What a franchise really costs, straight from the filings
We publish franchise investment costs, fee obligations and financial performance disclosures from state-filed Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs). The pages retain the filing dates, source links and review qualifications. Disclosed sales are not take-home owner earnings.
Why TrueFranchiseCost exists
The initial franchise fee is only one part of the disclosed startup budget. Royalty formulas, advertising obligations, technology charges and working capital estimates appear in different sections of the FDD. Comparing the fee alone leaves those costs out.
The site organizes these five FDD sections:
- Item 5: Upfront franchise fees and deposit requirements.
- Item 6: Ongoing royalties, brand marketing assessments, technology surcharges, audit penalties, and transfer fees.
- Item 7: Estimated initial investment, with line items for the format covered on the brand page.
- Item 19: Historical unit revenue and financial performance representations (if disclosed).
- Item 20: Three-year system movements, tracking terminations, non-renewals, ceased operations, and transfers.
TrueFranchiseCost summarizes these sections on each brand page. Source links and recorded PDF page references let readers check the selected figures against the filing; corrections and unresolved differences remain visible.
Who we are
TrueFranchiseCost is maintained by Swet Parvadiya. The site records public FDD disclosures, source-review status and calculation limits. Software and delegated AI assist with extraction, checking and explanatory text.
The research team
The contributor profile describes the recorded role and background. Individual brand pages show completed source checks or provisional publication status:
Where our data comes from
Published brand records cite dated FDDs from the following state filing repositories. Each brand page links to its own filing and PDF so readers can check the recorded figures:
The guide to finding an FDD also links to public searches in other registration states. Their availability does not mean that we used them as the source for a published record.
Software tools assist us in locating and structuring figures from extensive PDF filings, but AI is never an authoritative source for numbers: source checks may be completed by an authorized human reviewer or delegated AI. Records published before completed verification display provisional warnings. Automated checks flag startup-total differences and outlet-movement discrepancies, but cannot certify every statement or resolve a contradiction in the filing. Read our complete research methodology for our full auditing formulas, rounding rules, and data limitations.
Independence statement: what we are not
To protect our editorial objectivity, TrueFranchiseCost operates under strict structural boundaries:
- Not franchise brokers: We do not sell franchises, represent brands, match buyers with franchisors, or collect sales commissions.
- Not lenders or financing brokers: We do not issue loans, partner with banks, or collect origination referral fees on SBA financing.
- Not a lead generation service: We never gate content, ask for your phone number, or sell prospective buyer inquiries to franchisor sales representatives.
- Not paid placement: No franchisor pays to be included, to be omitted, or to modify how its disclosed figures appear.
- Not legal or financial advisers: Our summaries and calculators provide general information. The FTC’s consumer guide to buying a franchise discusses professional review of the FDD, agreement and financial information.
Our editorial policy explains the source checks, publication exceptions and correction standards behind these boundaries.
How the site is funded & revenue disclosure
TrueFranchiseCost is entirely free to access. We do not charge subscription fees, sell premium reports, or accept franchisor marketing budgets.
In the future, we may display contextual advertising (such as Google AdSense) to help cover regulatory document acquisition costs and web hosting infrastructure. Any future advertising will be clearly demarcated, strictly separated from our research data tables, and will have zero influence over which brands we cover, how our mathematical models calculate fees, or what our editorial analyses conclude. Our independence disclosure states the current financial relationships and advertising policy.
Contact, inquiries & corrections
If any figure on this site disagrees with an official FDD filing, send us the details for source review:
- Data corrections & research questions: contact@truefranchisecost.com
- Press, media & dataset licensing: team@truefranchisecost.com
- Online submission form: Submit filing details through our Contact and Corrections page.
We compare reported discrepancies with the source filing before making a correction.