Winners are selected based on survey data collected from their franchisees on 33 standard benchmarking questions. The 200 brands that have the highest overall franchisee satisfaction scores are named a Top Franchise.

Scores for each benchmark question are determined using a weighted scale. For each franchise brand, the collective scores of the franchisees are used to determine an overall FSI (Franchisee Satisfaction Index) score to determine their ranking.

Other factors considered include: size of the franchise system, percent of franchisees participating in the survey, and the age of the survey.