Vladimir Rybakov
Author
Snir Ahiel
Fact Checker
The best funded account is the one whose loss rules your strategy can survive, because loss rules end far more evaluations than profit targets do. Across the major forex and CFD firms, the largest structural difference is the daily loss limit: most enforce 3% to 5%, one enforces none. That difference decides more outcomes than the profit split.
Search for the best funded account and you get ranked lists ordered by affiliate commission, with the profit split in a large font and the drawdown rules in a footnote. That is backwards. The split decides how much of a payout you keep; the drawdown rules decide whether there is a payout at all.
This guide compares seven evaluation products from five firms, including Pipcy, on the rules that decide whether you pass and get paid. It is a product comparison, so it stays on specs: targets, loss limits, prices, splits and policies, all as published by each firm in September 2026. Which company to trust is a separate question, covered in our guide to the best prop firms. We are a proprietary trading firm ourselves, so we say plainly where our own products lead and where they do not.
The best funded accounts share five traits, in order of how often they decide the outcome: a loss structure your strategy can survive, meaning no daily limit and a static maximum; a reachable profit target; a permissive news policy; a competitive split with a higher ceiling; and a price that makes a second attempt affordable.
Most comparisons rank on the two numbers that are easiest to compare, the split and the fee. They are the least predictive numbers on the page. A 90% split is worthless on an account that a 3% daily limit closes in week two, and a cheap evaluation is expensive if the rules mean you buy it three times.
The order above is deliberate. Drawdown structure first, because it is where most evaluations end. Target second, because it has to be reachable inside that structure. News policy third, because it decides whether your existing strategy transfers at all. Split and price last, because they only matter once you have passed.
Seven products from five firms, on the rules that decide whether you pass. Read the daily loss limit and maximum loss type first. Every competitor in the set enforces a daily limit of 3% to 5%. Pipcy is the only firm with none, and the only one with a 12% maximum rather than 10%.
| Product | Phases | Target | Max loss | Daily loss | Min days | Entry from | Split | News in evaluation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pipcy Classic One-Step | 1 | 18% | 12% static | None | 3 | $40 | 80% → 100% | Allowed |
| Pipcy Classic Two-Step | 2 | 12%, then 6% | 12% static | None | 3 | $31 | 80% → 100% | Allowed |
| Pipcy Pips Mastery X2 | 1 | 500 pips | 250 pips static | None | 3 | $26 | 80% → 100% | Allowed |
| FTMO Challenge 2-Step | 2 | 10%, then 5% | 10% static | 5% | 4 | €89 | 80% → 90% | Restricted on Standard accounts |
| FTMO Challenge 1-Step | 1 | 10% | 10% end-of-day trailing | 3% | None | €79 | 90% | Restricted on Standard accounts |
| The5ers High Stakes | 2 | 10%, then 5% | 10% static | 5%, ends the account | 3 profitable days | ~$75 | 80% → 100% | Restricted within 2 minutes of high-impact news |
| FundedNext Stellar 2-Step | 2 | 8%, then 5% | 10% static | 5% | 5 | ~$60 | 80% → 90% | Not stated on the rules page |
| FundingPips 2 Step Standard | 2 | 8%, then 5% | 10% static | 5% | 3 | ~$32 | 60% to 100% by payout cycle | Allowed; a 5-minute window applies on funded accounts |
Competitor specifications are taken from each firm's published rulebook or help centre as of September 2026 and will change. Prices marked ~ are approximate and were confirmed from third-party listings where the firm's own page could not be read; the others are the firm's listed starting price for its smallest account. Firms run permanent discounts, so list prices overstate what most traders pay. Treat this as a structural comparison and confirm current terms on each firm's own site. Pipcy's terms are on the Pipcy Classic and Pips Mastery pages.
Read the table by column. The target column shows Pipcy asking for more profit than anyone else. The daily-loss column shows Pipcy the only firm asking for nothing. Those two facts are the whole comparison, and the rest of this page is about which one matters more for the way you trade.
