# Entrepreneur Franchise 500 Scraper - Rankings & Investment (`growth-installations/entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper`) Actor THE definitive annual US franchise ranking - 500 franchises with financial + growth data. Built for franchise consultants, brokers, PE firms, journalists, and prospective franchisees. - **URL**: https://apify.com/growth-installations/entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Growth Installations](https://apify.com/growth-installations) (community) - **Categories:** Lead generation, AI, Agents - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $3.00 / 1,000 franchise records This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Entrepreneur Franchise 500 Scraper **Extract the entire Entrepreneur.com Franchise 500 ranking with real financial disclosure data** — initial investment ranges, franchise fees, royalty %, ad fund %, unit counts, and 10+ years of unit-history growth per brand. Built for franchise consultants, brokers, private-equity acquirers, journalists, and prospective franchisees who need the numbers that make or break a deal. ### What this Actor does Scrapes every brand on `entrepreneur.com/franchise500` and its sub-rankings (Fastest Growing, Top Global, Top Food, Best for Veterans, and more), returning a flat table with: - **Ranking data** — rank, brand name, category, parent company - **Financials** — initial investment min/max, initial franchise fee, ongoing royalty %, ad fund %, term-length in years - **Unit counts** — US units, international units, company-owned units, total units - **Multi-year unit history** — a per-brand time-series going back to 2016 covering US / international / company-owned / total units, revealing growth or contraction over a decade - **Leadership** — CEO name - **Metadata** — year founded, franchising since, brand logo URL, canonical Entrepreneur profile URL The Franchise 500 has been the industry-standard US franchise ranking since 1980. This actor makes it queryable, filterable, and integratable into deal-flow workflows. ### Why buyers care **Franchise brokers** typically earn $10-25k per successful placement. Knowing that Jersey Mike's requires $181k-$1.4M initial investment with 6.5% royalty vs. Culver's at $3.4M-$10.3M with 4% royalty is the difference between a matched intro and a wasted call. This dataset drops straight into a broker CRM. **Franchise consultants** cross-reference royalty % and ad-fund % against a prospect's cash flow model — the two fields that determine unit economics after a franchisee opens. **PE firms and family offices** scanning for roll-up targets use `growth_last_3yr` + `num_units_us` history to spot brands adding 50+ units/year — the profile that trades at 8-12x EBITDA. **Journalists and researchers** get a machine-readable snapshot of an editorial ranking that has historically only been available as an infinite-scroll web page. **Prospective franchisees** compare 15-20 candidate brands side-by-side on the fee/investment/royalty numbers that are otherwise buried inside individual FDD documents. ### How to use 1. Open the actor in Apify Console and click **Try for free**. 2. Set **Ranking** to `Franchise 500 (all 500)` (or pick a sub-ranking like `Fastest Growing`). 3. Optionally narrow with **Rank from / Rank to** (e.g. top 100) or a **Category** slug like `food`, `automotive`, `pets`. 4. Leave **Fetch detail pages** on (this is what gets you the financial fields; disable only if you want the light ranking-list feed). 5. Click **Save & Start**. A full 500-brand run finishes in about 1 minute. 6. Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, or RSS from the **Storage** tab. ### Input | Field | Type | Default | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | `rankingId` | enum | `f500` | `f500` (all 500), `fs` (Fastest Growing), `tv` (Veterans), `tg` (Global), `tm` (Multi-Unit), `bb` (Best of the Best), `tf` (Top Food), `tb` (Boomers), `ab` (Adventurous) | | `category` | string | none | Optional category slug: `food`, `automotive`, `pets`, `health-wellness`, `home-improvement`, `business-services`, `childrens-businesses`, `financial-services`, `personal-care`, `retail` | | `rankFrom` | int | 1 | Starting rank | | `rankTo` | int | 500 | Ending rank | | `includeDetail` | bool | true | Fetch detail pages for financial fields. Turn off only for a fast ranking-list-only pull | | `maxConcurrency` | int | 10 | Parallel detail-page fetches (site's robots.txt is fully open) | Example input for the top 50 food franchises: ```json { "rankingId": "f500", "category": "food", "rankFrom": 1, "rankTo": 50, "includeDetail": true, "maxConcurrency": 10 } ```` ### Output Each dataset item is one franchise brand. Example (top-ranked #1 in the 2025 Franchise 500): ```json { "rank": 1, "brand": "Jersey Mike's Subs", "category": "Food / Sandwiches", "parent_company": "Blackstone", "year_founded": 1956, "franchising_since": 1987, "num_units_us": 3105, "num_units_intl": 0, "num_company_owned": 40, "num_units_total": 3145, "growth_last_3yr": 39, "initial_investment_min": 181903, "initial_investment_max": 1413592, "initial_franchise_fee": 18500, "royalty_pct": 6.5, "ad_fund_pct": 5, "term_length_years": 20, "ceo": "Peter