19 really starts to excel. There are probably more sight options for the Glock 19 than any other gun in existence, while the CZ P10c only has options from Trijicon, Night Fision, Dawson Precision, and CZ Custom Shop.

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That said, you probably will be able to find a set of sights you like for the CZ P10c, it just won’t be as easy as finding one for the Glock 19.

Controls

CZ P10C vs Glock 19 Trigger

Both the CZ P10c and the Glock 19 have very similar striker-fired triggers with the main difference between these guns coming in the break of the trigger themselves. They both have short resets and relatively light take-up as well, so I’m going to describe each trigger one-by-one, including the different generations of the Glock 19.

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CZ P-10 C

The trigger pull on the P10c is what I would describe as light take-up followed by building pressure and creep before you hit a rolling break. It really is a nice and predictable trigger. 

G19 Gen 3

Again, this trigger has very light take-up before you hit a hard, stiff wall and end with a very heavy but crisp break. If you really like a hard wall trigger, the Glock 19 Gen3 is definitely the way to go. 

Gen 4 Glock 19

The Gen4’s trigger pull is very similar to the Gen3 combined with the Gen5’s. I know that sounds confusing, but the trigger break is not quite a hard wall but not quite a rolling break either. I don’t know how to describe it.

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G19 Gen 5

The Gen5 has one of my favorite triggers in a factory firearm. It has a nice rolling break after the take-up and is very predictable. Overall, Glock did a great job on this trigger and a lot of people who can’t stand stock lock triggers still leave this trigger stock from the factory. I think that says a lot about how good it is.

CZ P10C vs Glock 19 Slide Lock

The slide locks on the CZ P10c are ambidextrous, but they’re very stiff and incredibly hard to use.

The edges on the top of the slide lock are incredibly sharp, so it’s not a comfortable gun to drop the slide on using the lock. In fact, I can see why a lot of shooters would manipulate the slide without using the slide lock whatsoever. 

The Glock 19’s features here are nothing special and the Gen 3 and Gen4 models are not ambidextrous, but they’re much more comfortable and easy to use than the P10c’s. I’m going to have to give the win to the Glock 19 vs the CZ P10c in this situation.

CZ P10C vs Glock 19 Magazine Release

The CZ P10c can be had with two different styles of the magazine release.

If you buy the gun and it comes from the Czech Republic, you’ll likely get the ambidextrous-style magazine release, which is easy to reach and fairly easy to press, though it can be very stiff if you have the magazine fully loaded and you’re trying to make the gun safe. Some of these break in overtime better than others, but CZ saw some issues with that. 

When CZ created the newer variants of the P10c, they changed to a standard one-side-only reversible magazine release. This release is much easier to manipulate when you have a fully-loaded magazine in the gun. The win here is for the CZ P10c Gen2 magazine release specifically over Gen1.

The Glock magazine release is a Glock Magazine release so there is nothing special about it but it’s comparable to the Gen 2 CZ P10c.

Magazine Well

There is no real magazine well on the CZ P10c or the Glock 19 Gen 3 or 4 models. The Glock Gen 5, on the other hand, has a huge magazine well built into the polymer frame that makes it very quick to reload. That feature alone gets the Glock 19 the win here.

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CZ P10C vs Glock 19 Quality

Quality is somewhat of a relative term; there are features on the CZ P10c that seem to be of a higher quality than the Glock 19 (e.g. the slide release on the P10c appears to be more substantial than the 19’s), but it doesn’t work as well. 

The CZ’s slide itself definitely appears to be higher-quality than a Glock slide, but the frame’s polymer does not appear to be as high quality despite the texturing giving the gun a better look. I’m going to call this section a tie, but I have a feeling fans of either company will be biased toward their preferred gunmaker.

Aftermarket

There’s no competition here: the Glock is the winner of the aftermarket section. You can build a Glock 19 without using a single Glock OEM part. It’d be irresponsible to name any gun but the Glock 19 the winner of the aftermarket field. There just isn’t enough support for the CZ P10C vs Glock 19 which has everything.

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Aesthetics

Like quality, this is going to come down to personal preference.

In my opinion, the CZ P10c looks a little bit disproportional at the rear of the gun near the hump on the grip. When you have it with the small insert in, it looks a little bit better but still seems out of place.

The Glock 19 Gen 4 and Gen 5 look pretty good from a distance without any backstrap, but when you add them, they too seem to be grip-heavy.

Neither of these guns is going to win the sexiest firearm of the year award, but both are still good-looking guns. The Glock 19 is more like a work truck while the CZ P10c is more like a higher-end sedan or lower-end sports car. At the end of the day, you just have to pick which style works for you.

Shooting

Both of these guns shoot fantastic, and it’s really hard for me to choose which one is better here. 

I think newer shooters are going to gain a huge advantage from the CZ P10c just due to the aforementioned ergonomics forcing you to have a good grip on the firearm. The texturing on the CZ P10c is absolutely fantastic and the sight tracks really well. The Glock 19, however, tracks really well as well, and if you’re shooting the Gen5 model, the trigger can be quite nice.

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I personally carry Glocks and really like them, but it’s hard to say the CZ isn’t just as great as I can pick up a CZ P10c and shoot it out of the box very well. I doubt I could do that with a stock Glock if I shot other guns instead of a Glock platform. For most people, especially starting shooters, I’m going to say the CZ P10c is actually a better shooter than the Glock 19.

CZ P-10 C vs Glock 19 Price/Value

Pricing from local dealers for the CZ P10c tends to run between $470 to $540 depending on the model while the Glocks tend to run a little higher from $500 to $620. The value of these guns is very similar. With iron sights, the value on the CZ P10c is going to be slightly better with under $50 of difference. 

If you are getting the optics-ready variant, the CZ P10c will only save you $20-$30 after buying an optics plate and paying for shipping. The Glock 19 comes with an optics mounting plate, but many users tend to buy aftermarket for those as well as they seem to be more reliable. In that case, the CZ P10c OR-version might save you closer to $100.

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Keeping those variables in mind, I’m going to say the better value is the CZ P10c vs. the Glock 19, but if you plan to buy aftermarket upgrades or a bunch of magazines, the price gap closes fairly quickly.

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Pros/Cons

CZ P10C Pros

• Texture
• Ergonomics

P10C Cons

• Size
• Sight options

Glock 19 Pros

• Size
• Availability
• Magazine cost
• Sight options

G19 Cons

• Ergonomics

This is an opinion piece, but I always aim to eliminate bias. Look, we’ve all read them before. Gun reviews that claim to be helpful, but they’re really thinly veiled hit pieces trying to get you to buy something before you’ve even started your research. Or, even worse, a review put together by a content writer who has never even held a gun. 

I’ve trained with some of the best in the business to learn various shooting styles and ideologies to better serve our customers. I’ve purchased guns of all price points, calibers, and action types to build the best products for the market. I want you to walk away knowing you have the information you need to make a sound purchasing decision.