FranchiseDirect Scraper

A powerful Apify Actor that extracts comprehensive franchise data from FranchiseDirect.com. This scraper is designed to collect detailed franchise information from listing pages and individual franchise profiles.

🚀 Features

• Comprehensive Data Extraction: Collects franchise details including titles, descriptions, pricing, images, categories, and more
• Smart Crawling: Automatically discovers and follows franchise links from directory and category pages
• Robust Error Handling: Gracefully handles network issues and missing data
• Flexible Input Options: Support for search queries, category filtering, and investment range filtering
• Clean Output: Only returns fields with actual data, eliminating null values
• Proxy Support: Uses Apify datacenter proxies for reliable scraping

📊 Output Data

The scraper extracts the following comprehensive franchise information:

Field	Description	Example
id	Unique franchise identifier	"hommati"
title	Franchise name/title	"Hommati"
short_description	Brief franchise summary	"The sky is the limit! Provide innovative services to real estate agents..."
category	Franchise category	"Home Based"
industry	Industry classification	"Home Based"
franchise_name	Official franchise name	"Hommati"
price	Investment/price information	"$70,000"
Financial Data
minimum_cash_required	Minimum cash required	"$70,000"
franchise_fee	Franchise fee amount	"$44,900"
total_investment_range	Total investment range	"$28,375 - $54,375"
Business Details
business_type	Type of business	"Franchise"
financing_assistance	Financing assistance available	"3rd Party"
training_provided	Training provided	"Including Your FAA Remote Pilot License"
home_based	Home-based opportunity	"Yes"
available_locations	Available locations	"Single, multi-unit opportunities available in the United States"
franchise_units	Number of franchise units	70000
franchise_opportunity_url	Link to franchise opportunity	"https://www.franchisedirect.com/home-based-franchises/hommati/"
financial_data	Complete financial information	"Minimum Cash Required: $70,000, Franchise Fee: $44,900..."
scrapedTimestamp	When the data was scraped	"2025-10-07T17:28:36.490Z"
description	Complete franchise description	"Remember When Someone First Told You to Find Something You Love to Do..."
Multimedia Content
images	Array of franchise images	["https://static4.franchisedirect.ie/.../hommati-logo.jpg"]
news	Array of news articles	[{"title": "Hommati Selected for the National INC 5,000 List", "date": "December 13, 2023", ...}]
videos	Array of videos with YouTube IDs	[{"title": "Get to Know Hommati: Our Mini Tour", "video_id": "PAEi5Bj4XpU", ...}]

🎯 Input Parameters

You can use the scraper in two ways:

Option 1: Direct URL Scraping

• startUrl (string, required): The URL to start scraping from. Must be a listing page (directory, category, or search results), not an individual franchise page.
• maxItems (number, optional): Maximum number of franchises to collect (required for free users, max 100)

Option 2: Filtered Scraping (without startUrl)

• searchQuery (string, optional): Search term to find specific franchises (e.g., "food", "retail", "fitness")
• categories (array, optional): Filter by franchise categories
• investmentRange (array, optional): Filter by investment ranges
• location (string, optional): Filter by location (e.g., "United States", "Canada")
• territoryAvailable (string, optional): Show only franchises with available territories
• franchisingSince (string, optional): Filter by minimum years franchising
• maxItems (number, optional): Maximum number of franchises to collect (required for free users, max 100)

Note: You cannot use startUrl together with filter parameters (searchQuery, categories, investmentRange, etc.). Choose either direct URL scraping or filtered scraping.

📝 Usage Examples

Option 1: Direct URL Scraping

Basic Directory Scraping

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/directory/"
}

Scrape Specific Category Page

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/directory/food-franchises/",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Scrape Search Results

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/directory/?search=coffee",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Option 2: Filtered Scraping

Search for Specific Franchises

{
  "searchQuery": "coffee",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Filter by Category and Investment Range

{
  "categories": ["FOOD_AND_BEVERAGE"],
  "investmentRange": ["100K_TO_250K", "250K_TO_500K"],
  "maxItems": 100
}

Advanced Filtering

{
  "searchQuery": "fitness",
  "categories": ["HEALTH_AND_FITNESS"],
  "investmentRange": ["50K_TO_100K"],
  "location": "United States",
  "maxItems": 75
}

