Best stretching franchises compared on 2026 FDD data: StretchLab vs Stretch Zone vs StretchMed vs The Vital Stretch on cost, fees, and Item 19 revenue.
Quick answerFour stretching franchises disclose comparable FDD data in 2026: StretchLab ($271,037-$814,192 to open, 486 studios, $487,000 median revenue), Stretch Zone ($142,590-$305,489, 413 units), StretchMed ($129,892-$211,086, $264,135 median revenue), and The Vital Stretch ($157,400-$258,100, 14 locations). StretchLab leads on scale; StretchMed is the cheapest verified entry point.
Four stretching franchises publish enough FDD data to compare head-to-head in 2026, and the gaps between them are wide. StretchLab is the scale leader: 486 studios, a $271,037 to $814,192 investment range, and a $487,000 median studio revenue per its 2026 FDD. Stretch Zone runs 413 units at roughly half the entry cost ($142,590 to $305,489). StretchMed is the cheapest verified entry at $129,892 to $211,086 with a $264,135 median. The Vital Stretch, at 14 locations, is the early-stage wildcard. Assisted stretching is one of the few boutique-wellness categories where every major franchised brand includes an Item 19 disclosure, which makes it unusually possible to underwrite with real numbers instead of brochure claims.
This is the category roundup. For single-brand depth on the leader, the StretchLab franchise cost breakdown covers every line item, and our full StretchLab verdict weighs the Xponential parent-company question.
Every figure below comes from the four brands’ 2026 FDDs as parsed in VetMyFranchise’s database of 2,000+ analyzed FDDs. Investment ranges are Item 7; revenue figures are Item 19.
| Brand | Item 7 Investment | Royalty + Ad Fund | Units | Item 19 Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StretchLab | $271,037-$814,192 | 8% + 2% | 486 | $487,000 median (448 studios) |
| Stretch Zone | $142,590-$305,489 | 7% + 2% | 413 | Disclosed, no single system median |
| StretchMed | $129,892-$211,086 | 6% + 2% | 38 | $264,135 median (29 full-year units) |
| The Vital Stretch | $157,400-$258,100 | 7% + 2% | 14 | $75,724 average (14 locations) |
Read the units column next to the revenue column. StretchLab’s $487,000 median is drawn from 448 qualified studios, a sample deep enough to trust. StretchMed’s $264,135 median comes from 29 units that operated the full 2025 calendar year. The Vital Stretch’s $75,724 average covers 14 locations in a system that only started franchising recently, so it describes ramp-stage studios more than stabilized ones. Sample size changes what a number means.
StretchLab is larger than the other three systems combined, 486 studios against their 465. Investment runs $271,037 to $814,192 per the 2026 FDD, with an 8% royalty and 2% ad fund. That 10% combined fee load is the heaviest of the four.
The Item 19 justifies the premium positioning: a $487,000 median across 448 qualified studios, with a 25th-75th percentile band of $432,500 to $547,500. That interquartile spread is fairly tight for boutique fitness, a sign the model performs consistently once a studio stabilizes.
Two caution flags. The system opened 38 studios and closed 37 last year, a net gain of one. A brand at this scale will always have some churn, but 37 closures is a real number, and validation calls should ask what those studios had in common. Second, StretchLab’s parent Xponential Fitness has been through SEC scrutiny, franchisee lawsuits, and executive turnover since 2024. You are underwriting the parent as much as the brand.
See StretchLab’s full FDD profile and Item 19 breakdown →
Stretch Zone makes the value case: 413 operational units as of December 31, 2025, an investment of $142,590 to $305,489, and a $59,500 franchise fee. Royalty is 7% of gross revenues with a $900 monthly minimum, plus a 2% ad fund.
The number that stands out in the 2026 FDD is on retention: 36 units opened last year and zero closed. No terminations, no non-renewals, no ceased operations. Set against StretchLab’s 38-opened-37-closed year, that record is the strongest single argument for the brand. Stretch Zone’s FDD also grants an exclusive territory, which StretchLab’s does not.
The trade-off is disclosure depth. Stretch Zone includes an Item 19, but it does not present a single system-wide revenue median comparable to StretchLab’s or StretchMed’s figures. Anyone seriously evaluating a Stretch Zone franchise has to read the disclosure’s own tables and build a view of typical unit volume from franchisee calls rather than one headline number.
StretchMed is the lowest verified cost of entry in the category: $129,892 to $211,086 per its 2026 FDD, with a $49,500 franchise fee and the lightest fee load of the four at 6% royalty plus 2% ad fund. The system is young. The franchisor dates to 2020 and counted 38 locations in the 2026 FDD, with 11 openings against 4 closures in the most recent year.
The Item 19 is more informative than most small-system disclosures: $264,135 median revenue and a $310,242 average across 29 franchised units that operated the full 2025 calendar year. The average sitting $46,000 above the median tells you a handful of high-volume studios pull the mean up; underwrite from the median. A sub-40-unit system also means validation calls can realistically cover a third of all operators. Do that before trusting any single figure.
