Comfort Keepers franchise unit economics
Comfort Keepers franchisees run a non-medical in-home senior care agency, billing caregiver hours for companionship, personal care and private duty nursing. Across 600 franchised businesses open at least a year the average was $1,277,857 of net revenue on 37,065 client hours, with a median of $857,010. Owners in the brand's peer groups reported keeping 39.2% after caregiver pay, and 10.8% for themselves.
- Primary source
- CK Franchising, Inc., 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
- Items read
- Item 7 for cost to open; Item 19 for sales and any profit figure; Item 20 for the location count
- Population
- 600 of 619 locations
- Our calculations
- Marked on the page with an asterisk. Method
- Last reviewed
- 26 September 2026
Disclosure-based. Not a forecast, not an offer to sell a franchise, and not advice.
A Comfort Keepers owner keeps $3.72 of every billed hour. The hour goes out at $34.48, the caregiver takes $20.96 of it, running the office takes $10.10, and what is left is 10.8%. That is the whole model in one line. It is why the average business needs 713 client hours a week to work and why most owners end up running three territories.
- You keep $3.72 of a $34.48 hour. 39.2% gross profit, 29.3% operating expense, 10.8% owner's discretionary profit.
- Caregivers take 60.8% of revenue. $20.96 of every billed hour, against a median aide wage of $17.21 nationally.
- The average business sells 713 client hours a week. About 24 caregivers at 30 hours each. The median sells 474.
- The average owner runs three businesses. 600 businesses across 199 franchisees. The top quarter of owners bills $9,553,439 and the bottom quarter $785,161.
- The median business bills $857,010 against a $1,277,857 average. The largest single business in the system bills $21,532,846.
How much does a Comfort Keepers franchise make?
The average Comfort Keepers unit reported $1,277,857 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $857,010. The brand’s disclosure document puts the profit line at 10.8% of revenue. Fees come off the top first, at about 9% of sales across royalty, brand fund and the rest of the stack. Revenue is not income. Rent, wages, cost of goods and the franchise fees all come out before an owner is paid. The figures for the highest-selling and lowest-selling businesses are below.
The hour
Where a billed hour goes.
| Line | Share of revenue | Per billed hour | On the average business |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 100% | $34.48 | $1,277,857 |
| Caregiver cost | 60.8% | $20.96 | $776,937 |
| gross profit | 39.2% | $13.52 | $500,920 |
| Operating expense | 29.3% | $10.10 | $374,412 |
| Owner's discretionary profit | 10.8% | $3.72 | $138,009 |
The brand reported the percentages left after caregiver pay, spent on running costs and kept by the owner. They come from 51 owners who gave full-year figures as members of the brand's Performance Management Groups over 2023 and 2024.
Every cost decision in this business is worth cents an hour, and cents an hour is the business. Raising the hourly rate by a dollar adds $37,065 at the average business. Cutting caregiver cost by a dollar an hour does the same. Against $138,009 of owner's profit, either move is worth more than a quarter of the year's earnings.
The caregiver line is 60.8% of revenue and most of it is outside your control. $20.96 an hour of loaded cost sits against a median home care aide wage of $17.21 nationally, so the burden on top is roughly 22%. Wage pressure moves straight through to the 10.8%, which is why staffing markets matter more here than anything on the revenue side.
Running the office costs $10.10 an hour. 29.3% of revenue on schedulers, care coordinators, recruiting, insurance, rent and the franchisor's fees. That line is largely fixed, so it range across hours. What is left on each hour is the same at every size of business, so more hours is the only way to earn more.
What the businesses bill.
| Net revenue | Client hours a year | Hours a week | Caregivers at 30 hours | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average business | $1,277,857 | 37,065 | 713 | 24 |
| Median business | $857,010 | 24,662 | 474 | 16 |
| Largest business | $21,532,846 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Smallest business | $8,829 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Revenue and hours as the brand reported it for the year to 31 August 2025.
The median business is a third smaller than the average. $857,010 against $1,277,857, which is 474 client hours a week against 713. Benchmarking against the average means measuring yourself against a set pulled upward by a business billing $21.5 million. At 10.8%, the median business earns its owner about $92,557.
