From left to right (in descending size order), I tried lemonades from Wendy's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, Sonic, and Panera.

I opted for a medium or regular size from each location. When chains offered different flavors of lemonade, I went for the classic option.

Wendy's actually has an entire lemonade menu, called Dave's Craft Lemonade Menu, which offers four kinds of lemonade: Tangerine Twist (new this summer), Pineapple Mango, Strawberry, and All-Natural, which is what I ordered.

A medium lemonade at my local Wendy's on Long Island cost $3.69. At 32 fluid ounces, it was the largest drink of the six, and technically the best value.

This didn't taste bad, exactly, just bland. Fans of seltzers like La Croix and Spindrift might prefer this lemonade, since it wasn't overly sweet — it just tasted very watery.

This might also be a result of the cup's size. It required a lot of ice to fill up, which could've watered my drink down a bit.

Wendy's did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

I ordered a regular Agave Lemonade from Panera, which cost $3.29. It was one of the smallest cups of lemonade I bought, at 20 fluid ounces.

According to Panera's menu, its lemonade contains "lemon juice, sugar, agave nectar, and water " — and no artificial sweeteners.

Maybe I've just had one too many margaritas, but the agave taste was not for me, and the aftertaste was even worse. It was so sugary that I felt like a cavity spontaneously formed in one of my molars.

Between its sweetness and relatively small size, I can't recommend this lemonade, but maybe agave lovers would enjoy it.

Panera did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Sonic has a ton of lemonades and limeades to try, including cherry, strawberry, cranberry, blueberry lavender, dragonberry, and more.

I paid $4.29 for a medium All Natural Lemonade at Sonic, which is 20 fluid ounces. That made this the most expensive and one of the smallest lemonades I tried.

I think this was one of the sweetest lemonades I tried, but I didn't hate it.

What really puts this at No. 4, though, is the value. It was more money for less liquid.

Sonic did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

As a kind of control group, I wanted to add a chain that doesn't have a proprietary lemonade recipe and instead uses a mass-produced brand like Minute Maid.

A medium lemonade at Burger King cost me $2.59 for 30 fluid ounces, making it the cheapest one on this list.

This was a perfectly average cup of fast-food lemonade. It was a bit sweet and artificial tasting, but it was essentially what I expected from Minute Maid and Burger King.

The value is what bumped this up to No. 3.

Burger King did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

A medium lemonade at Chick-fil-A set me back $3.42 for 20 fluid ounces.

Typically, I'm not a pulp person. However, it surprised me to have some lemon pulp in my lemonade, and it made me feel like I was drinking a freshly squeezed cup of lemonade — it tasted like it, too.

Besides the texture, my other complaint about Chick-fil-A's lemonade was that my ice melted way too quickly. It was almost entirely gone by the time I got home — and it wasn't just because it was a hot day; all the other lemonades I had remained full of ice.

Chick-fil-A uses nugget ice, which is essentially small, chewable pellets of ice. Sonic uses that ice too, but for some reason — maybe the cup? — its ice stayed intact. The other chains used normal cubes or crushed ice, which also did not melt as quickly.

Chick-fil-A did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

In April, McDonald's replaced the Minute Maid lemonade it had been using with a new offering called Premium Lemonade.

The Premium Lemonade has "lemon juice, lemon pulp, and cane sugar" in it, the chain said at the time.

I paid $2.89 for a medium, which is 21 fluid ounces.

I took a sip of this and immediately thought to myself, "This is what lemonade should taste like."

It was crisp, not too sweet, not too bitter, had the perfect amount of ice, and tasted like a sip of summertime.

And at $2.89, it was the second-cheapest lemonade I tried. You can't go wrong with this option.

McDonald's did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

All these lemonades have something to offer, whether it's a cheap price, varied levels of sweetness, different types of ice, or different types of sweetener.

But, if I had to pick one, McDonald's would be my recommendation for anyone in search of a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer's day.

Chick-fil-A's family-style meals include items and prices that vary by location, but they usually include a combination of mains, sides, and desserts.

