East of Chicago Pizza vs Papa Murphy's

East of Chicago Pizza is the stronger near-term opportunity, and it comes down to timing and terrain. The brand is in expansion mode—1.6% unit growth on a small base signals a franchise system that’s actively opening stores and onboarding new operators. Those are exactly the moments when a POS or back-office vendor can land as the default stack before incumbents lock in. The lower investment range ($217K–$701K) also means operators are more likely to have budget headroom for software that promises labor savings or revenue uplift, and the franchisor-controlled procurement model gives us a single throat to choke: win the corporate relationship, and you can mandate or strongly steer adoption across the entire 64-unit franchise base. The AUV of $672K isn’t massive, but it’s enough to support a mid-market SaaS seat without painful ROI gymnastics.

Papa Murphy’s looks tempting on TAM—965 franchised units is a real footprint—but the -3.6% unit contraction is a flashing red light. A shrinking system means churn risk, distracted franchisees, and a franchisor likely focused on triage rather than technology transformation. The approved-supplier procurement model also scatters the buying decision across individual franchisees, forcing a costly, feet-on-the-street sales motion with no top-down accelerant. Yes, the AUV is likely higher given the tighter investment band, but that budget advantage is hollow if the unit count keeps bleeding and the franchisor won’t consolidate purchasing power.

The tradeoff is real: Papa Murphy’s offers a larger installed base to harvest, but it’s a declining, fragmented terrain where every deal is a knife fight. East of Chicago gives us a smaller but growing, centrally controlled system where a single corporate win unlocks the entire franchise fleet. In B2B franchise software, momentum and procurement leverage beat raw unit count every time.

Verdict: East of Chicago Pizza is the stronger software-sales opportunity right now because positive unit growth and franchisor-controlled procurement create a concentrated, expanding target that Papa Murphy’s shrinking, decentralized system cannot match.