The Cheapest Firms of 2025
Top Prop Firms at a Glance
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick overview of the most affordable prop firms in 2025. These picks are based on challenge pricing, hidden-cost transparency, fee refund policies, and overall value for traders once funded.
- Modern UX.
- Multiple challenge models.
- Quick payouts.
- Great for intraday traders.
Futures-only funding with one-step and instant simulated programs.
Top One offers a one-step Elite Challenge and instant-access accounts, with 10-day payout cycles and clearly defined risk rules.
- One-step and instant simulated funding options.
- Payouts every ten active trading days via Plane.com.
- 2.5% daily loss limit and EOD trailing drawdown.
- Platforms include Project X (web) and Quantower (desktop).
Rating: 3.8 / 5
Futures-only funding with clear rules and fast live-stage payouts.
Purdia offers traditional and instant tracks with defined milestones and daily, on-demand payouts once traders reach the live account.
- One-Step, Two-Step, and Instant Funding options.
- Daily payout requests after live-stage activation.
- Ninety-ten profit split on live withdrawals.
- Platforms include NinjaTrader, Tradovate, and TradingView.
Rating: 4 / 5
Fast, rules-simple funding built around a single drawdown rule.
TradeDay offers a clean, one-phase futures evaluation with fast payouts and wide platform support.
- Futures-only firm with a simple max-drawdown evaluation.
- Payouts available from day one with 24-hour processing.
- Profit split starts at 80% and scales to 95%.
- Multiple supported platforms, including TradeDayX and NinjaTrader.
Lucid Trading offers LucidTest, LucidPro, and LucidDirect, featuring no payout window, a 90/10 split, and fast approvals within two business days.
- Evaluation or direct-funded routes with clear rules.
- First payout after 10 trading days with buffer/consistency checks.
- Transitions available to LucidLive for real-capital trading.
- Platforms include Project X and Rithmic (Quantower, MotiveWave).
- Futures on major exchanges.
- Simple evaluation rules.
- Multiple evaluation tiers.
- Fast path to funding.
- Futures-only firm with a range of evaluation account sizes.
- Competitive trailing drawdown and profit targets.
- Strong community presence and support resources.
- Frequent coupon codes and promos for new traders.
- Forex, indices, and commodities on popular platforms.
- 2-step evaluation with transparent rules.
- Profit share designed for consistency.
- Daily loss limits for professional risk control.
Instant-day payouts with transparent milestones and high split potential.
FT+ offers flexible evaluation paths and instant funding, with clear profit thresholds and fast, low-minimum withdrawals.
- Instant Master track with payout splits up to 100%.
- Multiple evaluation routes including One-Phase and Two-Phase.
- Day-0 payouts and low $50 minimum withdrawals.
- Wide platform coverage including MT5, cTrader, and DXtrade.
Rating: 4.5 / 5
- Instant funding available.
- High profit splits.
- Multi-step challenges.
- Very flexible structure.
- Top-tier liquidity partners.
- Advanced analytics dashboards.
- Strict but fair 2-step challenge.
- Strong reputation and payout history.
- Designed for experienced traders.
- Institutional-style risk rules.
- Large account sizes.
- Strong option for proven traders.
- Multi-step evaluations.
- Scaling incentives.
- Forex & indices focus.
- Best for mechanical system traders.
- Low-cost accounts.
- Forex & indices coverage.
- Clear rules and loss limits.
- Ideal for new traders.
On-demand reward access with fast, trader-driven withdrawal cycles.
Funder Pro centers on its Daily Rewards accounts, offering anytime profit claims, fast processing, and competitive splits up to ninety-ten.
- Daily Rewards enable withdrawals at 1% profit.
- Rewards typically processed within one business day.
- Splits reach up to 90/10 across programs.
- One-Phase and Classic accounts use bi-weekly payouts.
Rating: 3.8 / 5
- Capital growth focus over quick flips.
- Educational resources and coaching.
- Refined risk metrics.
- Ideal for long-term career traders.
- Multiple evaluation styles.
- Forex, indices, commodities.
- Global payout methods.
- Great for non-US/EU traders.
- Forex and CFD coverage.
- Multiple challenge types and account sizes.
- Simple performance dashboard.
- Great for traders moving from demo to funded.
