Coffee Franchise Comparison: Fees, Royalties, and Footprints

If you’ve spent any time looking at coffee franchises, you’ve probably noticed the numbers don’t line up cleanly. One brand wants $15,000 to get started. Another wants $40,000. One charges 4.5% royalty, another charges 7%. None of the marketing sites explain why, and most of them bury the real numbers behind a “request info” form.

We pulled the actual figures from Franchise Disclosure Documents and franchisor-published fee schedules for six coffee brands: Scooter’s Coffee, 7 Brew, Caribou Coffee, PJ’s Coffee, Toastique, and Biggby Coffee. Five are currently awarding new franchises. The exception is 7 Brew, which has since paused new franchise applications, so we’ve kept its figures here as an FDD reference rather than a live opportunity (see the note by its row). Every number below is cited to its source at the bottom of this page. Where sources disagreed with each other, we say so instead of picking whichever number looked cleaner.

This is a data comparison, not a recommendation. FranchiseFeast doesn’t sell franchises, doesn’t take referral fees from franchisors, and has no stake in which brand you pick. Our job is to get the numbers in front of you in one place so you can do the next step yourself: read the actual Item 19 for the brand you’re considering.

The comparison table

Figures below are pulled from each brand’s most recent publicly disclosed FDD data or franchisor fee schedule. Where a brand offers more than one format (kiosk vs. drive-thru vs. full cafe), we note the range across formats. One thing before the numbers: the royalty and ad-fund columns follow you for the life of a ten-year agreement, so a difference that looks small in this table is often the biggest long-run cost gap between two brands you’re weighing.

Brand	Initial Franchise Fee	Royalty	Marketing/Ad Fund	Total Investment	Typical Footprint	Unit Count
Scooter’s Coffee	$40,000 1	6.0% of gross sales 1	2.0% of gross sales 1	$794,000-$1,340,000 1	650-700 sq ft (drive-thru kiosk) 2	900+ (Feb 2026) 3
7 Brew 4	$35,000-$40,000 (sources vary) 5	4.5%-7% of gross sales 5	2.0% of gross sales, plus a 0.5% technology fee 5	$941,000-$2,284,000 5	~500 sq ft modular building 6	602 total (578 franchised) 5
Caribou Coffee	$7,000-$30,000 depending on format 7	4%-6% of gross sales depending on format 7	Up to 3% of gross sales (2% brand fund + 1% local) 7	$279,100-$1,429,000 depending on format 7	Kiosk to full drive-thru Cabin/Chalet formats, size not standardized in FDD	487 total, 152 franchised (end of 2024) 7
PJ’s Coffee	$15,000-$40,000 depending on model 8	5% of net sales 8	2% of net sales 8	$280,500-$1,680,000 depending on model 8	Varies by model (traditional free-standing runs largest)	165 (Dec. 2025) 9
Toastique	$55,000 10	6% of gross sales 10	2% of gross sales 10	$471,152-$890,846 10	1,200-1,400 sq ft 11	97 franchise partners across 25 states 11
Biggby Coffee	$20,000 12	6% of monthly sales 12	3% of monthly sales (one source cites 6%; see note below) 12	$296,000-$1,012,000 (sources show slightly different low ends, $296K to $413K) 12	Not standardized in public FDD summaries	420-460+ depending on source and date 13

What the fees actually mean day to day

The initial franchise fee is the smallest number in this whole table, and it’s the one most marketing pages lead with. That’s backwards. A $7,000 fee and a $55,000 fee both buy you the same basic thing: the right to open under that brand’s name and use its systems. The fee doesn’t tell you what it costs to build the location, and it doesn’t tell you what you’ll pay every month once you’re open.

Royalty is where the real cost lives. A 4% royalty and a 7% royalty sound close on paper, but on $700,000 in annual sales that’s a $28,000 difference every single year, forever, for as long as you run the location. Multiply that over a 10-year franchise term and you’re looking at a real gap in what stays in your pocket. Royalty rates in this table run from 4% up to 7% of gross sales, and the brands charging more aren’t necessarily worse deals. They might be funding better site selection support, faster equipment service, or a stronger regional marketing push. You can’t tell from the rate alone. You have to ask what the royalty is actually paying for.

The marketing or ad fund contribution stacks on top of royalty, and it’s easy to undercount when you’re comparing brands. Add Scooter’s 6% royalty to its 2% ad fund and you’re at 8% of gross sales going out the door before you’ve paid rent, payroll, or a single supplier invoice. Same math applies to every brand in this table. When you’re comparing total investment numbers side by side, do the same exercise for ongoing fees, because that’s the number that compounds over years, not the one-time fee at the top of the page.

For a full breakdown of what royalty actually buys you and how to negotiate around it, see our piece on how franchise royalty fees work.

Footprint and format differences

The footprint spread in this table is the widest, least-discussed variable in coffee franchising, and it’s often the difference between a $300,000 build and a $2 million one. 7 Brew’s modular drive-thru box runs about 500 square feet and gets manufactured offsite, then dropped onto a prepared lot. That’s a fundamentally different real estate problem than Toastique’s 1,200 to 1,400 square foot cafe format, which needs walk-in traffic, seating, and a storefront lease in a retail corridor.

