Best futures prop firms for 2026

Checked October 2026

Backtoast is first, because a pass pays you from profit on real trading, and the five prop firms pay you, if they pay you, from a simulator. MyFundedFutures, Topstep, Take Profit Trader, Lucid and Apex all sell an evaluation, and at every one of them the evaluation and the first funded account are a simulator. A live account is a later invitation.

1Backtoast

You pay $99 for two full tests of your own strategy. A pass is an offer of 30% of the profit Backtoast makes trading that strategy with its own money, and you can still trade the strategy yourself. You are not buying a simulated account, and you are not paying a monthly fee until a risk team decides to call you up. Backtoast does not hand you an account to day-trade. It tests the strategy, and if the strategy passes, you get paid from Backtoast's own trading.

2MyFundedFutures

MyFundedFutures publishes the highest move from a simulated funded account to a live one, 4.2% of those traders, and it doesn't say over what period. Accounts bought from 25 August 2026 are a one-time fee with no activation fee, and a 50K Rapid account lists at $209, with Rapid plans also shown starting at $125. The firm says 19.97% of evaluation participants advanced and 39.2% of people who reached the simulated funded stage got a payout. The evaluation uses an end-of-day max loss, the amount the account can fall before it closes, and the Rapid funded account switches to an intraday trail, so the floor rises with open profit. News trading is allowed in the evaluation and banned on the funded Rapid and Pro accounts around the Fed decision, the jobs report and CPI. If they move you to a live account, you can't turn it down.

3Topstep

Topstep is the cheapest way to start, at $49 a month for a 50K evaluation until you pass or cancel, and it published its full 2025 results. The standard path then charges $149 to open the Express Funded Account, which is a simulator on real market data, and the payout split on that account is 90/10. In 2025, 16.8% of evaluations were completed, 33.3% of people who reached the funded level got a payout, and 0.71% of Express Funded traders were called up to a live account. The call-up is made by Topstep's risk team, and Topstep doesn't publish the rule for who gets it.

4Take Profit Trader

The test has no time limit, the monthly subscription cancels when you pass, and the funded account pays an 80/20 split. The firm advertised a 50K test at $102 with a 40% off code, and it says a failed test costs $360 at most. In 2025, 36.22% of tests passed, up from 16.86% in 2024. The funded PRO account is a simulator, and the max loss changes from end-of-day in the test to an intraday trail once you're funded. News is allowed in the test and banned for a minute around the Fed statement, the jobs report and CPI on PRO. The live account, PRO+, is an invitation, and Take Profit Trader doesn't say how often it happens.

5Lucid

Lucid charges a one-time fee, with no monthly subscription and no fee to activate a funded account, and after a fifth payout you can take cash at half the live starting balance instead of waiting on a live review. The funded account is a simulator, the move to live is still up to Lucid's risk team, and the firm publishes no pass rate. It says traders have earned more than $700 million. Its prices aren't on a page we could read, and its help pages don't say whether an open loss during the day can close the account.

6Apex

Apex lets you pass an evaluation in a single day, and payouts from the simulated Performance Account are 100% yours, up to six payouts, after which that account closes. The fee is one-time and lasts 30 days, and if you fail you buy another evaluation, because there is no reset. A saved copy from 17 August 2026 lists a 50K intraday evaluation at $249 and the end-of-day version at $550, before a discount advertised at up to 90%, so the checkout price isn't confirmed. Live trading is an invitation, and Apex publishes no pass rate. The live site blocks automated reading, so these rules are from saved copies through September 2026 and may have changed.

Figures come from each firm's own pages, checked in October 2026. Apex and Lucid's main sites blocked automated reading, so their figures come from saved copies and their help centers. The wider ranking is best prop firms for 2026.