1-Step Prop Firms

The Trading Pit is a Liechtenstein-registered firm running CFD Prime, Futures Prime and a Stocks Challenge on a flat 80% split. Two changes on 29 April 2026 reshaped the deal: the fee rebate moved from your 1st payout to your 3rd, and the drawdown on the largest accounts switched from static to trailing. The rule that ends most accounts here is not a drawdown at all - it is the inactivity clock, which starts the day you buy, not the day you first trade.

Funded Trading Plus sells three programmes - Instant Funding, 1-Step Express and 2-Step Classic - on MT5 and Match-Trader, with an 80% base split. Two things reshaped the firm in 2026: the entire product line was replaced in February, taking the fee rebate with it, and the company was acquired by Instant Funding in May. It is UK-registered and says plainly that it is not FCA regulated. The 2-Step carries a 3% single-symbol loss limit that terminates the account outright.

FTMO (FTMO s.r.o., Prague) is the sector's most established simulated-funding firm, running a 2-Step and a newer 1-Step challenge. The most important fact is one almost every review gets backwards: the 2-Step fee is refunded 100% with your first payout, while the 1-Step fee is NON-REFUNDABLE. The 1-Step's lower sticker price (€499 vs €540 on a $100K) therefore makes it the more expensive route to funded, permanently. The 2-Step uses a STATIC 10% drawdown; the 1-Step uses an end-of-day TRAILING drawdown, a 3% daily loss, a 50% Best Day Rule that silently blocks payouts, no Scaling Plan — and it resets your entire drawdown buffer every time you withdraw. FTMO charges no withdrawal commission, has no consistency rules on the 2-Step, and scales to $2,000,000. There is no reset product: failing means buying again at full price.

E8 Markets (E8 Funding LLC, Dallas + E8 Markets Ltd, Saint Lucia) runs three single-phase products: E8 Zero, E8 One and E8 Pro. Two things dominate. First, the profit split is a PAID CHOICE at checkout — in E8's own words, 'select 80%, 90%, or 100% at checkout. Higher splits cost more upfront,' and the choice is permanent. Second, and more dangerous: on E8 Zero and E8 Pro your first payout permanently raises the loss level to your initial balance. E8's own worked example shows a $104,000 account requesting a $4,000 payout, dropping to $100,000, and BREACHING immediately. Withdrawing your own profit can destroy the account that produced it. E8 Zero also deactivates permanently after 5 payouts, capping lifetime earnings between $15,000 and $35,000 depending on account size. There is no fee refund of any kind.

The5ers (Five Percent Online Ltd, a UK company — but contracted under Israeli law with exclusive jurisdiction in Tel Aviv) runs four CFD programmes: Bootcamp, Hyper Growth, Pro Growth and High Stakes. Its real strengths are genuine: drawdown is STATIC on every CFD programme, the split scales to 100% for free rather than as a paid add-on, and High Stakes offers 1:100 leverage. But two things are widely misreported. First, a 3.5% commission is taken from EVERY cash withdrawal — Rise, crypto and bank transfer alike; the only 0% route is non-convertible Hub Credit. Second, the celebrated ~70% fee refund is High Stakes only, is paid as account equity rather than cash, and is itself subject to that 3.5% on the way out. The rule that decides most accounts is the 0.5% profitable-day definition: on a $100K you need $500 of closed profit in a day to qualify, and an open losing position at midnight wipes the day out entirely.

Crypto Fund Trader is a crypto-first prop firm running 1-Phase, 2-Phase, Instant and Break evaluations on simulated capital up to $300,000, across MetaTrader 5, Match-Trader and Bybit. The base split is 80%, and the default payout cycle is 15 traded days or every 30 calendar days - weekly payouts and the 90% split are both paid add-ons. Simulated profit is hard-capped at $10,000 per day and per trade, with the excess deducted, which is the rule most crypto traders here meet first.

Alpha Capital Group is a UK-registered prop firm running four evaluation paths - Alpha One, Alpha Pro, Alpha Swing and Alpha Three - on MT5, cTrader, DX Trade and TradeLocker. The split is a flat 80% on every plan, and scaling raises your balance rather than your share. Every plan uses a static drawdown except Alpha One, which trails. The fee is non-refundable, and the rule that ends most accounts here is not a drawdown at all - it is the 2-minute average trade duration test.

TradeDay (TradeDay LLC - an ILLINOIS company, not a UK one) is a futures-only prop firm trading simulated capital, rebuilt as TradeDay 2.0. Its best feature is genuine: there is no daily drawdown at all. The constraint to understand before you buy is the $10,000 lifetime ceiling, which takes your profit once you reach it - and prior withdrawals count toward it. The firm is unusually transparent about its own numbers, which we credit in the review.

FunderPro sells four evaluations - One Phase, Classic, Pro and Instant - on MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradeLocker, with an 80% base split and a $100 minimum payout. It is unusually candid in one respect: it publishes its own pass rate, 7.35%, in the site footer. It is less candid in others. The homepage advertises "No Trailing Drawdown" while the binding Instant terms specify a trailing one, and the contract that governs your payouts is not published anywhere.

Apex Trader Funding replaced its entire product line on 1 March 2026. Everything on sale now is a one-time fee with no rebill, a 100% profit split and no consistency rule in the evaluation. The old model - monthly subscription, 90/10 split, the 30% negative P&L rule and the 5:1 risk-reward rule - is now Legacy and cannot be bought. Most reviews of Apex, including our previous one, still describe the old product.

FundedNext is a UAE proprietary trading firm operating through GrowthNext F.Z.E. (Ajman Free Zone), running the Stellar range: 1-Step, 2-Step, Lite and Instant. Per its own disclaimer it is a simulation-based platform. The base profit split is 80% — 90% is reached through the Scale-Up plan, and 95% is a PAID add-on costing 25–30% on top of the challenge fee. A processing fee of up to 3.5% is deducted from EVERY payout, so a nominal 80% split nets closer to 77%. Since 12 January 2026 the 1-Step split starts at 80% rather than 90% — and resetting an older account moves you onto the newer, worse terms. The 1-Step pays on a 5-business-day cycle; the 2-Step's first cycle is 21 days, then 14 thereafter. Minimum payout from 20 USD, and only 2 minimum trading days on the 1-Step.

Trade The Pool is one of the very few prop firms built specifically for stock and ETF traders, the equities-focused arm of the 5%ers group (Five Percent Online Ltd). It offers simulated trading of more than 12,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs, including short-selling and penny stocks, with no Pattern Day Trader rule, on its own platform built on TraderEvolution. Its defining feature is a buying-power model paired with a Pump scaling engine that grows your buying power and daily-loss allowance by 10 percent at each 10 percent profit milestone. You pick a Flex track with unlimited time and fewer rules, or a cheaper Max track with a 60-day window and a stricter consistency rule, with day-trade buying power from 5,000 to 200,000 plus swing tiers. The profit split is 70 percent, payouts start 14 days after inception with a 300 dollar minimum, and US traders are welcomed. It is simulated and does not offer futures or crypto.