Franchise Decision Radar

Lawn care franchises: 6 brands compared from regulator-filed FDDs

Side-by-side fee burden, startup cost, and system health for major lawn care franchises — built from 2025 FDDs filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions.

6
Brands analyzed from
regulator-filed FDDs
$77K–$243K
Initial investment range
across the category
$76,000
Annual fee burden spread
at $300K revenue
7–653
Franchised outlets
smallest to largest

The Brands

Brand Outlets Investment Annual Fees at $300K Notable
Lawn Doctor 653 $150K–$177K $78,800 (26.3%) Largest system, 58yr track record Review →
Weed Man 121 $81K–$109K $25,550 (8.5%) Lowest fee burden Review →
Spring-Green 126 $117K–$134K $45,318 (15.1%) Privately held, 48yr history Review →
NaturaLawn 88 $77K–$152K $101,584 (33.9%) Organic-based premium Review →
Lawn Pride 35 $141K–$243K $57,180 (19.1%) Explosive growth (Neighborly) Review →
Lawn Squad 7 $79K–$118K $98,540 (32.8%) Detailed P&L disclosure Review →

Annual fees Modeled at $300K gross revenue, Year 5, single territory.

Watchlist
Lawn Pride and Lawn Squad are watchlist brands: they have individual brand pages but are excluded from the fee burden, system health, and cost-to-enter comparison tables. Both are backed by major franchise holding companies (Neighborly and Authority Brands, respectively) but have insufficient franchised performance history for meaningful peer comparison. The primary comparison set includes the 4 mature brands with established track records.

What Separates These Brands

Lawn care is the most established category on the site. Six brands are covered: four mature systems with 30 to 58 years of franchising history form the primary comparison set, while two watchlist brands (Lawn Pride and Lawn Squad) have individual brand pages but are excluded from comparison tables due to limited franchised operating history. The fee spread among the four mature brands is narrower than in mosquito control or cleaning — at $300K revenue, the gap between highest and lowest annual fee burden is roughly half what it is in the mosquito cohort.

Where these brands diverge most is disclosure quality and royalty structure. Weed Man offers the lowest effective royalty in the cohort (6.5%/5.5% tiered) but provides no Item 19 financial performance data. Lawn Doctor charges 10% flat but sits atop the largest system (600+ outlets) with an accelerating growth trajectory. NaturaLawn occupies a premium organic niche with a loyalty-rewarding royalty that drops from 9% to 7% at renewal.

Three Ways to Compare

Fee Burden →
The narrowest fee spread of any category, but royalty structures range from flat 10% to tiered schedules that reward growth. The fee burden comparison models total ongoing costs at four revenue levels.
System Health →
Four mature systems with decades of operating history in the primary comparison set. Growth trajectories range from accelerating (Lawn Doctor) to flat (Spring-Green). The system health comparison shows year-by-year outlet changes.
Cost to Enter →
Investment ranges vary by more than 2x, driven largely by mandatory marketing packages and reserve requirements. The cost comparison shows where each brand’s startup capital goes.

Head-to-Head Comparisons

Side-by-side FDD comparisons between specific lawn brands.

Lawn Doctor vs. NaturaLawn →
Lawn Doctor vs. Spring-Green →
Going deeper on one brand? 3 Decision Reports available in this category. View reports — $99 / brand →

All data extracted from 2025 Franchise Disclosure Documents filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions. Modeled values use explicitly documented assumptions. Read our methodology →