This is a findings report, not a ranking. Over July and early August 2026 we read all 31 prop firms we track directly at source — every Trustpilot profile, every pricing page, every terms document — and recorded where the published information and the verifiable reality diverge.
Every claim below carries its source and the date it was checked. If you repeat the checks and get a different answer, the terms changed, and that is itself worth knowing.
Method
The sample is the 31 firms in our comparison table.
- Trustpilot: each firm’s profile opened directly, with the rating and review count read out of the structured data the page embeds. Performed 31 July 2026. No search snippets, no aggregator numbers, no firm-supplied figures.
- Pricing and rules: read from each firm’s own plan pages, help centres, and terms of service. Where a figure came from a third-party review instead, the comparison table marks it.
- Corporate identity: the contracting entity named in each firm’s terms, checked against public company registries.
- Re-verification: on 5 August 2026 we re-fetched everything verifiable statically — HTTP status codes, live page wording, registry records. Findings re-confirmed that day are marked.
Anything we could not confirm at a primary source is not filled in with an estimate. It is listed under “What we could not verify” at the end.
Finding 1 — Trustpilot has withdrawn the rating of 8 of the 31 firms
Trustpilot suppresses a company’s score when it determines its guidelines were breached. The profile carries a notice that the rating is unavailable, usually alongside a second notice that a number of fake reviews were removed.
Opening all 31 profiles one at a time, eight were in that state on 31 July 2026.
| Firm | Reviews | 1-star share | Profile read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maven Trading | 5,153 | 8% | 2026-07-31 |
| Instant Funding | 4,410 | 27% | 2026-07-31 |
| Goat Funded Trader | 4,202 | 36% | 2026-07-31 |
| E8 Markets | 3,290 | 9% | 2026-07-31 |
| Funded Trading Plus | 2,656 | 3% | 2026-07-31 |
| FunderPro | 1,592 | 32% | 2026-07-31 |
| ThinkCapital | 612 | 16% | 2026-07-31 |
| Audacity Capital | 248 | 24% | 2026-07-31 |
Those eight profiles sit on 22,163 reviews between them. The review count and the star distribution stay visible; only the headline score disappears.
The profiles do retain an internal figure, and we have recorded it in the notes field of our dataset. But it is a number Trustpilot has withdrawn, so it cannot be used as a rating. We hold it strictly as evidence that suppression occurred, we show a dash in the comparison table, and we do not print those figures here.
One caution matters. The notice does not prove the firm bought the reviews. Trustpilot publishes that a breach occurred; it does not publish who submitted the reviews, and competitors can be the source. The usable conclusion is narrower: while the notice is up, that firm’s score is not available as a third-party signal, and any site still quoting one is quoting something Trustpilot has retracted.
The full breakdown across the 31:
| State | Firms |
|---|---|
| Score displayed | 21 |
| Rating withdrawn for a guidelines breach | 8 |
| Profile frozen because the business closed (BluFX) | 1 |
| No Trustpilot profile exists (Fundora) | 1 |
BluFX also shows no score, but for a different reason: the profile says reviews can no longer be left because the company’s website has closed. There is no breach notice. Same blank space, different meaning — worth distinguishing.
Finding 2 — Scores drift down, and review counts can fall
Comparing our previous snapshot (22 June 2026) against the 31 July reading, restricted to firms where both readings came from us opening the profile rather than from a third party:
| Firm | Previous | 2026-07-31 | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topstep | 3.4 | 3.6 | Up |
| Apex Trader Funding | 4.3 | 4.2 | Down |
| City Traders Imperium | 4.3 | 4.2 | Down |
| Earn2Trade | 4.7 | 4.6 | Down |
| Hola Prime | 4.6 | 4.5 | Down |
| Take Profit Trader | 4.4 | 4.3 | Down |
| MyForexFunds | 4.9 | 4.8 | Down |
Seven firms moved. One moved up. FTMO, The5%ers, Fintokei, MyFundedFutures, FundingPips, FundedNext, TradeDay, Tradeify, Trade The Pool, and Alpha Capital Group held steady.
