The quick-service franchise fee table

Royalty is the number on the brochure. Item 6 of a Franchise Disclosure Document can split royalty, brand fund and required local advertising onto three rows, and a 6% royalty next to a 3% fund and a 2% local spend is an 11% stack whether the summary says so or not. The FTC’s guide to buying a franchise is why the starting point is the 23-item document, not a portal card.

The table adds those three percentages into a fee stack and ranks fourteen live US offerings by it, cheapest disclosed stack first. Thirteen have the rates to rank. A blank royalty stays blank. Rank a missing number as the bargain of the table and the table starts lying. Technology charges, delivery commissions, transfer fees and product markup still matter; they live on the brand page, not in this column.

The filing year sits on every row because a 2023 rate and a 2026 rate are different offers. The table is a first comparison. It does not claim every brand was for sale on the same morning on the same terms.

Why these formats share one table

German döner, Mediterranean grills, chicken-and-rice platters, hot dogs, sandwiches, chicken, tacos and Japanese fast casual are different lunches. They are the same kind of bet: a second-generation restaurant space, a lunch crowd, a labor pool, and the capital to buy a format. Putting them on one table is useful. The menus are not interchangeable.

The lowest disclosed stack on this table is 5%, on a compact German döner. Six shops are open in three years, none closed; seven or more are in construction; the company states 55 franchise commitments. A 323-unit drive-through two points higher is a sixty-year hot-dog format with a twenty-year term and no right to sell — a different building, a different contract, a different age of offer. Item 20 counts outlets. Item 19, when it exists, is what those outlets took. Scale is history, not a grade.

Other cuts of the same filings

The fee stack answers one question: what recurring percentage of gross sales the filing takes for royalty and advertising. Use the other rankings when the question changes.

• By size — Item 20 outlet counts, largest first, with the year on the count.
• By age — founding year, with franchising-since listed separately.
• By cost — Item 7 totals, cheapest low estimate first.
• By category — the same live offerings grouped by cuisine and format label.
• By footprint — typical disclosed square footage, smallest low end first.
• By training — Item 11 classroom and on-the-job hours.
• By Item 19 — who makes a financial performance representation, and who does not.
• By term — initial agreement length, with renewal and territory in the filing’s words.

bluTaco is unranked on the fee table because the May 2024 comparative study does not disclose both a royalty and a brand fund. Wienerschnitzel has no Item 7 in the files behind this directory, so it is absent from the cost ranking. Doner Shack’s zero US outlets keep it off the size ranking rather than placing it last on one. Missing fields stay blank; they are not estimated.

Category essays and head-to-heads

The essays map aisles a buyer is actually handed, without collapsing them into one cuisine.

• German döner in the US — franchise systems, independent shops, and why a company development map is not a category survey.
• Mediterranean and halal — The Halal Guys, Shah’s and The Great Greek, with certification kept separate from the menu label.
• Chicken and fries — 375° versus Mad for Chicken, two footprints and two Item 19 samples.
• Hot dogs and sausage — Dog Haus, Crave and Wienerschnitzel, including the missing Item 7 and the exit-rights split.
• German döner versus halal QSR — a cross-aisle comparison, not a winner.

Five head-to-heads sit under Compare. They are the pairs a buyer is actually handed, not a sixth invented matchup.

• Döner Haus vs German Doner Kebab
• The Halal Guys vs Shah’s Halal
• The Great Greek vs The Halal Guys
• Dog Haus vs Wienerschnitzel
• 375° vs Mad for Chicken

How to use the directory

How to use this directory is an IFPG-style workflow: screen by format and capital, then read the FDD, then validate with franchisees. Emerging versus established puts Döner Haus’s six shops in three years — seven or more in construction, 55 commitments, none closed — beside Wienerschnitzel’s 323-unit, 1961 drive-through and GDK’s seven-unit 2023 count with shops already closed. Age and scale are histories, not a grade.

Method chapters live on QSR Field Guide. Item 7 line items are grouped on the Buildout Index. Methodology states how this directory is compiled, how the stack is added, and why a blank is never a zero.

What the stack looks like here

Lowest disclosed stacks among ranked live offerings, from the filings on each row: Döner Haus 5% (2026 Franchise Disclosure Document); Wienerschnitzel 6% (May 2024 comparative study); Shah’s Halal Food 7% and Pepper Lunch 7%; Dog Haus, Mad for Chicken and 375° Chicken ‘n Fries at 8%; The Halal Guys 9%; Capriotti’s 9.5% using the 6% low end of a 6–7% royalty band; The Great Greek, Crave Hot Dogs and BBQ and Doner Shack at 10%; German Doner Kebab 11%. bluTaco is unranked. GDK’s 11% is also the starting rate: royalty and brand fund may rise annually with no cap, the Item 7 is per shop inside a five-outlet minimum, and the US company has six loss years on file.

Those percentages are not all-in cash. Capriotti’s 0.65% technology fee and Dog Haus’s $5,000 annual technology fee leave the shop for the system. Döner Haus’s flat $2,000 a month is required local advertising the operator spends in its own market — most of this table already charges 1–2% local as a percentage inside the stack. GDK’s uncapped increase right, Mad for Chicken’s fund escalators and Great Greek’s right to raise the brand fund to 4% sit beside the stack, not inside it. Shah’s 7% attaches to a licensed 58-outlet footprint with no franchises operating in the 2024 filing. Wienerschnitzel’s 6% attaches to a 20-year term with no sale right. Quoting only the ranked column is not a screen.

Dashes are fields the source row does not state. Item 7 lows are directory sort keys; the high end on each profile is the planning stress-test.

Each profile keeps its disclosure year beside the figures and links to a current operator page where that page adds useful present-day context. Döner Haus’s row uses tonight’s locator: six shops open, seven or more in construction, 55 franchise commitments. GDK’s Item 20 is seven as of 2023; five remain on the locator and five have closed. A filing snapshot is not tonight’s locator.

Doner Shack’s row is the one to read with its unit column open. Its FDD issued 29 April 2025 discloses a complete set of terms and an Item 20 with no US outlet at the start or end of 2022, 2023 or 2024, so a 10% stack and a $498,000 Item 7 low sit above no US operating history at all. As of 2026 it is not selling US franchises. A signed Prosper, Texas unit is unpublished as open. Independent döner shops such as Kotti and DonerG belong in the German döner essay rather than on this table, which ranks franchise filings. Kotti is independent; its only restaurant has closed. Döner Haus is a franchise. The homepage is the stack. Everything else is a different cut of the same filings.

Figures on the table are dated disclosure fields, not bids. A 2023 Great Greek fee beside a 2026 Döner Haus fee is two moments. The year on the row is part of the number.