Home Instead vs Comfort Keepers franchise USA 2026: which one wins on real numbers?
Home Instead is the lighter bet on entry — $93K vs $120K (about $27K less). Home Instead runs the bigger network at 626 vs 619 outlets.
01 What actually matters
Numbers that separate them on a 5-year horizon — not the franchise-development pitch.
Home Instead charges 5% royalty on revenue — recurring, uncapped, and deducted before your own margin is calculated. Factor it into every pro-forma.
On pure entry capital, Home Instead is 1.3× cheaper than Comfort Keepers — $93K vs $120K. 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 | Home Instead | Comfort Keepers |
|---|---|---|
| Initial investment (Item 7) | $93K ↓ Lower | $120K |
| Royalty (Item 6) | 5% | — |
| Gross margin | — | — |
| Min space (sq ft) | 500 | 500 |
| Total US outlets (Item 20) | 626 ↑ Bigger | 619 |
| Franchise fee (Item 5) | $54K ↓ Lower | $55K |
| Additional funds | — | — |
Not sure if Home Instead or Comfort Keepers 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.
What is the minimum space required for a Home Senior Care franchise?
Among these brands, the smallest footprint is Home Instead 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.
Is Home Instead or Comfort Keepers better for first-time franchisees?
For a first-time franchisee, capital preservation matters more than brand prestige. Home Instead has the lower entry capex here, which caps downside if the location underperforms. That said, first-time operators should also weigh how much hand-holding the brand provides in site selection, training, and SOP enforcement — not just the sticker price.
Can I own multiple Home Senior Care franchises?
Yes — multi-unit ownership is the norm in mature US Home Senior Care systems, and most franchisors sell it as an area development agreement: a fee paid up front for the right to open N units on a fixed schedule inside a defined territory. The terms sit in FDD Items 5 and 12. Miss the development schedule and the franchisor can usually reclaim the territory, so treat the schedule as a covenant, not a target.
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.