The lowest prop firm spreads do not come from the firm name alone. The spread you pay depends on the account type, the instrument, the platform server and the hour you trade. The figure that decides your trading cost is the spread plus any commission per lot, measured on the symbols you actually trade. A firm that quotes 0.0 pips on EUR/USD can still cost more per trade than one quoting 0.3 pips, once commission is added.
How this ranking is ordered
The ranking is ordered by overall score out of 10. FTMO leads at 8.1, followed by The5ers, Apex Trader Funding and Earn2Trade at 7.9. Compare spread levels for a given account on the firm’s own platform, using the method below.
The list mixes two kinds of firms, and that split matters more for spreads than the score order does:
- Forex and CFD firms: FTMO (FTMO Challenge: 2-Step, Forex · Crypto · Stocks), The5ers (Summer 10/5, Forex · Futures), FundingPips (2 Step Standard, Forex · Crypto), Alpha Capital Group (Alpha Pro, Forex · Crypto) and Vault Funder (2-Step Challenge, Forex).
- Futures firms: Apex Trader Funding, Earn2Trade, Lucid Trading, Traders Launch, Tradeify, TradeDay, Bulenox and My Funded Futures (MFFU).
On CFD accounts, the firm’s broker or liquidity setup determines the quoted spread, so spreads can differ from one firm to the next on the same pair. On futures, the spread is the bid/ask gap in the exchange order book for that contract, and liquid contracts trade with a one-tick spread most of the session. A firm such as Tradeify does not set it, so cost differences between futures firms come mainly from commissions and fees per contract. Futures traders should use the best futures prop firms ranking. Forex and gold traders should focus on the CFD group and the best forex prop firms.
Challenge fee is not trading cost
The5ers Summer 10/5 costs $149 for a $100K account, against $602 for the FTMO Challenge at the same size. That is a one-time entry cost. Spreads and commissions repeat every time you open a position. A trader who places many trades a day can pay more in spread over a month than in the challenge fee. For a swing trader placing a few trades a week, the fee may be the bigger number. The cheapest prop firm challenges list covers the fee side.
How we checked the firms in this list
We ran every check on this page on 2026-11-13, connecting from Tallinn, Estonia, in the EU. All 15 brands had a recorded check that day. We opened each official site, noted the legal entities it names, and searched public registers where we had a lookup on record. Only three brands had one. Tradeify’s NFA BASIC (US) entry for 0575972 was confirmed with the status NFA Member Approved. Alpha Capital Group was confirmed on Companies House (UK) under 13719951, status Active, incorporated 2 November 2021. For Vault Funder, the FSCA search (South Africa) for 51042 could not be searched, so that check was not completed. Its official site also redirected to another address. The other 12 brands have no register lookup on record. That means we have no register result to report for them, not that anything is wrong.
We also followed each firm’s main sign-up button. At FTMO and Bulenox, it led to a sign-in or account page before any payment screen. At the remaining 13 brands, including The5ers, FundingPips and Alpha Capital Group, it opened a checkout without an account. Ratings varied more than the sign-up flows did. My Funded Futures (MFFU) showed Trustpilot 4.9 from 22,937 reviews, while Upcomers showed 2.9 from 585. Traders Launch had 4.5 from 82 reviews, a much smaller sample than most. Archive history differs too. TradeDay’s first archive capture is 1998-01-20, while Funded Futures Family’s is 2024-05-09. A first capture tells you when a site address was first archived, not necessarily when the firm began.
These checks have limits. We did not open accounts, make deposits, place trades or test payouts at any of these firms, so nothing here confirms the spreads, rules or payout experience a trader would actually get.
Spread, commission and total cost
You pay the spread once per round trip: you enter at the ask and exit at the bid, or the reverse for a short. Many accounts also charge commission, quoted either per side (charged on entry and again on exit) or per round turn (the full in-and-out cost). For example, $3.50 per side is $7 per round turn. Mixing the two up halves or doubles your cost estimate.
The cost of one trade is:
Total cost = (spread in pips × pip value × lots) + round-turn commission per lot × lots
Raw spread vs zero-spread accounts
- Raw spread (ECN-style) accounts pass through the underlying market spread with little or no markup and charge a commission per lot. Spreads move with liquidity, so they are tight in active sessions and wider in thin ones.
- Zero-spread accounts quote 0.0 pips on some symbols, at least at some times, and recover the cost through a commission or a separate fee. A zero spread on screen does not mean a zero-cost trade.
- Standard accounts usually charge no commission and build the cost into a wider spread.
