Across 23 systems, home care franchisees opened 787 locations last year and 190 left — a net gain of 597, or +11.0% on the locations they started with. Twenty-one of the 23 grew.
Franchised locations and three-year growth by system
System
Locations
Three-year growth
Stage
HomeWell Care Services
201
+63.4%
scaling system
Amada Senior Care
261
+63.1%
scaling system
Assisting Hands Home Care
232
+36.5%
scaling system
Seniors Helping Seniors
224
+85.1%
scaling system
FirstLight Home Care
238
+30.1%
scaling system
Griswold
198
+21.5%
scaling system
ComForCare
271
+24.3%
scaling system
Homewatch CareGivers
260
+17.1%
scaling system
Senior Helpers
394
+25.5%
scaling system
BrightStar Care
396
+14.1%
scaling system
Nurse Next Door
71
+42.0%
emerging system
SYNERGY HomeCare
626
+37.9%
scaling system
Right at Home
566
+14.1%
scaling system
Visiting Angels
541
+1.7%
mature system
Comfort Keepers
619
+15.7%
scaling system
Home Instead
626
+2.0%
mature system
A Place At Home
50
+163.2%
emerging system
CareBuilders at Home
28
+75.0%
early system
One You Love Homecare
24
+71.4%
early system
Executive Home Care
79
+338.9%
emerging system
Hallmark Homecare
—
Not disclosed
—
HomeCare Advocacy Network
—
Not disclosed
—
Home Matters Caregiving
—
Not disclosed
—
Stage is a rule over two numbers, not a judgement: under 30 franchised locations a system is early, because rates move on single openings; at 150 or more it is mature below 5% three-year growth and scaling above it. The bands on the chart are those thresholds, so the rule can be checked against the marks. Size is on a log scale — the field runs from single digits to several hundred locations, and on a straight scale most systems would pile into the left-hand edge.
Executive Home Care grew +338.9% over three years on 79 locations — further from the rest of the field than any other system here. One You Love Homecare is the next furthest out, at +71.4% on 24.
Not on this chart: Hallmark Homecare (no three-year growth rate in its filing) · HomeCare Advocacy Network (no three-year growth rate in its filing) · Home Matters Caregiving (no three-year growth rate in its filing).
Who added locations, and who lost them
SYNERGY HomeCare added the most locations last year; 2 of the 23 lost ground
Openings right, exits left, from a shared centre. Sorted by net change.
locations openedexits
Source: Item 20 Tables 1–3, franchised locations, latest year each system filedHomecareHQ Intelligence · 2026 FDDs
›View data & method
Openings, exits and net change across every system
System
Opened
Exits
Net
Net growth
SYNERGY HomeCare
102
26
+76
+13.8%
Amada Senior Care
83
18
+65
+33.2%
Executive Home Care
60
2
+58
+276.2%
Seniors Helping Seniors
54
10
+44
+24.4%
Comfort Keepers
45
4
+41
+7.1%
Senior Helpers
49
10
+39
+11.0%
FirstLight Home Care
39
4
+35
+17.2%
Assisting Hands
37
7
+30
+14.9%
Homewatch CareGivers
42
13
+29
+12.6%
Right at Home
29
2
+27
+5.0%
BrightStar Care
34
11
+23
+6.2%
ComForCare
29
6
+23
+9.3%
Hallmark Homecare
32
9
+23
+63.9%
HomeWell Care Services
43
22
+21
+11.7%
Griswold Home Care
22
6
+16
+8.8%
Home Matters Caregiving
15
0
+15
+93.8%
A Place At Home
16
2
+14
+38.9%
One You Love Home Care
11
1
+10
+71.4%
Home Instead
17
10
+7
+1.1%
CareBuilders at Home
6
0
+6
+27.3%
Visiting Angels
11
9
+2
+0.4%
Nurse Next Door
10
12
-2
−2.7%
Homecare Advocacy Network
1
6
-5
−41.7%
Exits count terminations, non-renewals, locations the franchisor bought back, and locations that ceased operating. Systems are grouped by stage: a rule over the location count and the three-year growth rate, not a judgement. Growth rates are not published below ten franchised locations at the start of the year, so the early tab shows counts only.
