Wisconsin Franchise Search Scraper

Wisconsin Franchise Search Scraper

Scrape franchise registrations from the Wisconsin DFI public registry, up to a million per run. Every filing comes with the franchisor name, address, status, and an optional FDD PDF download link. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Wisconsin's Department of Financial Institutions keeps a public registry of every franchise filing in the state, but the web portal is built for one-at-a-time lookups. This actor reads the full registry, searches by franchisor name, and filters by registration status so you get a structured dataset instead of manual screens. No API key, no login, no browser automation to manage.

Who uses it	What they scrape Wisconsin Franchise Registry for
Franchise brokers	Build a lead list of active franchisors currently registered to sell in Wisconsin.
Competitive intelligence analysts	Track which franchise brands are entering or leaving the Wisconsin market by monitoring status changes.
Legal and compliance teams	Audit a franchisor's registration status and download their latest FDD for due diligence.
Market researchers	Map the density and types of franchise offerings across Wisconsin for regional reports.

What it does

This Actor collects Wisconsin franchise filings by franchisor name or status filter and returns each one as a flat row with the registration details and an optional FDD PDF link.

• 🔍 Name search: supply one franchisor name or a list of names to pull their specific filings.
• 📋 Full registry scan: leave the search fields empty to collect every active filing in the state.
• 📊 Status filter: narrow results to Registered, Expired, or Pending filings only, or pull all statuses at once.
• 📄 FDD PDF download: toggle on to download each Franchise Disclosure Document and get a public link in your output.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Wisconsin Franchise Registry data

📈 Build a Wisconsin franchise lead list.

A franchise broker runs the actor with no search term and status set to 'Registered only' to get every active franchisor currently selling in the state, then filters by industry for outreach.

⚖️ Audit a franchisor before signing.

A legal team searches a specific franchisor name, sets the status filter to 'All statuses' to see the full filing history, and toggles PDF download on to review the current FDD.

📉 Monitor market exits.

A competitive analyst runs the actor weekly with the status filter set to 'Expired only' to catch brands whose Wisconsin registrations have lapsed, signaling a market pullback.

🗺️ Map franchise density by region.

A market researcher pulls all active filings, extracts the franchisor addresses, and geocodes them to visualize franchise concentration across Wisconsin counties.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Full registry access	Pull every active Wisconsin franchise filing in one run, not one search at a time.
Structured output	Get franchisor name, address, status, filing date, and more in a flat, consistent schema.
FDD PDF retrieval	Optionally download the Franchise Disclosure Document for each filing and include the link.
No auth required	Reads the public DFI portal directly. No API registration, no OAuth, no browser.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets Wisconsin Franchise Registry the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	Wisconsin Franchise Search Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When Wisconsin Franchise Registry changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a single franchisor name, a list of names, or leave both empty to pull the full active registry, and apply a status filter to return only the filings you need. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "searchTerms": [],
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "searchTerms": [],
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.01599 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$1.60
1,000 results	$15.99
10,000 results	$159.90

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Wisconsin Franchise Search Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Wisconsin Franchise Registry through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/wisconsin-franchise-search-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check your spelling on the franchisor name. The search is literal. Also try setting the status filter to 'All statuses' in case the franchise only has expired or pending filings. If you left both search fields empty and still get nothing, the portal may have changed its structure; check the actor's logs for errors.

The run is very slow with PDF downloads enabled.

This is expected. Each FDD PDF is 1 to 10 MB, and the actor downloads them sequentially. Set 'Download FDD PDFs' to false if you only need the registration metadata, or lower your maxItems to keep the run time manageable.

I searched a name but got filings for a different company.

The Wisconsin DFI search does partial matching. A search for 'Burger' may return 'Burger King' and 'Burger Chef' and any other name containing that string. Use the most specific franchisor name you have to narrow results.

The actor returned fewer results than my maxItems setting.

The actor stops when it has exhausted all matching filings in the registry. If your search and status filter only match 47 filings, you will get 47 rows even if maxItems is set to 1,000. This is normal.

The PDF download link is broken or expired.

The links are direct to the Wisconsin DFI server and should remain valid. If a link fails, the filing may have been removed or the portal session expired. Try re-running the actor for that specific franchisor name to get a fresh link.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is the source of this data?	The data comes from the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) public franchise registration portal. It is the official state registry for franchise filings under the Wisconsin Franchise Investment Law.
Can I scrape all franchises in Wisconsin at once?	Yes. Leave both the single search term and the list of names empty, and set the status filter to 'All statuses' or 'Registered only'. The actor will pull every filing the portal returns, up to your maxItems limit.
How do I search for multiple specific franchises?	Use the 'Franchise or company names' list field. Add one franchisor name per line. The actor searches each name against the registry and returns all matching filings, including expired and inactive ones.
What statuses can I filter by?	You can filter by Registered, Expired, Pending, or choose 'All statuses' to return every filing regardless of its current standing with the state.
Does this actor download the FDD PDF?	It can. Set 'Download FDD PDFs' to true, and the actor will fetch each Franchise Disclosure Document and include a public download link in the output. Note that this slows down the run because each PDF is 1 to 10 MB.
Do I need an API key or login for the Wisconsin DFI site?	No. The actor reads the public-facing search portal directly. There is no registration, no API key, and no OAuth flow required.
What format is the output?	The actor returns a flat dataset you can export as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from Apify's storage. Each row is one franchise filing with a fixed schema.
How many filings can I collect in one run?	You set the limit with the 'Maximum franchises' field, up to 1,000,000 per run. The actual number returned depends on how many filings match your search and status filter.
Does this cover other states?	No, this actor scrapes only the Wisconsin DFI franchise registry. For other states you would need a separate scraper or a multi-state aggregator.
Is this the same as a business entity search?	No. A business entity search returns LLCs, corporations, and other registered businesses. This actor returns only franchise filings under Wisconsin's Franchise Investment Law, which is a separate registry.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.