Worked example: EUR/USD (hypothetical figures)
Assume one standard lot of EUR/USD, where one pip is worth $10. The account terms below are invented to show the mechanics:
| Account (hypothetical) | Spread | Commission (round turn) | Cost per 1-lot round trip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 1.0 pip | None | 1.0 × $10 = $10 |
| Raw spread | 0.2 pip | $7 | $2 + $7 = $9 |
| Zero spread | 0.0 pip | $9 | $0 + $9 = $9 |
The zero-spread account ties with the raw account and is only $1 cheaper than the standard one, despite the headline. Change the commission to $10 and it becomes the most expensive. Run this calculation with the real terms from each firm’s symbol specification.
Gold, silver, indices and crypto
Spreads on non-currency symbols are quoted differently, which makes gold and index comparisons easy to get wrong.
Gold (XAU/USD) is usually quoted in dollars per ounce, so a spread of “0.20” means $0.20 per ounce, not 0.20 pips. On many platforms one lot of gold is 100 ounces. On that contract size, a $0.20 spread costs $20 per lot round trip before commission. Some servers use a different contract size, so read the symbol’s contract specification before comparing two firms’ gold spreads. A firm with a tighter quoted gold spread but a higher gold commission can end up more expensive.
Silver (XAG/USD) has its own contract size, often much larger in ounces than gold, so a spread that looks tiny in cents per ounce can be a meaningful dollar cost per lot. The same rule applies: convert the quote to dollars per lot.
Indices such as US30 are quoted in index points. The dollar value of a point depends on the CFD contract size the firm uses, which can be $1, $10 or another amount per point. Two firms both showing a 2-point US30 spread can charge very different dollar amounts.
Crypto (BTC/USD) spreads are quoted in dollars of price and can be large in absolute terms because the price is large. Compare them as a percentage of price, or in dollars per unit traded, rather than by the raw number.
When spreads widen, and why it matters for drawdown
Quoted spreads are not fixed on raw or variable accounts. They tend to widen in three situations:
- Around high-impact news, when liquidity providers pull quotes.
- At the daily rollover, around 5 p.m. New York time, when many liquidity sources reset and spreads on currency pairs and gold can widen sharply for a few minutes.
- At the weekly open and in thin sessions, especially on crosses and exotic pairs.
On a prop account, a wide spread is a risk-rule issue as well as a cost issue. When you open a trade, your floating P&L starts negative by the spread. A position opened into a wide spread therefore begins closer to the daily loss limit. If the firm measures that limit on equity rather than closed balance, a spread spike on open positions can count against you even if price itself barely moved.
The daily limits differ between the forex accounts:
- FTMO Challenge: 2-Step: 5% daily loss, 10% max loss.
- The5ers Summer 10/5: 3% daily loss, 10% max loss (end of day).
- Alpha Capital Group Alpha Pro: 4% daily loss, 8% max loss (static).
- FundingPips 2 Step Standard: daily loss given as both 3% and 5%, max loss 10% (static).
A tighter daily limit leaves less room for spread costs and spread spikes. On a $100K account, a 3% limit is $3,000 and a 5% limit is $5,000. Repeated entries during wide-spread periods use up that room faster on the smaller limit.
Two terms need confirming before you buy: whether the firm measures the daily limit on equity or on closed balance, and which daily figure, 3% or 5%, applies to your FundingPips configuration.
Rules also shape when you can trade. FTMO, FundingPips and Alpha Capital Group’s Alpha Pro restrict news trading. FTMO and FundingPips restrict weekend holding, and Alpha Pro does not allow it. The5ers Summer 10/5 permits weekend holding. Holding over the weekend exposes you to the Monday open, when spreads are often at their widest and price can gap past stops.
Slippage
Slippage is the gap between the price you request and the price you get. It is separate from the spread: a tight spread with poor fills can cost more than a slightly wider spread with clean execution.
Slippage differs between firms because execution setups differ. Many evaluation accounts run on simulated or demo environments that model fills from a price feed. Each firm’s feed, server location and execution model are its own, so the same market order can fill differently at two firms. Market orders during news and stop orders in fast markets are where slippage shows up most. Limit orders avoid negative slippage on entry but may not fill at all.
For a fair comparison, look at your own fill reports: the requested price versus the executed price on several trades in the same session.
How to compare spreads before buying a challenge
- List your symbols and sessions. A London-session EUR/USD scalper and a New York gold trader need different comparisons.
- Read the symbol specification on the firm’s platform: contract size, pip or point value, commission (per side or round turn) and swap. MT5 and cTrader both display this per symbol.
- Check the same account type you will buy. Spreads can differ between account types and between platforms or servers within one firm. Some firms offer a free trial or demo on the same server.
- Sample spreads at the times you trade, plus at rollover and around a scheduled news release, to see the range rather than the best quote.
- Convert everything to dollars per lot round trip using the formula above.
- Match cost to rules and fees. Factor in the daily loss limit, news and weekend rules, and the challenge fee against how often you trade.