The meals were prominently displayed on Chick-fil-A's online menu when I checked, but when I tried to order one at the counter, I was told I could not.

Instead, I had to download the app to order the 10-count Chick-fil-A Chick-n-Strips family-style meal, which was a little annoying. I already have plenty of apps on my phone, and this step felt unnecessary since I was prepared to order in person.

The meal I ordered cost $47.99 and came with 10 chicken strips, two orders of waffle fries, two orders of mac and cheese, two chocolate chip cookies, and two brownies.

It was ready in just a few minutes. We were dining in, but because I ordered on the app, it came packed up to go, sturdily packaged in a manageable-sized bag.

When you've got little kids, you can wind up eating a lot of stray chicken tenders.

In many cases, the breading is caked on and the chicken is overcooked to the point of chewiness. That was not the case at Chick-fil-A.

The strips were nicely salty and mildly seasoned, with a hint of crispiness in the breading and moist meat that tasted freshly cooked.

By the standards of fast-food chicken tenders, Chick-fil-A's get five out of five stars. My wife and I both thought the chicken strips were the best part of the meal.

Family meals at Chick-fil-A are available with sides in multiple configurations. We chose two orders of waffle fries and two orders of mac and cheese, but we could've switched up those ratios or swapped in a fruit cup.

The waffle fries were a hit with my kids, probably because they tend to like the saltiest part of any meal.

I was underwhelmed. I didn't think they had much flavor besides salt, and they weren't really crispy at all.

The mac and cheese was a pleasant surprise.

It looked and tasted like it had been baked as a casserole — a homestyle mac and cheese with nice texture and flavor from the creamy sauce and chunks of browned baked cheese.

All Chick-fil-A family meals available on the app come with two brownies and two chocolate chip cookies.

There's a nostalgic appeal to the desserts at Chick-fil-A, especially when you compare them to the garish, enormous sweets sold at popular cookie chains.

These treats seemed like something you might find at a school bake sale: Moderate portions and classic flavors.

My kids loved the fudgy gooeyness of the brownie, but my wife thought it just seemed a little underdone.

The cookies had big chunks of melty chocolate and a nice combination of outer crunch and interior softness.

I didn't detect any of the artificial chewiness you can sometimes find in mass-produced cookies. Both desserts were huge hits with my kids.

I didn't think this meal was an especially good value.

Adding up the individual components — $23.49 for a 10-piece Chick-n-Strips, $3.85 each for medium waffle fries, $5.35 each for mac and cheese, $2.19 each for the cookies, $2.99 each for the brownies — comes to $52.25.

So, I saved less than $5 by going with a family meal.

Plus, this choice locks everyone in the family into the same meal (I would've preferred a spicy chicken sandwich).

After we added in two drinks (iced tea/lemonades) and a fruit cup (for our 7-year-old dabbling in vegetarianism), we spent about $65 on our dinner.

That's almost twice as much as it'd cost us to eat at a local pizzeria, and about exactly the same as we'd pay to eat our fill from a broader variety of options at a nearby Shake Shack, our usual go-to for quick, casual meals.

Even adjusting my expectations for the location in Midtown Manhattan (which tends to be expensive), the price felt high for what we got.

Total startup costs: $644,950 to $2.4 million

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $500,000

Minimum net worth requirement: $1 million

Franchise fee: A $12,500 development fee, a $37,500 license fee

Ongoing fees: Arby's charges a royalty fee of either 4% or 6.2% of sales, depending on store type, plus an advertising and marketing service fee of 4.2% of sales. 

Average per-unit sales: $1.1 million to $1.6 million, depending on store type, per franchisee disclosure document

Startup costs: $363,400 to $4.7 million

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $500,000

Minimum net worth requirement: $1 million 

Franchise fee: $50,000 for a 20-year franchise agreement

Ongoing fees: Burger King charges a 4.5% royalty fee and a 4.5% advertising fee (based on monthly gross sales).