Sixteen caregivers is what the median business runs on. Twenty-four at the average. Those are small teams carrying a large revenue number. The difference between them is eight people who show up reliably. Reframes recruitment from an administrative cost to the main growth channel.
Top performers
What separates the top Comfort Keepers performers
Comfort Keepers splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $21,532,846 a year. The worst averaged $8,829. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $857,010. The average was $1,277,857. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 2438.9× gap between bands is not an operating gap. Catchment, daytime population and what sits next door set the ceiling before the first customer arrives.
- Territory, and how much of it is real.This model sells from a territory rather than a building. Two owners with the same brand and different ground are running different businesses, and density decides how much driving sits between jobs.
- What you spend to open.Opening costs $119,560 to $190,700, a 1.6× range inside one brand. The high end usually buys more capacity, so the cheapest build is not always the cheapest route to the top band.
Live operating levers
- Billed hours, the operating driver.This model bills on billed hours. The owner pays for every hour worked and bills only the hours a client accepts, so the job is to keep those two close and to protect the gap between the rate charged and the rate paid. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking.A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites.Fees run about 9.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year.This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Context you underwrite around
- The reporting screen.600 of 619 locations are behind these figures. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded, so the numbers describe locations that cleared that screen, not the system as a whole.
- What the disclosure leaves out.Item 19 publishes no attainment figure. Anything below the sales line has to come from the franchisor or from owners you call.
Years open and owners
Revenue by how long the business has been running.
| Months in operation | Businesses | Average revenue | Median | Hours a week | hourly rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 to 24 | 2 | $206,572 | $206,572 | 119 | $33.39 |
| 25 to 36 | 12 | $554,615 | $313,573 | 318 | $33.58 |
| 37 to 48 | 5 | $364,056 | $306,064 | 179 | $39.19 |
| 49 to 60 | 10 | $661,147 | $412,354 | 406 | $31.30 |
| 61 to 72 | 17 | $979,263 | $733,953 | 465 | $40.52 |
| 73 to 84 | 22 | $608,214 | $372,952 | 288 | $40.63 |
| 85 and over | 532 | $1,355,613 | $902,478 | 760 | $34.29 |
Revenue, median and weekly hours as the brand reported it.
Eighty-nine percent of the system has been running more than seven years. 532 of 600 businesses. Each group below that holds fewer than 25 businesses, so those averages move sharply. What the table does show cleanly is the destination: $1,355,613 and 760 hours a week once a business is established.
The younger group bill at a higher rate and sell fewer hours. $40.63 an hour at 73 to 84 months against $34.29 at the mature businesses. Higher rate, 288 hours a week against 760. It is the same pattern as every hours-based brand: rate is available and volume is what pays.
Most owners run more than one.
| Quarter | Franchisees | Average net revenue | Median | Highest | Lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top quarter | 50 | $9,553,439 | $7,969,517 | $30,605,983 | $4,480,219 |
| 2nd quarter | 50 | $3,152,953 | $3,051,406 | $4,395,402 | $2,398,016 |
| 3rd quarter | 50 | $1,858,439 | $1,800,147 | $2,392,056 | $1,305,975 |
| Bottom quarter | 49 | $785,161 | $811,481 | $1,295,899 | $107,937 |
| All franchisees | 199 | $3,852,836 | $2,398,016 | $30,605,983 | $107,937 |
As the brand reported it, covering the 199 franchisees who operate the 600 businesses in the tables above.
Three businesses per owner is the norm. 600 businesses across 199 franchisees. The average franchisee bills $3,852,836 while the average business bills $1,277,857, and the two numbers are consistent with each other. This is a multi-territory model in practice whatever the single-unit investment figure suggests.
The top quarter of owners bills twelve times the bottom quarter. $9,553,439 against $785,161. At 10.8% that is roughly $1,031,771 of owner's profit against $84,797. Almost all of that gap is territory count, which makes the decision to buy a second and third office the single largest financial decision in this system.
The median owner bills $2,398,016. Roughly two businesses' worth, and about $258,986 of owner's discretionary profit at the disclosed 10.8%. That is the realistic middle of this network.
