City Traders Imperium vs Earn2Trade: which prop firm is better in 2026?
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
Forex / CFD · Trustpilot 4.2/5
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
Futures · Trustpilot 4.6/5
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
Pricing at equal account size
Cheapest evaluation for a 100 K account.
City Traders Imperium
$449
Earn2Trade
$315
Full comparison
| Criterion | 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 | Mensuel au niveau 1, bi-mensuel au niveau 2, hebdomadaire au niveau 3 ; premier retrait possible apres 7 jours | hebdomadaire |
| 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 et indices sur le 2-Step, 1:20 sur l'Instant Funding, 1:10 indices et matieres premieres, 1:2 crypto | — |
| News trading | Yes | Yes |
| Weekend holding | Yes | — |
| Expert Advisors | Yes | — |
| Copy trading | Restricted | — |
| Scalping | Yes | — |
| Hedging | — | — |
Choose City Traders Imperium if…
- Your budget is the binding constraint: the entry ticket starts at $29, below Earn2Trade.
- You expect to stay funded long enough for the split to matter: 100 % against 80 % at Earn2Trade.
- Your results concentrate on a few strong sessions: no consistency rule caps a single day's share of total profit.
- You would rather skip the evaluation entirely and start on a funded account.
Choose Earn2Trade if…
- You need a platform City Traders Imperium does not offer: ninjatrader, tradovate, tradingview, rithmic.
Our analysis
Payout terms compared
City Traders Imperium keeps 100 % of profits, allows a first withdrawal after 7 days, then pays Mensuel au niveau 1, bi-mensuel au niveau 2, hebdomadaire au niveau 3 ; premier retrait possible apres 7 jours. Earn2Trade keeps 80 % of profits, then pays hebdomadaire. 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.
Platforms and instruments
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.
Trust and longevity
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.
Entry cost
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.
Risk rules side by side
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.