Best waxing franchises 2026: European Wax Center, Uni K Wax, Waxing the City, Radiant Waxing, and Pampered Peach compared on FDD costs and Item 19 revenue.
Quick answerFive brands lead waxing franchising in 2026: European Wax Center ($327,600-$836,950 per its 2025 FDD) at over 1,000 centers, Uni K Wax ($413,912-$768,600, $639,758 median revenue), Waxing the City ($339,945-$646,195, $457,222 median), Radiant Waxing ($432,713-$707,947, $537,633 median), and The Pampered Peach from $31,363.
The best waxing franchises in 2026 sort into one giant and four challengers. European Wax Center is the category’s only national system, with 1,047 centers and a $327,600 to $836,950 investment per its 2025 FDD. Behind it, four smaller systems compete on unit economics: Uni K Wax ($413,912-$768,600), Waxing the City ($339,945-$646,195), Radiant Waxing ($432,713-$707,947), and The Pampered Peach, whose Item 7 starts at $31,363.
One scope note up front: this roundup covers wax-based systems in depth. Sugaring, which removes hair with a sugar-lemon-water paste instead of wax, is a separate two-brand sub-niche with its own economics, and we cover both brands in our Sugaring NYC cost guide.
Waxing is an unusually transparent category. Across the 2,000+ FDDs VetMyFranchise has analyzed, most Health & Beauty brands skip earnings claims; all four waxing systems in our database publish an Item 19. That makes the revenue column below the most useful screen in the category.
| Brand | Total Investment (Item 7) | Franchise Fee | Royalty + Ad Fund | Locations | Item 19 Median Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Wax Center (2025 FDD) | $327,600-$836,950 | $45,000 | 6% + 3% | 1,047 (fiscal 2025) | Not in our database; ~$1.1M AUV cited for mature centers |
| Uni K Wax (2026 FDD) | $413,912-$768,600 | $49,500 | 7% + 2% | 35 | $639,758 (32 studios, FY2024) |
| Waxing the City (2026 FDD) | $339,945-$646,195 | $42,500 | 6% + 2% | 167 | $457,222 (138 studios, 2025) |
| Radiant Waxing (2026 FDD) | $432,713-$707,947 | $50,000 | 6% + 2% | 58 | $537,633 (56 salons, 2025) |
| The Pampered Peach (2025 FDD) | $31,363-$580,863 | $25,000 | 6% + 1% | 12 | FPR on 8 studios (FY2024); no median disclosed |
Medians beat averages for judging what a typical studio does, and the spread here is meaningful: the typical Uni K studio grosses about 40% more than the typical Waxing the City studio. Read our guide to Item 19 financial performance representations before treating any of these numbers as a forecast, since each brand defines its reporting segment differently.
European Wax Center is the only waxing franchise with true national scale and the only publicly traded one (Nasdaq: EWCZ). The company reported 1,047 centers and $947.3 million in system-wide sales for fiscal 2025 per its investor disclosures. Its 2025 FDD puts the investment at $327,600 to $836,950 with a $45,000 franchise fee, a 6% royalty, and a 3% marketing contribution, and the company asks for $700,000 in net worth and $250,000 liquid. Management has cited roughly $1.1 million in average unit volume for mature centers open five years or more.
The honest read: EWC spent fiscal 2025 in a strategic reset, closing more centers than it opened, with 20 net closings on the year. That is not a death spiral in a 1,000-unit system, but it means territory quality varies widely and some existing franchisees are sellers. Buyers should ask hard questions about the specific trade area, and about resale opportunities, since roughly two-thirds of EWC franchisees are multi-unit operators and consolidation is actively reshaping the system. EWC is not in VetMyFranchise’s database, so the figures above come from the company’s published FDD summaries and investor filings rather than our parsed data.
Uni K Wax posts the best headline number in the category: $639,758 median revenue across the 32 franchised studios in its qualifying segment for fiscal 2024, per the 2026 FDD. The brand has history behind it. Founder Noemi Grupenmager opened the first studio in Miami Beach in 1993, built the concept around an all-natural elastic wax applied at body temperature, and began franchising in 2007. Today the system counts 34 franchised studios plus one company-owned.
Entry runs $413,912 to $768,600 with a $49,500 franchise fee. The trade-offs are specific and worth weighing. The royalty is 7%, a point above every rival. The FDD grants no exclusive territory. And Uni K requires owner-operators, so this is not a semi-absentee play. The 2026 FDD discloses zero litigation and no bankruptcy, which is a cleaner Item 3 than either Waxing the City or Radiant Waxing can show. Note the segment definition too: the median covers “qualifying studios,” so ask the franchisor what the excluded studios did.
Comparing waxing brands? Uni K Wax’s free profile shows the parsed 2026 FDD, Item 19 detail, and risk flags side by side: see the full Uni K Wax FDD analysis.
Waxing the City is the growth story of the category. The system added 31 studios in 2025 against 16 losses (15 terminations and one non-renewal), ending the year at 167 locations, per the 2026 FDD. It is part of the Purpose Brands portfolio alongside Anytime Fitness and Orangetheory, which brings real franchising infrastructure: site selection support, national vendor pricing, and a development pipeline that smaller waxing brands cannot match.
