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Best scaling plans 2026

Scaling is how a prop firm increases a profitable trader’s allocated capital without a new challenge and without a new purchase. A plan is judged on four parameters: the trigger (cumulative profit, a run of positive months, or both), the size of each increase, how often that step can repeat, and the final ceiling. This ranking compares plans over an equal time horizon — the capital genuinely reachable after several cycles — instead of quoting the advertised maximum, which very few accounts ever see. The category is for traders planning a long relationship with one firm: consistency over spikes, and acceptance of a pace someone else sets. If you rotate between firms every couple of months, a scaling plan is worth nothing to you.

Verified on 10 firms ranked
Snow-capped summit against a twilight sky
  • Up to 5 M in capital
  • Up to 100 % profit share
  • Withdrawals from 5 days
  • 10 with no time limit

Our ranking

Detailed analysis

1 FTMO

FTMO

Forex / CFD · Crypto · Stocks

88

Coming in at number 1, FTMO has been operating since 2015 and scores 88/100 on our scale. Entry starts at €79 for a 1-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 10 %, with 3 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 14 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, expert advisors allowed, news trading allowed. Available on mt4, mt5, ctrader, dxtrade, tradingview.

Founded in Prague in 2015, FTMO reports more than $450 million paid to traders and closed its acquisition of broker OANDA in December 2025. The 2-Step challenge, static drawdown and no deadline, remains its core product, with fees fully refunded on the first payout. Price is the weak spot, and it rose again in 2026.

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2 The5ers

The5ers

Forex / CFD · Futures

86

Ranked 2 on this list, The5ers has been operating since 2016 and scores 86/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $39 for a 2-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 10 %, with 5 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 14 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, no consistency rule. Available on mt5, ctrader, tradingview.

Founded in Israel in 2016, The5ers is one of the oldest forex prop firms still operating. Its strongest asset is the rulebook: static drawdown across every program, no time limit and no consistency rule. The tradable universe stays narrow, though — forex, indices, metals and futures, with no crypto and no equities.

Visit website from $39 View profile FTMO vs The5ers
3 FundedNext

FundedNext

Forex / CFD · Futures · Crypto

85

In third place, FundedNext has been operating since 2022 and scores 85/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $59.99 for a 2-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 10 %, with 5 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 95 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 5 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, no consistency rule, expert advisors allowed. Available on mt4, mt5, ctrader, match-trader.

On the forex and CFD side, FundedNext runs just two routes: Stellar 1-Step (10% target, 6% max loss) and Stellar 2-Step (8% then 5%, 10% max loss). Both use static drawdown, carry no deadline and come with refundable fees. Pricing is on the high side, and the headline 95% split needs a paid option — the contractual base is 80%.

Visit website from $59.99 View profile FTMO vs FundedNext
4 City Traders Imperium

City Traders Imperium

Forex / CFD

83

In 4th place, City Traders Imperium has been operating since 2018 and scores 83/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $29 on an instantly funded account. The risk envelope is a trailing intraday drawdown capped at 6 %. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 7 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, no consistency rule, expert advisors allowed, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, match-trader.

City Traders Imperium has funded forex traders since 2018 through four routes — 1-Step, 2-Step, Instant Funding and Direct Funding — with no time limit and entry from $29. The profit split starts at 80% and can reach 100%, but the 1-Step allows only 5% trailing drawdown and every trade must carry a stop loss.

Visit website from $29 View profile FTMO vs City Traders Imperium
5 Alpha Capital Group

Alpha Capital Group

Forex / CFD

80

Ranked 5 on this list, Alpha Capital Group has been operating since 2021 and scores 80/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $27 for a 1-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a trailing (end of day) drawdown capped at 4 %, with 3 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, ctrader, dxtrade, tradelocker.

Alpha Capital Group is a UK forex prop firm registered in 2021, running eight programs that span a $27 two-phase challenge through to accounts funded at purchase. The rulebook is permissive — news, weekend and overnight holding allowed, four platforms — but the tradable universe stops at forex, indices and metals, and Trustpilot has suspended the rating over fake reviews.

Visit website from $27 View profile FTMO vs Alpha Capital Group
6 Funded Trading Plus

Funded Trading Plus

Forex / CFD

80

In 6th place, Funded Trading Plus has been operating since 2021 and scores 80/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $89 for a 1-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a trailing intraday drawdown capped at 6 %, with 4 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, expert advisors allowed. Available on mt5, ctrader, dxtrade, match-trader.

A London firm founded in late 2021 and bought by Instant Funding in May 2026, Funded Trading Plus pays every 7 days on its 1-Step Express and Instant programs, with the split rising from 80 to 100% and scaling up to $5 million. The catch: intraday trailing drawdown on both, and a Trustpilot score the platform has pulled.

Visit website from $89 View profile FTMO vs Funded Trading Plus
7 Earn2Trade

Earn2Trade

Futures

79

Coming in at number 7, Earn2Trade has been operating since 2016 and scores 79/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $150 for a 1-phase evaluation. Funded traders keep 80 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, news trading allowed. Available on ninjatrader, tradovate, tradingview, rithmic.

