The cheapest prop firms are the ones with the lowest entry cost per unit of funded capital — not simply the lowest sticker price. That distinction matters: comparing two challenge fees without looking at account size tells you nothing. This ranking sorts offers on three things:
cost per slice of allocated capital rather than list price;
whether the fee is refunded on the first payout, which turns a purchase into a deposit;
the price of a retry after a failed attempt, usually the line that actually hurts.
The category suits traders new to evaluations, anyone stress-testing a strategy under real rules, and traders who expect several attempts before getting funded. Pricing shifts constantly in this market, so every row carries its own verification date.
In first place, Atmos Funded has been operating since 2024 and scores 74/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $5 for a 1-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a trailing (end of day) drawdown capped at 8 %, with 4 % 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. Available on mt5.
Launched in November 2024 by the founder of broker Taurex, Atmos Funded runs on that broker's infrastructure and offers MT5 only. The range goes from the $5 Nova Challenge, with a $79 activation fee, up to instant funding, on an 80% profit split that can reach 90%. The trade-offs: low leverage, no news trading, no financial regulation.
Ranked 2 on this list, Maven Trading has been operating since 2022 and scores 73/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $13 for a 3-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 3 %, with 2 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 80 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, match-trader, ctrader.
UAE-based since 2022, Maven Trading leans on breadth of formats and some of the lowest entry prices around — $15 for a $2,000 account. The rulebook is permissive: no time limit and no consistency rule on the standard paths. The trade-off is limited transparency about the firm itself and its payout terms.
Coming in at number 3, FundedElite has been operating since 2023 and scores 59/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $19 for a 2-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 8 %, with 4 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 95 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 14 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, no consistency rule, expert advisors allowed, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, tradelocker, match-trader, ctrader.
FundedElite is an Italian prop firm founded in late 2023, running static drawdown across all six of its challenge formats with no time limit attached. The sticking point sits elsewhere: Trustpilot withheld its score in August 2026 after finding a guidelines breach and removing fake reviews among the 735 published. No payout incident is documented on its side.
Coming in at number 4, 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.
Coming in at number 5, 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.
Coming in at number 6, FundingPips has been operating since 2022 and scores 83/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $29 for a 2-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 6 %, with 3 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 7 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit. Available on mt5, ctrader, match-trader.
FundingPips lets you choose the withdrawal rhythm and prices the split accordingly: 60% weekly, 80% biweekly, 90% on demand, 100% on a monthly cycle. Its four evaluation models keep static drawdown, with only the instant-funding Zero account switching to trailing. Against that, a Striking System closes a funded account on the fourth warning.
In 7th place, 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.
Ranked 8 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.
Ranked 9 on this list, Top One Futures has been operating since 2025 and scores 78/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $39 for a 1-phase evaluation. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, news trading allowed. Available on tradingview, tradovate, ninjatrader.
Launched in Wyoming in April 2025, Top One Futures built its name on fast payouts and a 4.8/5 Trustpilot rating. Its four programs span monthly subscription, $39 access and instant funding. Two reservations: displayed prices include a permanent promotion, and a rules revision was applied to already-open accounts.
In 10th place, ThinkCapital has been operating since 2024 and scores 75/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $39 on an instantly funded account. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 14 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, no consistency rule, expert advisors allowed. Available on tradingview, mt5.
Launched in 2024, ThinkCapital is the prop trading brand of broker ThinkMarkets, whose liquidity and technology it uses. That backing gives it five well-differentiated programs and a maximum allocation of one million dollars. Two reservations weigh on it: news trading is only available through a paid add-on, and Trustpilot removed its rating over fake reviews.
In 11th place, Fintokei has been operating since 2022 and scores 75/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $44 for a 3-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 6 %, with 3 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 14 days. Available on tradingview, mt5, ctrader.
Fintokei is a Czech prop firm launched in 2022 and backed by Purple Holding, the group behind broker Purple Trading, which supplies execution. All four of its evaluation tracks run on static drawdown measured from the starting balance, never trailing. The trade-off is a narrow instrument list: forex and CFDs on metals, energy and indices, with no crypto and no stocks.
Ranked 12 on this list, 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.
Prop firm pricing runs on permanent discounting. Codes rotate week after week, to the point where the list price works mainly as a psychological anchor. A useful comparison therefore starts from what people actually pay outside one-off campaigns, then divides it by the capital being allocated. Two challenges at the same price are not equivalent if one funds twice the account.
The second correction is implicit pass rate. A cheap challenge with an aggressive profit target and a tight daily drawdown ends up costing more than a moderately priced one you can realistically clear, because the firm collects its margin in retries. The relevant figure is not the price of one attempt; it is the expected price of a funded account.
Where the extra money goes
Several charges sit outside the headline fee. Activation fees, billed after you pass, are the most common surprise. Monthly subscriptions on futures-style programmes come next: the account disappears the moment the payment stops. Then withdrawal fees, sometimes flat, which bite hard on small payouts, and currency conversion applied at transfer time.
Fee refunds deserve a careful read. They are almost always tied to the first payout, sometimes to a minimum holding period, and they vanish on a breach. Retry pricing is what really separates cheap offers from the rest — a free second attempt after a near miss changes the arithmetic more than any discount code.
What a low entry cost is actually good for
Hunting the lowest price makes sense when the goal is learning the format rather than earning from it. A small ticket buys exposure to genuine evaluation conditions: a live daily drawdown, a deadline, and the discipline both demand. For that purpose, a cheap small account beats an expensive large one every time.
Once income becomes the objective, the trade-off flips. Payout reliability, profit split and the firm’s track record outweigh a few tens of euros at checkout. The most aggressive pricing tends to come from young operators with no verifiable payment history, and that segment closes down more often than the established one. A bargain challenge at a firm that never pays is not a saving; it is a total loss.
A workable rule: spend the minimum on your first attempt, and spend on quality once you know you can pass.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a prop firm challenge cost?
Prices run from a few tens of euros for the smallest accounts to several hundred for large allocations, and the model changes the shape of the bill: a one-off purchase for two-phase evaluations, a recurring subscription for most futures programmes. The figure alone means little — divide it by the capital allocated and check whether the fee comes back on your first payout.
Is a cheaper challenge harder to pass?
Not by definition, but often in practice. A firm selling cheap monetises failed attempts, so it tends to pair the low price with a high profit target, a tight daily drawdown, a time limit or consistency rules. Compare price against target and drawdown together. A slightly dearer challenge with softer rules frequently works out cheaper in total.
Do prop firms refund the challenge fee?
Most two-phase evaluations do, but only with your first payout and under conditions: the account must still be live, some firms require a minimum holding period, and a breach cancels the refund entirely. Subscription-based models refund nothing, since the payment is recurring by design. Read the clause in the terms rather than on the sales page.
Should I start with the smallest account to save money?
For a first attempt, yes. Small accounts cost little and reproduce the exact rules of larger sizes, drawdown included, so they measure your discipline before you commit more. The downside shows up later: once funded, a tiny allocation produces trivial income. After the learning phase, size the account to your strategy instead.
Are discount codes included in the ranking?
No. The ranking uses public pricing outside exceptional campaigns, because discounts change weekly and are not available in every country or with every payment method. Active codes are listed separately on each firm page. Note too that a permanently crossed-out price is not a promotion — it is simply the selling price.