- Challenge practice has two steps: check your method on past data, then check you can keep the rules under challenge conditions
- For convenience: TradingView Bar Replay (free on daily and higher, minute data from Essential)
- For rule enforcement: FX Replay (Prop Firm Simulator from the $17.99/month Intermediate plan) or Forex Tester Online Pro ($299/year list price, discounted on 26 September 2026)
- Finish with a firm’s free trial (such as FTMO’s Free Trial) to test under current market and firm conditions
We have no partnership with any of the tool companies in this article and earn nothing from links to them (as of 26 September 2026). Prices change, so check each official page before you buy.
Why backtest before a challenge
A prop challenge starts after you pay the fee, and one rule breach ends it. It is worth checking, before spending money, whether your method holds up and whether you can run it inside the daily loss limit.
A winning backtest does not promise a pass. Past charts are easy to read with hindsight, and a live challenge adds spreads, slippage and the stress of possible failure. Treat backtesting as practice, not a forecast. Common failure patterns are covered in why prop traders fail evaluations.
Comparison table (checked 26 September 2026)
| TradingView Bar Replay | FX Replay | Forex Tester Online | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Daily and higher replay on Basic | Free plan (2 sessions, 1 indicator, 50 records per session) | Free demo (no credit card) |
| Paid price | Essential from $14.95/month | Intermediate $17.99/month ($180/year), Pro $35/month ($350/year) | Starter $199/year, Pro $299/year (list prices; discounted when checked) |
| Intraday practice | 1-minute data: Essential last 6 months, Plus 1 year, Premium and up all history | Seconds data on Pro | Up to 23 years of tick data |
| Challenge rule enforcement | None | Prop Firm Simulator (Intermediate, Pro) | Included in Pro |
| Trading during replay | Yes (all plans) | Yes | Yes |
TradingView Bar Replay — start for free
Bar Replay rewinds the chart to a past point and steps it forward bar by bar so you can practise decisions. TradingView’s pricing page (checked 26 September 2026) shows trading in Bar Replay on every plan, including the free Basic plan.
How much data you get depends on the plan:
- Daily and higher: all available data on every plan
- Minute data: not on Basic. The help center says Essential gets the last 6 months of 1-minute data (12 months of 2-minute, 18 months of 3-minute), Plus 1 year of 1-minute data, and Premium and up everything in storage
- Seconds data: Premium and Ultimate
- Tick data: Ultimate, up to 7 days back
Monthly prices are $14.95 (Essential), $34.95 (Plus) and $69.95 (Premium). Whether your prop account works on TradingView, and which plan to choose, is covered in prop firms you can trade on TradingView.
The weakness is that nothing watches your challenge rules. Export your replay results to a spreadsheet and check that each day’s P&L stays inside the limits yourself.
FX Replay — practise with challenge rules set
FX Replay costs $17.99/month or $180/year for Intermediate and $35/month or $350/year for Pro. The free plan has no time limit and needs no card, but allows 2 sessions, 1 indicator, 50 records per session and one week of data retention. Paid plans have a free trial with no card (official pricing page, 26 September 2026).
The Prop Firm Simulator is the part built for challenge prep. According to the official page, you choose “Prop Firm Session” when creating a session and set the profit target, maximum drawdown, daily loss limit, minimum trading days and other conditions to match your firm. Progress against the rules is tracked automatically; if you breach a limit the session locks and shows “Challenge Failed”. To keep it realistic, you cannot rewind in this mode.
The simulator is on Intermediate and Pro, not the free plan. Pro adds seconds data and futures (CME) data.
Forex Tester Online — long tick history and challenge practice
Forex Tester Online costs $199 per year for Starter and $299 per year for Pro at list price; on 26 September 2026 the page showed discounted prices of $159 and $239. Monthly billing is also available, and there is a free demo with no credit card.
The official page describes up to 23 years of tick data per symbol, showing the moves inside each 1-minute bar, with spreads, commissions and swaps simulated. For prop prep, Pro includes “Prop firm challenges” with built-in rules and targets that mirror common evaluations. Pro can also import trading history from MT4, MT5, NinjaTrader or TradingView for analysis.
Which one to pick
- Want to start free: TradingView Bar Replay on daily and higher; fine for swing trading
- Day trading or scalping on minute charts: TradingView Essential or higher, or FX Replay
- Want to test your discipline under challenge rules: FX Replay Intermediate or higher, or Forex Tester Online Pro
- Want to test a method over many years: Forex Tester Online
Rule numbers differ by firm. Before setting up practice, check how limits are measured in daily loss vs max drawdown, and set risk per trade with the drawdown calculator and the position size calculator so practice results carry over to the real thing.
Finish with a firm’s free trial
Backtesting uses past markets. Before you sign up, test on a firm’s free account under current market and trading conditions. FTMO’s tools list includes Account MetriX and the Trading Journal with the Free Trial (checked 26 September 2026). For logging practice, see trading journal apps for prop challenges.
For the full field, see our prop firm ranking, ordered by trust.
FTMO — a free trial close to the real challenge
Running since 2015. You can test the method you built in backtesting on the Free Trial, which is based on the paid challenge with a few conditions such as the profit target relaxed.
The free trial lets you test everything at no cost, and the 2-Step Challenge fee is refunded with your first payout after passing (no refund if you fail). See the FTMO free trial guide.