The loss rules split into three questions: is there a daily limit, is the maximum static or trailing, and how wide is it. Six of the seven products enforce a daily limit between 3% and 5%. One trails its maximum upward. Pipcy runs no daily limit and a static 12% maximum, the widest and simplest structure here.
The daily limit. A daily loss limit closes the account if equity falls a set percentage below the day's opening balance, however well the account is doing overall. FTMO's 1-Step sets it at 3%, the tightest here. The5ers' High Stakes terminates the account at 5%, with no recovery. FundingPips measures 5% from the higher of opening balance or equity, which is slightly stricter than balance alone. The practical effect is the same everywhere: a single bad session can end an evaluation that is otherwise on track, and our guide to daily vs maximum drawdown shows why that is the more common way accounts are lost.
Static or trailing. Every product here uses a static maximum except FTMO's 1-Step, where the 10% limit is recalculated daily from the highest end-of-day balance. Once the account is up 5%, the floor is up 5% too, so a trader who has made progress can be stopped out by a fall that would have been survivable on day one. Our guide to trailing drawdown works through the arithmetic.
The width. Pipcy's 12% is the only maximum above 10% in the set. Against a 1% risk per trade, that is twelve full losses before the limit rather than ten. The guide to position sizing shows how much difference that makes over a realistic losing run.
Complexity rules. Several products add rules that do not appear in the headline specs. FTMO's 1-Step requires that your best day makes up no more than half your profitable days' total. FundingPips runs a warning system on funded accounts for trade ideas that lose more than 1.2%, a consistency score on some payout cycles, and currently does not permit weekend holds on funded accounts. FundedNext does not permit automated trading on its Match-Trader accounts. None of these is unreasonable, and each is one more way to fail an account that is otherwise profitable. Pipcy's published rules are the maximum loss, the target, the three-day minimum and the news permission, and nothing else.
Pipcy asks for more profit than any firm in the set: 18% single-phase or 12% then 6%, against 10% then 5% at FTMO and The5ers and 8% then 5% at FundedNext and FundingPips. In exchange: a wider loss buffer, no daily limit and the lowest entry price. The target-to-loss ratio is comparable; the shape of the risk is not.
This is the part of the comparison where honesty costs us something, so here it is directly. A Pipcy Two-Step trader has to make 18% across two phases to fund. An FTMO 2-Step trader has to make 15%. A FundingPips trader, 13%. Pipcy's targets are the highest on the table.
Two things sit on the other side of that. First, the loss buffer is wider: 12% against 10%. The target-to-loss ratio comes out at 1.5 for Pipcy Two-Step, 1.5 for FTMO 2-Step, and 1.3 for FundedNext and FundingPips. On that measure Pipcy is in the middle, and we would rather say so than pretend the higher target is free.
Second, and more important, the daily limit changes what the target costs to reach. A trader working toward 15% under a 5% daily limit has to earn it without a single bad day, because one session at minus 5% ends the account regardless of the running total. A trader working toward 18% under no daily limit can have that day, absorb it inside the 12% maximum, and continue. The higher target is harder; the path to it is more forgiving. Which of those matters more depends on how your losses tend to arrive, and our guide on how to reduce drawdown covers how to find out from your own record.
On price, Pipcy's smallest accounts start at $23 for Pips Mastery X3, $26 for X2, $31 for Classic Two-Step and $40 for One-Step. The nearest competitor entry is around $32 at FundingPips, then roughly $60 at FundedNext, $75 at The5ers and €79 to €89 at FTMO. Two firms offer fee refunds that Pipcy does not: FTMO returns the full fee with the first payout on its 2-Step, and FundingPips after the fourth payout. If you expect to pass first time and be paid quickly, that refund narrows the price gap considerably.
For forex specifically, the best funded account is one that measures in pips rather than percentages, permits news trading without a window, and runs no daily limit, because forex losses cluster around scheduled releases. Pipcy's Pips Mastery is the only product in this comparison that is pip-based, and one of two that allows news trading in the evaluation without restriction.