Cancro", "hq_city": null, "hq_state": null, "website": null, "url": "https://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/directory/jersey-mikes-subs/282041", "logo_url": "https://assets.entrepreneur.com/franchise/282041-avatar-image-...jpeg", "unit_history": [ { "year": 2016, "us": 1179, "intl": 0, "company": 0, "total": 1179 }, { "year": 2020, "us": 1785, "intl": 0, "company": 15, "total": 1800 }, { "year": 2025, "us": 3105, "intl": 0, "company": 40, "total": 3145 } ], "slug": "jersey-mikes-subs", "entrepreneur_franchise_id": "282041" } ``` ### Data table | Field | Type | Notes | |---|---|---| | `rank` | number | Ranking position within `rankingId` | | `brand` | string | Brand name as printed by Entrepreneur | | `category` | string | `parent / primary` slash-joined | | `parent_company` | string | null | Corporate parent when disclosed | | `year_founded` | number | null | 4-digit year | | `franchising_since` | number | null | 4-digit year the brand began franchising | | `num_units_us` | number | null | Latest-year US unit count | | `num_units_intl` | number | null | Latest-year international unit count | | `num_company_owned` | number | null | Latest-year company-owned unit count | | `num_units_total` | number | null | Sum of the above | | `growth_last_3yr` | number | null | Percent unit growth over trailing 3 years | | `initial_investment_min` | number | null | USD, low end of investment range | | `initial_investment_max` | number | null | USD, high end of investment range | | `initial_franchise_fee` | number | null | USD, upfront franchise fee | | `royalty_pct` | number | null | Ongoing royalty percent of gross sales | | `ad_fund_pct` | number | null | Ongoing advertising / brand fund percent | | `term_length_years` | number | null | Length of initial franchise agreement | | `ceo` | string | null | Current CEO (parsed from "Leadership" field) | | `hq_city` | string | null | HQ city (not surfaced on the current site — reserved for future) | | `hq_state` | string | null | HQ state (not surfaced on the current site — reserved for future) | | `website` | string | null | Brand corporate site (not surfaced on the current site — reserved for future) | | `url` | string | Canonical Entrepreneur.com detail page | | `logo_url` | string | null | Brand logo image URL | | `unit_history` | array | Per-year `{year, us, intl, company, total}` going back to 2016 in most cases | | `slug` | string | URL slug used by Entrepreneur | | `entrepreneur_franchise_id` | string | Internal id used by Entrepreneur's GraphQL | ### Multi-year unit history Even though Entrepreneur only publishes the *current* Franchise 500 ranking on their site (prior years are not archived at public URLs), each brand's detail page carries the full **10+ year unit-count time series** — US, international, company-owned, total — from 2016 forward. That embedded chart data is parsed out into the `unit_history` array, giving you a decade of growth-or-contraction signal per brand without needing a paid FDD subscription. ### Verified from a real run A 15-brand test run on the top of the 2025 Franchise 500 populated the differentiator fields at these rates: | Field | Populated | |---|---| | `initial_investment_min` | 15/15 | | `initial_investment_max` | 15/15 | | `initial_franchise_fee` | 15/15 | | `royalty_pct` | 13/15 | | `ad_fund_pct` | 13/15 | | `term_length_years` | 14/15 | | `ceo` | 15/15 | | `year_founded` / `franchising_since` | 15/15 | | `parent_company` | 13/15 | | `unit_history` | 15/15 (10+ years each) | Fields that came back systematically null on the current site: `hq_city`, `hq_state`, `website` — these are not surfaced on Entrepreneur's current detail-page template and are kept in the schema as reserved. ### Pricing **Pay per result: approximately $2.00 per 1,000 records.** | Scenario | Records | Approx. cost | |---|---|---| | Top 15 test | 15 | ~$0.03 | | Top 100 F500 | 100 | ~$0.20 | | Full Franchise 500 with financials | 500 | ~$1.00 | | Weekly full pull for a year | 26,000 | ~$52 | A full 500-record run finishes in roughly 60-90 seconds of platform compute (one GraphQL call for the ranking plus 500 lightweight Cheerio detail-page fetches). ### Tips - **First run**: pull the full 500 with `includeDetail: true` and let it complete. Use that as your baseline snapshot. - **Weekly refresh**: schedule the full-500 pull weekly — Entrepreneur updates unit counts and financial disclosures throughout the year as franchisors submit revised FDDs. - **Fast list-only pull**: set `includeDetail: false` if you only need rank + brand + category + investMin + growth. This drops the 500 detail fetches and cuts run time to under 5 seconds. - **Category slicing**: pair a `category` filter with `rankFrom`/`rankTo` to build focused ICP lists — for example, top 25 food or top 50 home-improvement brands only. - **Integrate with your CRM**: use the Apify API or a scheduled task to append weekly snapshots into Postgres/BigQuery, then diff on `num_units_us` or `initial_franchise_fee` to catch fee changes and expansion signals early. ### FAQ **Are you affiliated with Entrepreneur.com?** No. This actor scrapes their public rankings pages using their own public GraphQL API. Entrepreneur.com's robots.txt is fully open on the franchise directory. **Is this legal?** The Franchise 500 is a published editorial ranking on a public site with an open robots.txt. Redistribute responsibly; check Entrepreneur.com's Terms of Service for your use case. **Why are `hq_city`, `hq_state`, `website` null?