- Real-time analytics and dashboards.
- Simple 2-step evaluation.
- Wide forex/CFD instrument list.
- Scaling opportunities.
How to Choose the Best Cheap Prop Firm?
Know Your Budget and Trading Objectives
Compare Total Cost Instead of Only the Challenge Fee
Many firms promote very low entry prices, yet the true cost of getting funded is much higher. The advertised fee might exclude resets, retries, platform charges, or any refund after your first payout. The most genuinely affordable firms present clear, complete pricing. They allow you to understand exactly how much you will spend from the beginning of the challenge until your first withdrawal.
Watch for Rules That Quietly Raise Your Costs
Some firms reduce their fees but compensate by tightening rules until the evaluation becomes difficult to pass. This creates a cycle of repeated purchases that makes a cheap challenge extremely expensive over time. Drawdown limitations, profit targets, news restrictions, timing rules, and consistency requirements must all be realistic. If you constantly lose challenges because the rules are designed to cause failure, the firm is not cheap regardless of the price.
Balance Affordability With Reputation and Reliability
Saving money is meaningful only if the firm is reliable. A slightly more expensive but trustworthy firm will often be cheaper in the long run. A prop firm with a strong track record of paying traders, stable conditions, clear communication, and dependable customer support will help you keep your profits instead of losing them to unexpected policy changes or unreliable operations.
Our Review Methodology
The cheapest prop firms of 2025 were identified using a value based approach rather than an evaluation of price alone. Many factors influence the true cost of reaching a funded account. Our analysis considered the price of every account tier, the availability of discount programs, the presence of free or low cost retries, refund conditions after payouts, and the fairness of rules across all steps of the evaluation. We also reviewed each firm’s reputation, platform stability, payout history, and long term earning potential. Since prop firms frequently update pricing, rules, and policies, traders should confirm all details directly with each firm before purchasing an evaluation.
Risk Disclaimer
Trading with a prop firm involves significant financial risk. Lower entry costs do not reduce the danger of losing a challenge or breaching account rules while funded. Only participate with money you can afford to lose. If you have uncertainty about any major trading or financial decision, consider seeking guidance from a licensed professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a cheap prop firm?
A cheap prop firm offers traders access to funded trading through relatively low evaluation costs and transparent fee structures. Affordability depends on more than the entry price. A truly cheap firm offers realistic rules, reliable payouts, and a clear path to long term profitability without constant spending on new challenges or resets.
Is the cheapest prop firm always the best option?
Not always. The lowest entry fee might come with extremely strict rules, slow support, or questionable reliability. It is often smarter to choose a firm with slightly higher fees if it offers transparency, flexibility, and a strong reputation for honoring payouts. Over time those qualities reduce your overall spending.
Which prop firm is best for beginners?
Who benefits most from low cost prop firms?
Low cost firms are well suited for new traders, traders experimenting with new strategies, or traders who want to scale across multiple funded accounts without investing large amounts of personal capital. They are also useful for experienced traders who want to diversify and limit financial exposure across different firms.
Do cheap firms still require an evaluation?
Most do. The evaluation phase helps firms manage trading risk. A typical evaluation requires meeting a profit target, remaining within drawdown rules, and trading for a minimum number of days. Some low cost firms offer one phase or instant funding programs, but these still come with rules that must be followed carefully.
Are there hidden fees with cheap firms?
There can be. Some firms charge for resets, platform access, or withdrawals. Others never refund the evaluation fee even after you reach the funded stage. Reading the fine print and reviewing all conditions is essential if you want to understand the real cost of becoming and staying funded.
Can I combine multiple cheap prop firms?
Yes. Many traders use several affordable firms to build larger combined funding. This can be an effective way to spread risk. It does require attention to each firm’s rules, platform differences, and guidelines about copying trades or managing correlated strategies
Ready to Choose Your Cheap Prop Firm?
Cheap prop firms in 2025 make it possible to access trading capital without risking large amounts of personal savings. The most worthwhile firms combine affordable pricing with fair rules, reliable operations, and a clear structure that allows traders to reach and maintain funded status. Take time to compare evaluation requirements, reputation, and fee structures. Choose a partner whose conditions match your trading approach and your financial needs. With the right selection, you are able to focus on performance while keeping your personal costs under control.