By Ceallaigh Pender Lorenz-Talleyrand, Founder and CEO, Salvation Wellness. NCBTMB Approved Continuing Education Provider. Lead Investigator, IRB Clinical Trial CINJ #002553.
Last updated: August 3, 2026
If you are looking into becoming an owner of an established brand through franchising, you’re probably doing a lot of comparison right now. And in such a competitive market, there’s a lot to look over. As an emerging wellness franchise brand, it might seem unusual to publish a comparison that includes our competitors, but we actually think it explains a lot about us. Honest, transparent, and collaborative. When we were deciding how Salvation Wellness fit into this category, we went looking for a side by side of the brands in it, and everything we found was either a fluffy press release written by the brand itself or a lead generation page from a franchise portal earning a commission on the inquiry. Neither one tells you what you actually need to know before you make a commitment such as this. So, we wrote a comparison we would want to read. We have included the areas where other brands are stronger than we are, and the areas where we would tell you to go with someone else, and where we are strongest as well, because a comparison that only flatters the author is not a comparison.
The short answer
Each of the brands on this list are all in the same industry but they all have different business models and are built for different buyers with different capital, different time horizons, and different tolerance for risk.
TLDR : If you want the largest system in the industry, Massage Envy remains the biggest by a wide margin. If you want the biggest current growth among the established brands, Hand & Stone is the answer. If you want the most straightforward operating model, Elements Massage runs one service line and runs it well. If aesthetics and a younger member base matter to you, The NOW has built the most distinctive physical brand in the category. If you want the lowest employee labor requirement and the fastest growing service type, SWTHZ and Perspire are built around equipment rather than practitioners. If you want an emerging brand with a founder led system that has several diverse revenue streams, with proven and emerging service types in the same footprint, with territory still available in most major markets, that is where Salvation Wellness sits.
We are the newest brand on this list. That comes with advantages and disadvantages, and both are covered below.
A note on the numbers
Investment figures in this category are less reliable than they look. Third party FDD aggregators disagree with each other by wide margins. As of mid 2026, Hand & Stone’s estimated initial investment appears as $321,000 to $865,000 on one aggregator, $531,000 to $663,000 on a second, and $578,507 to $871,602 on a third. Some of that spread comes from different FDD years, some from different assumptions about working capital, and some from sites that simply have not updated.
Every figure below is labeled with where it came from. Treat all of it as a starting point for conversation, not as a substitute for reading the current Franchise Disclosure Document. Item 7 of the FDD is the only authoritative source for what a franchise costs, and Item 19 is the only authoritative source for anything about revenue.
THE BRANDS
Massage Envy
Founded : 2002
Franchising : 2003
Locations : roughly 1,100 in the US
Investment : $719,000 to $1,081,000.
Ownership : Private equity – Roark Capital Group.
Massage Envy is the brand that built this category. It is the largest massage franchise system in the world, reports more than 1.6 million members, and employs somewhere around 35,000 licensed massage therapists and estheticians across its franchised locations. The service mix covers massage, skin care, and stretch therapy, supported by skincare partnerships with Murad, IMAGE, and PCA Skin. Brand awareness studies consistently put it well ahead of every other name on this list, which is worth something real when you open a location and people already know what you do.
The system has been through a contraction. According to its 2026 franchise disclosure document, Massage Envy began 2018 with 1,173 locations and closed out 2025 with 993. Some of that is normal churn in a system that size, some of it is the pandemic, and some of it is franchisees who did not make the economics work. Recent reporting suggests unit count has started moving back up.
Strengths: brand awareness, membership base, and the fact that a Massage Envy location does not have to explain what it is to anyone.
Considerations: a system that shed roughly 180 net locations over seven years is telling you something, and it is worth asking existing franchisees directly what happened in their markets. Territory availability in desirable metros is limited after two decades of buildout. Therapist recruitment is a structural challenge at this scale.
Fees: $45,000 franchise fee, 6 percent royalty, 2 percent marketing fee.
Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa
Founded : 2004
Franchising : 2006.
Locations : 650 across US and Canada.
Investment : $578,000 to $872,000.
Ownership : Private equity – Harvest Partners, acquired from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners in 2022.
