Prop Firms That Scale to $2 Million

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.

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.

FTUK is not a UK firm. Despite the name, it holds no FCA authorisation and has no UK company — and it names FOUR different jurisdictions across its own website: FTUK LLC (Wyoming), FTUK Inc. (Texas), Nexdata-Solutions B.V. (Netherlands, Dutch governing law) and FTUK Markets Ltd (Saint Lucia). Two different governing laws apply to two different products on one site. The rule that decides most accounts is buried in a general FAQ: FTUK defines a 'trading day' as a 24-hour period in which at least 0.5% profit is made. That silently converts every minimum-trading-days requirement — including the 10-day first-payout gate — into a minimum PROFITABLE-days requirement. You can trade for 30 days, be up 6%, and have zero qualifying days. The profit split is also contradictory: the scaling page says it starts at 50%, the FAQ says 60%, and the homepage markets 'up to 80%'.

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.

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.

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.

Funding Pips is a Comoros-registered prop firm (FundingPips Corp) with an administrative base in Dubai. All accounts are simulated. The advertised "up to 100%" profit split is neither a tier you earn nor an add-on you buy - it is a payout-frequency trade-off: weekly pays 60%, bi-weekly 80%, on-demand 90% and monthly 100%. That makes it the only major firm whose top split is free and rule-based rather than bought or scaled into. Maximum drawdown is STATIC on all four standard models (a floor that never moves) - the exceptions are FundingPips Zero, which trails at 5% and is by far the strictest product here, and Prime, which trails at 8%. Six programmes, fees from 29 to 888 USD, max allocation 400,000 USD, and Prime scaling to 2,000,000. Weekend holding has been suspended on funded accounts since January 2026. The challenge fee is refunded at your 4th reward on 1 Step and 2 Step Standard only - reset fees never are.

Goat Funded Trader runs seven evaluation routes across five platforms, with an 80% base profit split, bi-weekly payouts and a $100 minimum. The multi-step evaluations use a static drawdown; the Instant and Blitz products trail. Two rules decide most outcomes here: the fee is rebated on your fourth payout rather than refunded, and the first Reward on Demand is paid at 40% whatever split you bought.

Blue Guardian is a Dubai-run, simulated prop firm that offers both a CFD side (forex, indices, commodities) and a futures side (CME contracts), across an unusually wide platform list including MT5, Match-Trader, TradeLocker, TradingView, NinjaTrader and Tradovate. Its defining feature is a 24-hour payout guarantee: approved withdrawals are paid within a day or the firm pays extra. Two caveats matter: the promise is worded two different ways on its own pages, and it covers how fast an approved payout is paid, not whether a payout is approved, since the terms make payouts discretionary. Account sizes reach 400,000, the split runs up to 90 percent, and while futures welcome US traders, the CFD side reportedly restricts US residents.

City Traders Imperium is one of the longest-running prop firms, with a brand dating to 2018 and a reputation built on a long payout track record. It is a simulated forex and CFD firm on MT5 and Match-Trader, built for swing and long-term traders. Its defining features are balance-based drawdown, calculated from closed balance rather than floating equity, with no time limits, and a scaling plan that roughly doubles the account at each 10 percent milestone toward 4 million. It also offers swap-free Islamic accounts. The base split is 90 percent, rising to 100 percent at the top VIP tier, and US traders are accepted. Note it is now an offshore, unregulated structure, not a UK-regulated broker.

Top One Trader is registered in Anjouan, Union of Comoros, under licence L15829/TOT - not in the United States, as an earlier version of this review stated. It runs six programmes on Match Trader, TradeLocker and MT5, with splits from 60% to 100% and payouts through RiseWorks. Drawdown varies by product: the 2-Step PRO v2 is static, while FLASH, NOVA and both Instant plans trail.

Finotive Funding is a Dubai (DIFC) simulated forex and CFD prop firm operating since 2021 on MT5 and Match-Trader. Entry is cheap from about 25 dollars, sizes run 2,500 to 200,000 dollars, and scaling is advertised to 5.4 million. Its defining feature is a 10 percent strike system: rule breaks cut your next payout to a 10 percent split rather than closing the account, though the discretionary holistic assessment behind reductions is its top complaint. The Pro tier adds a 1 percent monthly salary and a 100 percent split after 30 days. Drawdown is static and payouts are weekly on Fridays.