A Whataburger franchise is sold only in select markets, and the smallest choice on the company’s inquiry form is 5 restaurants in 5 years; Minnesota’s registry held no Whataburger FDD on November 3, 2026.
Key takeaways
- Franchising restarted in 2020. Whataburger’s July 2, 2020 release says it “will begin franchising our restaurants for the first time in almost 20 years.”
- The inquiry form screens for groups. The archived form code offers 5, 6 to 10 or 11+ restaurants over 5 years, liquid-asset brackets from “Under $2 million” and net-worth brackets from “Under $7.5 million”.
- About 1 in 5 units is franchised. Franchise Times’ September 28, 2025 profile lists 206 franchised restaurants among 1,085 U.S. units, up from 140 of 925 in its 2023 profile.
- No FDD on the registry we searched. Minnesota CARDS returned no Clean FDD rows for Whataburger on November 3, 2026, and none of the 16 Whataburger states named in the company releases we read is among the 14 registration states listed in GAO-23-105338.
- The $1.2 million figure is a trade-profile number. The “$1,200,000 – $3,000,000” range online matches Franchise Times, not an Item 7 table; any real offer owes you an FDD 14 calendar-days before signing under 16 CFR 436.2(a) unless an exemption applies.
Is Whataburger a franchise or a company-run chain?
Whataburger is both. The company runs most of its restaurants itself and licenses the rest to franchise groups. Franchise Times’ September 28, 2025 profile lists 206 franchised units among 1,085 in the U.S., or 19%. The company’s July 2, 2020 release announced that it would “begin franchising our restaurants for the first time in almost 20 years,” so new franchise deals had paused for close to two decades before 2020.
Franchising itself is old at Whataburger. The company’s history page records that the first franchisee opened Whataburger #5 in Alice, Texas, in 1953, three years after the first stand. What changed in 2019 and 2020 was ownership and strategy: the same page logs that BDT Capital Partners “acquired a majority interest in Whataburger” in 2019, and the 2020 release tied franchising to opening “more restaurants in more areas.”
| Year | Event | Whataburger source |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Whataburger #1 opens on Ayers Street, Corpus Christi, Texas, on Aug. 8 | Our History |
| 1953 | First franchisee opens Whataburger #5 in Alice, Texas | Our History |
| 1959 | #21 opens in Pensacola, Florida, the first outside Texas | Our History |
| 2019 | BDT Capital Partners acquires a majority interest | Our History |
| 2020 | Release: franchising to begin “for the first time in almost 20 years”; 10-state footprint | July 2, 2020 release |
| 2023 | Vice President, Franchise: “With our franchise partners, we’ve recently entered Colorado Springs and Kansas City” | Oct. 5, 2023 release |
| 2025 | Debbie Stroud named president and CEO; Gastonia, N.C. becomes the 17th state in May | Our History |
The history page now describes “more than 1,130 Whataburger restaurants across 17 states” and more than 51,000 employees. Restaurant crews at company units work for Whataburger Restaurants LLC, the employer named in the May 14, 2025 joint-venture release; whether the franchisor in an FDD is that entity or an affiliate would be answered in Item 1 of the disclosure document.
What does the Whataburger franchise inquiry form ask, step by step?
The form on whataburger.com/franchise has 10 steps, and three of them set size and money brackets. We read it from a Wayback capture dated June 24, 2026, because whataburger.com answered our requests with an HTTP 406 error on November 3, 2026. The page is a JavaScript application, so the questions below are quoted from its archived code file rather than from rendered text.
