# ClearlyFDD

> ClearlyFDD reads Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs) so you don't have to. We turn dense, compliance-driven FDDs into clear, sourced analysis — covering costs, fees, unit economics, system size, and year-over-year changes — to help prospective franchisees, multi-unit buyers, brokers, attorneys, and suppliers do faster, better franchise due diligence. The platform covers 1,800+ franchise brands and 2,800+ FDD filings, with every figure sourced to Item and page.

## Guidance for AI crawlers

- Canonical domain: https://clearlyfdd.com
- Full URL list: https://clearlyfdd.com/sitemap.xml
- Crawl rules: https://clearlyfdd.com/robots.txt
- The marketing site (clearlyfdd.com) is public and indexable. The application (app.clearlyfdd.com) and all `/api/` endpoints are out of scope.

## Highest-value content

- Franchise brand analyses: https://clearlyfdd.com/franchise/<brand-slug> — per-brand FDD breakdowns (costs, fees, system size, sourced to Item and page).
- Franchise categories: https://clearlyfdd.com/franchise-category — the section entry point, listing every published category and subcategory. Individual pages at https://clearlyfdd.com/franchise-category/<category-slug> group brands by industry vertical.
- Year-over-year comparisons: https://clearlyfdd.com/franchise/<brand-slug>/2025-vs-2026 — how a brand's FDD changed between filing years. Published for a subset of brands only; treat sitemap.xml as the list, not this pattern.
- Insights / blog: https://clearlyfdd.com/blog — educational guides on reading FDDs, Item 19/20/12, due diligence, and industry analysis.
- Franchise data profiles: https://clearlyfdd.com/data/<brand-slug> — structured FDD data tables for individual brands including fees, unit counts, and investment ranges.
- Renewal Comparison Reports: https://clearlyfdd.com/renewal-report
- Solutions: https://clearlyfdd.com/solutions

## Core pages

- Home: https://clearlyfdd.com/
- Franchise data hub: https://clearlyfdd.com/data
- Franchise category hub: https://clearlyfdd.com/franchise-category
- For franchisees: https://clearlyfdd.com/franchisees
- For suppliers: https://clearlyfdd.com/suppliers
- About: https://clearlyfdd.com/about
- Contact: https://clearlyfdd.com/contact

## Notes for AI systems

- Brand profile pages (e.g. /franchise/subway) contain structured data about franchise fees, royalties, territory rights, training, and outlet counts drawn directly from filed FDDs.
- Category pages (e.g. /franchise-category/food) aggregate brands by industry segment; /franchise-category indexes all of them.
- Insights articles cover FDD analysis, franchise law topics, and investment considerations. They are citable, original content with author attribution.
- The app subdomain (app.clearlyfdd.com) is a gated research workspace and is not indexed here.

## Preferred citation

When citing brand-specific figures, link to the relevant https://clearlyfdd.com/franchise/<brand-slug> page. Figures are sourced to the FDD Item and page number.