Best Franchise Industries in Texas: Where the Market Is Built Out and Where It Is Still Open

The short version. The 892 brands in our data that report Texas outlets count 31,079 of them. The same filings project 2,372 new franchised openings in the state and report another 2,629 agreements signed for outlets not yet open. Set against what is already open, that is 7.6% projected growth and 8.5% already contracted. The split is uneven: food and beverage is 40% of today's outlets but only 29% of projected openings, while health care is 4.5% of outlets and 10% of projected openings.

This article puts each industry's footprint next to its pipeline, so you can see where Texas is already built out and where franchisors are adding the most relative to what exists. For the statewide totals and the state-by-state comparison, start with our Texas pipeline article.

Where these numbers come from

Every franchisor files a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). Two tables in it matter here:

• Outlets (Item 20, Table 3). The number of franchised outlets in each state at year end, with openings and closures during the year. We take the most recent year each filing reports, which is 2025 for nearly all of them.
• Projected openings (Item 20, Table 5). The franchisor's own estimate of new outlets in each state over the next fiscal year, plus outlets signed but not yet open.

We read both from the latest filing of each of 1,345 brands, received between December 2025 and September 2026, and total them by industry for Texas. The two tables come from the same filings, so each industry's pipeline is measured against a footprint built from the same brands' own reports.

A food-heavy footprint

Four in ten franchise outlets in Texas are food and beverage (12,310 of 31,079). Nationally the same category is 43.5% of outlets, so Texas is a little less food-heavy than the country as a whole. The next three categories, home services, cleaning and restoration, and fitness and recreation, together hold another quarter of the base.

Texas is also a large restaurant market in its own right. The National Restaurant Association counts 58,426 restaurant locations in the state, $140.4 billion in restaurant and foodservice sales and 1,496,200 restaurant and foodservice jobs in 2025, making it the state's largest private employer (National Restaurant Association). Those figures cover independents and chains, not only franchises, but they explain why so much franchise capacity sits in this one category.

How much is each industry adding relative to what it already has?

Raw counts favor large categories. A better test of "built out versus open" is the pipeline as a share of the outlets already in place.

Where the market is still open. Health care leads: 1,406 outlets in the base, 242 projected and 294 signed, so projected openings equal 17% of the base and signed agreements another 21%. Texas runs ahead of the national ratio here (17.2% against 14.8%). Education (12.3%, against 10.5% nationally) and automotive services (10.6%, against 7.6%) also grow faster than the national pattern. Fitness and recreation adds 12.3% projected and has 393 signed outlets on a base of 2,041, which is the largest signed-to-base ratio of any sizable category after health care and pets.

Part of the health-care story is likely demographic. The Texas Demographic Center reports that the population aged 65 and over grew from 2.6 million to 3.9 million between 2010 and 2020, a 30% increase (Texas Demographic Center). The filings can't show that demand is the cause, only that franchisors are putting more into this category than its current size would suggest.

Where the market is most built out. Cleaning and restoration is the lowest of the large categories at 4.8% projected and 1.8% signed, below its national 6.7%. Food and beverage is next at 5.6% projected, though its signed count (952 outlets, 7.7% of the base) is larger than that of any other category, so its absolute pipeline is the biggest in the state. Home services and trades (7.3%) also sits below its national figure of 9.1%.

Texas against the country. Pet services is the clearest case where Texas trails: 13.3% projected against 26.9% nationally. Pet is a small base in Texas (286 outlets from 22 brands), so one or two large plans move the percentage. Treat it as a hint rather than a finding.

Where contracts run ahead of forecasts

Six of the thirteen categories have more outlets signed than projected. Personal care is the extreme at 2.83, with 266 signed against 94 projected, 10% of all signed agreements in the state from a category that is 5.5% of the base.

Two readings fit, and the filings can't tell which applies. Franchisors in some categories may forecast conservatively. Or some signed outlets, particularly in categories that need a build-out or a lease, take more than a year to open, so the signed backlog outlasts the forecast window. Categories at the bottom (support services at 0.27, cleaning at 0.39) are lower-cost models that tend to sign and open quickly, which leaves less backlog.

How many brands are competing in each category?

Health care and education stand out: 55 brands plan a Texas opening against 61 with Texas outlets in health care, and 30 against 31 in education. Food and beverage has the most brands on both counts (151 planning, 221 with outlets). The two columns are counted separately, so a brand planning its first Texas outlet appears only in the second. These counts show how many brands are active, not how much competition any local market faces, since the filings are state-level only.

What this means for different readers

If you are researching a franchise purchase, a category with a large base and a small pipeline is established, with many outlets and slower additions. A category with a small base and a large pipeline is where franchisors are putting growth effort. Neither is better; they carry different kinds of risk and different kinds of support.

If you serve new franchise locations (as a lender, real-estate adviser, supplier or contractor), the signed-not-open column is the nearest view of demand already contracted. Health care, fitness, food and beverage and automotive carry the largest backlogs.

If you already own a franchise in Texas, the table of brands planning openings shows how many peers in your category are adding outlets this year.

How to read these numbers carefully

• "Built out" is not "saturated." We count franchise outlets, not customers, competitors outside franchising, or local demand. A category can be large in the filings and still have room, or small and already crowded in particular neighborhoods.
• The footprint is what the filings report. It covers the 892 brands in our data with Texas outlets (31,079 outlets), not every franchise in the state. The year used is each filing's most recent, 2025 for 870 of the 911 state entries and earlier or later for the rest.
• No Texas registry to check against. Texas does not register franchise offerings. A franchisor files a one-time $25 exemption notice with the Secretary of State and the FDD itself is not filed there (Texas Secretary of State). Our filings come from the Minnesota public registry, so a brand that never filed in Minnesota is not in our data.
• Projections are estimates. They are the franchisor's forecast for the next fiscal year, and some brands leave rows blank or report zero.
• Signed does not mean open soon. Disclosure documents don't give opening dates.
• State-level only. Item 20 reports by state, so we can't say whether a category is growing in Houston, Dallas or Austin.
• Small categories move a lot. Pet services and "All other" rest on a handful of plans each. We combined two categories with fewer than five planning brands into "All other".
• Duplicate entries. A few franchisors file separate entries for sub-concepts with identical figures. We count those once (six cases in Texas).
• Window and classification. Filings received December 2025 through September 2026. Industry labels are assigned per filing, so two similar brands can land in different categories.
• Totals changed slightly since our first Texas article. This one includes filings received through September 30; the earlier article stopped at September 23.

Want the brand-by-brand view?

This article uses aggregated totals only. FranchiseTracker tracks every new disclosure filing as it arrives, with state-by-state projections, signed-not-open counts and three-year outlet trends for each brand. Preview the data →

Related: Franchise opportunities in Texas: where franchisors plan to open next

Sources

• Texas Secretary of State, Form 2703: Business Opportunity Exemption Notice (a one-time $25 filing that a franchisor makes before offering a franchise in Texas; form revised 05/2016)
• National Restaurant Association, Texas restaurant industry at a glance (2025 data, from Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau)
• Texas Demographic Center, Texas is young compared to other states but getting older
• FranchiseTracker analysis of Franchise Disclosure Documents, Item 20 (Tables 3 and 5), from the Minnesota CARDS public registry