The short version
Ranked by units in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 directory, the largest residential cleaning franchise in the US is The Maids with 1,638 units, followed by Merry Maids with 1,504 and Molly Maid with 444. Ranked by systemwide sales in the Franchise Times Top 400, Molly Maid leads at $308 million, just ahead of The Cleaning Authority at $300 million. The right answer depends on what you count, and this page explains the counting.
One more pattern worth knowing: Molly Maid, Merry Maids, The Maids, and Maid Brigade were all founded in 1979. And all of these franchise systems together are a small slice of an $18.8 billion US residential cleaning market with more than 356,000 businesses.
This ranking covers residential cleaning franchise systems: recurring home cleaning sold under a national brand through local franchise owners. It excludes commercial janitorial franchises, vacation rental turnover companies (we rank those separately), and hotel housekeeping contractors (ranked here).
Why brand size numbers disagree. "Units" in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 directory means franchise licenses and territories, not storefronts or crews, and different trackers count differently. Maid Brigade shows 73 units in the Franchise 500 directory but 352 total units in the Franchise Times Top 400. The Maids lists 1,638 units while operating through a much smaller number of franchisee businesses. We rank on Entrepreneur's directory counts, accessed August 2026, because they are the only consistent cross-brand metric, and we show Franchise Times systemwide sales beside them where reported. Where a brand does not publish a number, we say so rather than estimate.
The ranking, by franchise units
All unit counts, investment ranges, and royalty rates below are from each brand's profile in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 directory (entrepreneur.com), accessed August 2026. Parent companies are as listed on the same profiles.
| # | Brand | Units | Founded | Franchising since | Initial investment | Royalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The MaidsThe Maids Int'l. | 1,638 | 1979 | 1981 | $117,720 - $141,200 | 6.9%-3.9% |
| 2 | Merry MaidsServiceMaster Systems | 1,504 | 1979 | 1980 | $126,875 - $169,325 | 5%-7% |
| 3 | Molly MaidNeighborly | 444 | 1979 | 1979 | $144,150 - $203,950 | 3%-6.5% |
| 4 | MaidProThreshold Brands | 282 | 1991 | 1997 | $109,860 - $158,650 | 6% |
| 5 | The Cleaning AuthorityAuthority Brands | 251 | 1977 | 1996 | $76,600 - $147,100 | 4%-6% |
| 6 | Two MaidsHome Franchise Concepts | 165 | 2003 | 2013 | $93,440 - $149,890 | 4%-7% |
| 7 | Maid BrigadeEvive Brands | 73* | 1979 | 1980 | $120,616 - $136,366 | 6.9%-3.5% |
| 8 | You've Got MaidsYGM Franchise | 70 | 2005 | 2010 | $36,394 - $107,537 | 5.9%-2.99% |
| 9 | Maid RightPremium Service Brands | 28 | 2013 | 2013 | $147,100 - $218,500 | 6% |
| 10 | Home Clean HeroesBuzz Franchise Brands | 18† | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | $85,510 - $105,235† | Not disclosed |
The ranking, by systemwide sales
Unit counts measure footprint. Sales measure business. The Franchise Times Top 400 (franchisetimes.com) reports systemwide sales, and its 2025 cleaning-services category includes exactly four residential brands. Merry Maids, The Maids, and MaidPro do not appear on that year's list; that is an absence, not evidence they are smaller.
| # | Brand | Systemwide sales | Sales growth | Total units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Molly MaidTop 400 rank 185 | $308M | +4.1% | 448 |
| 2 | The Cleaning AuthorityTop 400 rank 191 | $300M | -2.5% | 236 |
| 3 | Maid BrigadeTop 400 rank 380 | $68M | -1.6% | 352 |
| 4 | Two MaidsTop 400 rank 403 | $58M | +7.3% | 144 |
The six biggest brands, briefly
According to Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 directory (entrepreneur.com), The Maids lists 1,638 units, the most of any residential cleaning franchise, and ranked #56 overall in 2026. It has franchised since 1981 and is one of only two brands in this ranking that still lists itself, The Maids Int'l., as its own parent.
Merry Maids lists 1,504 directory units and has franchised since 1980 under ServiceMaster Systems. Its initial investment runs $126,875 to $169,325 with a 5% to 7% royalty, per its Franchise 500 profile.
Molly Maid is the sales leader: $308 million systemwide with 4.1% growth in the Franchise Times Top 400 (franchisetimes.com). Its owner Neighborly's franchise site (neighborly.com) reports 445+ US locations and an average gross sale of $173.43 per cleaning. It has franchised since its founding year, 1979.
MaidPro lists 282 directory units, has franchised since 1997, and sits inside the Threshold Brands platform. Its investment range is $109,860 to $158,650 with a flat 6% royalty, per its Franchise 500 profile.
Founded in 1977, The Cleaning Authority is the oldest brand in this ranking and the second largest by sales at $300 million systemwide, per the Franchise Times Top 400. It has franchised since 1996 under Authority Brands, with the lowest entry investment of the big five: $76,600 to $147,100.
