FundingPips vs Topstep: which prop firm is better in 2026?

Payout terms compared

FundingPips keeps 100 % of profits, allows a first withdrawal after 7 days, then pays Cycle of your choice: weekly (60%), bi-weekly (80%), on demand (90%) or monthly (100%). Topstep keeps 90 % of profits, allows a first withdrawal after 5 days, then pays On request: Express Funded Standard after 5 winning days at $150+; Express Funded Consistency after 3 trading days with a 40% consistency target. 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

FundingPips is the only one of the two to offer mt5, ctrader, match-trader. Topstep covers ninjatrader, tradovate, 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

Topstep has been running since 2012, 10 years longer than FundingPips. On Trustpilot they sit at 4.5/5 and 3.6/5 respectively. Our trust pillar scores them 81/100 and 80/100, 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

FundingPips opens at $29 against $49 for Topstep, a substantial gap on the smallest account. 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

FundingPips applies a static drawdown capped at 6 %, with a 3 % daily limit. Topstep applies a trailing (end of day) drawdown capped at 4 %. 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.