** Entrepreneur removed those fields from the current detail-page template. They remain in the schema for compatibility and will populate automatically if the site re-adds them. **Can I get prior-year rankings (2023, 2022, ...)?** The current ranking is the only one Entrepreneur publishes at a public URL. However, `unit_history` gives you a per-brand 10-year time series of unit counts, which is what most buyers actually want out of a "historical" dataset. Take a full-500 snapshot each January to build your own year-over-year ranking archive going forward. **Support**: report issues on the Issues tab. Custom variants (e.g. adding FDD document links, sub-ranking cross-joins) available on request. # Actor input Schema ## `rankingId` (type: `string`): Which ranking to scrape. `f500` is the flagship Franchise 500. Other IDs are specialty sub-rankings surfaced by Entrepreneur. ## `category` (type: `string`): Restrict results to a specific category slug (e.g. `food`, `automotive`, `pets`, `health-wellness`, `home-improvement`, `business-services`, `childrens-businesses`, `financial-services`, `personal-care`, `retail`). Leave blank for all categories. ## `rankFrom` (type: `integer`): Starting rank (1 = #1). Combined with `rankTo` to limit the range. ## `rankTo` (type: `integer`): Ending rank (500 = #500). Combined with `rankFrom` to limit the range. ## `includeDetail` (type: `boolean`): Fetch each franchise's detail page for financial fields (initial investment, franchise fee, royalty percent, ad fund percent, term length, CEO, unit breakdown, parent company, year founded, franchising since). REQUIRED for the differentiator financial fields. Disable only if you want ranking-list data only. ## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`): How many detail pages to fetch in parallel. Entrepreneur.com has fully open robots.txt but be a good citizen. ## Actor input object example ```json { "rankingId": "f500", "rankFrom": 1, "rankTo": 500, "includeDetail": true, "maxConcurrency": 10 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = {}; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("growth-installations/entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = {} # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("growth-installations/entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{}' | apify call growth-installations/entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=growth-installations/entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Entrepreneur Franchise 500 Scraper - Rankings & Investment", "description": "THE definitive annual US franchise ranking - 500 franchises with financial + growth data. Built for franchise consultants, brokers, PE firms, journalists, and prospective franchisees.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "nlhkpqPigavHhFqud" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/growth-installations~entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-growth-installations-entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/growth-installations~entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-growth-installations-entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/growth-installations~entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-growth-installations-entrepreneur-franchise500-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "rankingId" ], "properties": { "rankingId": { "title": "Ranking", "enum": [ "f500", "fs", "tv", "tg", "tm", "bb", "tf", "tb", "ab" ], "type": "string", "description": "Which ranking to scrape. `f500` is the flagship Franchise 500. Other IDs are specialty sub-rankings surfaced by Entrepreneur.", "default": "f500" }, "category": { "title": "Category filter (optional)", "type": "string", "description": "Restrict results to a specific category slug (e.g. `food`, `automotive`, `pets`, `health-wellness`, `home-improvement`, `business-services`, `childrens-businesses`, `financial-services`, `personal-care`, `retail`). Leave blank for all categories." }, "rankFrom": { "title": "Rank from", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 500, "type": "integer", "description": "Starting rank (1 = #1). Combined with `rankTo` to limit the range.", "default": 1 }, "rankTo": { "title": "Rank to", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 500, "type": "integer", "description": "Ending rank (500 = #500). Combined with `rankFrom` to limit the range.", "default": 500 }, "includeDetail": { "title": "Fetch detail pages", "type": "boolean", "description": "Fetch each franchise's detail page for financial fields (initial investment, franchise fee, royalty percent, ad fund percent, term length, CEO, unit breakdown, parent company, year founded, franchising since). REQUIRED for the differentiator financial fields. Disable only if you want ranking-list data only.", "default": true }, "maxConcurrency": { "title": "Max concurrent detail requests", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 50, "type": "integer", "description": "How many detail pages to fetch in parallel. Entrepreneur.com has fully open robots.txt but be a good citizen.", "default": 10 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```