QSR Landscape

Quick-service franchise brands, ranked by what they cost to run.

Dog Haus franchise

Dog Haus: $357,437–$625,800 total investment, $40,000 franchise fee, 8% total ongoing fee. Read out of the filings.

Compiled from public filings and operator sites Reviewed 2026-08-15

8% Total ongoing fee
$357,437–$625,800 Total investment
58 Units, 2024
2010 Founded
2013 Franchising since
CA Pasadena
Typical size, sq ft
Yes Item 19

The marketing, creative and technology fee is 2% and may rise to 3.5%. A separate technology development fee runs $5,000 a year.

Fees

Initial franchise fee $40,000
Royalty 6%, or 4% for a ghost kitchen
Brand fund 2%
Local advertising Not required
Total ongoing 8% of gross sales
Grand opening $20,000–$25,000
Transfer fee $17,500
Renewal fee $5,000

Opening one

Total investment $357,437–$625,800
Training 40 hours classroom, 102 on the job
Territory Half-mile to five-mile radius, set from demographics, population, income and age
Initial term 10 years
Renewal Successive ten-year terms

The system

Format Craft hot dogs and sausages
Headquarters Pasadena, CA
Founded 2010
Franchising since 2013
Units 58, of which 58 franchised and 0 company-owned
Item 19 Yes. A financial performance representation is made.

A format-dependent hot-dog system

Dog Haus is a Pasadena hot-dog and sausage system founded in 2010 and franchising since 2013. The May 2024 comparative study records 58 outlets, all franchised. It is included as an adjacent small-format QSR, not as a kebab operator.

The important qualification is format. The source discloses a 6% restaurant royalty and a 4% ghost-kitchen royalty. Dog Haus has discussed its delivery-only operations and virtual brands in restaurant trade reporting, but those kitchens are not interchangeable with a customer-facing restaurant. The $357,437 to $625,800 Item 7 range shown here belongs to the source row’s fast-casual format and should not be carried to a remote kitchen or biergarten.

Fees beyond the headline royalty

The ranking combines the 6% restaurant royalty with a 2% marketing, creative and technology fee. That second component may rise to 3.5%. A separate $5,000 annual technology development fee is a fixed charge and therefore remains outside the percentage stack.

The study records an Item 19. Its presence means a financial performance representation exists; it does not tell the reader which outlets, periods or metrics are covered. Those details must be read in the current document before using the disclosure as a forecast.

Training is 40 classroom hours and 102 on the job. Territory ranges from a half-mile to five miles, set using demographic factors. Dog Haus is a useful comparison because it shows how a single brand can disclose materially different operating formats and royalty treatment. The profile keeps the restaurant row intact rather than blending the cheapest elements of one format with the operating history of another.

Figures from May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs · dataset year 2024.