The economics are the category’s most accessible among the full-size systems: $339,945 to $646,195 total investment, a $42,500 franchise fee, and a royalty of 6% of gross revenue (with a $100 weekly minimum). Item 19 is the most complete disclosure in the category, covering all 138 franchised studios open through 2025: median revenue of $457,222, with the 25th percentile at $285,325 and the 75th at $614,881. That interquartile spread is the number to sit with. A bottom-quartile studio grossing $285,000 is likely paying its bills and little else, so market selection and membership ramp determine whether you land in the top half. Two cautions: the median trails both Uni K and Radiant, and the franchise agreement runs just 6 years, a short term that gives the franchisor an early renegotiation window.
Radiant Waxing is the former LunchboxWax, founded in 2010 and rebranded in 2022 by WellBiz Brands, the franchisor group behind Drybar, Amazing Lash Studio, and Elements Massage. The concept sells speed waxing in an upscale salon format, and the 2026 FDD prices it accordingly: $432,713 to $707,947 to open, with a $50,000 franchise fee, 6% royalty, and a 2% ad fund the FDD allows to rise to 4%.
Item 19 is solid: $537,633 median revenue across all 56 franchised salons open throughout 2025. The system itself is not growing, though. Radiant opened 2 salons and closed 3 in 2025, slipping from 59 to 58, and the FDD discloses 2 litigation matters. A flat 58-unit system with a strong median reads as a brand whose existing operators do well but whose new-unit pipeline has stalled. If you buy in, you are betting WellBiz’s shared-services machine can restart growth, so ask the development team pointed questions about signed-but-unopened commitments, and validate with the newest operators rather than the veterans.
The Pampered Peach Wax Bar is the small, young, cheap entry. The 2025 FDD shows 12 franchised locations, a founding date of 2022, and the widest Item 7 range in the category: $31,363 to $580,863, spanning everything from a minimal low-cost launch to a full standalone build-out. The $25,000 franchise fee, 6% royalty, and 1% ad fund are the lowest fee stack of the five brands.
The brand does publish an Item 19 covering 8 studios for fiscal 2024, but our parser found no usable median in it, and an 8-unit sample would not support strong conclusions anyway. Treat this one as an emerging-brand bet: cheaper entry, faster franchisor access, and materially higher risk than the established systems. Ask which end of that $31,363-$580,863 range real recent openings actually landed on, because a range that wide tells you little until you attach it to a specific format and market.
Sugaring is the adjacent sub-niche buyers keep crossing into, and the economics genuinely differ. Sugaring NYC, the category leader at 132 units, opens at $138,750 to $293,200 with a 5% royalty, well below every wax system in this roundup. SugaringLA runs $253,250 to $371,500. The catch is disclosure: Sugaring NYC publishes no Item 19 at all, so sugaring buyers underwrite on validation calls while waxing buyers underwrite on published medians. Cheaper entry, thinner data. Our sugaring guide covers both brands in depth, including the one narrow Item 19 that exists in that category.
Every serious brand in this category runs on prepaid memberships or packages, EWC’s Wax Pass being the best-known version, because body waxing is a repeat purchase on a four-to-six-week cycle. That cadence is why lenders and multi-unit operators like the category: a studio with 400 active members has predictable revenue in a way a walk-in salon never does. It is also why the ramp period decides everything. Waxing the City’s $285,325 25th percentile and $614,881 75th percentile are largely the same model at different membership counts. When you validate, ask operators for active member counts and monthly churn, and how long they took to reach break-even membership, rather than settling for topline revenue. Buyers comparing adjacent recurring-visit categories should also look at our hair salon and barbershop roundup and the med spa industry analysis, which sit one and two notches up the investment ladder.
Every figure in this post comes from each brand’s Franchise Disclosure Document, the presale disclosure the FTC Franchise Rule requires, or from public company filings in EWC’s case. The FDD is where the marketing stops and the enforceable numbers live: Item 7 capital, Item 19 segment definitions, termination counts, territory language.
The VetMyFranchise $49 analysis turns a 200-page FDD into the 12 sections that matter, including the Item 19 fine print that separates Uni K’s “qualifying studios” from Waxing the City’s all-units disclosure. Pull it for your shortlist, then spend your validation calls on the questions the documents cannot answer: membership counts, churn, and what the operator would pay to do it again.
Waxing franchise investment ranges from $31,363 at The Pampered Peach's low end to $836,950 at European Wax Center's high end, per each brand's current FDD Item 7. The established systems cluster tighter: Waxing the City runs $339,945-$646,195, Uni K Wax $413,912-$768,600, Radiant Waxing $432,713-$707,947, and EWC $327,600-$836,950. Franchise fees run $25,000 to $50,000.
Per current FDD Item 19 disclosures, median annual revenue is $639,758 at Uni K Wax (32 studios, FY2024), $537,633 at Radiant Waxing (56 salons, 2025), and $457,222 at Waxing the City (138 studios, 2025). European Wax Center management has cited roughly $1.1 million in average unit volume for mature centers open five-plus years.
EWC offers scale: over 1,000 centers, national brand recognition, and a 6% royalty plus 3% marketing fee, though the system posted 20 net closings in fiscal 2025 during a strategic reset. Uni K Wax is a 35-studio system with the category's highest disclosed median revenue ($639,758), a 7% royalty, an owner-operator requirement, and no exclusive territory. EWC suits buyers who want a proven national machine; Uni K suits hands-on operators chasing higher per-unit revenue.
Waxing gives you more data and more scale: four systems publish Item 19 revenue medians between $457,222 and $639,758, and the category has well over 1,200 combined locations. Sugaring offers cheaper entry (Sugaring NYC runs $138,750-$293,200), but the category leader publishes no Item 19 at all, so you cannot underwrite it from disclosure data alone.
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