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McDonald's vs Taco Bell — which franchise is the better buy?

Side by side from the public FDDs — no franchisor spin.

	McDonald's	Taco Bell
Disclosure honesty	C	C
Investment from	—	$934,750
Total fees	9%	9.75%
Outlets	13,457	7,998
Lawsuits	19	0

McDonald's: what their numbers say

Discloses avg $3.96M franchised sales + pro forma operating income before occupancy at 3 tiers; excludes rent, royalty, D&A, interest — overstates profitability

Taco Bell: what their numbers say

Bell Point, Kalibrate, SiteZeus forecast tools for free-standing drive-thru units only. 59-65% accuracy within 20%. Explicit disclaimer: no guaranteed performance; ±20% margin of error; 35% of projections exceed 20% variance. Cherry-picking: limited historical validation; excludes multi-brand, inline, licensed units.

Get the real owner take-home for either — $149

Full net-profit math, financing, red flags. See a sample →