Health Atlast vs 9Round

9Round is the stronger software-sales opportunity right now, and it wins on TAM and terrain. With 141 franchised units, you’re looking at a real addressable market, not a rounding error. The approved-supplier procurement model means franchisees retain purchasing autonomy—they can actually buy your POS, scheduling, or marketing tools without a franchisor gatekeeper blocking the deal. That open terrain turns 141 locations into 141 potential accounts you can work directly. The negative unit growth is a yellow flag, not a dealbreaker: churn creates replacement buyers who need to stand up a tech stack fast, and a shrinking system often means the franchisor is too distracted to tighten procurement rules.

Health Atlast offers a seductive single-metric story—$945K AUV—but that number is a trap. At 13 franchised units, the TAM is microscopic, and the 20% royalty paired with franchisor-controlled procurement kills your deal velocity. Franchisor-controlled means you’re selling to a corporate gatekeeper who extracts a pound of flesh and dictates the stack, turning a software sale into an enterprise procurement slog with a tiny downstream payoff. The filing is also overdue, which signals operational chaos—not the kind of partner who streamlines vendor onboarding. You’d burn more cycles navigating their control points than closing actual revenue.

The tradeoff is budget versus access. Health Atlast franchisees likely have deeper pockets per location, but you’ll rarely get a clean shot at them. 9Round’s lower investment range and thinner per-unit economics are offset by volume and a procurement model that lets you sell the operator, not the franchisor. In B2B franchise software, distribution beats ACV when the gate is open.

Verdict: 9Round’s open terrain and 10x unit count make it the only rational near-term target, despite negative growth.