Futures prop firm comparison
Elite Trader Funding vs Apex Trader Funding comes down to billing model and payout gates. Apex sells one-time evaluations with no rebilling — EOD Trail listed at $450 to $1,890 and Intraday Trail at $167 to $599 for 25K–150K — and its own public SAVENOW promotion took 90% off those list prices when we read the configurator on September 21, 2026. Elite Trader Funding bills its 1 Step monthly ($207/$257/$347 for 50K/100K/150K), keeps billing after you pass until you activate the funded account, and then charges activation. FundingCodes earns from Elite Trader Funding only; Apex is covered editorially.
Edited by Brandon King
Public ratings are third-party signals, not FundingCodes scores. Trustpilot says it uses integrity controls but does not fact-check individual reviews. Scores and counts change.
Conditional fit
Apex Trader Funding vs Elite Trader Funding is a choice between a one-time fee and a monthly evaluation plus activation, and between two very different payout gates. FundingCodes earns a referral commission from Elite Trader Funding only; we hold no affiliate link, referral code, or issued coupon for Apex, so nothing on this page earns from Apex.
Side-by-side
Firm terms change. The provider’s checkout, agreement, and help center control.
Six evaluations: 1 Step, End of Day, Static, Diamond Hands, Fast Track and Direct to Funded
Two new drawdown paths — EOD Trail and Intraday Trail — in four sizes, plus legacy accounts sold again during the current promotion
Live trailing on 1 Step, end-of-day trailing on End of Day and Diamond Hands, a fixed floor on Static, and no evaluation on Direct to Funded
EOD Trail moves the threshold only at the session close; Intraday Trail trails through the session; the model is fixed at purchase
None on 1 Step, Static, Fast Track and Direct to Funded; End of Day and Diamond Hands use a hard-breach daily limit
EOD Trail publishes one — $500 on 25K rising to $2,000 on 150K; Intraday Trail publishes none
Targets of $3,000–$15,000 by plan and size, with 5 minimum trading days, 3 on Fast Track and 1 with the One Day to Pass add-on
Targets of $1,500–$9,000 by size with an advertised one-day qualifying minimum
1 Step lists at $207/$257/$347 per month for 50K/100K/150K, auto-renewing every 30 days, with a $47 reset and activation charged after you pass
EOD Trail lists at $450/$550/$990/$1,890 and Intraday Trail at $167/$249/$399/$599 for 25K–150K, one-time with no rebilling
Cycles of 8 active trade days then 10, $100–$3,000 per cycle by size, a $25,000 per-trader cap before LIVE ELITE, and a 48-hour reward guarantee
Up to weekly after 5 qualifying trading days that each meet a minimum daily profit, a $500 minimum per request, a maximum of 6 payouts per account, 100% split, 50% consistency and a safety-net balance
Sim-funded accounts, then LIVE ELITE on real capital at an 80/20 split with daily business-day payouts
Sim-funded Performance Accounts; Apex’s own risk disclosure states all activity occurs in a simulated environment with virtual funds
TradingView, NinjaTrader, Rithmic, Tradovate, Tickblaze, Quantower, Sierra Chart and more
Multiple platforms selected at checkout; legacy accounts are sold across three platforms
Referral access; see dated pricing caveats below
Editorial coverage only; no affiliate link
Rules
Elite Trader Funding packages its risk rules into six separate evaluations. 1 Step trails your highest unrealised profit, so a live open winner can move the floor. End of Day and Diamond Hands trail only at the close and add a hard-breach daily loss limit. Static fixes the floor on day one with no daily limit and no consistency rule. Diamond Hands is the only one that allows overnight and weekend holds, Fast Track is a 10K account with either an end-of-day or static 500-dollar floor, and Direct to Funded skips the evaluation phase entirely.
Apex rebuilt its lineup around two evaluation paths. EOD Trail moves the drawdown threshold only when the session closes and carries a published daily loss limit; Intraday Trail trails during the session and publishes no daily limit. Both are fixed at purchase, the configurator prints the profit target, maximum drawdown, daily loss limit, contract limit and reset policy before checkout, the advertised minimum to pass is a single qualifying day, and a one-time fee buys a 30-day evaluation with no resets. Legacy accounts sold before March 1, 2026 are no longer available for new purchases but remain on their original rule set and recurring billing.
Both firms sell simulated evaluations whose balances are not deposited cash, and both can be failed on rule mechanics rather than market direction. Neither firm guarantees qualification, funding, or a payout. We have no affiliate relationship with Apex, so its column here is editorial coverage only and is not paid for.
Apex prices each path and size separately, and every Apex evaluation is a one-time fee with no recurring billing: EOD Trail lists at $450 for 25K, $550 for 50K, $990 for 100K and $1,890 for 150K, while Intraday Trail lists at $167, $249, $399 and $599 for the same sizes. Apex also sells five-packs — the 25K Intraday five-pack listed at $749.50 — and states that evaluations expire after 30 days with no resets.
Apex is running its own sitewide promotion that we read on its homepage and configurator on September 21, 2026: “ANY SIZE EVALS UP TO 90% OFF”, with the public code SAVENOW and a countdown timer. With that code applied, the EOD Trail evaluation dropped from $450.00 to $45.00 at 25K, $550.00 to $55.00 at 50K, $990.00 to $99.00 at 100K, and $1,890.00 to $189.00 at 150K, while Intraday Trail dropped to $16.70, $24.90, $39.90 and $59.90. That promotion is Apex’s own, available to anyone, and can end without notice — we did not time the countdown, so read the live total before you pay.
