There are a lot of franchise websites for you to look through. Some of them are really, really, good, and some of the franchise portals are pretty average.
Specifically, some franchising websites look more like advertisements for the Google Adwords program than a place to shop for the best franchise opportunities.
If you’re at the “I think I’m going to buy a franchise,” stage, the top 10 franchise opportunity websites listed below are a great starting point.
My crack team of franchise website-franchise portal researchers, (who all hail from The Franchise Kingdom) have come up with specific criteria in which to judge the franchising websites listed below.
- Approximate website traffic (From Alexa.com)
- Web design/ease of use
- Content quality
- General opinion (mine)
Here’s what we’ve come up with…..(Ranked in order, from 1-10.)
The Top 10 Franchise Opportunity Websites
Coming in at a solid #1, this website for franchises-from the folks at Entrepreneur® Magazine has lots of traffic. As a matter of fact, my bean counters lost count of this website’s visitors. Considering the fact that there are years and years of pertinent data loaded onto this website, it’s really easy to navigate through. The content is top-notch.
Opinion; It’s a powerful, easy to use website. If you’re looking for franchises to start investigating, jump to the Franchise #500. I don’t always agree with the rankings, but if you want to start comparing franchises, the way the information is laid out, rocks.
In contrast, this franchise portal comes with an “international” flavor. It’s corporate office is based in Ireland (Atlanta in the U.S), and they own several country-specific websites for franchises. This one just keeps getting better. (*Disclosure; I’ve been helping Franchise Direct portal in a marketing capacity for years. I write articles for their blog and help them get the word out.) This site’s web traffic continues to grow-a lot, and they also do several franchise industry-sector reports a year. (They’re free.) The web design is terrific and there’s plenty of content.
Opinion; If you’re exploring franchises to buy, this franchise portal has many ways to learn about them, and the industry reports are a nice bonus if you really want to dig in.
This franchise website has been around for several years, and gets a ton of traffic. The folks at Frachise Gator claim to have the largest directory of franchises to explore on the entire internet. (I have not verified this claim, nor do I really want to.) Suffice to say it’s a large site. The site looks a little more like a journal of sorts, as opposed to a directory. It’s easy to use, and does what it’s supposed to do. A few years ago, Microsoft purchased it, but I don’t think they own it anymore. The content is fine.
Opinion; I had a 10-minute argument with myself, before I decided to list this website. When I first launched this blog (in 2006) some folks from Franchise Gator added some comments that were really nothing but spam, and I had to delete them. They persisted. I deleted. It left a bad taste in my mouth. No, I’m not really saying it right. They pissed me off. I chose to include their website to make a point; this blog has to be mostly about you. Franchise Gator is a good enough site to include in this list. They get lots of traffic, and you may find something there.
Was I Right to Include Franchise Gator?
The International Franchise Association’s franchise portal lists 1200 or so different franchises for sale. Since it’s the IFA’s own site, it only lists IFA members. (Who pay to advertise.) There are almost 3,000 different franchise concepts registered in the US, so this portal is showing about a 1/3 of them. That’s a lot of franchises! The website gets a decent amount of traffic, and it’s really easy to navigate. The content is top-notch, and there’s plenty of great information for prospective new franchise owners available.
Opinion; Franchise.org is a good website, for sure. It’s not flashy, and it gets the job done.
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This franchise website is a good one. Traffic is pretty consistent, and it carries with it one of the best domain names in the franchise business. It’s a real easy website to go through, and it’s especially easy on the eyes. It actually has the feel and the look of a blog. There is one thing that is a little bothersome, though…
On the bottom of the page is a link titled, “privacy policy and website usage policy.” The privacy stuff is fine, but here’s where it gets a little cold; “by submitting your information you expressly confirm that you have a genuine interest in each of the concepts for which you have requested information; that you wish for a representative from each of the concepts to contact you; and that the information that you have submitted is true and correct.” Intense. (If you violate this, they claim that they’ll go after you and force you to pay them $50.)
Opinion; To me, that part of the website is a bit of a turn-off. It comes across kind of big-brotherish. Otherwise, FranchiseOpportunities.com is an above average franchise website, for sure.
This franchise portal’s traffic just keeps moving up. The only reason that it’s below Franchise Opportunities.com is because of the domain name. America’s Best Franchises.com is just not as powerful, when it comes to a domain name. This website makes up for a little less branding power with it’s really slick design, however. And I do mean slick in a good way. This site’s colors are unlike anything else out there in franchise directories. The site’s navigation is fantastic.
Opinion; This franchise website will be giving the top #3 websites on this list a run for their money, soon.
Tip: Make sure you know how to research franchise opportunities
Franchise Opportunity Websites That List Existing Franchises For Sale
This is mostly a business for sale website, but their site traffic is really good. If this was just a website for folks wanting to look into the different existing franchises fpr sale, it would be a lot higher up on the list. The design is really average. The font is really small, (but clear) and it’s really a vanilla website. It’s easy to use and navigate around, because it just doesn’t look like there’s a lot there. (But there is.)
Opinion; This franchise for sale portal is a great example of simple design getting the job done. BizBuySell.com does get er done. The website has enough serious traffic to prove it.
This good-looking website is owned by Franchise Update, who’s also in the magazine and conference business. This website stands out from all the others because of it’s look. It looks like an authoritative website. It feels newsy, and it provides a significant number of franchise press releases. There are franchise advertisements on the site, but in a laid-back way. In addition, this website is easy to navigate.
Opinion; This is a high-quality website that deserves more credit and more traffic.
Two More Good Franchise Opportunity Websites
When you first see this franchise website, there’s no question what it’s about; volume. The traffic volume is about average, or a little below, but the volume of ads is not. There’s a large amount of tile ads/link ads for franchises on this website, which is owned by the Redstone Advertising Network. I didn’t find it hard to navigate, but it wasn’t easy, either. A lot of the links that are clickable are of different sizes, and that made it a little challenging. (For me.) There’s not a lot of content on the site.
Opinion; This website could use a little makeover. They need to think about the word “community,” which includes listing more websites and blogs that aren’t a part of their own network.
This is mainly a business for sale website, but their franchise directory is well populated, too. They get a pretty good amount of traffic. The web pages are really wiiiide. If it wasn’t for the two pop-up type squares that greet you when you enter the site, it would be a pretty easy website to navigate around. The content is of the cut and paste variety, and there are some old articles in the line-up. Real old. (An article linked to on the website is all about a really important franchise document. The problem is that the documents not called a UFOC, anymore. it’s been called the FDD-with significant changes, for two years.)
Opinion; This franchise website has good potential. Buy they need new franchising content from different sources. In addition, they need to lose at least one of the pop-ups.* They’re a little bothersome.
*Note, the number of popups has gone down a lot.
So there you have it: The Top 10 Franchise Opportunity Websites.
Are you going to look for a franchise to own now?
If so, I hope you find the best franchise for you!
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