Understand the FDD you were handed before the 14 days run out.
A Franchise Disclosure Document runs 300–900 pages, and the FTC gives you 14 days with it before you can sign. FDDLens turns the document into a plain-language read of what it actually discloses — fees, earnings claims, outlet turnover, litigation — with every number traced to its source page.
Pick a brand from our filed-FDD library or upload the PDF you were given. We’re not attorneys — this is the homework you bring to one.
What the report covers
- Every fee in Items 5–7, laid out in plain English with the FDD page it came from.
- Item 19 earnings claims with the exact reporting base and the franchisor's own caveats, verbatim.
- Outlet turnover computed from the Item 20 table — how many franchisees actually left each year.
- Disclosed litigation, audited-financials status, and a list of questions to bring to your attorney.
How it works
Step 1
Pick or upload
Choose a brand from our library of registry-filed FDDs, or upload the PDF the franchisor sent you. Checkout takes a minute.
Step 2
We read the document
The full document is parsed — Items 3, 5–7, 19, 20, and 21 — and every extracted figure is checked against the source text before anything reaches your report. Statistics like turnover are computed from the disclosed tables, not estimated.
Step 3
Get the plain-English read
Your hosted report arrives by email: the fee stack, earnings claims with their exact reporting base, year-by-year turnover, litigation, and the questions we'd bring to a franchise attorney.
See exactly what you’ll get
The sample below is a real report, generated for Molly Maid’s 2026 FDD as filed with the Minnesota registry — the same pipeline, the same layout, the same page-by-page citations a paying buyer receives.
Read the full sample report →From the sample — Molly Maid 2026 FDD
- Initial investment: $144,150 – $203,950 (p. 40)
- Royalty: 3–6.5% of gross sales, plus minimum license fees (p. 26)
- Outlet turnover 2025: 4.69% — computed from the Item 20 table (p. 81)
- Disclosed litigation: 2 matters (p. 21)
FAQ
What exactly gets analyzed?
Items 3 (litigation), 5–7 (fees and initial investment), 19 (earnings claims), 20 (outlet counts and turnover), and 21 (financial statements) of the FDD you pick or upload. Every figure in the report cites the PDF page it came from, so you can verify anything against the source.
What does the report NOT do?
It never tells you to invest or not to invest — it surfaces what the document discloses and the questions worth asking. It also can't see anything outside the document: no store visits, no franchisee interviews, no market sizing.
Are you attorneys?
No — and this is not legal or investment advice. You should have a franchise attorney review the FDD before you sign. This report is the homework you bring TO that meeting, so the attorney's expensive hours go to negotiation instead of orientation.
What if you can't read my document?
If the pipeline cannot parse the document you upload — a scanned image PDF, a corrupted file — or the analysis fails our internal grounding checks, your payment is refunded automatically and you get an email explaining what happened. If anything else goes wrong, email fddlens@forage.bot.
Where do your documents come from?
Public state franchise registries. Our library brands come from FDDs filed with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which publishes them as public records. You can also upload the FDD a franchisor sent you directly.
Free browsing: per-brand FDD teardowns from real registry filings.