🎨 Supported Categories

• Food & Beverage
• Retail
• Health & Fitness
• Automotive
• Business Services
• Cleaning & Maintenance
• Education & Training
• Home Improvement
• Personal Services
• Real Estate
• Travel & Leisure
• Children Services
• Pet Services
• Technology
• Beauty & Wellness

💰 Investment Ranges

• Under $50K
• $50K - $100K
• $100K - $250K
• $250K - $500K
• $500K - $1M
• Over $1M

🔧 Technical Details

• Runtime: Node.js 20+
• Browser: Firefox (Playwright)
• Concurrency: 1 request at a time for stability
• Timeout: 30 seconds per page
• Proxy: Apify datacenter proxies (when available)
• User Agent: Rotating user agents for better success rates

📈 Pricing

• Per Run: $0.005
• Per 1000 Results: $5.00

🚨 Important Notes

1. Start URL Requirements: The startUrl must point to a listing page (directory, category, or search results), not an individual franchise page. The scraper will automatically discover and follow franchise links.

2. Free User Limits: Free users must specify maxItems and are limited to 100 items per run.

3. Rate Limiting: The scraper includes built-in delays and uses proxies to respect the website's rate limits.

4. Data Quality: The scraper focuses on extracting high-quality data and only returns fields with actual content.

🔍 Example Output

{
  "id": "hommati",
  "title": "Hommati",
  "short_description": "The sky is the limit! Provide innovative services to real estate agents such as 3D Tours, Aerial Videos and Virtual Staging. There's a lot of money to be made by becoming a Drone Pilot.",
  "category": "Home Based",
  "industry": "Home Based",
  "franchise_name": "Hommati",
  "price": "$70,000",
  "minimum_cash_required": "$70,000",
  "franchise_fee": "$44,900",
  "total_investment_range": null,
  "business_type": "Franchise",
  "financing_assistance": "3rd Party",
  "training_provided": "Including Your FAA Remote Pilot License",
  "home_based": "Yes",
  "available_locations": "Single, multi-unit opportunities available in the United States",
  "franchise_units": 70000,
  "franchise_opportunity_url": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/home-based-franchises/hommati/",
  "financial_data": "Hommati Financial Data The following financial information was provided by Hommati to give you more information about the costs associated with a Hommati opportunity Minimum Cash Required $70,000 Franchise Fee $44,900 Total Investment Range As low as $69,000",
  "scrapedTimestamp": "2025-10-07T17:28:36.490Z",
  "description": "Remember When Someone First Told You to Find Something You Love to Do and You'll Never Work Another Day in Your Life?Provide Innovative Services to Real Estate Agents As a Franchise Owner of Hommati, you'll offer a wide range of innovative and much needed services to real estate professionals...",
  "images": [
    "https://static4.franchisedirect.ie/dims4/default/ea244ed/2147483647/strip/true/crop/350x220+0+0/resize/255x160!/quality/95/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffranchisedirect-40-prod-ops.s3.amazonaws.com%2F39%2Fa0%2F4381f8bcc1f8a40e9944c4e5fdcc%2Fhommati-logo.jpg"
  ],
  "news": [
    {
      "title": "Hommati Selected for the National INC 5,000 List",
      "date": "December 13, 2023",
      "description": "Inc. magazine recently revealed that Hommati is ranked as No. 693 on its annual Inc. 5,000 list.",
      "url": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/news/home-based-franchises/hommati/hommati-selected-for-the-national-inc-5-000-list#news"
    }
  ],
  "videos": [
    {
      "title": "Get to Know Hommati: Our Mini Tour",
      "description": "If you've been considering franchise opportunities and feel you might want to be your own boss then the Hommati franchise model could be a great fit for you.",
      "video_id": "PAEi5Bj4XpU",
      "thumbnail_url": "https://static4.franchisedirect.ie/dims4/default/5afe9da/2147483647/strip/true/crop/480x313+0+24/resize/767x500!/quality/95/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FPAEi5Bj4XpU%2Fhqdefault.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/get-to-know-hommati-our-mini-tour#videos"
    }
  ]
}

📞 Support

For questions, issues, or feature requests, please contact the development team or create an issue in the repository.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.