Hand & Stone is the scale leader in this category and it is not close. The brand was named number one in the Massage and Spa Services category in Entrepreneur’s 2026 Franchise 500, and reports delivering more than 1.6 million facials in 2025, which the company says represents roughly a third of systemwide sales.
That facial business is the strategic point worth understanding. Hand & Stone is not really a massage brand. It is a massage and skincare brand where skincare carries a large share of the revenue, supported by partnerships with Dermalogica and IMAGE Skincare. If you are drawn to the massage side specifically, know that you are buying into a two service business.
Strengths: brand recognition, a long operating history, a mature marketing infrastructure, and the deepest SBA lending track record in the category, which matters more than most first time buyers realize when it comes time to finance.
Considerations: with 650 locations, the best territories in most metros are gone. You are more likely to be looking at a resale or a secondary market. Royalty runs 6 percent of gross sales after the first year, with a separate marketing fund contribution on top.
Fees: franchise fee reported between $39,000 and $50,000 depending on source. Royalty is 5 percent for the first year and 6 percent after, with a separate marketing fund contribution.
Elements Massage
Founded : 2000
Franchising : 2006
Locations : 240 in the US
Investment : varies too widely across sources to state reliably, see below.
Ownership : Private equity – parent company WellBiz Brands, most recently reported as acquired by Transom Capital from KSL Capital Partners in 2026.
Elements made a deliberate choice to do one thing and one thing only. Massage. The model is personalized therapeutic massage with a month to month membership, unused sessions that roll over automatically, and a set of add ons like aromatherapy, hot stones, Himalayan salt stone, and cupping.
There is a real argument for this. One service line means simpler hiring, simpler training, simpler inventory, and a shorter list of things that can go wrong. Owners who want a business they can understand fully tend to like it.
Strengths: operational simplicity and a mature system with 26 years of history behind it. Reported franchise fee of $40,000 is among the lower entry points in the category.
Considerations: one service line also means one revenue stream. Every dollar in that studio has to come through a treatment room with a therapist in it, which means your ceiling is set by therapist availability and room count. In a market with a therapist shortage, that is a meaningful constraint.
Fees and investment: this is the least consistent figure on the list. Third party sources put the range anywhere from roughly $222,000 to roughly $730,000, which is too wide to be useful. Franchise fee is reported at $40,000 and royalty at 6 percent. Ask Elements directly for the current Item 7 rather than relying on any of the published summaries.
The NOW Massage
Founded : November 2015
Franchising : 2019
Locations : 85 boutiques open with over 190 licenses sold
Investment : $476,000 to $813,000.
Ownership : Founder led – Gara and Jason Post
The NOW made design the strategy. Raw materials, natural wood, exposed beams, cactus galleries, crystal grids. The menu is deliberately short: a signature massage, a stretch focused service, and a mind and body service, with enhancements layered on top. No facials, skincare line, or equipment.
They bet that a younger customer who finds full spa environments intimidating or overpriced would pay for a beautiful room and a good massage without the rest of it. That bet has largely worked. As of late 2025 the brand reported more than 190 licenses sold with over 85 boutiques open, which is fast growth for a system that started franchising in 2019.
Strengths: Brand identity. The NOW is instantly recognizable in a way most brands in this category are not, and that translates into organic social reach that would otherwise cost real marketing dollars. The reach into Gen Z and millennial customers is genuine rather than aspirational.
Considerations: The drapes as walls design means no real sound of physical privacy. A boutique that looks like that is expensive to build, and the investment reflects it. Financial requirements are among the higher entry bars in the category, with the brand publishing minimums of $250,000 in liquidity and $750,000 in net worth. And like Elements, it is a single service line, which means the same practitioner dependent ceiling.
Fees: $60,000 franchise fee, per Franchise Times reporting.
Heights Wellness Retreat, formerly Massage Heights
Founded : 2004
Franchising : 2005
Locations : 138 units
Investment : $935,895 to $1,466,168.
Ownership : Founder led – Shane and Wayne Evans, with no disclosed private equity ownership.
Massage Heights rebranded to Heights Wellness Retreat in October 2024, and the change is more substantial than a new name. Alongside massage and facials, the expanded brand now includes cryotherapy, halo salt therapy, infrared sauna, red light therapy, meditation, lymphatic drainage, and compression. The model runs on what the brand calls Lifestyle Programs, meaning customized memberships built around whichever services a given member actually uses, with 50 percent off non member pricing and automatic rollover.