Fees and the network
What the brand and the required marketing take.
| Net revenue | Royalty at 5% | National brand fund | Local advertising | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | $25,000 | $9,635 | $12,000 | $46,635 | 9.3% |
| $857,010 (median) | $42,850 | $9,635 | $17,140 | $69,625 | 8.1% |
| $1,277,857 (average) | $63,893 | $9,635 | $25,557 | $99,085 | 7.8% |
| $3,000,000 | $150,000 | $9,635 | $60,000 | $219,635 | 7.3% |
Ours, applying the disclosed rates.
The brand fund caps out, and the local requirement does the opposite. Above about $482,000 of revenue the national fund is fixed at $9,635. Local advertising costs $12,000 a year until sales reach $600,000. Above that it is 2% of sales. So growth makes the national contribution cheaper as a share and the local one constant.
The minimum performance standard is the clause to read closely. From month 25 the royalty can be calculated on an assumed revenue figure, if you fall short of the standard. In a business earning 10.8%, paying 5% on an assumed figure above your actual billings is a material event.
At 7.8% of revenue the fee load is light against the 29.3% operating expense line. $99,085 at the average business, most of which is the royalty. The brand is a modest cost here; the office is the expensive part, and it is the one you control.
The network of locations.
| Year | Franchised at year end | Affiliate-owned | Total | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 529 | 106 | 635 | −5 |
| 2024 | 578 | 41 | 619 | −16 |
| 2025 | 619 | 5 | 624 | +5 |
As the brand reported it, at the end of each fiscal year on 31 August.
The affiliate sold down from 106 businesses to five in two years. Franchised units rose from 529 to 619 across the same period, so roughly a hundred company-operated businesses moved into franchisee hands. Most of the growth in this network has come from existing owners buying more territories. Many now hold three.
Total outlets have been broadly flat at around 620. The change has been in who owns them. A system that refranchises.
Questions we get asked
What does an owner actually keep?
10.8% of sales, on the brand's own peer-group figures. That is 39.2% left after caregiver pay, less 29.3% of running costs. On a billed hour of $34.48 that is $3.72 to the owner, $20.96 to the caregiver and $10.10 to running the office. At the average business of $1,277,857 it is about $138,009; at the median business of $857,010, about $92,557. The 51 owners behind those percentages averaged $5,453,226 of revenue, so they are larger and peer-reviewed.
How many caregivers and hours do I need?
The average business sells 713 client hours a week, which is about 24 caregivers at 30 hours each. The median sells 474, or 16 caregivers. A mature business past seven years averages 760 hours a week. Every additional caregiver working 30 hours is worth roughly $53,800 of annual revenue at the system rate and about $5,800 of owner's profit.
Should I be buying a second territory?
Most owners have. 600 businesses are run by 199 franchisees, so three each on average, and the top quarter of owners bills $9,553,439 against $785,161 in the bottom quarter. What is left on each hour is the same at every size, so owners add territories to earn more from the same 10.8%. The office cost line at 29.3% is the one that range across a larger base.
What is the minimum performance standard clause?
From month 25, if your revenue falls below the standard the franchisor sets, the 5% royalty can be calculated on an assumed revenue figure. In the first 24 months a $500 monthly minimum royalty applies instead. In a business that keeps 10.8% of revenue, paying royalty on an assumed figure above your actual billings is worth modeling before you sign.
Who does bookkeeping for a Comfort Keepers franchise?
Sales for royalty includes client deposits and mileage charges and excludes sales tax and refunds, so those flows need separating at entry. The monthly close has to match scheduled hours, worked hours and billed hours. At $3.72 of profit per hour, an hour paid but unbilled wipes out five billed hours of earnings. Nursing is charged at a different rate and costs a different amount an hour from companion care. Track the two separately. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
- No cost lines. Wages, rent and cost of goods are not broken out, so margin cannot be rebuilt from the document.
- No attainment figure. The filing does not say how many locations reached the average it publishes.
Questions worth putting to Comfort Keepers
The filing answers what it answers. These are the gaps an owner or a buyer should close directly.
- Is the profit figure in Item 19 before or after owner pay, and how many locations sit below it?
- What separates the highest-selling locations from the lowest: trade area, years open, size, or the owner?
- How long does a new location take to reach the average you publish, and what does the build-up look like month by month?
- At what level of sales do the minimum charges stop applying and the percentage take over?
- How many Comfort Keepers locations closed, were sold, or changed hands last year, and why?
Run your own numbers.
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