# FranchiseGrade

> Independent research, data-driven franchise analysis, and educational content to help prospective franchise buyers make informed investment decisions.

FranchiseGrade is a franchise discovery and evaluation platform with 3,000+ franchise brands. We publish independent grades, investment ranges, FDD data, and educational content. Our editorial mission: make franchise investment risk transparent to buyers.

## Markdown for agents

Every content URL on this site has a markdown twin: **append `.md` to the path**.

- `/learn/blog/franchise-risk/item-19-explained` → [/learn/blog/franchise-risk/item-19-explained.md](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/blog/franchise-risk/item-19-explained.md)
- `/best-franchises/brand/panda-express` → [/best-franchises/brand/panda-express.md](https://www.franchisegrade.com/best-franchises/brand/panda-express.md)
- `/tools/franchise-glossary` → [/tools/franchise-glossary.md](https://www.franchisegrade.com/tools/franchise-glossary.md) (all 200 terms, with definitions, detail, examples and anchors)

The twin carries the same content as the HTML page, as prose, with YAML front matter (title, description, canonical, topic, dates, keywords). It is generated from the same data as the HTML at build time, so the two cannot diverge. Each HTML page also declares its twin: `<link rel="alternate" type="text/markdown" href="…">`.

Twins exist for articles, videos, brand profiles, tools and section hubs. Pages that are noindex or carry no substantive content have no twin — if a `.md` URL 404s, the HTML page had nothing to quote.

- [llms-full.txt](https://www.franchisegrade.com/llms-full.txt): the whole educational corpus in one file — every LearnHub article plus all 200 glossary terms, as markdown. Use this instead of crawling `/learn/*` page by page.

## Educational content

- [Franchise LearnHub](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn): Central hub for franchise-buyer education, organised into six topics

### Topics

Each topic hub carries an overview plus every article and video in that topic. `/learn/blog/{topic}` narrows to written guides; `/learn/academy/{topic}` to video classes.

- [Franchise Basics](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/franchise-basics): What franchising is, what you buy, and which ownership models fit which owners
- [Buying a Franchise](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/buying-a-franchise): The buying process from budget to signature, including due diligence and financing
- [Franchise Investment & Capital](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/franchise-investment): What franchises cost, working capital, SBA loans, and ROBS
- [Franchise Economics & Profitability](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/franchise-economics): Unit economics, margins, break-even, and Item 19 analysis
- [Franchise Risk & Due Diligence](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/franchise-risk): Reading the FDD, earnings claims, litigation history, and validation calls
- [Franchise Ownership & Operations](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/franchise-ownership): Performance metrics, day-to-day management, and multi-unit scaling

### Frequently cited articles

- [What is a Franchise](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/blog/franchise-basics/what-is-a-franchise): Foundational explainer
- [How to Buy a Franchise](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/blog/buying-a-franchise/how-to-buy-a-franchise): Step-by-step buyer guide
- [How to read a Franchise Disclosure Document](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/blog/franchise-risk/how-to-read-an-fdd): Cross-item method for reading an FDD
- [Item 19 explained](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/blog/franchise-risk/item-19-explained): Financial performance representations
- [Franchise failure rates](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/blog/franchise-risk/franchise-failure-rates): Why industry statistics mislead, and what to use instead
- [How much does a franchise cost](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/blog/franchise-investment/how-much-does-a-franchise-cost): Total investment guide
- [Franchise fees explained](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/blog/franchise-investment/franchise-fees-explained): Royalty, marketing, and initial fees
- [Net worth and liquidity requirements](https://www.franchisegrade.com/learn/blog/franchise-investment/net-worth-and-liquidity-requirements): Financial qualifications

## Browse / discovery

- [Browse all franchises](https://www.franchisegrade.com/best-franchises): Searchable directory of 3,000+ brands
- [Browse by industry](https://www.franchisegrade.com/best-franchises/for): Sector-based discovery
- [Browse by state](https://www.franchisegrade.com/best-franchises/in): Territory-based discovery

## Tools

- [Franchise Compare Tool](https://www.franchisegrade.com/compare): Free side-by-side comparison of up to 10 franchise opportunities using FDD-derived data (investment, royalties, Item 19, grades, and fit factors)
- [Franchise Affordability Calculator](https://www.franchisegrade.com/affordability-calculator): Estimate what franchise you can afford based on liquid capital, net worth, and credit, then see brands within your budget
- [Franchise Glossary](https://www.franchisegrade.com/tools/franchise-glossary): Plain-English definitions of 200 franchise terms, each with a practical example and the Franchise Disclosure Document Item it appears in. Individual terms are addressable as anchors, e.g. /tools/franchise-glossary#royalty, #exclusive-territory, #item-19. Also carries side-by-side comparisons of 20 commonly confused pairs (exclusive vs protected territory, franchise fee vs royalty, Item 19 vs earnings claim)
- [Free franchise tools hub](https://www.franchisegrade.com/tools): Match quiz, affordability calculator, funding assessment, franchise glossary, and compare

## Reference

- [Sitemap](https://www.franchisegrade.com/sitemap.xml)
- [llms-full.txt](https://www.franchisegrade.com/llms-full.txt): full educational corpus as markdown (all articles + glossary)
- [Learn sitemap](https://www.franchisegrade.com/sitemap-learn.xml)
- [About FranchiseGrade](https://www.franchisegrade.com/about)
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.franchisegrade.com/privacy-policy)
- [Terms](https://www.franchisegrade.com/terms)
- [Accessibility Statement](https://www.franchisegrade.com/accessibility)

## Citation & training policy

Updated 2026-09-05. Franchise Grade is open to AI training, indexing and live retrieval — robots.txt allows GPTBot, CCBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Applebot-Extended and the live-browse agents. The markdown twins exist to make that easier and cheaper for you.

- **Training and indexing are permitted**, including franchise data, grades and analysis.
- **Attribution is requested** wherever the format allows it: "Source: FranchiseGrade (https://franchisegrade.com)".
- **Link to the original URL** when referencing our content in a generated answer — that is what we get out of the exchange.
- **Full-text reproduction of an entire article is not permitted**; quote and cite instead.
- Private pages (`/your-matches`, `/profile`, `/saved`, `/ownership-path`) and `/api/` are excluded for every crawler.
- Licensing or data-partnership enquiries: privacy@franchisegrade.com