Franchise 360 vs FranchiseMS: an honest comparison
Franchise 360 is one of the longest-serving UK franchise management systems (its vendor has served franchise networks since 2005), so if you are a UK franchisor it is probably already on your list. This is the closest comparison on this site: two UK products with published pricing. Here is what Franchise 360 does well, where FranchiseMS goes further, and the feature-by-feature detail.
Which should you choose?
Choose Franchise 360 if…
- You want a UK vendor with two decades of tenure and a simple flat price.
- Your needs centre on recruitment, quoting, invoicing and MSF billing, and you are happy to commission bespoke extensions for anything beyond.
- You value a small-vendor relationship where the developers know your network personally.
Choose FranchiseMS if…
- You want the operations manual, training and audits in the product, linked, from day one.
- Your field staff need offline proof of work on their phones.
- You want royalty from recorded operational data, with accounting feeds as a cross-check.
- You want AI, territory maps, customer messaging and a company store included as standard.
What is Franchise 360?
Franchise 360 is built by Greyridge, a small founder-owned software house in Newcastle upon Tyne that has built B2B software since 2005. The vendor says more than 40 franchise brands have used it over 20 years, mainly UK networks. Alongside it, Greyridge sells Jobs360, a sister product for jobs-based franchise networks, and offers bespoke development for individual clients.
The platform covers franchise recruitment (a visual pipeline with configurable stages), a per-location CRM, branded quoting and invoicing, job scheduling with calendar integration, an intranet with forums and version-controlled document libraries, performance dashboards, support ticketing and management service fee (MSF) billing. Pricing is published openly: £30 per franchise per month plus £30 for head office, with a £1,000 one-off setup (vendor site, July 2026). Sector extensions built by Greyridge's own team cover education and training, home services, fitness and wellness, and professional services.
Its Capterra reviews (4.6 out of 5, from a small pool of 7) praise the support team and ease of use. The recurring criticism is depth: one reviewer wrote that "the majority of our processes sit outside the software" (Software Advice), and bespoke extensions are the intended answer, which one reviewer notes can get expensive. No offline working is evidenced, and no proof-of-work capture (photos, GPS stamps or customer signatures) appears in public material.
Where Franchise 360 shines
- Two decades serving UK franchising from a UK office, with UK terminology (management service fees) and GBP pricing.
- Genuinely simple, transparent pricing: £30 per franchise per month with unlimited users and no long-term contract.
- A responsive vendor whose own developers build sector extensions and bespoke features per network.
- Customers of many years praise the support as first class.
- Configurable MSF billing with invoice tracking.
Where FranchiseMS differs
- FranchiseMS covers the standards side Franchise 360 does not list: a versioned operations manual, a training LMS with a currency matrix, and audits that raise corrective actions, all linked together.
- Field work goes deeper: dispatch pools, offline capture, GPS presence stamps, customer signatures and before-and-after photos, not just a calendar entry.
- Royalty is calculated from the recorded work itself with the working on every statement, and each unit can connect its own accounting so takings are read automatically.
- Franchisees take card payments into their own Stripe account and message customers by text and email from the platform.
- Modern extras are included, not extension projects: AI drafting and review, territory maps, a company store, a public booking page per unit.
FranchiseMS vs Franchise 360: feature by feature
✓ built in · ◐ partial or via add-on · ✕ not offered · — nothing published we could verify
| What you need | FranchiseMS | Franchise 360 |
|---|---|---|
| Growing the network | ||
| Franchise recruitment CRM | Yes. Recruitment pipeline with configurable stages, candidate detail and CSV import. | Yes. Visual recruitment pipeline with configurable stages and task automation. |
| Onboarding new franchisees | Yes. Sign, provision the unit, then launch gates that must go green before opening. | Partial. One-click conversion from candidate to franchisee; no launch-gate workflow published. |
| Territory management & maps | Yes. Postcode-list territories (the contractual truth) drawn on an interactive map; head office can hold its own patch. | Partial. Territory assignments carry through from recruitment to franchisee conversion; no mapping or postcode-territory module is published. |
| Legal agreements & documents | Yes. Contracts register, agreement templates and document storage (upload or cloud link). | Partial. Version-controlled document libraries in the intranet. |
| Running the standards | ||
| Operations manual (versioned) | Yes. A versioned operations manual with ordered sections and linked resources. | Partial. Document libraries with version control; no dedicated manual module. |
| Training / LMS | Yes. Courses teach manual sections; a currency matrix shows who is trained on what; AI drafts lessons from the manual. | Not published. No training module in the published module set. |
| Brand audits with corrective actions | Yes. Manual-linked templates score the visit and automatically raise corrective-action cases. | Not published. No audit module in the published module set. |
| Manual, training & audits linked | Yes. One loop: define it in the manual, teach it in training, check it in audits. | Not published. Not applicable: no published manual, training or audit modules. |
| Communications with read receipts | Yes. Announcements with a delivered, read and acknowledged trail. | Partial. Forums and intranet; no read or acknowledge trail published. |
| The money | ||
| Royalty from real operational data | Yes. Royalty reads the work recorded in the platform (jobs, sales, takings) or a connected accounting feed, and shows the working on every statement. | Partial. MSF invoicing is billed from figures captured in the system (the charging system is configurable per network); no POS or accounting-feed verification on the current site. |
| Royalty invoicing & collection | Yes. Due, collected, outstanding and overdue, with payments recorded against each statement. | Yes. Configurable MSF invoicing with tracking; automated billing. |