Elite Trader Funding bills differently: the 1 Step evaluation renews every 30 days until you pass, and passing does not switch the cost off by itself. Since the October 1, 2024 billing policy, subscription charges continue after a passed evaluation until the Elite Sim-Funded account is activated, and activation is a separate $87 monthly fee or a one-time $177–$277 depending on plan and size — $47 a month if you add the 3D add-on at checkout. A reset costs $47. Neither firm has a FundingCodes discount code: Apex has never had one because we are not an affiliate, and Elite Trader Funding has issued us no buyer-side code.
Elite Trader Funding pays simulated profits in reward cycles that need 8 active trade days for the first cycle and 10 afterwards, with $100–$3,000 available per cycle depending on size, a $100 minimum on most plans and a $250 minimum on 1 Step accounts bought from July 6, 2026. A day only counts toward a cycle when it produces at least $200 of realised profit and at least 23% of your single best day, with a $100 floor on some smaller accounts. Total simulated payouts are capped at $25,000 per trader, after which ETF states it initiates the LIVE ELITE transition to real capital on an 80/20 split with same-day payouts and a $250 minimum.
Apex gates payouts on days rather than cycles. An EOD Performance Account needs 5 qualifying trading days that each meet a minimum daily profit — $100 on 25K, $250 on 50K, $300 on 100K and $350 on 150K — plus a safety-net balance of drawdown plus $100 ($26,100 on 25K through $154,100 on 150K), a minimum balance to request, a $500 minimum payout and a maximum of six payouts per Performance Account. A 50% consistency rule applies: your largest profitable day must stay under half of net profit since the last approved payout, and the calculation resets after each payout rather than breaching the account.
The two firms describe payouts very differently. Apex markets “no payout denials, no payout reviews” on its homepage while the same site’s risk disclosure says reward payouts are discretionary and subject to eligibility, compliance and tax law — so read the policy, not the banner. ETF publishes a 48-hour reward guarantee that pays $1,000 if it misses its own approval deadline, conditional on KYC and Rise verification and on the account being in good standing, and it also applies a Loss Limit Rule that lets it remove an account that gives back more than 35% of accumulated profit after reaching 20% profit, overriding the account’s original drawdown.
Elite Trader Funding documents Tradovate, NinjaTrader, TradingView, Rithmic, R|Trader, ATAS, Bookmap, EdgeProX, eSignal, Finamark, Investor/RT, MotiveWave, Quantower and Sierra Chart, and it warns that a Rithmic data feed carries an extra monthly connection cost for accounts opened from January 28, 2026. Apex offers platform and vendor choices in the same configurator that prices the evaluation, and its legacy accounts were sold across three platforms. Confirm platform, operating-system support, professional data status and automation policy for the exact account before buying either firm.
Use these firm-specific guides for more detail on the rules and published offer terms.
Each of these compares one of the two firms on this page against another firm, using the same rule-level format.
Apex, and not by a small margin, as long as its own promotion is live. On September 21, 2026 the configurator listed a 25K EOD Trail evaluation at $450.00 and the homepage coupon SAVENOW brought it down to $45.00, while Intraday Trail fell from $167.00 to $16.70 — one-time, with no rebilling. Elite Trader Funding’s published 1 Step pricing is $207.00 a month at 50K, $257.00 at 100K and $347.00 at 150K, with a $47 reset and activation charged after you pass. Apex’s coupon is Apex’s own public offer, not a FundingCodes code, and its countdown was running when we read it, so check the live total.
Yes, and that difference matters more than the headline price. Every Apex evaluation is a one-time fee with no recurring billing, and the evaluation expires after 30 days. Elite Trader Funding charges a monthly evaluation subscription that auto-renews every 30 days, keeps billing after you pass until you activate the funded account on accounts qualified since October 1, 2024, and then charges an activation fee of $87 a month or $177–$277 once.
Apex separates drawdown style into two products: EOD Trail moves the threshold only at the close and adds a daily loss limit, while Intraday Trail trails through the session with no published daily limit. Elite Trader Funding spreads the same choice across six products — a live trailing drawdown that follows unrealised profit on 1 Step, end-of-day trailing with a hard daily limit on End of Day and Diamond Hands, and a fixed floor on Static. “Trailing” is not one thing, so compare the exact rule you would be trading, not the label.
They gate payouts differently. Apex needs 5 qualifying trading days that each clear a minimum daily profit, a safety-net balance, a $500 minimum withdrawal, a maximum of six payouts and 50% consistency across the days since your last payout. Elite Trader Funding needs 8 active trade days for the first cycle and 10 after that, where each day must hit both a dollar floor and at least 23% of your best day, with per-cycle caps and a $25,000 per-trader cap before the move to real capital.
No. We are not an affiliate of Apex Trader Funding, so there is no FundingCodes code or referral link for it — the SAVENOW coupon on this page is Apex’s own public promotion and is described as such. Elite Trader Funding is a partner but has issued us no buyer-side code, so we publish none. The checkout total is the only real price.
On Apex’s new evaluations, the published material does not advertise overnight holding as a feature, and its risk disclosure describes a simulated environment subject to program terms — confirm the exact holding rule for the path you buy. At Elite Trader Funding, Diamond Hands is the only evaluation that explicitly allows holding positions across the overnight session and through the weekend; the 1 Step, End of Day, Static and Fast Track routes do not.
No, and the shapes are very different. Apex carries 4.2 from 21,068 Trustpilot reviews with 81% five-star and 9% one-star. Elite Trader Funding carries 3.8 from 1,157 reviews, with 62% five-star against 24% one-star — a much smaller sample with a much larger proportion of one-star reviews. Read the recent reviews for the exact program, not the average.