Forex traders have two problems that the general comparison understates. The first is that their risk is naturally measured in pips, and every percentage-based evaluation forces a translation through account size and lot size before the rules mean anything. The second is that forex volatility arrives on a schedule, around data releases and central bank speeches, and a daily loss limit combined with a news restriction is designed to fail exactly the trades a forex strategy is built around.
Pips Mastery addresses both. The evaluation is a 500-pip target (X2) or 750-pip target (X3) against a 250-pip maximum loss, so the trader's plan maps onto the rules with no conversion. Lot sizes are fixed by account size, which removes the sizing decision from the evaluation entirely. News trading is allowed with no window, and there is no daily limit to breach on a volatile release. Both variants start from $23 to $26.
Among the competitors, FundingPips is the only other product with no news restriction in the evaluation phase, though a 5-minute window with profit deductions applies once funded, and its 5% daily limit remains. FTMO offers a Swing account type that permits news trading, at the cost of the 2-Step structure's 5% daily limit. The5ers restricts trading within two minutes of high-impact events. For a broader look at forex-focused firms rather than products, see our guide to forex prop firms.
For a beginner, the best funded account fails you for the fewest reasons: a two-phase structure with a static maximum loss, no daily limit, no extra complexity rules, and a price that makes a second attempt affordable. Pipcy Classic Two-Step fits most closely from $31, with Pips Mastery X3 the cheapest first attempt for forex.
Beginners lose evaluations to rules they did not know were there more often than to bad trading. A daily limit hit during a normal losing session. A best-day rule that blocks a payout. A trailing floor that rose while the account was doing well. Each is survivable for an experienced trader who has read the rulebook twice; each is a surprise for someone on their first attempt.
The two-phase structure matters for the same reason. A staged target rewards consistency over a lucky day, and a beginner who passes it has proved something about their process rather than their timing. FTMO's 2-Step, The5ers' High Stakes, FundedNext's Stellar 2-Step and FundingPips' 2 Step Standard all offer this, each with a 5% daily limit attached. Pipcy's Two-Step offers it without one.
Price is the other half. A first evaluation is a learning cost as much as an entry fee, and the cheaper it is, the less a failed attempt costs to repeat. Pipcy's $23 to $31 entries are the lowest here, and free Pipcy Academy access comes with every account. The fee refunds at FTMO and FundingPips are real advantages for a beginner too, provided they reach a payout.
We rank Pipcy Classic Two-Step as the best funded account overall and Pips Mastery as the best for forex, on four verifiable grounds: no daily loss limit, a 12% static maximum, news trading allowed everywhere, and the lowest entry prices. The cost is a higher profit target than any competitor, and no fee refund. We would rather you knew both.
The case for Pipcy rests on the loss structure, because that is where evaluations are decided. No daily limit means a bad session is a bad session rather than a closed account. A static 12% maximum means the floor does not move while you make progress. News allowed everywhere means your strategy runs as designed on the days that matter. And an entry price of $23 to $40 means a failed first attempt is a cheap lesson rather than an expensive one. Those four things are on the table above and on our product pages, and you can check each one.
The case against is equally checkable. Our targets are the highest in the comparison, 18% single-phase or 12% then 6%, and a trader whose edge is thin will find them harder than FundedNext's 13% total. We offer no fee refund where FTMO and FundingPips do. Our largest account is $100K against $200K elsewhere. And our split starts at the same 80% as most of the industry; the advantage is at the top of the Growth Plan ladder, where it reaches 100% across nine levels, and at the entry it is industry-standard rather than exceptional.
Put plainly: Pipcy asks for more profit and gives you more room to be wrong. For a trader whose losses come in clusters, or whose strategy trades news, or who would rather buy one $31 evaluation than one €89 one, that trade is favourable. For a trader with a thin, steady edge who never has a bad day, FundedNext's or FundingPips' lower target under a daily limit they will never approach may suit better. We think the first trader is more common than the second, and the funded-account rules at most firms are built as if the opposite were true.
Payouts follow the same principle. Pipcy processes payout requests within 48 hours of approval, with a first payout available after 5% realised profit and five active trading days. Those conditions are published in advance, and how funded accounts pay out generally is covered in our guide to how funded accounts work.
