Food & Beverage
QSR, fast casual, coffee, bakeries, ghost kitchens, and beverage concepts.
Independent franchise research
Understand franchise ownership before you invest.
Plain-English explanations of the FDD, registration states, fees, and earnings claims — so you can do your own due diligence without a sales pitch.
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300+
Franchise industries researched
23
FDD items decoded in plain English
13
U.S. registration states tracked
0
Franchisor sales relationships
Industries we cover
Research across the major franchise categories
We organize our research by industry so you can understand how the FDD, fee structures, and disclosure norms differ by category — not so you can shop a catalog.
Retail
Specialty retail, convenience stores, resale franchises, and service retail.
Home Services
Cleaning, restoration, HVAC, plumbing, and home-repair franchise systems.
Health & Wellness
Senior care, fitness, beauty, spa, and wellness franchise brands.
Business Services
B2B services — staffing, signage, commercial cleaning, and consulting systems.
Education & Child
Tutoring, child care, early learning, and supplemental education programs.
What we cover
All 23 FDD items, decoded
The FTC's Franchise Disclosure Document has 23 numbered items. Our research focuses on the ones prospective franchisees cite most — and we flag when a franchisor leaves the most important ones blank.
Item 5 — Initial fees
Every upfront payment the franchisor collects, decoded so you can compare across brands.
Item 6 — Ongoing royalties
Royalty rates, marketing fund contributions, technology fees, and how they compound.
Item 7 — Initial investment
The full estimated cost range to open, broken into realistic line items.
Item 19 — Earnings claims
When franchisors do provide earnings data, we translate the numbers — and flag when they don't.
Item 20 — Outlet counts
Openings, closings, and transfers over the past three years — a critical read for any brand.
Litigation & dispute history
Material lawsuits, bankruptcy, and trademark disputes disclosed in the FDD.
How we work
A research-first workflow — not a sales pipeline
We don't sell franchises. We make the research phase faster, cleaner, and harder to misread.
Discover
Browse research by industry, investment level, or the specific FDD item you want to understand. Every figure is sourced from a publicly filed FDD or registration record.
Compare
See how brands stack up on initial fees, royalties, territory rules, and disclosure history — apples-to-apples.
Decide
Walk through our buyer-side checklists, questions to ask franchisors, and the steps to take before you sign.
Frequently asked
What people ask before they read a single FDD
Franchise Businesses is an independent research and educational publisher. We are not a franchise broker, we do not sell franchises, and we do not accept payment from franchisors in connection with any specific opportunity. Our content is informational and is intended to help you do your own due diligence.
No. We do not sell, broker, or recommend franchises, and we do not earn a commission from a franchisor contingent on you signing a franchise agreement. Our revenue comes from reader-supported programs (such as our research newsletter) and clearly disclosed affiliate partnerships with general business-service providers — never from franchisors for specific brand coverage.
No. Nothing on this site is investment, financial, legal, tax, or business advice. Franchise ownership involves substantial financial risk — including the loss of your entire investment — and your decision should be based on your own review of the franchisor's Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and consultation with qualified professionals of your choosing.
The Franchise Disclosure Document is a 23-item legal document the FTC requires every franchisor to deliver at least 14 days before you sign anything. Items 5, 6, 7, and 19 cover initial fees, ongoing royalties, estimated investment, and (if provided) earnings claims. We surface those sections so you can read them faster — but the FDD itself is the source of truth, not us.
Brokers are typically paid by the franchisors whose brands they represent, which can shape the brands they recommend. We are paid by readers and by clearly disclosed business-service partners, not by franchisors. Our coverage is vertical-agnostic: we research whatever we can verify publicly filed data for.
Yes. Some of our editorial content — including industry overviews, brand summaries, and FDD explanations — is generated or assisted by AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team before publication. AI content may contain errors despite our review process. Always verify critical information against the primary source.
See our full Disclosures & Disclaimers page for the complete regulatory text — what we are, what we are not, and the limits of the information we publish.
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Plain-English explanations of FDD items, registration-state filings, and earnings-claim methodology — once a month, no sales pitches, easy to unsubscribe.
Disclosures