Compare Prop Firms

How to read a side-by-side comparison

Identical-looking metrics often hide meaningful differences. A few notes before reading the numbers above as if they were directly comparable.

"Max funding" depends on a scaling track

The number is rarely the starting account size. Most firms list their headline maximum as a target you reach by hitting consistency milestones over months. The more useful comparison is starting account size at the price point you would actually pay.

Profit splits are not directly comparable

An 85% split paid weekly compounds differently than a 90% split paid monthly with a higher minimum. Splits also frequently step up after a number of payouts. Read the headline number, then look at the cadence and the qualifying threshold next to it.

Drawdown numbers need context

A "10% maximum drawdown" can mean very different things — fixed vs. trailing, intraday equity vs. end-of-day balance. Two firms with the same 10% number can produce different account-loss probabilities at the same realised volatility. See the glossary entries on drawdown types and the longer explainer in the guides hub.

"News trading" and "weekend holding" are policies, not toggles

A "Yes" on news trading may still come with a list of restricted instruments and a buffer around release windows. A "Yes" on weekend holding may exclude crypto or apply only above certain account sizes. Check the firm's rulebook for the full text — the comparison cell is a summary.

Fees and the cost of failing

Compare not only the cheapest evaluation tier but the cost of repeating it. Some firms refund the evaluation fee from your first profit-split payout (effectively making it free if you succeed); others do not. The realised cost of getting funded is the price of the evaluation times the inverse of your personal pass rate.

Categories matter more than you'd think

Comparing a futures firm against a forex retail/funded firm tells you very little — the underlying market, drawdown convention, and platform stack are different. Stay within a category for like-for-like comparisons; cross-category comparisons are useful only for deciding which segment to enter, not which firm to pick within it.

After you compare

The comparison tool above is the start of due diligence, not the end. Once you have a shortlist of two or three firms:

• Open each firm's current rulebook and re-verify the cell values you saw above.
• Check independent review platforms — see the reviews page for which to use and how to read them.
• Email the firm support a specific question about a rule that matters to your strategy. The response (and the speed of it) is informative.

If you are still picking between segments, the guides hub has a longer walk-through of how to choose, and the evaluation models page compares 1-step / 2-step / instant funding / scaling head-to-head. The main directory remains the broadest list and is the right place to fish for candidates you might not have seen yet. Before paying any evaluation fee, the red flags checklist is worth running through.