Choose by how your losses arrive, not by the profit split. If your losing days are occasionally large, avoid any product with a daily limit, which leaves Pipcy. If your losses are small and steady and you never trade news, a lower target under a daily limit may suit you. Decide the structure first and the firm second.
A short decision path:
Whichever way that points, read the full rulebook before paying. The rules that end accounts are rarely on the pricing page. If you are new to the process, our guide on how to get a funded trading account walks through each step, and the guide to funded account rules explains what each rule type means once you are trading.
The best funded trading account is the one whose loss rules your strategy can survive, since those rules end more evaluations than the target does. Pipcy Classic Two-Step is our overall pick for its absent daily limit, 12% static maximum and $31 entry, with the caveat that its 12% then 6% target is higher than competitors' 8% to 10%.
For forex, the best funded account is pip-based, allows news trading without a window, and has no daily limit, because forex losses cluster around scheduled releases. Pipcy Pips Mastery is the only pip-based product in this comparison, with a 500 or 750-pip target against a 250-pip maximum loss, news allowed, no daily limit, and entry from $23.
Beginners are best served by a two-phase evaluation with a static maximum loss, no daily limit and no extra complexity rules, at a price that makes a second attempt affordable. Pipcy Classic Two-Step fits that most closely from $31. The fee refunds at FTMO and FundingPips also help a beginner who reaches a first payout.
Among the products compared here, Pipcy Pips Mastery X3 has the lowest entry at $23, followed by Pips Mastery X2 at $26 and Classic Two-Step at $31. The nearest competitor entries are approximately $32 at FundingPips, $60 at FundedNext, $75 at The5ers and €79 at FTMO, as of September 2026. Firms run frequent discounts, so check current pricing before buying.
Policies vary widely. Pipcy allows news trading on every product with no restriction. FundingPips allows it during the evaluation but applies a 5-minute window with profit deductions on funded accounts. FTMO restricts it on Standard accounts and permits it on the Swing type. The5ers restricts trading within two minutes of high-impact events. Check the specific product, not the firm.
In this comparison, Pipcy is the only firm with no daily loss limit on any product. FTMO 1-Step enforces 3%, and FTMO 2-Step, The5ers High Stakes, FundedNext Stellar 2-Step and FundingPips 2 Step Standard all enforce 5%. A daily limit closes the account on a single bad session regardless of overall performance.
A static maximum loss is a fixed floor below the starting balance that never moves. A trailing maximum loss rises as the account makes new highs, so the floor follows your progress and a later decline can breach it even above the starting balance. Of the products compared, only FTMO 1-Step trails; the rest, including Pipcy, are static.
The best funded account is decided by the loss rules, because that is where evaluations end. On that measure the comparison is unusually clear: six of the seven products enforce a daily limit between 3% and 5%, one trails its maximum loss upward, and one runs no daily limit and a static 12% floor. That one is ours, and we have tried to say so without hiding the price, which is a higher profit target than any competitor and no fee refund.
If your losses arrive in occasional large days, or your strategy trades news, or you would rather a $31 first attempt than an €89 one, Pipcy Classic or Pips Mastery is the right structure. If your edge is thin and steady and you never have a bad day, a lower target under a daily limit at FundedNext or FundingPips may serve you better, and we would rather you chose that than failed ours. Compare the terms on the Pipcy Classic and Pips Mastery pages, both with free Pipcy Academy access, and read every rulebook twice before you pay for any of them.
Written by Vladimir Rybakov, Head of PIPCY Academy, CFTe-certified with 19 years of trading experience.
Fact-checked by Snir Ahiel, former co-founder of The5ers and risk management specialist at Pipcy, with 15+ years trading Forex, Stocks, and Options.
Risk disclosure: Trading involves substantial risk. Pipcy provides simulated trading evaluations for educational and assessment purposes. Simulated performance does not represent real trading results, and becoming a funded trader is not guaranteed. Competitor information is drawn from each firm's published rules as of September 2026 and may have changed; confirm on the firm's own site. Nothing here is financial or investment advice.
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