Buffalo Wings & Rings vs Papa Murphy's

Papa Murphy’s is the stronger opportunity right now, and the case turns on total addressable market. With 965 franchised units against Buffalo Wings & Rings’ 52, you’re looking at a prospect pool that’s nearly 19× larger. Both brands are shrinking at roughly the same rate, so neither gets a timing edge from growth momentum, but Papa Murphy’s sheer unit count means you can absorb churn and still run a productive pipeline. The lower investment range ($450K–$693K vs. $1.5M–$2.0M) also signals franchisees with thinner in-house tech capabilities, which makes a unified POS-marketing-back-office stack a genuine operational upgrade rather than a nice-to-have.

The one dimension where Buffalo Wings & Rings looks tempting is average unit revenue—$2.4M AUV suggests franchisees have the budget for premium software and services. But that budget advantage gets neutralized by the franchisor-controlled procurement model. When the franchisor dictates the supply chain, they often mandate or heavily steer the tech stack, which locks you into a long, top-down sales cycle with a 58-unit parent. Papa Murphy’s approved-supplier model gives you a path to sell franchisees directly, letting you land and expand across a far wider base without a single corporate gatekeeper.

The meaningful tradeoff is budget versus terrain. Buffalo Wings & Rings offers richer per-unit economics but a closed, narrow field. Papa Murphy’s gives you an open procurement landscape and a TAM large enough to build a real vertical beachhead. In a unit-count-driven software game, that’s the bet you take.

Verdict: Papa Murphy’s wins on TAM and open procurement terrain, making it the higher-probability software-sales target despite lower per-unit spend.