Franchise intelligence

The most profitable franchises to buy

Nobody publishes audited franchise profits. The closest honest signal is in the lending record: brands whose units cost more to buy or build — a proxy for the revenue they have to support — whose loans almost never fail. We rank by typical SBA deal size, discounted by failure rate. See the survival ranking →

This is an SBA-data strength proxy, not audited unit economics. Loan size tracks what a unit costs and the cash flow it must carry; the failure rate shows how often the brand's deals survive. For real margins, read the franchisor's FDD (Item 19) and talk to current franchisees before an LOI.

Biggest deals that survive, 40+ loans

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Biggest-ticket industries

Where the typical financed acquisition is largest — the sectors that buy or build the highest-revenue units, among industries with enough deals to trust the number.

Industry	Typical acquisition loan	Failure rate	Recent loans
Media & software	$1.4M	2.52%	242
Transportation & logistics	$1.3M	5.04%	891
Real estate services	$1.0M	2.49%	560
Wholesale & distribution	$930K	3.53%	996
Construction & trades	$849K	3.18%	3,547
Retail	$817K	2.61%	2,931
Manufacturing	$800K	1.62%	1,437
Professional services	$790K	2.84%	2,675
Healthcare	$760K	1.42%	2,719
Repair & personal services	$675K	2.36%	2,744

Common questions

How do you rank the 'most profitable' franchises?

We use the strongest cash-flow signal in public data: the typical SBA loan size for the brand, which tracks what a unit costs to buy or build and the revenue it has to support. We then discount each brand by its failure rate, so a big-ticket brand whose loans fail often ranks below one whose loans almost never do. Only brands with 40+ funded SBA loans qualify.

Is loan size really a proxy for profit?

It's a proxy, not a profit statement. Bigger SBA loans fund bigger, higher-revenue locations — and lenders only underwrite deals the projected cash flow can repay. It is not audited unit economics. For real margins, read the franchisor's FDD (Item 19) and verify with current franchisees.

Why does the failure rate matter for profitability?

A franchise that borrows big but charges off often is funding units that don't survive — that's the opposite of profitable. Pairing a large typical deal with a low FY2020–23 charge-off rate is the closest public data gets to 'a unit here makes money and lasts.'

Where does this data come from?

Public SBA 7(a) loan records since 2020, matched to franchise brands. Typical deal size is the median financed amount; the failure rate is the charge-off rate on the FY2020–23 loan cohort. CapBench is not a lender and does not sell franchises.

CapBench analysis of public SBA lending records. Typical deal = median financed amount; failure rate = charge-off rate on the FY2020–23 cohort. Ranking is an SBA-data strength proxy, not audited franchise profits.

AI summary

This page ranks the most profitable franchises to buy using a transparent SBA-data proxy: each brand's typical SBA loan size — what a unit costs to buy or build, a stand-in for the revenue it must support — discounted by its FY2020–23 failure rate, among brands with 40+ funded loans. Big-ticket brands whose loans survive rank highest. It is a strength proxy, not audited unit economics; confirm margins in the franchisor's FDD. This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and CapBench is not a lender.

Source: CapBench SBA Intelligence, based on public SBA, lender, franchise, FDIC, and related records. CapBench is not a lender and does not guarantee financing.

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