| Step | Question as written | Answer choices or limits |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Markets of Interest | “Which specific markets are you interested in operating restaurants?” | “Check all that apply” from the states on the open list, then “Please list them here” |
| 2. Real Estate Experience | “Do you have experience developing real estate in this market?” | Yes or no; explanation in “100 words or less” |
| 3. Franchise Experience | “Have you ever operated multiple restaurants within a single brand at the same time?” | Yes or no; “which brand, how many, when” |
| 4. Other Holdings | “Do you currently own or operate any businesses that may compete with Whataburger?” | Yes or no; list the businesses |
| 5. Number of Restaurants | “How many restaurants would you be interested in opening in the next 5 years?” | “5 restaurants”, “6-10 restaurants”, “11+ restaurants” |
| 6. Single or Group Investing | “Please select the option which applies to you” | “I’ll invest as an individual”, “I’ll invest with partners”, “I represent an organization” |
| 7. Liquid Assets | “How much do you have in liquid assets?” | “Under $2 million”, “$2 million – $4 million”, “$4 million – $6 million”, “Over $6 million” |
| 8. Net Worth | “What is your approximate net worth?” | “Under $7.5 million”, “$7.5 million – $10 million”, “$10 million – $12.5 million”, “Over $12.5 million” |
| 9. Why Whataburger? | “Briefly tell us why you’re interested in joining us” | “500 words or less”; resume as DOC, DOCX or PDF |
| 10. Contact Information and Resume | “Please provide the following details” | Full name, business entity, street address, city, state, ZIP, phone, email |
Three limits sit in the code itself. There is no option below 5 restaurants in step 5, the lowest liquid-asset bracket tops out at $2 million, and the lowest net-worth bracket tops out at $7.5 million. The form does not say which answers pass; it states that submitting it “does not obligate either party to enter into a franchise relationship” and that a Franchise Development Team contacts applicants “selected for an interview,” while others are “kept on file for future consideration.”
The landing page also prints a note built from a template: “We are only accepting applications for select markets in” followed by a list of states. That list loads from Whataburger’s content server, which the Wayback Machine did not archive, so we cannot say which states were open in June 2026. Step 1 shows only the states on that list as checkboxes.
How have franchised Whataburger counts changed since 2023?
Franchised units grew faster than company units in the three most recent Franchise Times profiles. The count rose from 140 of 925 U.S. restaurants in the September 27, 2023 profile to 171 of 997 in the September 27, 2024 profile and 206 of 1,085 in the September 28, 2025 profile. Whataburger does not publish this split itself, and these are trade-publication figures, not Item 20 tables.
| Franchise Times profile | U.S. units | Franchised units | Company-run (total minus franchised) | Percent franchised | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2023 | 925 | 140 | 785 | 15% | Franchise Times via Wayback |
| Sep 27, 2024 | 997 | 171 | 826 | 17% | Franchise Times via Wayback |
| Sep 28, 2025 | 1,085 | 206 | 879 | 19% | Franchise Times via Wayback |
Franchised Whataburger units rose from 140 of 925 to 206 of 1,085 between the 2023 and 2025 Franchise Times profiles. Source: Franchise Times via Wayback, accessed November 3, 2026.
| Measure | Inputs | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Net new U.S. units, 2023 to 2025 profiles | 1,085 minus 925 | 160 |
| Net new franchised units | 206 minus 140 | 66 |
| Net new company-run units | 879 minus 785 | 94 |
| Franchised share of net growth | 66 divided by 160 | 41% |
| Growth rate, franchised units | 66 divided by 140 | 47% |
| Growth rate, company-run units | 94 divided by 785 | 12% |
| Restaurants moved to a franchise group in the 2025 joint venture | 16 company-owned plus 13 already franchised | 29 run by the group |
Part of the 2025 increase may be a transfer rather than new building. Under the May 14, 2025 joint venture, Whataburger contributed “its 16 company-owned restaurants in the Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri markets” and a longtime franchise partner contributed 13, with the partner to “own and operate all 29 locations.” If the 2025 profile counts that deal, 16 of the 35 franchised units added between the 2024 and 2025 profiles changed owner without a new building opening.
Where did franchise groups open Whataburgers after 2020?