Average per-unit sales: $1.66 million for traditional stores, $1.32 million for non-traditional stores, per franchisee disclosure document

Startup costs: $426,735 to $2.3 million

Minimum liquid asset requirement: none

Minimum net worth requirement: none

Franchise fee: $10,000 

Ongoing fees: Chick-fil-A franchisees pay a "base operating service fee" of 15% of sales. Chick-fil-A limits its rent charges to 6% of sales. 

However, it's important to note that Chick-fil-A prohibits most of its franchisees from opening multiple units, which can limit potential profits, and franchisees must devote their full time and attention to operating the business. A Chick-fil-A spokesperson previously told BI it selects "a relatively small number of franchisees to operate multiple units."

Average per-unit sales: In 2024, most locations averaged about $9.3 million in annual sales.

Startup costs: $1.5 million to $2.5 million

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $400,000

Minimum net worth requirement: $750,000

Franchise fee: $45,000

Ongoing fees: Dairy Queen charges a 4% royalty fee and between 5% to 6% in marketing fees.

Average per-unit sales*: $1.2 million

*2023 figures according to QSR Magazine.

Startup costs: $526,900 to $1.8 million

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $250,000

Minimum net worth requirement: $500,000

Franchise fee: $40,000 to $90,000

Ongoing fees: Dunkin' Donuts charges 5% of gross sales for advertising fees and a royalty fee of 5.9% of gross sales.

Average per-unit sales: $1.3 million in 2024, per franchisee disclosure document

Startup costs: $1.9 million to $3.8 million for a traditional outlet

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $750,000

Minimum net worth requirement: $1.5 million

Franchise fee: $45,000

Ongoing fees: KFC charges franchisees about 10% of gross revenues (4% to 5% for royalties and 5% for advertising).

Average per-unit sales: $1.3 million, per franchisee disclosure document

Startup costs: $1.5 million and $2.7 million

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $500,000 

Franchise fee: $45,000

Ongoing fees: Base rent depends on when the restaurant opened, along with the acquisition and development costs. The rent for most new McDonald's restaurants ranges between 10% of total gross sales to 15.75% for new restaurants that have opened since January 1, 2020. 

Additionally, there are numerous monthly and annual fees franchisees must pay, including a royalty fee of 4% or 5% of sales and an advertising and promotion fee that is a minimum of 4% of gross sales. Franchisees also pay annual fees for various software and digital equipment, such as a $150 annual fee for using self-ordering kiosks.

Average per-unit sales: $4 million

Startup costs: $272,915 to $989,415

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $250,000

Minimum net worth requirement: $750,000

Franchise fee: $25,000

Ongoing fees: Papa John's charges a monthly royalty fee of 5% of net sales. Papa John's also requires that franchisees spend 6% of net monthly sales on marketing.

Average per-unit sales: $1.1 million

Startup costs: $1.7 million to $3.4 million

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $500,000

Minimum net worth requirement: $1 million

Franchise fee: $30,000 of the $45,000 initial license fee credited via royalty.

Ongoing fees: Sonic charges a royalty fee of up to 5% of gross sales and advertising fees of at least 3.25%.

Average per-unit sales: $1.6 million

Startup costs*: $199,135 to $536,745

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $100,000  

Minimum net worth requirement: $150,000 

Franchise fee: $15,000

Ongoing fees: Subway franchisees pay weekly fees based on gross sales, which include an 8% royalty fee and 4.5% fee for advertising.

Average per-unit sales: $490,000 in 2023, according to Technomic

Startup costs: $1.9 million to $4.3 million

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $2 million

Minimum net worth requirement: $5 million

Franchise fee: $45,000

Ongoing fees: Taco Bell charges a period franchise fee equal to 5.5% of gross sales and a period marketing fee equal to 4.25% of gross sales.

Average per-unit sales: $2.1 million in 2023, according to QSR Magazine

Startup costs: $1.5 million to $3 million for a cash purchase, though the fee can be lower depending on financing options

Minimum liquid asset requirement: $500,000

Minimum net worth requirement: $1 million 

Franchise fee: $50,000

Ongoing fees: The advertising fee is 4% of gross sales and covers both national and local advertising. The royalty fee is 4% to 6% of gross sales.

Average per-unit sales: $2.1 million for franchise locations