---
title: "Forbes: America’s Best & Worst Franchises to Buy in 2018"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/c0a31e43-c930-4562-b393-58f3ac0646b6
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/forbes-americas-best-worst-franchises-to-buy-in-2018-2706903
category: "Retail"
industry: "Retail"
published: 2018-06-19T20:15:17.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:50:19.715Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/0a5598c6d64c019c54b875b91b1de85b9751.jpg
---

# Forbes: America’s Best & Worst Franchises to Buy in 2018

**TL;DR:** Forbes ranked the top three best franchises to buy in 2018, including Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Culver's, and Mathnasium Learning Centers. The ranking was determined by FRANdata based on criteria such as system sustainability and franchisor support.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2018-06-19. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/forbes-americas-best-worst-franchises-to-buy-in-2018-2706903).*

## Story

Forbes teamed up with the franchise industry research firm FRANdata in order to rank the year's best and worst franchises. The ranking was determined by FRANdata taking a look at system sustainability, demand, the value of the investment, franchisor support and franchisor stability as its top criteria for the study. The firm then assigned three investment categories, ranking the franchise investment from high to low. The high investment requires $500,000 or more, the medium investment ranges from $150,000 to $500,000 and the lowest investment requires less than $150,000.

Here are the top three best franchises to buy in 2018 according to Forbes – ranked from high to low investment:

- Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steak-Burgers

- Culver’s Butter-Burgers & Frozen Custard

- Mathnasium* Learning Centers

Here are the top three worst franchises to buy according to Forbes – ranked from high to low investment:

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Retail (sector)
- franchise ranking (topic)
- Forbes (company)
- FRANdata (company)
- Freddy's (company)
- Culver's (company)
- Mathnasium Learning Centers (company)
- best franchises (topic)
- worst franchises (topic)
- investment categories (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/forbes-americas-best-worst-franchises-to-buy-in-2018-2706903). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/c0a31e43-c930-4562-b393-58f3ac0646b6).