The best gym franchises of 2026, compared by cost, royalty, and owner

By the FindTheGym research team · Updated October 1, 2026 · 13 min read

Once a gym franchise is open, the royalty decides how much of your growth you keep. Anytime Fitness, Snap Fitness, and HOTWORX charge a flat monthly fee that stays the same no matter how well you do, while the other nine brands below take 5% to 8% of sales, two of them with a monthly minimum. Startup costs run from about $110,000 for a 9Round kickboxing studio to more than $5 million for a large Planet Fitness. Who owns the franchisor matters too. Seven of these brands answer to a public company or a private equity firm, and that owner decides how fast new units open near yours.

Every figure in the table comes from a franchise disclosure document (FDD) summary, an official franchise page, or an SEC filing listed under sources. A cell that says "not published" means we couldn't find the number in a source we could cite.

Gym franchise cost comparison table

Brand	Model	Initial investment	Franchise fee	Royalty	Units	Owner
Planet Fitness	HVLP big box	$1,282,500 to $5,386,000	$40,000	7% of gross membership fees	2,930 clubs system-wide (June 30, 2026)	Public (NYSE: PLNT)
Crunch Fitness	HVLP big box	$928,000 to $3,743,000	$35,000 to $50,000	5% of gross revenue	422, of which 414 franchised (2025 FDD)	Leonard Green & Partners (majority, April 2025)
Anytime Fitness	24/7 small box	$539,329 to $905,482	$42,500	$842 per month, flat	2,271 US (Dec. 31, 2025)	Purpose Brands (Roark Capital backed)
Snap Fitness	24/7 small box	$555,000 to $828,000	Not published	$725 per month, flat	994 total	Lift Brands
Orangetheory Fitness	HIIT studio	$821,622 to $1,377,160	$59,950	8% of gross sales	1,500+ total	Purpose Brands (Roark Capital backed)
F45 Training	Functional HIIT studio	$349,200 to $786,100	$60,000	Greater of 7% or $2,500 per month	753 outlets (end of 2024)	Private since its 2023 NYSE delisting
Club Pilates	Reformer Pilates	$385,048 to $839,058	$65,000	8% of gross sales	1,029 US franchised (end of 2024)	Xponential Fitness (NYSE: XPOF)
Pure Barre	Barre studio	$314,411 to $629,345	$60,000	7% of gross sales	617 US franchised (end of 2024)	Xponential Fitness (NYSE: XPOF)
StretchLab	Assisted stretching	$269,019 to $610,224	$65,000	8% of gross sales	485 franchised (end of 2024)	Xponential Fitness (NYSE: XPOF)
HOTWORX	Infrared sauna studio	$252,200 to $1,182,389	$19,950	$695 per month, flat	700+ US	Not published
Burn Boot Camp	Group bootcamp	$281,899 to $645,344	$60,000	6% of gross revenues	365 US, of which 356 franchised (end of 2024)	Not published
9Round	Kickboxing circuit	$111,049 to $383,700	$24,900	Greater of $750 or 6% per month	About 700 globally	Not published

Royalty is only one line of the monthly bill. Most of these systems also charge a brand or marketing fund (2% of gross sales at Club Pilates, Pure Barre, and Burn Boot Camp), a technology fee, and a local advertising minimum. Read FDD Item 6 for the full list before you compare two brands on royalty alone.

EoS Fitness, a fast-growing HVLP chain, isn't on the list because it doesn't sell franchises. Athletech News reported in April 2025 that EoS owns its gyms at the corporate level and was acquired by private equity firm BRS & Co. in 2015.

How we picked the best gym franchises

We chose brands that a buyer can franchise in the US today, that publish an FDD, and that cover the four operating models a first-time gym buyer is choosing between: high-volume, low-price (HVLP) big boxes, 24/7 small boxes, class-based boutique studios, and low-labor recovery or circuit concepts. Our methodology page explains how we count locations and classify ownership.

HVLP: Planet Fitness and Crunch

Both HVLP brands are sized for multi-unit operators with real estate experience. A first-time buyer will struggle to qualify for either.

Planet Fitness

Planet Fitness asks for a $3,000,000 net worth and $1,500,000 in liquid cash, according to its Entrepreneur listing. That filter alone tells you who the franchisee is: an investment group that already runs clubs. The payoff is scale. Planet Fitness reported 2,930 clubs and about 21.5 million members as of June 30, 2026, and said roughly 90% of its clubs are owned by independent franchisees. The 2026 FDD shows the top third of franchisees averaged $2,705,811 in EFT revenue for 2025.

My take: if you can qualify, this is the most proven system on the list. Most readers can't, and the realistic path in is buying an existing territory from an operator who's selling.

Crunch Fitness

	Crunch Fitness
Average revenue (2025 FDD, Item 19)	About $2.5 million
Royalty plus ad fund	5% plus 2%
Owner change	Leonard Green & Partners bought majority control from TPG Growth, announced April 15, 2025
Growth under TPG	275 locations added since 2019

Crunch's 5% royalty is the lowest percentage royalty in this comparison, and its Item 19 average is the highest all-club average any brand here discloses. Watch the new owner. I'd assume a fresh private equity owner wants faster unit growth, so ask how the Leonard Green plan affects development schedules and remodel requirements in your agreement.