Franchise groups led or shared several Whataburger expansions from 2021 to 2025: Colorado Springs, the Kansas City region, Jacksonville, Oklahoma and the Las Vegas Strip. In Atlanta the company paired its own units with a franchisee under a plan for 50 corporate and franchise-owned restaurants in 5 years, per its November 21, 2022 release. Every plan below that states a unit count is multi-unit.
| Date | Market | What the release says | Implied pace | Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 14, 2021 | Colorado Springs, Colo. | “Longtime franchisee” to open a training center and first restaurant in 2021 | Not stated | Whataburger |
| Aug 10, 2021 | Wichita, Kan. to St. Joseph, Mo. | “a new investor-led franchise group” will open 30 restaurants “in the next seven years” | 30 over 7 years, about 4.3 a year | Whataburger |
| Jun 2, 2022 | Kansas City, Kan. | The group’s first unit, 10780 Parallel Parkway, opens June 7 as the area’s fifth Whataburger | Team of 110 | Whataburger |
| Nov 21, 2022 | Atlanta, Ga. | “50 corporate and franchise-owned locations to open over the next five years” | 10 a year, both types combined | Whataburger |
| Mar 21, 2023 | Jacksonville, Fla. | Franchisee to open “12 new Jacksonville-area Whataburger restaurants by year-end 2027” | 12 over about 4.8 years | Whataburger |
| Jan 16, 2024 | Atlanta, Ga. and Yukon, Okla. | 1,000th restaurant shared by a corporate unit and a franchise-owned unit run by a partner “since 2023” | 2 openings on one day | Whataburger |
| Feb 7, 2024 | Las Vegas, Nev. | 3752 S. Las Vegas Blvd. opens “in partnership with franchisee”; “entry to its 15th state” | 1 flagship | Whataburger |
| May 14, 2025 | Kansas City and Springfield, Mo. markets | Joint venture: 16 company plus 13 franchised restaurants, all run by the franchise group | 29 in one transaction | Whataburger |
The pace in these plans dwarfs the form’s floor. The smallest step 5 choice, 5 restaurants in 5 years, averages 1 opening a year; the 2021 Kansas City plan averaged about 4.3 a year and the Jacksonville plan about 2.5 a year once its 12 units are spread over the 4.8 years from March 2023 to the end of 2027. We name no franchise operators or their owners on this page, though the linked releases do.
Why can’t you download a Whataburger FDD?
No Whataburger disclosure document was on file in the one public registry we could search. A search of Minnesota CARDS on November 3, 2026 returned no Clean FDD rows for “Whataburger”, and none of the 16 Whataburger states named in its releases makes franchisors register first. Minn. Stat. 80C.02 bars offering or selling a franchise in Minnesota without an effective registration or an exemption.
| Group | States | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Whataburger states named in the company releases we opened (16) | Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas | Our History, Jan. 16, 2024, Jul. 15, 2021, Aug. 14, 2023 releases |
| The 14 FDD registration states | California, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin | GAO-23-105338, pp. 7 to 8, note 18 |
| Overlap | None | Our comparison, November 2026 |
One of Whataburger’s 17 states is not named in the documents we opened, so the table lists 16. Two other public registries were out of reach: the Wisconsin DFI and California DFPI franchise searches returned HTTP 403 errors on November 3, 2026, and we did not work around them. Our report on franchise registration states maps which of the 14 publish FDDs online.
Outside registration states, the federal Franchise Rule still applies, and it has two size exemptions that line up closely with the form’s brackets. 16 CFR 436.8(a)(5) exempts a sale when the buyer’s initial investment, excluding franchisor financing and unimproved land, is at least $1,469,600 and the buyer signs an acknowledgment, or when the buyer is an entity in business at least five years with a net worth of at least $7,348,000.
