Comfort Keepers vs Visiting Angels franchise USA 2026: which one wins on real numbers?
Comfort Keepers is the lighter bet on entry — $120K vs $125K (about $6K less). Comfort Keepers runs the bigger network at 619 vs 541 outlets.
01 What actually matters
Numbers that separate them on a 5-year horizon — not the franchise-development pitch.
Comfort Keepers (619 outlets) and Visiting Angels (541) operate at comparable scale — neither has a decisive network advantage, so your location-specific due diligence matters more than brand size here.
On pure entry capital, Comfort Keepers is 1.0× cheaper than Visiting Angels — $120K vs $125K. That gap compounds over a 5-year horizon because build-out, equipment, opening inventory and the additional funds in FDD Item 7 all scale with format size.
02 The numbers, visualised
Primary format per brand, from FDD Item 7. A brand's smaller express or non-traditional formats can cost materially less.
Initial investment (FDD Item 7)
Total initial investment, low end of each brand's FDD Item 7 range for its primary format. Several US brands also run smaller express, non-traditional or conversion formats at materially lower investment — check the brand page for the full Item 7 table.
Network scale — total outlets
Total US outlets from FDD Item 20. Bigger networks mean more brand recognition and supplier scale; smaller ones mean less intra-brand competition in your trade area.
Customer ratings
Which brand's outlets are rated higher by customers, aggregated across locations. Exact star rating and review volume are in Brand Health.
Direction only — the underlying rating & review count are Pro data.
03 Side-by-side
Straight from each brand’s FDD. Green badge marks the more favourable value for a typical first-time operator.
| Metric | Comfort Keepers | Visiting Angels |
|---|---|---|
| Initial investment (Item 7) | $120K ↓ Lower | $125K |
| Royalty (Item 6) | — | 3.5% |
| Gross margin | — | — |
| Min space (sq ft) | 500 | — |
| Total US outlets (Item 20) | 619 ↑ Bigger | 541 |
| Franchise fee (Item 5) | $55K | $52K ↓ Lower |
| Additional funds | — | — |
Not sure if Comfort Keepers or Visiting Angels actually fits *you*?
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04 Explore these brands in depth
Same data plus the full FDD breakdown, fee load, contract fairness and SBA lending picture — free on every brand page.
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05 Frequently asked
Wrapped in FAQPage JSON-LD for SERP rich-result eligibility.
How do Home Senior Care franchises pay out — revenue share or fixed margin?
US Home Senior Care franchisors almost always take a percentage of gross sales, not a share of profit — so the fee is due whether or not the unit is profitable. FDD Item 6 lists the full stack: royalty (commonly 4–8%), a national advertising fund (1–4%), technology fees, and often a local-marketing minimum. Add them together before modelling take-home; the headline royalty is rarely the whole load.
Do these Home Senior Care franchises offer territorial rights?
Territory is FDD Item 12, and it is where Home Senior Care franchisors differ most. Some grant a protected radius or a defined trade area; many grant no exclusivity at all and reserve the right to open company units, non-traditional locations or e-commerce channels inside your area. Read Item 12 word for word — "protected territory" and "exclusive territory" are not the same thing — then ask existing franchisees whether the brand has honoured it.
How long does it take to break even on a Home Senior Care franchise?
Payback on a Home Senior Care franchise in the US typically runs 24–48 months, depending on site traffic, build-out cost, and the royalty plus ad-fund load in FDD Item 6. The brands on this page start at $120K of initial investment (Item 7); pair that with the brand's Item 19 financial performance representation, where one is published, to model your own payback instead of relying on a franchise-development pitch.
What is the cheapest Home Senior Care franchise in the US?
The lowest-investment option here is Comfort Keepers starting from $120K. Remember this is the LOW end of the brand's FDD Item 7 initial-investment range — Item 7's high end is the number to plan against, and it sits before the working capital you burn until the unit turns over.
What is the minimum space required for a Home Senior Care franchise?
Among these brands, the smallest footprint is Comfort Keepers at 500+ sqft. Square footage is only half the site test — most US franchisors also specify traffic counts, co-tenancy, parking ratios and a trade-area population in the franchise agreement, and will reject a site that hits the minimum footprint but misses those.