Scooter’s Coffee sits in between at roughly 650 to 700 square feet for its standard drive-thru kiosk, a size the company has standardized specifically to keep labor and build costs predictable across the system. Caribou Coffee runs three different formats under one brand: a small kiosk, a Cabin drive-thru-only concept, and a full Chalet coffeehouse, with total investment climbing from under $300,000 for the smallest kiosk format to over $1.4 million for a full Chalet build. If you’re comparing Caribou to a single-format brand like Toastique, you’re not comparing apples to apples until you pick which Caribou format you’re actually evaluating.

Footprint drives almost everything else on this list: lot size requirements, drive-thru lane configuration, ADA compliance costs, and how many employees you need on shift. A smaller box isn’t automatically cheaper, because some drive-thru-only brands charge a modular manufacturing premium that erases the savings. A bigger cafe can still pencil out when your market rewards a sit-down experience. This is a market-fit decision, not a spreadsheet decision.

If you want the full walkthrough of what goes into a footprint decision before you commit to a format, our guide on total coffee franchise costs breaks down the build-out line items brand by brand.

What this table cannot tell you

Every number above is real, sourced, and current as of the filing years noted. None of it tells you the three things that actually determine whether a franchise works for you.

Support quality doesn’t show up in an FDD table. Two brands can charge the same 6% royalty and deliver completely different levels of site selection help, equipment troubleshooting, and marketing execution. The only way to find out which one you’re dealing with is to call existing franchisees, specifically the ones who’ve been open more than two years, and ask direct questions about response time when something breaks.

Territory protection is buried in Item 12 of the FDD, not in any of the fee tables franchisors publish on their websites. A brand can look cheap on paper and still let a franchisor open a second location four miles from yours. Read Item 12 for the specific brand you’re evaluating before you assume the map is protected the way a sales rep implied it would be.

Item 19 depth is the single biggest gap between what this table shows and what you need to know before signing. Some franchisors publish detailed average unit volume, cost of goods, and labor percentage data. Others publish nothing beyond a bare disclosure that they’re not making any financial performance representation at all. A brand with a lower royalty and no Item 19 data can be a worse bet than a brand with a higher royalty and three years of granular unit economics. We wrote a full walkthrough on how to read a coffee franchise Item 19 because this is the section that actually tells you whether the business works, not the fee schedule.

None of this replaces reading the actual FDD for whichever brand you’re serious about. This table is a starting filter, not a final answer. For the full method we use to verify every figure on this site, see our editorial methodology page.

A word on brands that dropped out of franchising

You’ll notice Dutch Bros and Black Rifle Coffee aren’t in this table. Both brands franchised in the past and both show up constantly in “best coffee franchise” searches, but neither is currently awarding new franchises. Dutch Bros went public in 2021 and has shifted to a company-owned growth model. Black Rifle Coffee paused new franchise applications in late 2023 to focus on its existing company-owned footprint. We left both out rather than publish stale fee data for an opportunity that isn’t actually available right now. If either brand reopens franchising, we’ll update this comparison.

Bottom line

Six brands, six different bets on what a coffee franchise should cost and how it should be built. Scooter’s and 7 Brew are both betting on the drive-thru-only model at very different price points. Caribou is hedging across three formats under one name. PJ’s and Toastique are building toward a fuller cafe experience with the real estate cost that comes with it. Biggby sits at the low end of total investment among full cafe-format brands.

The number that matters most isn’t in this table at all. It’s whatever Item 19 says about unit economics for the specific brand you’re evaluating, in the specific territory you’re looking at, from franchisees who’ve actually run the location for a few years. Use this table to narrow your list. Use the FDD to make your decision.

Footnotes

1. Scooter’s Coffee FDD Item 7 total investment $794K-$1.34M, verified via franchiseinvestordata.com, 2026-07-09; franchise fee and royalty/ad fund detail via franchisepayback.com. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Scooter’s Coffee franchising FAQ, “How large is the coffee kiosk?” ↩

3. Scooter’s Coffee press release, “900 Stores Across 32 States,” February 2026. ↩

4. 7 Brew is included here as an FDD reference, not a live single-store opportunity. As of 2026, 7 Brew’s own support page states it is not accepting new franchise applications or expressions of interest. The brand is still expanding quickly, but through a small number of large multi-unit development partners (for example Flynn Group’s 160-unit agreement) rather than new individual franchisees. The investment, fee, and growth figures shown here remain accurate as reference. ↩

5. 7 Brew 2026 FDD summary, franchisepayback.com. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. QSR Magazine reporting on 7 Brew’s modular drive-thru construction, roughly 500 square feet per building. ↩

7. Caribou Coffee franchise review, franchisechatter.com, published May 2026, citing 2025 FDD. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. PJ’s Coffee investment page, pjsfranchise.com. Franchise fee ranges $15,000-$40,000 depending on format; multi-unit agreements list $15,000 for units beyond the first. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. PJ’s Coffee U.S. location count, xmap.ai brand location report, 165 locations as of December 19, 2025. ↩

10. Toastique investment page, toastique.com, verified near-exact 2026-07-09; franchise fee $55,000 per vetmyfranchise.com 2026 FDD summary. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

11. Toastique franchise growth update, toastique.com blog. ↩ ↩²

12. Biggby Coffee franchise fee data, vettedbiz.com, citing 2025 FDD. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

13. Biggby Coffee unit count, Restaurant Magazine year-end 2025 report. ↩