Franchise Direct Scraper API

The Piloterr Franchise Direct Scraper API lets you extract public data from Franchise Direct as clean, structured JSON — no proxies, headless browsers or HTML parsing to maintain. Endpoints available in production:

• Franchise Direct Franchise API — Read one Franchise Direct profile: cash requirement, franchise fee, investment range, and training.
• Franchise Direct Search API — Search Franchise Direct listings by keyword or listing URL.

Use it for price monitoring, assortment tracking, competitor analysis, product research or catalog enrichment.

Endpoint	Path	Credits	What you get
Franchise Direct Franchise API	/v2/franchisedirect/franchise	1	Read one Franchise Direct profile
Franchise Direct Search API	/v2/franchisedirect/search	1	Search Franchise Direct listings by keyword or listing URL. Each card includes a USD cash figure and a numeric minimum.

Table of contents

• How it works
• Franchise Direct Franchise API
• Franchise Direct Search API
• Code examples in other languages
• Practical use cases
• Why Piloterr?
• FAQ
• Related scrapers
• Support

How it works

1. Create a free Piloterr account and copy your API key from the dashboard.
2. Send a GET (or POST) request to https://api.piloterr.com/v2/... with the header x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY.
3. Receive structured JSON — Piloterr handles rendering, proxies, retries and parsing.

export PILOTERR_API_KEY="your-api-key"
pip install requests        # Python
# TypeScript: Node.js 18+ (native fetch), run with `npx tsx file.ts`

Every endpoint accepts both GET (query string) and POST (JSON body with the same fields).

Franchise Direct Franchise API

Read one Franchise Direct profile: cash requirement, franchise fee, investment range, and training.

GET | POST https://api.piloterr.com/v2/franchisedirect/franchise · 1 credit per request · Full reference

Request parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	✅	Required. A Franchise Direct profile URL from search, or the same path beginning with /. A keyword or a listing URL returns 400.

Python example

import json
import os
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.piloterr.com/v2/franchisedirect/franchise",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["PILOTERR_API_KEY"]},
    params={
        "query": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/coffee-franchises/coffeenow",
    },
    timeout=60,
)
response.raise_for_status()
data = response.json()

print(json.dumps(data, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)[:2000])

TypeScript example

type FranchiseDirectFranchise = {
  url?: string;
  name?: string;
  image?: string;
  industry?: string;
  description?: string;
  business_type?: string;
  franchise_fee?: number;
  training_provided?: boolean;
  available_locations?: string;
  financing_assistance?: string;
  total_investment_max?: number;
  total_investment_min?: number;
  franchise_fee_display?: string;
  minimum_cash_required?: number;
  total_investment_display?: string;
  minimum_cash_required_display?: string;
};

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  "query": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/coffee-franchises/coffeenow",
});

const response = await fetch(`https://api.piloterr.com/v2/franchisedirect/franchise?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.PILOTERR_API_KEY! },
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Piloterr error ${response.status}: ${await response.text()}`);

const data = (await response.json()) as FranchiseDirectFranchise;

console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 2).slice(0, 2000));

POST variant

POST https://api.piloterr.com/v2/franchisedirect/franchise
x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

{"query": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/coffee-franchises/coffeenow"}

Output example

Example response from the API reference, abridged — real values depend on the page you scrape.

{
  "url": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/coffee-franchises/coffeenow",
  "name": "CoffeeNow",
  "image": "https://static4.franchisedirect.ie/dims4/default/234c6dc/2147483647/strip/true/crop/350x220+0+0/resize/270x170!/quality/95/?url=https%3A%…",
  "industry": "Coffee Franchises",
  "description": "Bring the coffee shop experience directly to local workplaces with a technology-driven mobile franchise that eliminates the need for a tr…",
  "business_type": "Franchise",
  "franchise_fee": 25000,
  "training_provided": true,
  "available_locations": "Single-unit opportunities available throughout the US, EXCLUDING: CA, HI, IL, IN, MD, MI, MN, NY, ND, RI, SD, VA, WA, WI.",
  "financing_assistance": "None",
  "total_investment_max": 309000,
  "total_investment_min": 133000,
  "franchise_fee_display": "$25,000",
  "minimum_cash_required": 60000,
  "total_investment_display": "$133,000 - $309,000",
  "minimum_cash_required_display": "$60,000"
}

Response fields

Field	Type	Description
url	string
name	string
image	string
industry	string
description	string
business_type	string
franchise_fee	integer
training_provided	boolean
available_locations	string
financing_assistance	string
total_investment_max	integer
total_investment_min	integer
franchise_fee_display	string
minimum_cash_required	integer
total_investment_display	string
minimum_cash_required_display	string

Franchise Direct Search API

Search Franchise Direct listings by keyword or listing URL. Each card includes a USD cash figure and a numeric minimum.

GET | POST https://api.piloterr.com/v2/franchisedirect/search · 1 credit per request · Full reference

Request parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	✅	Required. A keyword, or a Franchise Direct listing URL (search, directory, or category). A profile URL such as /coffee-franchises/coffeenow returns 400 on this endpoint. Send that URL to /v2/franchisedirect/franchise.