Among scaling systems, SYNERGY HomeCare grew most; every one of the 13 added locations
Scaling systems, sorted by net change.
locations openedexits
Source: Item 20 Tables 1–3, franchised locations, latest year each system filedHomecareHQ Intelligence · 2026 FDDs
›View data & method
Exits count terminations, non-renewals, locations the franchisor bought back, and locations that ceased operating. Systems are grouped by stage: a rule over the location count and the three-year growth rate, not a judgement. Growth rates are not published below ten franchised locations at the start of the year, so the early tab shows counts only.
The two mature systems: both still adding locations
Mature systems, sorted by net change.
locations openedexits
Source: Item 20 Tables 1–3, franchised locations, latest year each system filedHomecareHQ Intelligence · 2026 FDDs
›View data & method
Exits count terminations, non-renewals, locations the franchisor bought back, and locations that ceased operating. Systems are grouped by stage: a rule over the location count and the three-year growth rate, not a judgement. Growth rates are not published below ten franchised locations at the start of the year, so the early tab shows counts only.
Among emerging systems, Executive Home Care grew most; 1 of the 5 lost ground
Emerging systems, sorted by net change.
locations openedexits
Source: Item 20 Tables 1–3, franchised locations, latest year each system filedHomecareHQ Intelligence · 2026 FDDs
›View data & method
Exits count terminations, non-renewals, locations the franchisor bought back, and locations that ceased operating. Systems are grouped by stage: a rule over the location count and the three-year growth rate, not a judgement. Growth rates are not published below ten franchised locations at the start of the year, so the early tab shows counts only.
The three early systems: one lost locations last year
Counts only — these systems are too small for a growth rate to mean much.
locations openedexits
Source: Item 20 Tables 1–3, franchised locations, latest year each system filedHomecareHQ Intelligence · 2026 FDDs
›View data & method
Exits count terminations, non-renewals, locations the franchisor bought back, and locations that ceased operating. Systems are grouped by stage: a rule over the location count and the three-year growth rate, not a judgement. Growth rates are not published below ten franchised locations at the start of the year, so the early tab shows counts only.
What stands out in this year’s filings
Economics
One system earns more from running care than from franchising it.
Griswold takes $13.6M from agencies it operates itself against $10.3M from royalties, brand fund and franchise fees — a franchisor whose own operations are the larger half of the business.
22 of these systems operate in FL — more than anywhere else
systems present422
Counted from open franchised office addresses, which undercount owners running more than one territory — each state's tooltip carries the systems' own location counts beside the address count.
Source: HomecareHQ analysis of 2026 FDDs and Census ACS
What gets disputed
Most disputes in this industry are the franchisor and its owners suing each other, not anything to do with care.
60% of disclosed cases are between a system and its own franchisees — territory, renewal, what was promised at the sale, and what happens when an owner leaves.
Franchisees suing the franchisor11 systems
Owners bringing claims against the system — territory, renewal, representations made during the sale.
26
The franchisor suing an owner9 systems
Systems enforcing the agreement — unpaid royalties, terminations, non-competes after an owner leaves.
24
Regulators8 systems
State or federal agencies: registration, licensing, wage and hour, healthcare rules.
13
Client injury and negligence6 systems
Claims arising from care delivered to a client.
10
Trademarks and intellectual property4 systems
Marks, trade dress and confidential material, usually against former owners or competitors.
6
Employment and wages2 systems
Claims by employees of the franchisor or of an owner's business.
3
Commercial and vendor2 systems
Ordinary business disputes with suppliers and landlords.
2
77 proceedings disclosed by 15 of 23 systems·8 state they have none·25 settled, 15 still open, 11 resolved by consent order
The middle system on each measure. This is the baseline every brand page is read against — here is normal, and a brand page tells you where a system departs from it.
These are each system's own disclosures, not our opinion of them. Every
number on this page comes out of a filing the system published itself. Where
we calculate something — an effective royalty, a fee load, a growth rate — we
show the inputs and the formula alongside it.
A blank means the filing did not say, never zero. Systems disclose
different things, so most measures are filed by some of the field and not
all of it. Where a figure rests on part of the field, we say how much of it.
Nothing here is a ranking. Most of these measures have no better
direction: a lower royalty is not automatically a better system, and a bigger
territory is not automatically a better deal. We show where a system sits and
leave the judgement to you.
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