| Franchisee card payments | Yes. Each unit connects its own Stripe; money lands in the franchisee's own bank. | Partial. Invoicing with payment tracking and overdue follow-up; the education extension mentions payment processing for class fees, but no card gateway is described. |
| VAT handled natively | Yes. A head-office day-1 mandate or per-unit setting; correct on quotes and invoices; royalty always on the net. | Partial. The vendor's feature pages say quotes and invoices can be configured to include your chosen VAT rate; nothing deeper is published. |
| Marketing fund transparency | Yes. Marketing-fund contributions and spend visible to every franchisee. | Not published. Nothing published we could verify (July 2026). |
| The franchisee's day-to-day | ||
| Job dispatch & scheduling diary | Yes. Dispatch to an operative or an available-to-pick-up pool; week and day diary; priorities and SLAs. | Yes. Job scheduling with calendar integration and reminders; route optimisation in the home-services extension. |
| Proof of work (photo, GPS, signature) | Yes. In-app camera, automatic GPS presence stamp and on-screen customer signature. | Not published. None published (photos, GPS or signatures). |
| Works offline in the field | Yes. A job finished with no signal is queued on the phone and uploads itself when coverage returns. | No. No offline mode evidenced; a reviewer notes occasional minor issues for field-based techs without a good signal. |
| Quotes captured on site | Yes. Operatives capture parts, labour and photos on site; the owner prices and signs off; the customer gets a branded email. | Yes. Branded quotes and estimates; automated follow-up for overdue invoices. |
| Customer texts & emails | Yes. Booking confirmations, reminders and invoices by text and email from the unit's own sender name. | Partial. Automated text and email functions praised by a long-standing reviewer. |
| Public booking page per unit | Yes. Each unit can switch on a public booking page that creates real jobs. | Not published. Nothing published we could verify (July 2026). |
| Customer records from real jobs | Yes. A searchable customer book per unit, built automatically from the work done. | Yes. A CRM per location. |
| Insight, AI & the platform | ||
| Cross-network analytics & benchmarking | Yes. Cross-module unit ranking and benchmarking across the network. | Yes. Performance dashboards and comparative cross-network reporting. |
| AI built in | Yes. Assistant, drafting, operations-manual review and analytics insight, included. | Not published. No AI capability published. |
| Company store | Yes. Company-store catalogue and orders with head-office oversight. | Not published. Nothing published we could verify (July 2026). |
| Support cases | Yes. A shared case system across franchisees and head office. | Yes. Support ticketing built in. |
| Accounting integrations | Yes. Xero connector; where a unit has more than one view of revenue, royalty uses the highest. | Not published. Nothing on the current vendor site; a dated third-party profile lists Xero and Sage. |
| Native mobile apps | Partial. Phone-first web app (camera, GPS and signature work in the browser); native apps are on the roadmap. | Partial. Android and iPhone/iPad apps listed on Capterra. |
| Published pricing | Yes. Per location per month with add-on modules, published on the pricing page. | Yes. Published: £30 per franchise per month, £30 head office, £1,000 one-off setup (vendor site, July 2026). |
| UK-built with UK support | Yes. Built and supported in the UK; priced in GBP; VAT native. | Yes. UK vendor in Newcastle upon Tyne, serving UK networks since 2005. |
This comparison is based on publicly available information: vendor websites, product pages and published customer reviews (Capterra, GetApp, Software Advice), checked in July 2026. Franchise 360 is a trademark of Greyridge Software Ltd. FranchiseMS is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Greyridge Software Ltd, and we have no access to non-public product information. Products change quickly; if you spot anything out of date or unfair, email hello@franchise.ms and we will correct it promptly.
The bottom line
Franchise 360 is a credible UK incumbent: two decades of tenure, a simple flat price, and a vendor whose support is genuinely loved by its customers. If your needs are recruitment, invoicing and MSF billing with a personal vendor relationship, it remains a sensible choice.
FranchiseMS is the next generation of the same idea: a UK platform, but one that ships the whole operating system for a franchise network as standard, from the manual-training-audit loop to offline proof of work in the field, and calculates royalty from what was actually done. If you have outgrown quoting and invoicing, or you never want to commission an extension to get a core feature, that is the difference to weigh.
Franchise 360 vs FranchiseMS: FAQ
Is FranchiseMS a good Franchise 360 alternative?
This is the closest like-for-like comparison: both are UK-built franchise management systems with published pricing. Franchise 360 is the established choice for recruitment, quoting, invoicing and MSF billing. FranchiseMS adds the layers it does not list: a versioned operations manual, training, audits, offline field proof of work, card payments, AI and territory maps, all in the standard product.
What is the main difference between Franchise 360 and FranchiseMS?
Depth of the standard product. Franchise 360 covers recruitment, CRM, quoting, invoicing and MSF billing, with bespoke extensions built by the vendor for anything further. FranchiseMS ships the operations manual, training, audits, field operations with proof of work, payments, messaging and AI as standard, and calculates royalty from the recorded work with an accounting feed as a cross-check.
How much does Franchise 360 cost?
Franchise 360 publishes its pricing: £30 per franchise per month (up to 20 locations, with volume discounts beyond), £30 per month for head office, and a £1,000 one-time setup, with unlimited users and a 30-day notice period (vendor site, July 2026). FranchiseMS also publishes its pricing: per location per month with add-on modules, on the pricing page.
Does Franchise 360 include training and audits?
Neither a training LMS nor a brand-audit module appears in its published module set (July 2026); version-controlled document libraries and forums are the closest listed features. FranchiseMS includes both, linked to the operations manual so the standard you define is the one you teach and check.
Can I switch from Franchise 360 to FranchiseMS?
Yes. Your recruitment pipeline imports from a CSV export, documents move into the legal and manual libraries, and sector starter packs provide a full operations manual, courses and audit templates to adapt. We help with the move as part of onboarding.
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