Earn2Trade does not fund traders itself: it is a US evaluation and education platform founded in 2016, with capital supplied by partner firms Helios, Appius and Kronos. Its TCP and Gauntlet Mini programs bill monthly, $150 to $550, cover CME futures only, cap the split at 80% and run a trailing EOD drawdown.

Visit website from $150 View profile FTMO vs Earn2Trade
8 Goat Funded Trader

Goat Funded Trader

Forex / CFD · Futures · Crypto · Stocks

78

Coming in at number 8, Goat Funded Trader has been operating since 2023 and scores 78/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $36 for a 2-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 10 %, with 4 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, expert advisors allowed, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, tradelocker, ctrader.

Goat Funded Trader launched in 2023 out of Hong Kong. It publishes a full price grid, runs static drawdown across its three evaluation models, and pays every 14 days with a profit split from 80 % up to 100 %. The counterweight: its Trustpilot score is suspended over fake reviews, rules tightened in summer 2026, and 29 countries are excluded.

Visit website from $36 View profile FTMO vs Goat Funded Trader
9 Topstep

Topstep

Futures

77

In 9th place, Topstep has been operating since 2012 and scores 77/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $49 for a 1-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a trailing (end of day) drawdown capped at 4 %. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 5 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit. Available on ninjatrader, tradovate, rithmic.

Founded in Chicago in 2012, Topstep is the oldest futures prop firm. It charges a monthly subscription rather than a one-off ticket, with a 6 % target and a trailing drawdown that locks once the starting balance is cleared. Its 90 % profit split and first withdrawal after five winning days are among the best in the segment.

Visit website from $49 View profile FTMO vs Topstep
10 BrightFunded

BrightFunded

Forex / CFD · Crypto

76

In 10th place, BrightFunded has been operating since 2023 and scores 76/100 on our scale. Entry starts at €47 for a 2-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 8 %, with 4 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 30 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, no consistency rule, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, ctrader, dxtrade.

Set up in 2023 by a Dutch team and operated out of Dubai, BrightFunded keeps its rulebook short: no consistency rule, no time limit, static drawdown on both 2-Step plans. The model leans instead on paid add-ons — fee refund, 90% split, waived minimum days — and the first payout only lands 30 days after the first trade.

Visit website from €47 View profile FTMO vs BrightFunded
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Why this ranking

Pace beats the advertised ceiling

Read a scaling plan as a sequence: a threshold triggers a tier, an increase is applied, a waiting period runs before the next one. The final ceiling is a distant term that a tiny fraction of accounts ever reach. What separates two plans in practice is the capital you realistically hold after six or twelve months of steady performance — a calculation most product pages avoid, precisely because it compresses the differences.

Triggers fall into two families. Profit-based plans raise the allocation once a cumulative gain percentage is hit: fast for a strong performer, indifferent to consistency. Time-based plans require several consecutive profitable months: slower, but they protect the trader from the urge to force results. Low-variance strategies do better under the second model; traders who produce in bursts do better under the first.

Clauses that quietly stop the climb

The most overlooked condition concerns withdrawals. At many firms, taking profit resets the scaling counter, because the threshold is measured against balance. That forces a choice between cash now and size later, and it is rarely spelled out at checkout.

Then come demotion clauses: losing a tier after a negative month, reverting to a smaller size after inactivity, a full reset following even a minor breach. Some firms tie scaling to an active subscription, or to keeping withdrawals under a limit. And the split improvement advertised alongside the plan is not always permanent — it may apply only at the tier reached, with no retroactive effect.

Check whether drawdown scales with capital as well. Doubling the allocation while leaving the loss limit unchanged in absolute terms makes the account harder to trade, not easier.

Scale up or open a second account

The alternative to scaling is simply buying another account. It is immediate, it depends on no consistency requirement, and it spreads counterparty risk across firms. It costs a second challenge fee, and it eventually collides with the per-trader exposure cap.

Scaling wins when you intend to stay: it costs nothing, it rewards exactly the behaviour that keeps traders funded, and it reaches sizes no direct purchase would grant. The trade-off is committing months to one firm, which only makes sense once you have verified that this firm pays without friction. Judge the scaling plan after the payout record, never before it.

Frequently asked questions

How does prop firm scaling work?
The firm raises your allocated capital once a criterion is met: a cumulative profit percentage, a number of profitable months, or both. The increase applies automatically or after a review, with no new challenge to buy. The cycle repeats up to a contractual ceiling, and some plans improve the profit split at certain tiers along the way.
Is scaling automatic?
Rarely fully automatic. Many firms require a request, an account review, or the criterion to be met on a specific check date, which can push the increase back by weeks. Others apply it the moment the threshold is crossed. The detail worth verifying is the review window, often monthly, rather than the principle itself.
Can you lose a scaling tier?
Yes, at several firms. A losing month, a long period of inactivity or a breach can return the account to its previous size, sometimes to the starting allocation. Withdrawing profit can also reset the counter, because the threshold is often measured on account balance. These clauses live in the terms, not on the product page.
Scale up or buy a second account?
Buying is immediate and spreads counterparty risk across firms, but it costs another challenge fee and runs into the per-trader exposure cap. Scaling costs nothing and rewards consistency, but it requires staying with the same firm for months. The decision mostly comes down to how confident you are that this firm keeps paying.

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