At 14 franchise locations, The Vital Stretch is the smallest system of the four, with a franchisor entity dating to 2022 and an investment range of $157,400 to $258,100 per the 2026 FDD. Royalty is 7%, with a 2% ad fund the agreement allows to rise to 3%.
Its Item 19 reports average revenue of $75,724 across those 14 locations for calendar 2025. Taken flat, that looks alarming next to StretchLab’s $487,000 median. Read it as a ramp-stage number instead: most of the system’s studios opened recently, and a first-year studio in any membership business grosses a fraction of stabilized volume. The disclosure is honest about where the system is, which counts for something.
Still, a buyer here is underwriting the franchisor as much as the model. At 14 units there is no depth of evidence that studios stabilize at attractive volume, so the diligence bar is materially higher: franchisor financials in Item 21, conversations with every operator who will take the call, and clear answers on what happens to franchisees if the system stalls.
The revenue picture, brand by brand: StretchLab $487,000 median with a $432,500-$547,500 interquartile range, StretchMed $264,135 median, The Vital Stretch $75,724 ramp-stage average, and Stretch Zone undisclosed at the system-median level. Across the category, sessions retail at roughly $50 to $90 and get packaged into recurring monthly memberships, so gross revenue is a direct function of active member count.
Two cautions apply to every one of those figures. First, they are revenue, not profit. A stretch studio pays practitioners by the session hour, and rent, royalties, and marketing come out before the owner sees anything. None of that is in Item 19.
Second, cohort definitions shape the numbers. StretchMed’s figures cover only units fully operational for the whole calendar year; StretchLab’s cover “qualified studios.” Both definitions exclude locations that closed or never stabilized, which biases disclosed figures upward. Why medians beat averages in Item 19 walks through the survivorship math. And remember that Item 19 is the only place a franchisor may lawfully make an earnings claim under the FTC Franchise Rule; any revenue number a sales rep quotes outside that document is a red flag by itself.
Stretch studios are cheap to build by fitness standards. The footprint is small (StretchLab studios typically run 1,200 to 2,000 square feet), the equipment is benches rather than treadmills, and there are no showers or locker rooms. That is why three of the four brands offer low-end entry under $160,000, and why the category features in our under-$200K fitness roundup. The spread up to $814,192 is mostly real estate: premium-metro build-outs with higher rent deposits, longer pre-opening carry, and bigger working capital reserves.
The structural constraint to understand before buying any of the four: assisted stretching, sometimes marketed as stretch therapy, is a one-practitioner-to-one-client business. A group fitness instructor can serve twenty members in an hour; a Flexologist serves one. Revenue is capped by staffed table hours multiplied by utilization, margins depend on scheduling density and practitioner pay, and growing revenue means hiring. Compare that labor model against group formats in the fitness franchise cost comparison before deciding the one-on-one model is where you want to operate.
All four brands run on recurring memberships, and membership businesses fail in predictable ways. Five things to pressure-test in the FDD and on validation calls:
Litigation deserves a scan too: our parse counts 4 disclosed Item 3 matters for StretchLab and 2 for StretchMed. Counts alone don’t condemn a brand, since the disclosure window runs ten years and includes suits franchisees filed. Read what the cases actually allege.
Every figure in this post is a starting point, not a decision. The FDDs behind them run hundreds of pages each, and the terms that bite operators years in (territory carve-outs, renewal conditions, transfer restrictions, personal guarantees) never show up in a comparison table.
The VetMyFranchise $49 template gives you the framework: Item 7 capital validation, Item 19 numbers in context, litigation and turnover red flags, and the contract terms worth a lawyer’s hour. For any of the four brands above, pull the brand-specific report on its current FDD and run it against the template.
The stretching category is genuinely unusual: four franchised brands, four Item 19 disclosures, and a spread from a $129,892 budget entry to an $814,192 premium build. The data exists to make this decision well. Use it.
Between roughly $130,000 and $814,000 depending on brand and market. StretchMed is the cheapest verified entry at $129,892-$211,086 per its 2026 FDD, Stretch Zone runs $142,590-$305,489, The Vital Stretch $157,400-$258,100, and StretchLab $271,037-$814,192. Initial franchise fees among the disclosed brands run $49,500 for StretchMed and $59,500 for Stretch Zone.
StretchLab is bigger: 486 studios versus Stretch Zone's 413 operational units as of December 31, 2025, per their 2026 FDDs. The growth trend tells a different story. Stretch Zone reported 36 openings and zero closures last year, while StretchLab opened 38 studios and closed 37 for a net gain of one.
The FDDs disclose revenue, not profit. StretchLab's 2026 Item 19 reports a $487,000 median across 448 qualified studios, and StretchMed reports a $264,135 median across 29 full-year units. Whether that converts to owner income depends on practitioner utilization, rent, and local wages; a studio needs stable recurring membership to clear its 8-10% combined fee load plus a one-on-one labor model.
No. All four franchisors train the practitioners who deliver sessions (StretchLab calls them Flexologists), and the owner's job is business operations: hiring, local marketing, and membership sales. A fitness or wellness background helps with hiring and credibility but is not a requirement in any of these systems.
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