| Federal rule | Threshold or duty | Nearest Whataburger data point | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 CFR 436.2(a) | FDD delivered at least 14 calendar-days before signing or paying | Applies to any U.S. franchise sale that is not exempt | eCFR |
| 16 CFR 436.8(a)(5)(i) | Initial investment of at least $1,469,600 plus a signed acknowledgment | Franchise Times range starts at $1,200,000 | eCFR; Franchise Times |
| 16 CFR 436.8(a)(5)(ii) | Buyer entity: 5 years in business and net worth of at least $7,348,000 | Lowest form bracket: “Under $7.5 million” | eCFR; form code |
| 16 CFR 436.8(b) | Thresholds adjusted every fourth year by the Consumer Price Index | Next adjustment not yet published | eCFR |
The form’s lowest net-worth bracket ends at $7.5 million, just above the $7,348,000 federal large-franchisee threshold. Sources: eCFR 16 CFR 436.8; Whataburger form code via Wayback, June 24, 2026.
The closeness of $7.5 million to $7,348,000 is a fact about two numbers, not evidence of how Whataburger sells. We found no Whataburger statement saying it relies on any exemption, and a buyer below both thresholds would be owed the full disclosure document. The FTC Franchise Rule explainer covers the other exemptions in section 436.8.
Where do the Whataburger franchise cost figures online come from?
The most repeated Whataburger franchise cost, $1.2 million to $3 million, matches the Investment Range printed in Franchise Times’ 2025 profile: “$1,200,000 – $3,000,000.” Its 2023 and 2024 profiles printed “$1,200,000” alone. None of these is an Item 7 table, and we found no Whataburger document that states a franchise fee, royalty or total investment.
| Claim seen on top-ranking pages (2026) | What the traceable source shows | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total investment of $1.2 million to $3 million | Matches Franchise Times 2025: “$1,200,000 – $3,000,000”; no public Item 7 to confirm it | Franchise Times 2025 |
| Minimum investment of $1,200,000 | Franchise Times 2023 and 2024 print “$1,200,000” as the whole range | 2023, 2024 |
| Franchise fee of $35,000 | No Whataburger document states a fee; Franchise Times 2025 lists “Initial Investment: $40,000 – $50,000” without calling it a fee | Franchise Times 2025 |
| $1.5 million net worth and $500,000 liquid | The form’s lowest brackets are “Under $7.5 million” net worth and “Under $2 million” liquid; it states no minimum | Inquiry form code |
| Total investment up to $5.3 million | We found no document behind the $5.3 million top figure | None found |
| Operators must “run at least 5 Whataburger locations for a period of 5 years” | The form asks about restaurants “in the next 5 years” with 5 as the smallest choice; it states no contract term | Inquiry form code |
A Whataburger disclosure document, if you receive one, would answer these questions in fixed places: Item 5 for the initial franchise fee, Item 6 for royalty and advertising fees, Item 7 for the opening budget, Item 12 for territory and Item 20 for franchised and company unit counts over three years. Our guide to the 23 items of a franchise disclosure document explains each one, and multi-unit commitments usually sit in a separate area development agreement. None of this page is legal, financial or investment advice.
For printed fee and investment numbers from burger brands that do file FDDs, our page on In-N-Out and eight franchised burger systems compares Items 5, 6 and 7, and the Burger King franchise cost breakdown adds the remodel clauses that move the total after opening.
Which form answers put an applicant in or out of range?
The form never states a cutoff, so the table pairs each answer with what the public record shows and a next step. Rows draw on the June 24, 2026 form code, the 2021 to 2025 releases and 16 CFR 436.8 thresholds as of the October 1, 2026 eCFR. Treat the money rows as federal-rule facts, not as Whataburger’s approval criteria.
