Largest franchises in the US

When people ask which franchises are the biggest, they usually mean one of two things: which brands have the most stores, or which ones bring in the most money. This page counts stores. A location count is easy to check, it is reported the same way by every franchisor, and it is the number that matters most when you are deciding whether a brand is established enough to buy into. Sales rankings mix in restaurants overseas and company-run stores you could never own, and they often come from figures the brands report about themselves.

Each count below is a brand’s US locations at the end of the latest year its filing covers, mostly 2025, adding franchised and company-owned locations together, with the share run by independent owners underneath. A few very large systems, such as 7-Eleven, Dairy Queen and Wingstop, aren’t in these tables yet, so read the list as the largest brands with current figures here rather than a complete census.

The 25 largest franchises by US locations

Subway is still the largest franchise in the country by a wide margin, with 18,773 US locations, every one of them run by a franchisee. Its lead is shrinking, though: Subway lost more US locations than any other brand in our growth rankings. McDonald’s comes second with 13,457 at the end of 2023, about 95% franchised. Dunkin’ rounds out the top three with 8,780 shops, almost all franchised.

Below the top tier, the list spreads out across industries. The UPS Store has 5,503 centers, Great Clips 4,441 salons and Planet Fitness 2,709 gyms. These are systems that sell a simple, repeatable service and have spent decades filling in the map, which is why they can still support new owners in towns that already have one.

Who runs the locations

A brand’s location count includes stores the company runs itself, and for some large systems that is most of them. That matters because you can only buy what the company is willing to franchise, and because a franchisor that runs many of its own stores knows the economics first-hand. H&R Block has 8,561 US offices, but only 21% are franchised; the rest are company-run. Circle K is similar, with 5,556 company stores against 515 franchised. Panda Express runs nearly all of its 2,607 restaurants itself and offers licenses rather than traditional franchises for the rest.

Panera sits right on the line, with 1,108 company bakery-cafes and 1,106 franchised ones. At the other end, many large brands run almost nothing themselves. Ranked by franchised locations alone, the order barely changes at the top:

Neither model is better for a buyer by default. A brand with very few company stores depends entirely on franchisees for its income, so its interests are closely tied to yours, but it may have less recent experience running a store day to day. A brand with many company stores can test changes before rolling them out, but it may also compete with you for the best sites or buy locations back when it suits the company.

The largest franchise in each industry

Every industry has a brand that set the template for the rest. Knowing who it is helps you judge the others: how much more or less they cost, whether they are growing faster, and what they offer to win owners away from the leader.

The same brand can lead more than one list, since many brands belong to more than one industry. A tie at the top of a small industry doesn’t mean much on its own; open the industry list to see every brand side by side with its cost to open, fees and growth.

Large franchises you can open for under $250K

Big brands are often assumed to be expensive, and the restaurant chains at the top of the list usually are: a new McDonald’s or Taco Bell costs well over a million dollars to build. But size and cost are not tied together. The brands below each have a low-end cost to open of $250K or less and are still among the largest systems here.

Most of these sell a service rather than food. Tax offices like H&R Block need little equipment or build-out. Tutoring centers like Kumon run from a modest storefront with low build-out costs. The low end of a range is the cheapest version the brand allows, often a smaller format or a site that needs little work, so check what a typical location in your area would cost before you budget. Our guide to what a franchise costs explains what the money pays for, and the low-cost franchise list covers the cheapest brands of any size.

What a franchise’s size tells you

A large location count is evidence that a franchise works in many different markets, under many different owners, through good years and bad ones. It also means a lot of practical help: lenders who already know the brand, landlords who have leased to it before, suppliers with established routes and hundreds of owners you can call to ask how it is going. Those are real advantages, especially for a first-time owner.

What size can’t tell you is whether there is room for one more. The biggest systems are also the most crowded, and a new location may compete with existing ones for the same customers. The best sites in many towns were taken long ago, so new owners in a mature system often buy an existing location instead of building one. Ask the franchisor how it protects territory and how many locations it plans to open near you, and look at closures as well as the total: a large brand that closes hundreds of stores a year is shrinking even if its count is still enormous.

A smaller, younger brand gives up some of that proof in exchange for open territory and often a lower cost to open. Neither choice is right for everyone. Line up a large brand and a smaller rival with the compare tool, and look at the fastest-growing franchises to see which smaller brands are gaining on the leaders.