How we rate prop firms
We read each firm's own pages, quote the exact words, and score every firm with the same recipe. Paying us changes nothing. New to prop firms? Start with what a prop firm is.
What we checked, by hand
How we checkHow we check, in four steps
- 1
Read the firm's own pages
Help centre, FAQ, terms. Never review or affiliate sites.
- 2
Quote the exact words
Every rule links to its page, with the date we checked.
- 3
Mark what's missing
If a firm doesn't publish a rule, we say so and score it zero.
- 4
Score everyone the same way
One recipe for every firm, shown below, part by part.
The rating out of 10
Each score is worked out of 100 and shown divided by ten: 73 becomes 7.3. The homepage's overall rating mixes two scores:
Once 10 traders have voted on a firm here, their votes take 15% out of reputation's share. Firms with no reviews anywhere can't take a top-3 spot. Looser rules score higher on trading rules whoever sets them, which is why reputation counts for more.
What each score is made of
Bigger block = more points. Open “Exact scoring” for every rule.
Trading rules · prop firms
How much room the funded account gives you. Version 1.0.
Exact scoring
| Part | Max | How it scores |
|---|---|---|
| Leverage | 40 | Against the EU retail limit for that market: ≥ 2.5× → 40 · ≥ 1.5× → 29 · ≥ 1× → 19 · lower → 8 · not offered or not published → 0 |
| News trading | 35 | Allowed → 35 · no trades within ±2 min → 21 · trading allowed but only part of the profit counts → 21 · no trades within a wider window → 11 · not allowed → 0 |
| Weekend holds | 25 | Allowed → 25 · not allowed → 0 |
Leverage is compared with the EU retail limit for the same market (forex 1:30, indices and gold 1:20, energies 1:10, stocks 1:5, crypto 1:2, from ESMA's CFD measures of 27 March 2018), so every market is on one scale. “All markets” averages the six.
Plan score · best plans
Rules and price together, comparing plans at the same account size.
Exact scoring
Price points = 100 × the cheapest price at that size ÷ this plan's price, so the cheapest plan scores 100 and one twice its price scores 50. A plan without a published price scores 0 on price. Value for money is rules points per $100 of fee.
Reputation
What is known about the company, not how generous it is. Version 1.1.
Exact scoring
Reviews are weighted by how many there are and whether they can be trusted: where Trustpilot has removed fake reviews, the firm scores nothing for reviews. “Who you contract with” rewards naming the company behind the brand, with its registration number. Each firm's reasons are on the reputation board.
Payout score
How easily the money reaches you. Version 0.1.
Exact scoring
Fewer published conditions that can delay, cut or cancel a payout score higher; so do a bigger split, a sooner first payout, and a firm that pays the transfer fee. A firm that lists many conditions may simply be more open than one that lists few, so read the conditions on each payout page.
Trading rules · futures firms
Futures accounts use contracts, not leverage. Version 1.0.
Exact scoring
| Part | Max | How it scores |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts allowed | 30 | Per market: cap ≥ 3× what the loss limit affords → 30 · ≥ what it affords → 18 · tighter → 10 · not offered → 0 |
| News trading | 25 | Allowed → 25 · no trades within ±2 min → 15 · wider window → 8 · not allowed → 0 |
| Overnight and weekend holds | 25 | Both → 25 · overnight only → 15 · neither → 0 |
| Drawdown model | 20 | Static → 20 · trailing at the close → 12 · trailing intraday → 5 |
Safe trade size
The biggest trade that survives one normal day going against you.
- 1 · Room to lose today$5,000FTMO, $100,000 account, tightest loss limit
- 2 · A normal day's move0.611%EUR/USD, average of the last 14 days
- 3 · Safe size = 1 ÷ 2$818.3Kor the leverage cap, if that's smaller
Exact formula
LossLimit = min(DailyLoss$, SingleAssetLoss$ if the firm has one, MaxLoss$) loss_notional = LossLimit / AverageDay% lev_notional = AccountSize × Leverage SafePosition = min(loss_notional, lev_notional)
Measured in dollars because a “lot” of an index or of oil means different amounts at different firms. Leverage is the tighter of the evaluation and funded figures. Futures use whole micro contracts: floor(loss budget ÷ one contract's normal day), capped by the firm's limit.
Broker costs
Brokers are compared on price, one market at a time: what one trade costs on EUR/USD, and what a month of gold trading costs for your style. We only rank figures whose unit the broker makes clear.
Exact formulas
EUR/USD round turn$ = spread_pips × $10 + commission$ Gold per month = trades × (spread × 100 + commission) + nights held × |swap| Scalper 200 trades, 0 nights · Intraday 40, 0 · Swing 8, 12 · Carry 1, 30
Only average spreads count; a “from” figure is the best moment, not the usual one. Swap earned is shown separately, never subtracted. Leverage belongs to the regulated company you sign up with, so each figure names it.
Does paying us change a ranking? No.
Some links earn us a commission, and say so where you click. The code that works out every score cannot read who pays us: an automated test stops the site being published if it ever could. Affiliate disclosure
Where a number can be wrong
- Rules change. Every page shows when we last checked it.
- Firms contradict themselves. We show the more specific page and say so.
- Some rules are only images. We type them out by hand and mark them.
- Some sites block us. We use the Internet Archive's copy of the firm's own page, dated. Otherwise we leave it out.
- Normal-day moves use one benchmark per market. Close enough to size a trade, not identical to your instrument.
Market data used for normal-day moves
| Market | Benchmark | Last close | Normal day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forex | EUR/USD · EURUSDT | 1.139 | 0.611% |
| Indices | S&P 500 (SPY tracker) · SPYUSDT | 770.85 | 0.94% |
| Metals | Gold · XAUUSDT | 4,287.48 | 2.079% |
| Energies | WTI crude oil · CLUSDT | 94.29 | 5.064% |
| Crypto | Bitcoin · BTCUSDT | 84,403.3 | 2.935% |
| Stocks | Apple · AAPLUSDT | 340.26 | 2.129% |
14-day average true range from Binance daily candles (UTC), through 2026-09-26. Futures size on CME micro contracts: MES, MGC, MCL, M6E, MBT.