Scooter's vs 7 Brew Franchise: Which Drive-Thru Fits You

If you’ve been cross-shopping drive-thru coffee franchises, you’ve probably landed on these two names more than any others. Scooter’s Coffee and 7 Brew are the two fastest-growing drive-thru-only coffee brands in the United States right now, but there’s one difference that matters before you go any further: only one of them is taking new franchise buyers today. Scooter’s is actively selling single-unit franchises. 7 Brew states on its own support page that it is not currently accepting new franchise applications or expressions of interest, and is expanding instead through a small number of large multi-unit development partners. That’s why this comparison treats Scooter’s as the brand a first-time buyer can actually open right now, and 7 Brew’s figures as a reference point, useful for seeing where the money goes, not a live application path. Dutch Bros stopped selling franchises in 2017; 7 Brew hasn’t stopped growing, it’s just narrowed who it signs.

The two brands look similar from the drive-thru lane: small building, no dining room, a menu built around speed and customization. The numbers underneath tell a more specific story about who each brand is actually built for. Scooter’s runs a standardized, narrower-range model with a lower entry point. 7 Brew runs hotter growth, a wider investment spread, and a royalty structure that scales with volume instead of staying flat.

We pulled every figure below from each brand’s own franchising site, its most recent Franchise Disclosure Document as summarized by FDD-data aggregators, or dated trade press. Where two sources disagreed with each other, we say so instead of quietly picking whichever number looked cleaner. FranchiseFeast doesn’t sell franchises for either brand and takes no referral fee from either one.

Franchise fee and total investment: the real starting number

The initial franchise fee is the number every franchise listing site leads with, and it’s the smallest number in either brand’s Item 7. 7 Brew’s fee runs $35,000 per single unit, according to FranchisePayback’s summary of the 2026 FDD and PeerSense’s franchise data page, verified March 19, 2026. Scooter’s fee sits at $40,000, confirmed directly on the franchisor’s own franchising site as of this writing. On the fee line alone, 7 Brew is $5,000 cheaper.

Total investment is where the comparison flips. Scooter’s Coffee publishes two distinct formats with two distinct ranges: an endcap format running $658,898 to $1,068,525, and a standalone kiosk format running $1,163,650 to $1,345,750, both per the franchisor’s own cost page. That endcap floor, under $660,000, is the lowest entry point either brand offers. 7 Brew doesn’t publish a smaller-format option at a comparable price. Its total investment lands around $894,000 to $2.2 million per PeerSense’s read of the FDD, while FranchisePayback’s summary of the same 2026 filing puts it slightly higher at $941,000 to $2,284,000. The two aggregators differ by roughly $47,000 at the floor, which is normal for a brand whose buyers increasingly sign multi-unit development deals rather than single stands, so treat the low end as a band, not a fixed number. Either way, there’s no 7 Brew path published anywhere in the roughly $650,000 to $850,000 range where Scooter’s endcap format lives.

One disagreement worth flagging: FranchiseChatter’s 2025 review of Scooter’s, updated July 8, 2026, lists a different kiosk range of $954,650 to $1,523,400, wider than the $1,163,650 to $1,345,750 figure on Scooter’s own page. Both cite FDD data; the gap likely reflects different FDD vintages. Confirm the live number against whatever FDD Scooter’s sends you.

7 Brew’s franchise fee has a wider discrepancy. Most current 2026-dated summaries, including FranchisePayback and PeerSense, put it at $35,000 flat, with a separate $45,000 development fee for a 2-store minimum. One 2025-dated source, BizFranHub, lists “$75,000 in combined development and initial franchise fees,” which reads like it’s bundling the per-unit fee with a multi-unit commitment rather than describing a single-store fee. Since most 7 Brew development deals now require 2 to 5 stores anyway, $75,000 may be closer to what a typical new franchisee actually pays than the $35,000 headline figure, even though it isn’t 7 Brew’s stated fee.