24/7 small box: Anytime Fitness and Snap Fitness

Both brands charge a flat monthly royalty instead of a percentage. If your club grows, the franchisor's cut doesn't, which is the best structural feature in this whole category.

Anytime Fitness

Anytime's 2026 FDD lists the royalty at $842 per month, adjusted for inflation each January, plus a $900 monthly brand fund and a $799 technology fee that rises 10% a year. The same FDD reserves the right to switch to up to 8% of gross revenue later, though no switch is planned. The Item 19 sample covers 1,683 centers with median revenue of $398,982.

I like Anytime for an owner-operator who wants a small staff and doesn't need a $2 million revenue club. The tech fee escalator bothers me more than the royalty does. At 10% a year compounded, that $799 roughly doubles in about seven years.

Snap Fitness

Snap's official investment page lists a $725 monthly royalty and a $518 national marketing fee for a 4,000 to 6,000 square foot club. Entrepreneur shows 994 total units and a growth rate of negative 13%. A shrinking system can still produce a good individual club, though it probably means fewer peers to learn from and a smaller marketing budget behind you. I'd only look at Snap as a resale with audited numbers.

Boutique studio franchises

Boutique studios cost less to build than a big box but carry percentage royalties of 6% to 8% and live or die on class fill.

Orangetheory Fitness

Orangetheory has the largest Item 19 sample of the boutiques here: the 1,256 franchised studios open all of 2024 averaged $857,377 in gross revenue, per its 2025 FDD. It also has the heaviest fee load, with an 8% royalty and a brand fund of 3% according to 1851 Franchise. Orangetheory merged with Anytime's parent, Self Esteem Brands, in a deal that closed April 2, 2024, and the combined company is named Purpose Brands. Roark Capital had invested in both before the merger.

It's a mature system with a recognizable name. In a market where it's already everywhere (see Austin below), I think the better Orangetheory deal is usually an existing studio.

F45 Training

The biggest drawback first: F45 charges the greater of 7% or $2,500 a month in royalty, plus a fixed $2,500 marketing fee and a brand fund. A slow studio owes at least $5,000 a month in those two fees before it pays rent. In August 2026, Mad Fitness Group, an F45 franchisee that ran 32 studios at its peak, filed for Chapter 11 and planned to close about 15 of them. Its filing blamed aggressive expansion during F45's public company years, studios built 20% to 30% larger than standard, and billing failures. F45 announced its NYSE delisting in August 2023, when its shares traded at $0.18.

I wouldn't buy a new F45 territory without talking to at least five current owners, which the FTC says "may be the most reliable way to verify the franchisor's claims."

Club Pilates, Pure Barre, and StretchLab (Xponential)

Xponential Fitness (NYSE: XPOF) owns all three, plus YogaSix, BFT, and Lindora. It sold CycleBar and Rumble to Extraordinary Brands on July 28, 2025, with CEO Mark King saying the company would "focus our time and capital on the brands that drive profitability."

Club Pilates is the strongest of the three on paper: $984,270 average revenue across 849 qualified studios in 2024. But North America same-store sales for Xponential fell 6.8% in Q2 2026, and Club Pilates fell 5%. CEO Michael Nuzzo warned of "the inherent pressure that we'll have on AUVs as we continue to open new studios in fill-in markets." That's the franchisor opening new studios near existing ones.
Pure Barre averaged $368,588 in 2024 gross revenue across 599 studios, against an investment of up to $629,345 and 9% in royalty plus brand fund. I'd pass on a new build at those numbers.
StretchLab charges 8% royalty (7% for some legacy owners) and $65,000 up front. Xponential said Q2 2026 closures were "concentrated primarily within StretchLab, Pure Barre, and BFT."

Nuzzo's fill-in comment is the most useful sentence in that earnings call for a buyer. Before you sign, get the exact territory radius in writing and ask how many studios the franchisor plans inside your metro.

Burn Boot Camp

Burn Boot Camp is one of the few brands here that publishes profit as well as revenue. Its 2025 FDD shows 278 reporting outlets averaged $680,997 in 2024 revenue and $114,287 in net operating income, with a median operating margin of 15%. The spread is wide: top locations cleared $1.6 million in revenue while the weakest lost $127,558. The 6% royalty is mid-pack. For a buyer who wants to see real margins before committing, that disclosure counts for a lot.

Low-labor and low-cost: HOTWORX and 9Round

HOTWORX studios are infrared sauna pods run with virtual instructor software, which should keep payroll lighter than a class studio's. The franchise fee is $19,950 and the royalty is a flat $695 per month. Across 162 franchised studios in their first full year, the average gross profit was $300,256 in FY 2024, per 1851 Franchise. The investment range is unusually wide, $252,200 to $1,182,389, with New York and California at the top end.

