Franchise Cost Comparison: Fees, Royalties & Investment

The most useful filter isn't investment or revenue — it's net worth requirement against your actual situation. A franchise with a 40% ROI estimate requiring $3 million net worth is irrelevant if you have $500K. Sort by net worth requirement first. Eliminate what you don't qualify for. Then compare what's left.

Revenue figures are estimated annual unit averages based on Item 19 FDD disclosures and publicly available franchisee data. Operating cost estimates use industry-average rates by category: food franchises run 32% cost of goods, service franchises run 37% labor. The estimated profit figure subtracts those costs from revenue. It doesn't account for taxes, debt service, or owner compensation.

ROI here is estimated annual profit divided by midpoint investment. It's useful for ranking franchises by capital efficiency, not for projecting actual returns. Location, operator experience, and market conditions have a larger effect on actual returns than any benchmark figure.

Two patterns stand out in this data. Chick-fil-A's $8.1 million average revenue is nearly three times McDonald's $3.2 million. And service franchises show the widest investment range of any category — Jan-Pro at $4K, Servpro at $582K — because the category spans everything from solo cleaning operations to full restoration companies.

All figures are sourced from publicly available Franchise Disclosure Documents, updated annually. Verify current figures before making any investment decision.

Territory rights don't appear in any column here. Some franchises grant exclusive territories — no competing units within a defined radius. Others don't. If the franchisor can open a corporate location two miles from yours, your revenue projection needs to account for that. Most proformas don't. Verify territory terms in Item 12 of the FDD before anything else.

Support quality varies enormously between franchisors. McDonald's has hundreds of field consultants visiting locations regularly. Smaller franchises sometimes send you a manual and a toll-free number. Item 11 of the Franchise Disclosure Document lists the training program. Under 100 hours of initial training is a flag for any operationally complex concept.

Item 19 of the FDD covers financial performance data. Franchisors aren't required to include it. Many don't. When they do, check whether they're reporting medians or means — medians are more honest about what most units actually earn. If a franchisor has no Item 19 disclosure, ask to speak with current franchisees directly. Contact information is in Item 20, and franchisors are legally required to provide it.

Item 20 lists unit openings and closures by year. Take closures divided by total units and you have the attrition rate. Some growing brands are closing just as fast as they open. The SBA publishes franchise-level loan approval and default data — it's public record and almost nobody checks it. A brand with a 15-20% default rate is telling you something the marketing materials won't say. That data is searchable through the SBA's FOIA reports.

Unit economics from the FDD are system-wide averages. Your specific market, location, and operator experience will pull results above or below that average. New franchisees typically underperform the system average in years one and two regardless of concept.