| If your answer is | What the record shows | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Step 5: you want 1 to 4 restaurants | No option below “5 restaurants”; every 2021 to 2025 franchise plan with a stated unit count was multi-unit | Compare burger and fast food FDDs that sell single units |
| Step 5: 5 or more, with step 2 and step 3 both yes | Matches the profile in the market releases: real estate development plus multi-unit operating history | Submit the inquiry and ask which markets are open |
| Step 8: net worth under $7.5 million | Lowest bracket; it straddles the $7,348,000 large-franchisee threshold, so the bracket alone does not settle that exemption | If your entity is below $7,348,000, expect a full FDD at least 14 calendar-days before signing unless another exemption applies |
| Step 8: entity 5+ years old with $7,348,000+ net worth | 16 CFR 436.8(a)(5)(ii) could let a seller skip the FDD | Ask in writing whether any exemption is claimed |
| Initial investment of $1,469,600 or more per deal, excluding land | 16 CFR 436.8(a)(5)(i) needs your signed acknowledgment | Read the acknowledgment text before you sign it |
| Step 4: you own a competing burger business | The form asks; competing interests usually meet non-compete terms in Item 17 | Disclose it and read Item 17 of any FDD |
| You want an existing Whataburger | The 2025 joint venture shows units can change hands, with franchisor involvement | Ask about transfer consent and fees before making an offer |
If the first row describes you, the fast food franchise comparison of 22 FDDs lists brands whose filings show single-unit options. For the resale route, the guide to buying a franchise for sale covers transfer approval, and the Item 19 research report explains why a brand’s earnings disclosure, not a blog estimate, is where unit performance belongs.
What should you ask the Whataburger franchise team before you pay anything?
Ask for documents, in this order, before any deposit or signature. Each item below maps to a section of the FTC Franchise Rule or an FDD Item, so the answer can be checked rather than taken on trust. The 14-day clock in 16 CFR 436.2(a) starts when you receive the disclosure document, not when you first talk to the company.
- The current FDD and its issuance date. Read Item 1 for the franchisor’s legal name; the releases we opened name Whataburger Restaurants LLC only as an employer.
- Item 20’s three-year tables. Compare franchised and company-run counts with the 206 and 879 in Franchise Times’ 2025 profile, and note any transfers such as the 16 units moved in May 2025.
- Items 5, 6 and 7 in writing. Check whether the Item 7 range resembles the “$1,200,000 – $3,000,000” trade figure, and whether land and building sit inside or outside it.
- The development schedule and Item 12 territory. Multi-unit plans in the releases ran 7 years for 30 units and to year-end 2027 for 12; ask what happens if a deadline is missed.
- Which exemption, if any, is claimed. If the answer is 16 CFR 436.8(a)(5)(i), the acknowledgment must state the sale is for more than $1,469,600, excluding unimproved land and franchisor financing.
- Which states are open now. The form’s market list loads from a server we could not read, so ask for the list as of your application date.
A consultant can help line these answers up against other brands; our explainer on what a franchise consultant does covers how they are paid and what they do not handle. Count 14 calendar-days from the day you receive the FDD before signing or paying anything.
How we compiled this
We read 21 pages from Whataburger’s newsroom, two Wayback captures of the whataburger.com franchise application (June 24, 2026), three Franchise Times profiles through the Wayback Machine, GAO-23-105338, 16 CFR 436.2 and 436.8 on eCFR, Minn. Stat. 80C.02 and a Minnesota CARDS search, between November 3 and November 5, 2026. whataburger.com returned HTTP 406 and Franchise Times showed a security check, so we used archived copies; the Wisconsin and California registry searches returned 403 and were not used. We left out sales figures, earnings, rankings and the names of franchise operators and their owners.
Frequently asked questions
Is Whataburger a franchise?
Yes, in part. Whataburger runs most restaurants itself and franchises the rest; Franchise Times’ September 28, 2025 profile lists 206 franchised units among 1,085 in the U.S. The company announced on July 2, 2020 that it would begin franchising again “for the first time in almost 20 years,” and its first franchisee dates to 1953 in Alice, Texas.
How much does a Whataburger franchise cost?
No public FDD gives an answer: Minnesota’s registry held no Whataburger filing on November 3, 2026. The widely repeated $1,200,000 to $3,000,000 range comes from a Franchise Times profile dated September 28, 2025, not from an Item 7 table. If Whataburger offers you a franchise, the FDD’s Item 7 is where the opening budget must appear.