Royalty and ongoing fees: flat rate versus volume tier

This is the single biggest structural difference between these two brands, and it doesn’t show up unless you read past the headline fee. Scooter’s Coffee charges a flat 6% royalty on net sales, confirmed on the franchisor’s own site and matched by FranchisePayback’s independent FDD summary. Every Scooter’s location pays that same rate whether it’s doing $600,000 or $1.2 million a year.

7 Brew’s royalty is not flat. FranchisePayback’s 2026 FDD summary and BizFranHub’s 2025 FDD summary both describe a range of 4.5% to 7% of gross sales, tied to a weekly sales tier rather than one fixed number. A slower store pays less as a percentage; a higher-volume store lands near the top of that range. How many 7 Brew locations actually run at that volume is something only its Item 19 can tell you, not something to read into a single reported average. A strong-performing 7 Brew location can end up paying a higher royalty rate than a comparably strong Scooter’s location, even though the two brands’ headline numbers look similar if you only compare 7 Brew’s low end against Scooter’s flat rate.

Both brands add a marketing fund on top. 7 Brew’s is a consistent 2% of gross sales across every source checked. Scooter’s is where sources disagree: the franchisor’s own cost page states the current rate as 2% of net sales, while FranchisePayback’s FDD summary lists 4.0%. FranchiseChatter resolves this by quoting the FDD directly: “currently 2% of Net Sales, although Scooter’s Coffee may require you to pay up to 4% of Net Sales.” So 2% is the rate today, with room in the agreement to double it later, worth asking about directly if you’re evaluating this brand.

Add it up and Scooter’s ongoing fee burden sits at a predictable 8% of net sales today (6% royalty plus 2% ad fund), with room to move to 10% if the ad fund cap gets exercised. 7 Brew’s ongoing burden is somewhere between 6.5% and 9% of gross sales depending on volume tier, plus a separate technology fee that PeerSense’s FDD summary puts in a 0.5%-2.5% range. If you want to see what these percentage differences translate into in real dollars against your own projected sales, our franchise royalty calculator runs that math for whatever volume assumption you plug in.

Footprint and format: two versions of small

Neither brand builds a sit-down cafe, and that’s by design. Scooter’s Coffee runs a 650 to 700 square foot standard kiosk, per the franchisor’s own FAQ page, built around a single drive-thru lane and a walk-up window. Its endcap format is a variation on the same concept, tucked into an existing retail strip rather than built as a standalone structure, which is part of why the endcap’s total investment runs lower than the freestanding kiosk.

7 Brew’s stand runs 500 to 700 square feet, per PeerSense’s franchise data page, prefabricated off-site by Springfield, Missouri-based Creative Modular Construction in three pieces, a main body, a top section, and a canopy, then trucked to the lot and assembled on a prepared pad in about a week, according to Springfield Daily Citizen’s reporting on the manufacturer’s build process. The defining physical feature of a 7 Brew stand is its dual drive-thru lanes running on either side of the building, a configuration built specifically to keep throughput high during peak hours. Scooter’s standard kiosk runs a single lane.

The practical difference for a franchise buyer: 7 Brew’s format is more standardized around speed and off-site construction, which shortens build timelines but limits your options if your available lot doesn’t accommodate a dual-lane layout. Scooter’s offers a genuine choice between a freestanding kiosk and a retail-strip endcap, which gives you more real estate flexibility if you’re working a market where freestanding pad sites are scarce or expensive. For a deeper look at how footprint decisions ripple into build costs across drive-thru brands generally, see our drive-thru coffee franchise economics breakdown.

Growth, unit count, and what “actively franchising” actually means right now

Scooter’s Coffee crossed 900 stores across 32 states as of February 26, 2026, according to the company’s own press release, after adding 83 stores in 2025, a 10% increase, on top of a 16% increase in 2024. The company has stated it’s working toward 1,000 locations and is actively signing new multi-store development agreements, including a 31-unit deal with Boddie-Noell Enterprises, the country’s largest Hardee’s franchisee, announced in April 2026 to bring the brand into North Carolina and Virginia.

