Head to head · 33 criteria compared Neither firm dominates this comparison. The decision comes down to which constraint matters most to you: entry cost, drawdown model, or payout terms.
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.
Criteria won: 7 / 33
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.
Criteria won: 7 / 33
Cheapest evaluation for a 100 K account.
City Traders Imperium
$449
Earn2Trade
$315
| Full comparison | City Traders Imperium | Earn2Trade |
|---|---|---|
| Trust | ||
| Score | 83/100 ✓ | 79/100 |
| Trustpilot | 4.2/5 | 4.6/5 ✓ |
| Founded | 2018 | 2016 ✓ |
| Headquarters | GB | US |
| Pricing | ||
| Entry price | $29 ✓ | $150 |
| Price for a 100 K account | $449 | $315 ✓ |
| Refundable fee | — | — |
| Reset price | — | — |
| Account sizes | 100 K | 200 K ✓ |
| Rules | ||
| Steps | Instant funding ✓ | 1 |
| Profit target | — | — |
| Max daily loss | — | 2.2 % |
| Max total drawdown | 6 % | — |
| Drawdown type | Trailing intraday | Trailing (end of day) ✓ |
| Time limit | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Consistency rule | No ✓ | 30 |
| Min trading days | 5 | 0 ✓ |
| Payouts | ||
| Profit split | 80 % | 80 % |
| Max profit split | 100 % ✓ | 80 % |
| First payout | 7 days | — |
| Payout frequency | Monthly at level 1, twice monthly at level 2, weekly at level 3; first withdrawal possible after 7 days | Weekly |
| Payout methods | — | — |
| Scaling plan | Yes | Yes |
| Max allocation | 2 M ✓ | 200 K |
| Trading | ||
| Platforms and instruments | mt5, match-trader | ninjatrader, tradovate, tradingview, rithmic ✓ |
| Instruments | fx, indices, metals, energy, stocks ✓ | futures |
| Leverage | 1:30 forex and indices on the 2-Step, 1:20 on Instant Funding, 1:10 indices and commodities, 1:2 crypto | — |
| News trading | Yes | Yes |
| Weekend holding | Yes | — |
| Expert Advisors | Yes | — |
| Copy trading | Restricted | — |
| Scalping | Yes | — |
| Hedging | — | — |
Choose City Traders Imperium if… Choose Earn2Trade if… City Traders Imperium keeps 100 % of profits, allows a first withdrawal after 7 days, then pays Monthly at level 1, twice monthly at level 2, weekly at level 3; first withdrawal possible after 7 days. Earn2Trade keeps 80 % of profits, then pays Weekly. Payout frequency deserves as much attention as the split itself: a slightly lower share paid every two weeks compounds faster than a headline percentage locked behind a monthly cycle and a long first-withdrawal delay.
City Traders Imperium is the only one of the two to offer mt5, match-trader. Earn2Trade covers ninjatrader, tradovate, tradingview, rithmic, which its rival does not. Platform choice is not cosmetic: order execution, available order types and the reliability of your automation all depend on it, and switching mid-evaluation is rarely possible.
Earn2Trade has been running since 2016, 2 years longer than City Traders Imperium. On Trustpilot they sit at 4.2/5 and 4.6/5 respectively. Our trust pillar scores them 85/100 and 94/100, which weighs age, corporate transparency and public payout evidence. In an industry with no financial regulator overseeing these evaluations, longevity and a verifiable payout history are the closest thing to a guarantee.
City Traders Imperium opens at $29 against $150 for Earn2Trade, a substantial gap on the smallest account. At the reference size of 100 K the comparison is $449 for City Traders Imperium against $315 for Earn2Trade. The headline fee is rarely the real cost, though: what matters is the price of a reset after a failed attempt, whether the fee comes back on the first payout, and whether an activation fee appears when you move to a funded account. Compare those three lines in the table above before deciding on price alone.
City Traders Imperium applies a trailing intraday drawdown capped at 6 %. Earn2Trade applies a trailing (end of day) drawdown, with a 2.2 % daily limit. This is the single most consequential difference between the two. A static drawdown is measured once, from the starting balance, and never moves; a trailing drawdown follows your equity upward, so a winning streak raises the floor you can no longer fall below. Intraday trailing is stricter still, because it tracks unrealised peaks reached inside the session — profit you never actually banked can permanently raise your loss threshold.
No discount code is published without being checked on the firm’s own website. An unverified deal does not appear here.
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