What is the Whataburger franchise fee?
Whataburger has not published one in any document we found. Franchise Times’ 2025 profile lists “Initial Investment: $40,000 – $50,000” without calling it a fee, and other sites quote $35,000 with no source. The initial franchise fee would be printed in Item 5 of a Whataburger Franchise Disclosure Document, which you are owed 14 calendar-days before signing unless an exemption applies.
How much does a Whataburger franchise owner make?
There is no Whataburger Item 19 to read, because no FDD is on the public registries we searched, and this site does not publish earnings estimates. Owner income at any burger franchise depends on Item 6 royalties and fees, the Item 7 build cost and debt, and the site. Ask Whataburger whether its FDD includes an Item 19 and what period it covers.
Can you buy a single Whataburger restaurant?
Not through the company’s inquiry form: its smallest choice for new restaurants over the next 5 years is “5 restaurants,” and every franchise plan with a unit count in its 2021 to 2025 releases was multi-unit. A single existing unit can change hands only with franchisor involvement, as the May 2025 transfer of 16 company restaurants to a franchise group showed. Ask about transfer consent first.
Who owns Whataburger?
BDT Capital Partners acquired a majority interest in Whataburger in 2019, according to the company’s history page. The chain was founded by Harmon Dobson, who opened Whataburger #1 in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Aug. 8, 1950, and its home office is in San Antonio. Debbie Stroud was named president and CEO in 2025.
Sources
Whataburger documents
- Whataburger, Looking Ahead to the Future: New Locations, New Look, Same Iconic Flavor (July 2, 2020), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Our History: The Whataburger Story, accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger via Internet Archive, Franchise inquiry form application code (chunk 629), Wayback capture June 24, 2026, accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger via Internet Archive, Whataburger | Franchise Information page shell, Wayback capture June 24, 2026, accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger Recognized as Top Franchise Restaurant Chain (Oct. 5, 2023), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger Making Debut in Colorado Springs (Apr. 14, 2021), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger Takes Kansas and Missouri Expansion to New Level (Aug. 10, 2021), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Franchise group opens first Kansas City location (June 2, 2022), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Feeling Just Peachy: Whataburger Expanding in Georgia (Nov. 21, 2022), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger is Coming to the Atlanta Area (Mar. 31, 2022), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Let the Sunshine In: Whataburger Expanding in Northeast Florida (Mar. 21, 2023), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, A Thousand Reasons to Celebrate: 1,000th Location (Jan. 16, 2024), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger’s Las Vegas Location Opens (Feb. 7, 2024), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger Deepens Partnership With New Joint Venture (May 14, 2025), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger Making Debut in Greater Memphis Area (July 15, 2021), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger Launches First-of-its-Kind Restaurant in Tuscaloosa (Aug. 14, 2023), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger Hosts Grand Opening of First South Carolina Restaurant (July 15, 2024), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Whataburger, Whataburger’s First North Carolina Restaurant Opens in Gastonia (May 15, 2025), accessed November 3, 2026.
Registries, federal rules and trade data
- Franchise Times, Whataburger Top 400 profile, Sep. 27, 2023 (Wayback), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Franchise Times, Whataburger Top 400 profile, Sep. 27, 2024 (Wayback), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Franchise Times, Whataburger Top 400 profile, Sep. 28, 2025 (Wayback), accessed November 3, 2026.
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-23-105338, Franchise Oversight (pp. 7 to 8, note 18), accessed November 3, 2026.
- eCFR, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 16 CFR 436.2, Obligation to furnish documents, accessed November 3, 2026.
- eCFR, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 16 CFR 436.8, Exemptions, accessed November 3, 2026.
- Minnesota Department of Commerce, Franchise Registrations search (CARDS), accessed November 3, 2026.
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, Minn. Stat. 80C.02, Registration requirement, accessed November 5, 2026.