For journalists

Franchise stories start in the filings.

Search 1,890 franchise brands and 2,840 filings — brand data, year-over-year changes, and category benchmarks, drawn from Franchise Disclosure Documents as filed with state regulators. Figures as filed, each traceable to the Item and page.

What we're seeing in the filings

Changes, patterns, and open questions from the latest franchise filings — with the underlying data behind each one.

Category

Home services grew 3.2%. The thirty largest brands shrank.

Across 134 home-services brands with both a 2025 and a 2026 filing, Item 20 outlet counts rose 3.2% overall. Skilled trades — handyman, HVAC, electrical, plumbing — rose 11.9%. Cleaning and home inspection fell 3.5%.

All 348 home-services brands →
YoY

Franchisors disclose what they plan to open. The next filing shows what they did.

Item 20 requires each franchisor to project new outlets for the coming year. The following year's filing reports what actually opened. Across 562 brands with both filings, 57% opened fewer outlets than they projected — in aggregate, franchisors opened about 91% of what they told regulators they would.

Based on brands whose Item 20 projection table could be read from both filings.

Year-over-year comparisons →How to read Item 20 →
Trend

Children's activities are filing like a growth category.

Swim, sports, music, coding, and indoor play. Across 55 childcare-and-education brands with 2025 and 2026 filings, outlet counts rose 6.0%; 91% disclose an Item 19.

Childcare & Education brands →
Category

Senior care, by the filings.

41 brands. 95% disclose financial performance in Item 19. Median cost to open: $139,625.

All senior care brands →

Figures are as filed. Clearly does not score or rank brands.

Explore the data

Brand profilesWhat each brand's latest filing discloses: investment, fees, outlet counts, Item 19.Year-over-yearWhat changed between a brand's last two filings.CategoriesCategory-level outlet counts, cost ranges, and Item 19 disclosure rates.Clearly researchPublished analysis and category studies.

Media access

Need the filings behind the story?

Working journalists receive a complimentary Professional account — every brand's Workspace across the full directory, the source FDDs, Clearly Reports, year-over-year comparisons, and Clara, who answers from the filing and cites the Item and page.

Request media access

Tell us your outlet and what you're working on. We respond within one business day. Or email amy@clearlyfdd.com.

For your story

What this is

Franchise Disclosure Documents as filed with state registration authorities. Every figure is drawn from a filed document and linked to the Item and page it came from.

Published

312 brand pages · 276 year-over-year comparisons · 20 category pages. Updated as filings are registered.

What we don't do

Clearly does not score, rank, rate, or recommend brands. We publish what the filings disclose and where they disclose it. The conclusion is the reader's.

On the record

Amy Nichols, founder, ClearlyFDD — former franchisor, founded and exited Dogtopia, and has written the documents she now publishes analysis of. amy@clearlyfdd.com

Source: ClearlyFDD analysis of filed Franchise Disclosure Documents.

Working on a story that needs a cut we haven't published — a category, a cohort, a date range? Ask. amy@clearlyfdd.com