Python example

import json
import os
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.piloterr.com/v2/franchisedirect/search",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["PILOTERR_API_KEY"]},
    params={
        "query": "coffee",
    },
    timeout=60,
)
response.raise_for_status()
data = response.json()

print(json.dumps(data, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)[:2000])

TypeScript example

type FranchiseDirectSearch = {
  results?: {
    url?: string;
    name?: string;
    image?: string;
    category?: string;
    description?: string;
    minimum_cash_required?: number;
    minimum_cash_required_display?: string;
  }[];
  pagination?: {
    next?: unknown;
    page?: number;
    per_page?: number;
    total_pages?: unknown;
    total_results?: unknown;
  };
};

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  "query": "coffee",
});

const response = await fetch(`https://api.piloterr.com/v2/franchisedirect/search?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.PILOTERR_API_KEY! },
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Piloterr error ${response.status}: ${await response.text()}`);

const data = (await response.json()) as FranchiseDirectSearch;

console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 2).slice(0, 2000));

POST variant

POST https://api.piloterr.com/v2/franchisedirect/search
x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

{"query": "coffee"}

Output example

Example response from the API reference, abridged — real values depend on the page you scrape.

{
  "results": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.franchisedirect.com/coffee-franchises/coffeenow",
      "name": "CoffeeNow",
      "image": "https://static4.franchisedirect.ie/dims4/default/5f4574f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/350x220+0+0/resize/255x160!/quality/95/?url=https%3A%…",
      "category": "Coffee Franchises",
      "description": "Bring the coffee shop experience directly to local workplaces with a technology-driven mobile franchise that eliminates the need for a tr…",
      "minimum_cash_required": 60000,
      "minimum_cash_required_display": "$60,000"
    }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "next": null,
    "page": 1,
    "per_page": 6,
    "total_pages": null,
    "total_results": null
  }
}

Response fields

Field	Type	Description
results[]	object[]
results[].url	string
results[].name	string
results[].image	string
results[].category	string
results[].description	string
results[].minimum_cash_required	integer
results[].minimum_cash_required_display	string
pagination	object
pagination.next	object
pagination.page	integer
pagination.per_page	integer
pagination.total_pages	object
pagination.total_results	object

Code examples in other languages

Ready-to-run examples live in the examples/ folder. Each one reads your key from the PILOTERR_API_KEY environment variable.

Language	Franchise	Search
cURL (Bash)	franchise	search
PHP	franchise	search
C#	franchise	search
Go	franchise	search
Java	franchise	search
Ruby	franchise	search
Node.js	franchise	search

Practical use cases

• Price monitoring — Track prices, promotions and availability over time to react to competitors.
• Assortment & catalog tracking — Follow new products, delisted items and category changes.
• Competitor analysis — Benchmark ranges, brands and positioning across retailers.
• Product research — Spot best-sellers and trends from search results.
• Catalog enrichment — Pull titles, images and attributes into your PIM or marketplace listings.

Why Piloterr?

• No infrastructure — no proxies, headless browsers or CAPTCHA solving to run yourself.
• Structured JSON — stable, documented fields instead of brittle HTML selectors.
• Pay per request — transparent credit cost per endpoint, failed requests are retried for you.
• One API key, hundreds of sources — Franchise Direct plus many other e-commerce, search and company data endpoints in the Piloterr library.
• Any language — plain HTTPS + JSON, with examples for Python, TypeScript, cURL, PHP, C#, Go, Java, Ruby and Node.js.

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape Franchise Direct?

Collecting publicly available data is generally allowed in many jurisdictions, but rules depend on your country, the data you collect and how you use it. Avoid personal data unless you have a lawful basis, respect the website's terms where they apply, and get legal advice for your specific use case. This is not legal advice.

Do I need proxies or a headless browser?

No. Piloterr handles rendering, proxy rotation and retries on its side. You only send an HTTPS request with your x-api-key header and receive JSON.

How much does a request cost?

Credits per call: /v2/franchisedirect/franchise 1, /v2/franchisedirect/search 1. See the Piloterr website for plans.

What data does the Franchise Direct API return?

Each endpoint returns structured JSON: Franchise Direct Franchise — url, name, image, industry, description, business_type; Franchise Direct Search — results[], results[].url, results[].name, results[].image, results[].category, results[].description.

Which languages are supported?

Any language that can make an HTTP request. This README shows Python and TypeScript; the examples/ folder contains cURL, PHP, C#, Go, Java, Ruby and Node.js.

Related scrapers

• About You Scraper API
• Action Scraper API
• Aldi Scraper API
• Alibaba Scraper API
• AliExpress Scraper API
• Allegro Scraper API
• All Piloterr scrapers on GitHub

Support

• 💬 Join the Piloterr Discord to ask questions and share what you build.
• 📚 Browse the API reference (OpenAPI) and the Piloterr library.
• 🔑 Get your API key.

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_{Built by Piloterr — web scraping APIs for e-commerce, search, real estate and more, one API key.}

_{Franchise Direct is a trademark of its respective owner. This repository is not affiliated with or endorsed by Franchise Direct. Examples are released under the MIT license.}