FDD-sourced. No franchisor pays to rank here.

FranPicks

Ranked by total investment

The lowest-cost franchises to open

Sorted by the low end of each brand's Item 7 range, cheapest first. It starts at $142,150.

Photo via Pexels

  1. 7-Eleven Total investment: $142,150–$1,600,000
  2. UFC Gym Total investment: $149,440–$5,671,191
  3. Great Clips Total investment: $188,000–$420,000
  4. The UPS Store Total investment: $216,417–$608,975
  5. Subway Total investment: $263,000–$630,000
  6. Wingstop Total investment: $298,000–$1,014,000
  7. Smoothie King Total investment: $311,601–$1,379,150
  8. Chick-fil-A Total investment: $427,000–$2,340,000
  9. Jersey Mike's Total investment: $436,176–$1,162,000
  10. Little Caesars Total investment: $447,000–$1,800,000
  11. Popeyes Total investment: $504,545–$3,923,245
  12. Taco Bell Total investment: $935,000–$4,312,000
  13. McDonald's Total investment: $1,471,000–$2,728,000
  14. Planet Fitness Total investment: $1,525,000–$5,221,500

"Cheap to open" is not "cheap to run"

This ranking answers exactly one question: what does it cost to get the doors open? That is the Item 7 number, the estimated initial investment, and it's the figure most first-time buyers anchor on because it's the one standing between them and starting. It is worth knowing. It is not the whole picture.

A low entry cost can sit on top of a thin margin, a heavy royalty, or a build-out that only pencils out at high volume. A mobile or home-based service brand may cost a fraction of a build-out-heavy restaurant to launch and still be harder to make a living from. So treat this list as the shortlist, not the verdict: use it to see what you could plausibly afford to start, then open each brand's page and read the royalty and the Item 19 revenue disclosure before you decide what it's actually worth.

Hands counting a fan of twenty-dollar bills over financial paperwork on a desk
The initial investment is the number you can see. The royalty, the ad fund, and the working capital you're required to hold are the ones that decide whether the opening was worth it. Photo via Pexels

What the low number leaves out

Item 7 ranges usually include the franchise fee, build-out or equipment, opening inventory, and a few months of working capital, but franchisors define "a few months" differently, and the range's low end assumes the cheapest version of nearly every line. Your real number depends on your market's rents and labor, whether you own or lease, and how long it takes the location to reach breakeven. Read the range as a floor and a ceiling with a lot of your own decisions in between, and confirm your liquid capital and net worth clear the brand's minimums with the estimator before you start filling out applications.