7 Brew’s growth curve is steeper in percentage terms. The company’s own site says it grew from 38 stands in January 2023 to more than 700 across 38 states as of this writing, and Restaurant Dive’s reporting, which cited the brand’s newly filed FDD, puts a more precise, more recent count at 777 units by June 2026, up from 600-plus at the end of 2025. Franchise Times, working from a slightly different starting point, put the chain at 38 locations in 2022 growing to 321 by the end of 2024, a 744.7% three-year growth rate for that stretch alone, with the run from 321 to 777 happening in the roughly eighteen months after that. 7 Brew is on pace to cross 1,000 units by the end of 2026 if it hits its projected 437 new franchised outlets for the year.

Here’s the nuance worth understanding before you assume either brand is equally open to a solo, first-time buyer. Scooter’s growth includes a real path for an individual buyer at $250,000 liquid capital and $500,000 net worth. 7 Brew’s recent deals skew toward large, already-scaled multi-brand operators: Franchise Times reported a Jersey Mike’s and Wingstop franchisee signing a 70-unit deal for the greater Washington, D.C. market, and the Flynn Group, one of the country’s largest restaurant franchisees, signed a 160-unit deal in 2025. 7 Brew’s qualification bar reflects that shift, with PeerSense’s verified 2026 figures showing $300,000 to $750,000 in required liquid capital, $1 million to $1.5 million in net worth, and a typical 2-to-5-store minimum commitment. Some aggregators describe 7 Brew’s individual application pipeline as deprioritized right now in favor of these multi-unit partners, though that can change without notice, so confirm current availability directly with the franchisor.

Territory and Item 19: what each brand actually discloses

Neither brand grants an exclusive territory in the legal sense. Scooter’s Coffee’s 2026 FDD does not grant an exclusive territory, according to VetMyFranchise’s summary, and instead authorizes franchisees to operate at franchisor-approved locations within a designated search area, without preventing the company from placing another location or a company-owned store nearby. 7 Brew’s 2026 FDD carries the same non-exclusive structure, per VetMyFranchise’s separate summary of that brand’s territory terms. If territory protection specifically is a priority for you, that’s a question for Item 12 in the actual FDD either brand sends you, not something you can assume from either brand’s marketing materials.

Where the brands diverge is Item 19, the section where a franchisor can choose to disclose actual unit-level financial data. Scooter’s Coffee discloses average gross sales broken out by format: kiosk locations averaged $914,719 with a median of $880,794 across 605 reporting units, and endcap locations averaged $991,552 with a median of $998,022 across 51 reporting units, per FranchiseChatter’s review of the underlying FDD data. 7 Brew discloses an average unit volume, reported at over $2.6 million for 2025 by Restaurant Dive, citing the brand’s own FDD. Neither of these figures is a promise of what your specific location will earn, and the FTC’s Franchise Rule prohibits either brand, or us, from implying otherwise. What they tell you is what a broad set of existing locations averaged in a specific past period, which is useful context and nothing more. Read the full Item 19 in the actual FDD either brand provides before you build a financial model around either number.

Which buyer fits which brand

If you’re a first-time buyer with $250,000 to $300,000 in liquid capital, no existing multi-unit portfolio, and you want the lower of the two investment floors, Scooter’s endcap format is the more accessible door as of this writing. Its published qualification numbers, flat royalty, and standardized formats also make the ongoing math easier to model before you sign anything.

If you’re an established multi-unit operator, ideally already running restaurants or another retail concept, with $1 million-plus in net worth and the appetite to commit to several stores at once, 7 Brew’s growth trajectory and average unit volume are the more aggressive bet. Its recent development activity suggests the brand is courting exactly this profile, which cuts both ways: the support built around large development deals may not translate into the same experience for a smaller applicant, if that path is even open to you right now.

Neither brand is objectively the better franchise. They’re built for different capital positions and different growth ambitions, and the honest answer to “which one should I buy” depends on which profile actually describes you. See our full coffee franchise comparison for more coffee brands lined up on the same fee, royalty, and footprint categories, including options with lower entry points than either name here. Our coffee franchise cost guide covers the line-item breakdown of what goes into a total investment number, category by category.

Every figure in this piece is checked against a named, dated source, including the ones where two FDDs disagreed with each other. See our editorial methodology page for how we handle that before you build a shortlist around any number here.