Of the established brands, this is the one moving in a similar direction to us, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Heights is the closest thing on this list to a multi-modality wellness studio at scale.
Strengths: the membership structure is genuinely well designed, and the brand has been explicit about revenue per square foot as an operating priority, which is the right thing to be focused on in this category. The service expansion spreads revenue across practitioner and equipment based offerings rather than concentrating it in treatment rooms.
Considerations: unit count has been relatively flat compared to Hand & Stone, and a rebrand mid stream is worth asking current franchisees about directly, particularly franchisees who converted an existing Massage Heights location and had to fund the added equipment. Royalty is 6 percent plus a 3 percent brand fund.
Fees and investment: $49,500 franchise fee. The $935,895 to $1,466,168 range above comes from the brand’s own franchise site. Note that several third party aggregators still publish figures in the $470,000 to $620,000 range, which appear to reflect pre-rebrand disclosures for a smaller buildout. This is the largest gap between brand reported and aggregator reported figures on this list, and a good illustration of why the FDD is the only number that matters.
Salvation Wellness
Founded : 2011
Franchising : 2026.
Locations : 2, more than 24 territories available.
Investment of $436,400 to $1,052,300.
Ownership : Founder led – Ceallaigh and Andres Lorenz-Talleyrand, with no private equity ownership.
Salvation Wellness is an emerging brand. We do not have hundreds of units, or decades of franchise history.If those things are what you need in order to feel confident, one of them is the better fit for you. We do offer the only therapist led model in the industry, with
The studio offers a proprietary integrated approach to massage, meditation and restorative classes covering meditation, yin yoga, self massage, and stretching, private and group infrared sauna, and red light therapy, as well as proprietary products used in service as well as sold as retail.
We have an exclusive educational pipeline for massage therapist employees through massage school programming and continuing education training led by founder Ceallaigh Lorenz-Talleyrand.
Most brands on this list run one labor model. Massage Envy, Hand & Stone, Elements, and The NOW depend on licensed practitioners for essentially all of their revenue. SWTHZ and Perspire removed the practitioner entirely and run on equipment. Both approaches concentrate risk in one place. Heights Wellness Retreat is the exception, and its rebrand moved it toward a mix of practitioner and equipment based services.
Strengths: Territory availability, since more than 24 markets remain open and no metro is picked over. Founder led training, meaning Ceallaigh and Andres lead core sessions rather than a department that has never operated a studio. A proprietary massage method and a class program that no other brand on this list currently offers. A pipeline for therapist employees through founder led massage schools. And a founding team with research and continuing education credentials, including active work as Lead Investigator on an IRB approved trial studying massage therapy in medical institutional settings.
Considerations: We are new to franchising, our system is less proven than a 20 year old brand, and early franchisees will be building alongside us rather than stepping into a fully settled playbook. A three part model is also more to learn than a single service studio, and it asks more of an owner in the first year. Some people want that. Many people do not, and that is a legitimate position.
Fees: $50,000 initial franchise fee. See Items 5, 6, and 7 of our FDD for the full breakdown.
SWTHZ, formerly SweatHouz
Founded : 2019.
Franchising : 2022.
Locations : 35 studios open with over 300 licenses sold,
Investment : $632,000 to $1,314,000.
Ownership : Private equity – Prospect Hill Growth Partners, under the Legacy Franchise Concepts platform.
SWTHZ is the fastest growing brand in this category right now. In December 2025 the company announced it was opening two new studios per week through year end, across Miami, Naples, Houston, Austin, Los Angeles, San Diego, Charlotte, Phoenix, and Cleveland. The offer is a private suite with an infrared sauna, a cold plunge, and a vitamin C shower, with no practitioner involved.
SWTHZ describes itself as a premium priced service with a low labor model. You are not hiring licensed therapists. You are maintaining equipment and staffing a front desk.
Strengths: labor. If the binding constraint in wellness right now is finding and keeping licensed practitioners, a model that does not require them sidesteps the problem entirely. The brand also has real cultural momentum, with athlete investors and Entrepreneur’s 2025 Top New and Emerging Franchises recognition.
