Gyms and studios
The best fitness franchises to own
Big-box gyms, boutique studios, and class-based concepts, ranked by lowest total investment. Two very different business models hide inside one category.
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- UFC Gym Total investment: $149,440–$5,671,191
- Planet Fitness Total investment: $1,525,000–$5,221,500
Membership model vs. class model
"Fitness" covers two economies that barely resemble each other. The big-box membership gym sells access to equipment at a low monthly price and makes its money on volume, thousands of members, many of whom rarely show up. The boutique studio sells classes at a premium, runs on a smaller footprint, and lives or dies on instructor quality and class fill rate. Their build-outs, staffing, and revenue rhythms are completely different, so a single "cheapest to open" number tells you where to start looking, not which model suits you.
The numbers that decide a gym's economics
Equipment and build-out dominate the initial investment, but the figures that decide whether a fitness location works are recurring: the royalty on membership and class revenue, the rent on the square footage the format demands, and, where the franchisor discloses it, the average unit revenue in Item 19. Many fitness brands publish no revenue figure at all; when that's the case, the page says so rather than filling the gap with a projection. Check the royalty and the disclosure on each brand's page before you weigh a low entry price against a higher one.