City Traders Imperium vs Goat Funded Trader: which prop firm is better in 2026?
Across pricing, rules and payout terms, the two firms are hard to separate. 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 : 6 / 33
Goat Funded Trader
Forex / CFD · Futures · Crypto · Stocks
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.
Criteria won : 6 / 33
Pricing at equal account size
Cheapest evaluation for a 100 K account.
City Traders Imperium
$449
Goat Funded Trader
$478
Full comparison
| Criterion | City Traders Imperium | Goat Funded Trader |
|---|---|---|
| Trust | ||
| Score | 83/100 ✓ | 78/100 |
| Trustpilot | 4.2/5 | — |
| Founded | 2018 ✓ | 2023 |
| Headquarters | GB | HK |
| Pricing | ||
| Entry price | $29 ✓ | $36 |
| Price for a 100 K account | $449 ✓ | $478 |
| Refundable fee | — | — |
| Reset price | — | — |
| Account sizes | 100 K | 400 K ✓ |
| Rules | ||
| Steps | Instant funding ✓ | 2 |
| Profit target | — | 8 % |
| Max daily loss | — | 4 % |
| Max total drawdown | 6 % | 10 % ✓ |
| Drawdown type | Trailing intraday | Static ✓ |
| Time limit | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Consistency rule | No | — |
| Min trading days | 5 | 3 ✓ |
| Payouts | ||
| Profit split | 80 % | 80 % |
| Max profit split | 100 % | 100 % |
| 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 | Toutes les 2 semaines (14 jours) ; traitement sous 2 jours ouvres, minimum 100 $ |
| Payout methods | — | rise, crypto, and paypal |
| Scaling plan | Yes | Yes |
| Max allocation | 2 M ✓ | 400 K |
| Trading | ||
| Platforms and instruments | mt5, match-trader | mt5, tradelocker, ctrader ✓ |
| Instruments | fx, indices, metals, energy, stocks | fx, indices, metals, energy, stocks, crypto ✓ |
| 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 | Evaluation : forex 1:100, indices/matieres 1:20, crypto 1:2 — Finance : forex 1:50, indices/matieres 1:10, crypto 1:2 |
| News trading | Yes | Yes |
| Weekend holding | Yes | Yes |
| Expert Advisors | Yes | Yes |
| Copy trading | Restricted | Restricted |
| Scalping | Yes | — |
| Hedging | — | — |
Choose City Traders Imperium if…
- You would rather skip the evaluation entirely and start on a funded account.
- You need a platform Goat Funded Trader does not offer: match-trader.
- You are aiming for size: allocation scales up to 2 M.
- Your budget is the binding constraint: the entry ticket starts at $29, below Goat Funded Trader.
Choose Goat Funded Trader if…
- You want a drawdown you can compute in your head: the limit is fixed on the starting balance and never moves as the account grows.
- You need a platform City Traders Imperium does not offer: tradelocker, ctrader.
Our analysis
Track record
City Traders Imperium has been running since 2018, 5 years longer than Goat Funded Trader. Our trust pillar scores them 85/100 and 66/100, 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.
What you pay to start
City Traders Imperium opens at $29 against $36 for Goat Funded Trader, a moderate gap on the smallest account. At the reference size of 100 K the comparison is $449 for City Traders Imperium against $478 for Goat Funded Trader. 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.
Drawdown: the rule that decides
City Traders Imperium applies a trailing intraday drawdown capped at 6 %. Goat Funded Trader applies a static drawdown capped at 10 %, with a 4 % 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.
What reaches your account
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. Goat Funded Trader keeps 100 % of profits, then pays Toutes les 2 semaines (14 jours) ; traitement sous 2 jours ouvres, minimum 100 $. 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.
Where you actually trade
City Traders Imperium is the only one of the two to offer match-trader. Goat Funded Trader covers tradelocker, ctrader, 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.