Fitness
Hotworx Franchise
A 24-hour infrared sauna fitness studio franchise built around a small (~2,000 sq. ft.) boutique footprint, automated after-hours access, and pre-recorded "virtual instructor" led workouts rather than live classes. Hotworx Franchising, LLC was organized in Wyoming in November 2016 and began offering franchises for HOTWORX studios in January 2017. Franchised unit count grew every year of the FDD's three-year window, though growth decelerated from +171 in 2023 to +85 in 2025 as company-owned unit growth picked up.
Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from Hotworx's own filing.
What it costs to open
From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.
Franchise fee
$19,950
Total to open
$288,890–$830,380
Ongoing royalty
Not a %-of-revenue fee -- see FDD
What you'd actually spend, over time
The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.
Defaulted to a rough fitness industry average, not a figure from Hotworx's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Startup investment (royalty not included -- see below)
$288,890 – $830,380
Hotworx doesn't charge a straightforward percentage-of-revenue royalty -- its FDD describes a different ongoing-fee structure instead. That cost isn't included in the total above; check the FDD directly for the real terms before using this figure to compare against other franchises.
When would you break even?
Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Hotworx's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical fitness profit margin (~15%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.
Defaulted to a general fitness industry benchmark, not a figure from Hotworx's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.
At that profit, you'd break even in about
2.8–7.9 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Hotworx is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is Hotworx actually growing?
Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:
Locations opened vs. closed, by year
GrowingFrom Item 20 of Hotworx's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 405 | 576 | +171 |
| 2024 | 576 | 712 | +136 |
| 2025 | 712 | 797 | +85 |
Most recent year (2025): gained 85 franchised units, ending the year at 797 total.
What you're actually signing up for
The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.
Training & ongoing support (Item 11)
Item 11: a Franchise Performance Coach conducts one week of virtual training for the franchisee's first studio, with an optional on-site visit before the second week of operation billed at $200/day plus travel; Franchisor designates the franchisee's protected territory only after site approval.
Territory protection (Item 12)
Item 12: a Protected Territory sized at Franchisor's sole discretion once the site is approved and included as a Franchise Agreement exhibit; Franchisor retains the right to operate or license studios at any Non-Traditional location, and franchisees may not offer e-commerce or independent websites using the marks.
Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)
Item 17: 10-year term, renewable perpetually for additional 10-year terms if the franchisee is in good standing and executes the then-current franchise agreement, which may carry materially different (including higher) fees.
How Hotworx compares to other Fitness franchises
Across the 10 fitness franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $490,262–$1,286,375, with royalties averaging around 7.3% of gross sales (based on the 9 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).
$764,577–$1,104,920 · 8% royalty
Pure Barre$445,299–$736,465 · 7% royalty
StretchLab$271,037–$814,192 · 8% royalty
Anytime Fitness$539,329–$905,482 · 8% royalty
Club Pilates$403,289–$1,029,811 · 8% royalty
Burn Boot Camp$291,145–$678,003 · 6% royalty
Planet Fitness$1,282,500–$5,386,000 · 7% royalty
The Joint Chiropractic$254,250–$520,800 · 7% royalty
F45 Training$362,300–$857,700 · 7% royalty
Keep going
- Hotworx and Burn Boot Camp are both fitness franchises; Hotworx's total investment starts about $2,255 lower than Burn Boot Camp's. Burn Boot Camp Franchise
- Hotworx and StretchLab are both fitness franchises; StretchLab's total investment starts about $17,853 lower than Hotworx's. StretchLab Franchise
Where this came from: MN CARDS file 8932, Clean FDD issued April 1, 2026, filed 4/1/2026, effective 4/16/2026. California DFPI entity id 407241 (legal name used here) has an active, similarly current registration (App ID APP00004640, effective 5/19/2026), so a future re-verification pass could switch this entry to the CA filing; this draft used the MN copy. foundedYear is hand-corrected from an automated-parser misread of 1996 (likely a stray page number or citation) to 2017 -- Item 1 states the entity was organized November 29, 2016 and began offering franchises in January 2017. Item 5: $19,950 single-studio initial franchise fee, plus required sauna/software/workout equipment of $121,510-$194,000 bought from Franchisor or its affiliate. Item 6: the "Monthly Royalty Fee" is a flat $695/month per studio, not a percentage of Gross Sales, so royaltyPercent is set to null; no separate ongoing advertising/brand-fund percentage fee was found in Item 6 -- Item 7's Table 1 includes only a one-time $10,000 pre-opening "Printing, Marketing and Advertising" line item. Item 7 Total (Table 1, excluding CA and NY, which have a separate, higher table): $288,890-$830,380. Item 20 Table No. 1 confirmed. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-04-16. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.
If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.