Wellness Franchise Costs Compared: 5 Major Brands

Most "best wellness franchise" lists rank brands without showing the numbers the ranking supposedly rests on. This guide does the opposite: it puts five of the most-searched wellness franchise brands side by side on the figures they are legally required to disclose in their Franchise Disclosure Documents, and leaves the ranking to you.

Everything below comes from each brand's FDD. Because brands file a new FDD annually, the year is noted for every figure — a number from a 2023 filing is not comparable to one from 2026 without accounting for the gap.

We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or compensated by any brand on this page. See our disclosure policy.

The comparison at a glance

Two things stand out immediately. First, the franchise fee is nearly irrelevant to the decision — it ranges from $44,500 to $65,000 across all five, a spread of about $20,000 against total investments that differ by up to a million dollars. Chasing a lower franchise fee is optimizing the smallest line item on the page.

Second, the brand with the highest franchise fee (StretchLab, $65,000) has by far the lowest total investment. Fee size tells you nothing about total capital required.

What the brands disclose about revenue

Item 19 is where a franchisor may disclose actual unit performance. Four of these five do.

Sample size matters as much as the number. Restore's $911,516 average rests on 198 units and StretchLab's on 417 — both large enough to be meaningful. SWTHZ's $573,762 comes from just 13 locations, which is a genuinely small sample; a couple of strong or weak units move that average significantly. Treat it as directional, not settled.

The ratio that actually matters

A revenue figure means little without the capital required to produce it. Dividing disclosed revenue by the midpoint of each brand's Item 7 range gives a rough revenue-to-investment ratio — a crude but revealing measure of capital efficiency.

StretchLab is the only brand here generating more annual revenue than its midpoint build cost. That doesn't make it the most profitable — this ratio says nothing about margin, and a stretch studio's labor model (one-on-one sessions with trained flexologists) carries a different cost structure than a largely self-serve sauna suite. But it does mean StretchLab recovers invested capital faster at equivalent margins, which is the single biggest driver of payback period.

Run your own version of this with real margin assumptions in the ROI and payback calculator.

The quartile spread is the real story

Averages hide the thing you most need to know: how wide is the gap between a good location and a bad one? Three brands publish quartile data.

A bottom-quartile StretchLab does $312,680 against an investment that could reach $610,224. A top-quartile one does $842,342. Same brand, same system, same training — a 2.7x difference in outcome.

This is the most important table on this page, and it's the one most "best franchise" rankings omit entirely. Your location, your operating skill, and your local market determine which quartile you land in far more than your choice among these five brands does. When a franchisor quotes you the average, ask what the bottom quartile looks like — and underwrite your loan against that number, not the average.

How the concepts actually differ

The cost spread reflects genuinely different businesses, not just different price points.

StretchLab is an appointment-based service concept. The capital is in build-out and a modest equipment package; the operating cost is in labor, since every session requires a trained flexologist. It carries the highest royalty of the five (8%) plus a 2% brand fund and a separate local marketing requirement of the greater of $1,500 or 2% of prior-month sales — an effective total fee load that can exceed 12%.

Restore Hyper Wellness is the most capital-intensive and the broadest in service mix — cryotherapy, IV drip therapy, red light, compression, and more under one roof. IV services bring clinical oversight requirements that vary by state, which is real compliance overhead rather than a formality. Its $3,500 minimum monthly royalty from year two means a slow-ramping location pays a floor regardless of sales.

Perspire Sauna Studio and SWTHZ are both infrared-sauna-led contrast therapy concepts with largely self-serve session models — lower labor intensity than StretchLab, but meaningful build-out cost for the sauna suites themselves. SWTHZ's 6–8% sliding royalty by studio age is unusual and franchisee-friendly in the early ramp.

iCRYO sits in the middle on cost with the lowest total fee load of the five (6% royalty plus 1% marketing). The caveat is data age: the most recent FDD available for review here is from 2023, and the absence of a comparable Item 19 makes it the hardest of the five to underwrite from public information.

Beyond these five

Two adjacent categories are worth comparing before you commit to a recovery-led concept, because both are more capital-efficient:

• StretchLab vs Stretch Zone — the two largest assisted-stretching systems, at 1.27x and 1.43x revenue-to-investment respectively.
• Massage Envy vs Elements Massage — the highest average unit volumes in wellness franchising, both around or above $1 million.

For a structured way to compare any brands beyond these, see our framework for comparing wellness franchise brands and the due diligence checklist.

What these numbers don't tell you

Item 7 and Item 19 are the most useful disclosures in an FDD, but they have real limits:

• Item 19 is historical, not predictive. It reports what existing units earned. It is not a projection, and franchisors are explicit about that.
• Gross sales are not profit. None of these figures are net income. Subtract royalties, brand fund, rent, labor, equipment financing, and debt service before drawing any conclusion about owner earnings.
• Item 7 excludes your working capital reality. The ranges include a stated working capital allowance, but a slow ramp burns more than the low end of any published range.
• Ranges are national. Real estate and build-out costs in a major metro will push you toward the top of every range shown here.
• FDD figures go stale. Every brand files annually. Confirm current numbers in the brand's latest FDD before acting on anything on this page.

The right next step is never a comparison table — it's Item 19 in the actual FDD, validation calls with existing franchisees in both the top and bottom quartiles, and your own ROI model built on local rent and wage data.

Sources

Figures are drawn from each brand's Franchise Disclosure Document as reported by the following, and from Restore Hyper Wellness's franchise site:

• Franchise Chatter — Restore Hyper Wellness 2025 review
• Franchise Chatter — StretchLab 2026 review
• Franchise Chatter — Perspire Sauna Studio 2026 review
• 1851 Franchise — SWTHZ franchise costs and data for 2026
• Vetted Biz — iCRYO franchise FDD, costs and fees
• Restore Hyper Wellness franchise FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Which wellness franchise has the lowest startup cost?

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Of the five brands compared here, StretchLab has the lowest disclosed Item 7 range at $269,019 to $610,224 (2025 FDD). Its smaller footprint and lighter equipment load are the main reasons — stretch studios don't carry the cryotherapy chambers, saunas, or IV suites that drive cost in recovery-led concepts.

How much does a Restore Hyper Wellness franchise cost?

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Restore Hyper Wellness discloses a total initial investment of $777,174 to $1,323,425 in its 2025 FDD, including a $44,500 initial franchise fee. Ongoing fees are a 7% royalty plus a 2% marketing contribution, with a $3,500 minimum monthly royalty beginning in the second year.

What royalty do wellness franchises typically charge?

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Across these five brands, royalties run 6% to 8% of gross sales, plus a brand fund contribution of 1% to 3%. Several also require separate local marketing spend, which can push the effective total above 10%. Always add the brand fund and local requirement to the headline royalty when modeling.

Do these brands disclose how much their locations actually earn?

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Four of the five publish an Item 19 financial performance representation. Restore, StretchLab, Perspire, and SWTHZ all disclose average or median gross sales for existing units. iCRYO's most recent FDD reviewed here (2023) did not include comparable figures. Remember that Item 19 reports what existing units earned historically — it is not a projection for your location.