9Round has the lowest entry cost on this list. It doesn't publish an Item 19, so you're buying without any franchisor-reported sales data. Low entry cost plus no financial disclosure means your diligence calls to existing owners carry the whole decision.

Which gym franchise model fits which buyer

If you are...	Look at	Why
A multi-unit operator with $1.5M+ liquid	Planet Fitness, Crunch	Highest unit revenue, but you need the balance sheet
An owner-operator with $500K to $900K	Anytime Fitness	Flat royalty, small staff, large peer network
A buyer who wants margin data first	Burn Boot Camp	Publishes net operating income in Item 19
A semi-absentee investor on a budget	HOTWORX	Low labor, flat royalty
Someone with class-studio experience	Club Pilates, Orangetheory	Strong revenue, but check territory overlap

If none of these fit, an independent gym may be the better bet. Our guide on how to open a gym walks through the costs without a franchise fee.

Austin saturation check

Austin is a good test case because the city has 736 fitness listings in our dataset, or 7.1 per 10,000 residents of the 37 ZIP codes that lie mostly inside city limits. Franchise-brand locations make up 8.7% of those listings, and brands owned by private equity firms or public companies account for 7.2%.

Our Austin location counts for these brands:

Brand	Austin locations
Orangetheory Fitness	11
F45 Training	10
Planet Fitness	7
Club Pilates	6
Crunch Fitness	4
HOTWORX	4
Pure Barre	4
Anytime Fitness	4
StretchLab	3
BFT	2
Title Boxing Club	1

Orangetheory and F45 together have 21 Austin studios selling a similar product, group HIIT classes. I wouldn't open a new HIIT studio in Austin. Budget gyms are the opposite story. Only 22 of the 736 listings fall in our budget price tier.

Density is uneven across the city. Downtown has 26.1 listings per 10,000 residents. North Austin, with 401,091 residents, has 2.3, and Southeast Austin has 2.0. North Austin's median monthly price is $79.50, against South Austin's $79.50 (only gyms with a price we could record are counted), even though South Austin has 3.1 times the gym density. A big, under-served population paying ordinary prices is what an HVLP or 24/7 operator should be looking for.

The full breakdown by area, tier, and category is on the Austin market page, and brand-by-brand location data is on our brands directory, including Planet Fitness, Orangetheory, F45, Club Pilates, Anytime Fitness, and Crunch Fitness.

How to evaluate a gym franchise territory

A franchise territory is the area where the franchisor agrees not to put another unit of the same brand, and the FDD spells out how big it is. The FTC warns that without territorial restrictions "the franchisor and other franchisees may compete with you." I'd check a territory in this order:

Map the catchment. Draw the area your members will drive from, then count every gym inside it, franchised or independent. A territory that looks empty on the franchisor's map may already have three studios selling the same class.
Measure density per 10,000 residents. Compare your catchment to the city average. In Austin, that average is the 7.1 figure above, against 2.0 in Southeast Austin and 26.1 downtown.
Find the price tier gap. If every gym nearby charges $100 or more a month, a low-price HVLP club has room. If budget gyms already cover the area, a boutique has a better shot.
Read Item 20. If more than a few outlets in your area closed or changed hands, the FTC says "it could be due to problems with the franchisor's support or because franchises aren't profitable." Count them for your metro.
Ask about fill-in plans. Club Pilates' same-store sales drop shows what happens when the franchisor adds studios near existing ones.

Our gym site selection guide covers catchment math in detail, and our market reports package density, pricing, and ownership data for a single metro. See pricing for report options.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest gym franchise to open?

9Round, at $111,049 to $383,700 according to its 2025 FDD. HOTWORX has the lowest franchise fee in this comparison at $19,950, but its total investment can run past $1 million.

How much does a Planet Fitness franchise cost?

$1,282,500 to $5,386,000 in total initial investment, with a $40,000 franchise fee and a 7% royalty on gross membership fees. You also need a $3,000,000 net worth and $1,500,000 in liquid cash to qualify.

Which fitness franchises charge a flat royalty?

Anytime Fitness, Snap Fitness, and HOTWORX all charge a fixed monthly royalty instead of a percentage of sales. Flat royalties favor high-revenue owners, since the fee doesn't grow with sales.

Who owns Orangetheory and Anytime Fitness?

Purpose Brands, formed when Orangetheory merged with Self Esteem Brands in April 2024. Roark Capital backed both companies before the merger.

Is Xponential Fitness a good franchisor to buy from?

Depends on the brand. Club Pilates averages more than double Pure Barre's revenue per studio, but company-wide North America same-store sales fell 6.8% in Q2 2026, and closures that quarter clustered in StretchLab, Pure Barre, and BFT. Get the Item 20 closure data for your metro before signing anything.

Can I buy a gym franchise that's already open?

Yes, if the franchisor approves the transfer. Check the FDD for the transfer fee and approval conditions. A resale comes with real member counts and P&L history, which is better evidence than any Item 19 average.

How long do I have to review an FDD?

The FTC requires that you receive the FDD at least 14 days before you sign a contract or pay any money.