F45 Training Franchise Cost & Review

F45 is a 45-minute functional HIIT concept from Australia that became, for a moment, the fastest-growing fitness franchise in the world — then a cautionary tale of over-expansion, a collapsed IPO, and franchisee distress, before being taken private in 2024. What remains is a very large system with, to its credit, one of the most substantial Item 19 disclosures in boutique fitness.

Figures below come from F45's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document. Brands refile every year; the document the franchisor hands you is the one that governs, not this page. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or compensated by F45. See our disclosure policy.

What it costs

The build is genuinely accessible — an open floor, modular functional equipment, screens for the programming. The contract is not. Stack the minimums: $2,500 royalty floor, $2,500 marketing requirement, $500 technology — $5,500 a month, $66,000 a year, before percentage fees kick in above the floors. No other brand in our comparison hard-wires this much fixed obligation.

What studios earn — the best sample in boutique fitness

Six hundred ninety-nine studios is a sample you can actually trust — larger than Orangetheory's if you count only boutique formats, and immune to the small-sample distortion we flag at SWTHZ or BFT. The averages it reports are honest and modest: a median F45 does about $407,000 — boutique-cardio territory, well below Orangetheory's $857,377 average, on a somewhat cheaper build.

One more credibility note: this sample sits after the system's contraction. Hundreds of weaker studios closed during F45's 2022–2024 washout, which means survivorship bias runs through these figures — the disclosed average describes the studios that made it.

The fee math is the whole review

At the median of $407,220: the 7% royalty is $28,505 (above the floor), the 2% brand fund $8,144, the marketing requirement $30,000, and the technology fee $6,000. Total: about $72,600, or 17.8% of gross — the heaviest effective load we have measured, nearly five points above Orangetheory's ~14.5%.

At the top-third average of $684,477, the same stack runs about $103,600 — 15.1%. At $300,000 of revenue, it is about $65,100 — 21.7%. The fixed marketing spend and royalty floor mean the load climbs steeply as revenue falls, exactly backwards from what a struggling studio needs. Anytime Fitness and HOTWORX show the opposite design.

Capital efficiency at the midpoint build ($567,650) and the disclosed average is 0.80x — mid-pack, better than CycleBar or BFT, below the 1.0x line.

Is F45 worth it?

The disclosure deserves respect: 699 studios, average and median, thirds — you know what you're buying. What you're buying is a median studio grossing $407,000 and sending roughly 18% of it out the door in fees before rent or payroll. That works in the top third; it grinds in the middle; it fails at the bottom, as several hundred former franchisees can attest.

Worth it if your market can plausibly support top-third revenue — dense, young, fitness-saturated demographics — and you negotiate with full awareness of the fixed obligations. Not worth it at median projections; run $407,220 through the ROI and payback calculator with the full fee stack and watch what's left. The Orangetheory comparison is linked below — more capital, but more disclosed revenue per fee dollar.

Who this fits

F45 fits an operator in a proven-demand urban market who values the programming machine (the workouts genuinely ship centrally, cutting programming labor), understands the post-contraction system's real economics, and can potentially acquire an existing studio at resale pricing — which changes the math substantially.

It fits poorly for secondary markets and thin capitalization, where the fixed fee floor meets lower revenue ceilings head-on.

Before you sign

Read Item 20's closure and transfer tables as carefully as Item 19 — the washout years tell you which market types failed. Call franchisees who operated through 2022–2024 and ask what monthly revenue kept a studio viable. Ask the now-private franchisor what has changed in support and fee enforcement since the take-private. Then work the due diligence checklist and read Item 19 yourself.

Sources

• The FDD Exchange — F45 Training franchise costs & fees (2025 FDD)
• SharpSheets — F45 Training franchise FDD, profits & costs
• Vetted Biz — F45 Training franchise insights

Frequently asked questions

How much does an F45 franchise cost?

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The 2025 FDD discloses a total initial investment of $349,200 to $786,100, including a $60,000 initial franchise fee. F45's build is lighter than most boutique concepts — an open functional-training floor with modular equipment rather than a fixed theater or machine fleet.

How much revenue does an F45 studio generate?

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The Item 19 reports average gross sales of $454,320 and a median of $407,220 across 699 franchised studios open at least 12 months as of February 28, 2025 — the largest boutique-fitness sample in our comparison. The top third of 233 studios averaged $684,477.

What are F45's ongoing fees?

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A 7% royalty with a $2,500 monthly minimum, a brand fund of the greater of 2% or $200 per month, a required marketing spend of $2,500 per month, and a $500 monthly technology fee. At the median studio's revenue, the combined load approaches 17% of gross — the heaviest effective burden among the brands we compare.

Is F45 a public company?

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F45 Training Holdings listed on the NYSE in 2021, collapsed from a $1.4B+ valuation amid over-expansion and franchisee distress, and was taken private in 2024. That history matters for diligence: the system's disclosed averages reflect a network that has already been through a painful contraction and washout of weaker studios.