Considerations: contrast therapy is a newer category and the durability of demand is not yet proven across an economic cycle the way massage is. Capital requirements are high and royalty is the steepest on this list. And the thing that makes the model efficient, the absence of a practitioner, is also the thing that makes it easier to replicate. There is very little that a competitor with the same equipment cannot copy.
Fees: franchise fee reported between $45,000 and $50,000, royalty reported at 7 percent. The brand publishes a minimum liquidity requirement of $550,000.
Perspire Sauna Studio
Founded : 2010
Franchising : 2017.
Locations : 55 studios open with about 200 signed franchise agreements
Investment : $566,000 to $990,000.
Ownership: Sweat Equity Group
Perspire is the longer tenured brand in the sauna category and predates the current contrast therapy wave by nearly a decade. Similar structural logic to SWTHZ: equipment driven, low labor, membership based.
Strengths: more operating history than the newer entrants in the same category, reduced reliance on employees, no certifications required.
Considerations: the sauna category has become crowded quickly, with SWTHZ, Restore Hyper Wellness, iCRYO, Hotworx, Beem Light Sauna, and others all competing for similar real estate and similar members.
Fees: franchise fee and royalty are not consistently published by third party sources. Request Items 5 and 6 directly.
A Note on Ownership
We have flagged who owns each brand, because it is material and practically nobody in this category mentions it.
Five of the eight brands here have institutional capital behind them. Massage Envy is held by Roark Capital. Hand & Stone is held by Harvest Partners, which bought it from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners in 2022, meaning it has changed private equity hands at least twice. Elements sits inside WellBiz Brands, which has itself moved between funds. SWTHZ is backed by Prospect Hill Growth Partners. Salvation Wellness, The NOW, and Heights Wellness Retreat remain founder led. Salvation Wellness is the only therapist founded company.
This is not an argument that private equity ownership is bad. Those firms bring growth capital, professional systems, and operational discipline, and franchisees have benefited from all three. But there is a structural mismatch worth understanding before you sign. A franchise agreement typically runs ten years. A private equity hold period typically runs three to seven. That means it is likely, not merely possible, that the people who sold you the franchise will not be the people you are working with in year eight. Royalty structures, supplier requirements, technology platforms, and support staffing can all change with ownership, and you will have no vote.
Ask every brand you consider who owns it, how long they have owned it, and what happened to franchisee support the last time ownership changed.
Which Brand Fits Which Buyer
You want the largest system and the highest brand awareness. Massage Envy.
You want a growing established brand with a diversified service mix. Hand & Stone.
You want founder access and training. Salvation Wellness.
You want the simplest possible operating model. Elements Massage.
You want a design led brand with strong appeal to younger members. The NOW.
You want to avoid hiring licensed practitioners entirely. SWTHZ or Perspire.
You want a well built membership structure at moderate scale. Heights Wellness Retreat.
You want revenue spread across several revenue streams. Salvation Wellness, Heights Wellness Retreat.
You want an emerging brand. Salvation Wellness.
Questions Worth Asking
How many units closed or transferred last year, and how has unit count moved over five years? Item 20 of the FDD has this. It tells you more about franchisee satisfaction than any testimonial will.
What is disclosed in Item 3? Item 3 covers litigation history. Read it for every brand you are considering, including this one. It is public, it is required, and most buyers skip it.
What does the brand do about therapist recruiting, specifically? Not what they say about it. What the actual mechanism is.
How many territories are left in the market you want? Also ask what your second and third choice markets are, because with more establishes large brands, the first choice is often taken.
Who leads training, and have they operated a location themselves?
What is the total ongoing fee load, royalty plus marketing fund plus technology plus anything else? These add up differently across brands and the royalty number alone can be misleading.
A Closing Note
We hoped this was a helpful page with some of the basic information you should have to get started in your search. We want you to choose the right brand for you, with all the information possible to make the best decision.
Figures cited in this article are drawn from publicly available franchise disclosure summaries and brand publications as of 08/03/2026 and are provided for general comparison. They are not offers to sell a franchise and should not be relied on in place of the current Franchise Disclosure Document of any brand mentioned. This article contains no representation regarding the actual or potential financial performance of any Salvation Wellness location. Written and reviewed by Ceallaigh Pender Lorenz-Talleyrand Phd-c, PRT-c, LMT, CDT.