Two Maids began in a 250-square-foot office in Pensacola, Florida in 2003, per the announcement of its 2021 acquisition by Home Franchise Concepts, a JM Family Enterprises subsidiary (franchising.com). It is the youngest brand in the sales table and the fastest growing of the four listed, at 7.3%.
The rest of the field is smaller. Maid Brigade, founded in 1979 and owned by Evive Brands, is the clearest example of the counting problem: 73 units in the Franchise 500 directory, 352 in the Franchise Times Top 400. You've Got Maids, founded in 2005, is the cheapest way in, with a minimum investment of $36,394 and a $6,999 franchise fee. Maid Right, founded in 2013 under Premium Service Brands, is the newest system and the most expensive to open, at up to $218,500. Home Clean Heroes, part of Buzz Franchise Brands, reports 18 locations across 12 states on its own site (homecleanheroesfranchise.com). CottageCare and ecomaids also operate in this space, but we could not verify current unit counts for either, so they are listed here without numbers.
Who actually owns the cleaning franchises
Eight of the ten ranked brands sit inside multi-brand home-services platforms: Neighborly owns Molly Maid, ServiceMaster Systems owns Merry Maids, Threshold Brands owns MaidPro, Authority Brands owns The Cleaning Authority, Home Franchise Concepts owns Two Maids, Evive Brands owns Maid Brigade, Premium Service Brands owns Maid Right, and Buzz Franchise Brands owns Home Clean Heroes, per each brand's Franchise 500 profile and company pages. Only The Maids and You've Got Maids list themselves as their own parent.
That consolidation matters if you are buying a franchise or selling to one. The person who signs a partnership deal for one maid brand often controls a dozen other home-service brands, and platform owners standardize the technology stack across all of them.
The market the franchises swim in
According to IBISWorld (ibisworld.com), US residential cleaning services are an $18.8 billion market as of 2024, growing 1.2% that year and 3.2% a year on average since 2019. The same research counts 356,516 residential cleaning businesses as of 2024, up 3.1% in a year.
Put those two numbers next to the sales table above and the structure of this industry is obvious. The four franchise systems large enough to make the Franchise Times Top 400 sold about $734 million combined, under 4% of the market. Residential cleaning is overwhelmingly a business of hundreds of thousands of small local companies, and the national brands are the visible tip. The labor economics underneath are covered in our cleaning industry employee turnover statistics report.
The franchise problem is a consistency problem
A cleaning franchise sells the same promise in every city: the brand standard, delivered by a local owner's crew. Every brand on this page lives or dies on whether crew number 400 cleans like crew number 4. That is a verification problem, and it is the same one vacation rental and hotel operators face at turnover.
RapidEye builds that verification layer: photo and video documentation of finished work, checked automatically against a standard, so an operator or a franchisor can see that the work met the bar without driving to the property. If your business depends on distributed crews hitting a standard, that is the gap worth closing first.
Quick FAQ
What is the largest residential cleaning franchise in the US?
It depends on the measure. By units in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 directory, The Maids is largest with 1,638 units, ahead of Merry Maids at 1,504. By systemwide sales in the Franchise Times Top 400, Molly Maid is largest at $308 million, ahead of The Cleaning Authority at $300 million.
How much does it cost to open a cleaning franchise?
Across the nine directory-profiled brands in this ranking, initial investment ranges run from $36,394 at the low end (You've Got Maids) to $218,500 at the high end (Maid Right), per Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 directory. Franchise fees run from $6,999 to $65,000, and royalties mostly fall between 3% and 7% of revenue.
Who owns the big residential cleaning franchises?
Mostly multi-brand platforms. Neighborly owns Molly Maid, ServiceMaster Systems owns Merry Maids, Threshold Brands owns MaidPro, Authority Brands owns The Cleaning Authority, Home Franchise Concepts owns Two Maids, Evive Brands owns Maid Brigade, Premium Service Brands owns Maid Right, and Buzz Franchise Brands owns Home Clean Heroes. Only The Maids and You've Got Maids remain their own parents.
How big is the US residential cleaning industry?
$18.8 billion as of 2024, spread across 356,516 businesses, per IBISWorld. The four franchise systems big enough to appear in the Franchise Times Top 400 combined for about $734 million in systemwide sales, under 4% of the market, so the industry is overwhelmingly small and local.
Cite this page
Sources
Sources are named at the publisher level with their root domain, rather than linked or titled; every figure is verifiable at the named source.
- Franchise 500 directory brand profiles, Entrepreneur (accessed August 2026)entrepreneur.com
- Top 400 cleaning-services category ranking, Franchise Times (2025)franchisetimes.com
- Residential cleaning services industry data, IBISWorld (2024)ibisworld.com
- Molly Maid franchise recruitment materials, Neighborlyneighborly.com
- Two Maids acquisition announcement reprint, Franchising.com (2021)franchising.com
- Home Clean Heroes company and franchise pageshomecleanheroesfranchise.com