Row House vs 9Round

9Round’s raw unit count (142) looks like a bigger TAM, but almost all of that base is shrinking fast — a 29% year-over-year contraction signals franchisees are closing doors, not buying new software. That collapse erodes the installed-base advantage and makes every sale a race against churn. More importantly, the $160k–$390k investment range points to operators who are capital-constrained, likely to resist anything beyond the bare minimum. For a vendor selling POS, scheduling, and marketing automation, a low-budget, declining population is a grinder: low deal sizes, high price sensitivity, and weak adoption.

Row House flips the script on the dimension that matters most for software sales: budget. Its franchisees put $366k–$587k into their studios — nearly double the low-end of 9Round’s range — which implies they can afford and will expect more sophisticated back-office and engagement tools. The unit decline is still real at −19.8%, but it’s meaningfully less severe, suggesting operators who are fighting rather than folding. That’s exactly the profile that invests in automation and customer data to stabilize revenue. The tradeoff is sheer scale: with only 66 total units, the absolute ceiling is lower, and you’ll have to win a high share of the system to match the dollar potential of a larger brand. But healthy spenders in a smaller, defendable pool beat drowning prospects in a big one.

Timing offers a final nudge. Row House’s FDD fiscal year is 2025 and its filing is listed as DUE, which often means a renewal is imminent — and with it, possible supplier re-evaluation. A vendor who engages now can shape that refresh and lock in preferred status before a new supplier list solidifies. 9Round’s current 2026 filing looks cleaner on paper, but the rapid unit loss makes any long-term procurement play brittle. When you need franchises that can write a check today and survive long enough to renew, spend capacity and relative stability win.

Verdict: Row House, because deeper unit-level budgets and a less-catastrophic decline beat the illusion of size in 9Round.