A less familiar behaviour: review counts do not only rise. When Trustpilot removes fake reviews, the count drops.
| Firm | Previous count | 2026-07-31 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| MyForexFunds | 16,530 | 16,440 | −90 |
| City Traders Imperium | 1,697 | 1,632 | −65 |
| Funded Trading Plus | 2,662 | 2,656 | −6 |
| BluFX | 986 | 981 | −5 |
BluFX stopped trading in 2023 and its profile holds no review newer than August 2023. Its count is still shrinking. Even a frozen profile is not a fixed number.
The practical consequence: any Trustpilot figure you see elsewhere is unusable unless you know the date it was read. That applies to ours. The figures in this article are from 31 July 2026.
Finding 3 — Closed firms keep their high scores
Two of the 31 no longer operate. Both still display strong ratings.
| Firm | Trustpilot | Actual status |
|---|---|---|
| MyForexFunds | 4.8 / 16,440 | Shut down August 2023 following OSC and CFTC action; the site is now a refund-information page |
| Smart Prop Trader | 4.3 / 2,508 | Announced closure December 2024; the domain now redirects to fxnity.com (re-checked 2026-08-05) |
We re-tested the Smart Prop Trader redirect on 5 August 2026: smartproptrader.com resolves to fxnity.com, which is a separate forex broker, not a prop firm.
FTMO’s 4.8 across 47,387 reviews and MyForexFunds’ 4.8 across 16,440 are the same number describing entirely different situations. A Trustpilot score is an average of past customer experience. It is not a statement that the firm is currently paying, or currently trading. Read without that distinction, a defunct firm looks excellent.
Closures and wind-downs are logged with sources in the shutdown tracker.
Finding 4 — Firms whose own documents contradict each other
Third-party sources disagreeing is ordinary. What we found repeatedly was a firm’s own pages disagreeing with each other. All three cases below were re-confirmed on 5 August 2026.
The5%ers — two different maximum funding figures
- Homepage: “Get qualified by a private equity fund and manage up to $4,000,000!”
- High Stakes program page: the scaling ladder tops out at $500,000 (100%/0% plus a $10,000 fixed monthly payout)
An eightfold gap, both live on 5 August 2026. The reconciliation is probably that $4,000,000 is a theoretical ceiling across all programs including Hyper Growth, while $500,000 is the High Stakes ceiling — but the homepage draws no such distinction.
Two related checks:
- help.the5ers.com returns HTTP 404 (checked 2026-08-05). The entire help centre is gone, including the page we previously cited for CFD payout processing times.
- the5ers.com/instant-funding/ returns HTTP 404 (checked 2026-08-05), while the live High Stakes rules still reference holding concurrent Instant Funding accounts. The product page was withdrawn; the rulebook reference to it was not.
The5%ers is one of our affiliate partners. We are recording all three points anyway. Details are carried on the The5%ers review.
Fintokei — a retired program still advertised on every plan table
Fintokei’s ProTrader plan page carries this footnote under all seven plan tables (checked 2026-08-05):
初期費用の返還 ※スケーリング道場の適用により (“Return of the initial fee — via application of the Scaling Dojo”)
Fintokei’s own scaling FAQ says (checked 2026-08-05):
As of January 21st, 2026, the standard scaling program described below has been fully retired and replaced by the Capital Scaling Boost within the Fintokei Loyalty Program!
And Fintokei’s Loyalty Program blog says the contract-fee return — the plan price handed back with the first reward — was extended only “until 30 June 2026”, a date that has now passed.
Three official documents, three different states of the world. Our policy is not to present the fee return as a live benefit. Check what actually applies on the order screen before paying. Fintokei is also an affiliate partner; plan-level terms are set out in Fintokei plans compared.
TradeDay — unedited template text in the affiliate portal
TradeDay’s affiliate signup page at tradeday.postaffiliatepro.com still displayed the following on 5 August 2026:
- Under the heading “Commission rates”:
TODO: Describe affiliate program commission structure - Under the heading “Payouts”:
TODO: Define custom conditions.
Immediately after that second placeholder, the affiliate-software demo text is still in place, stating a $100 minimum payout, a two-referral minimum, and that “Accepted are also self-purchases!”. The binding affiliate terms behind the acceptance checkbox say the opposite: five referrals minimum, self-purchases prohibited. Two sets of conditions in the same signup flow.
This does not affect traders directly. It is included because it shows where the commission rates, cookie windows, and minimum payouts quoted across comparison sites sometimes originate: unedited software boilerplate. We applied to this program on 30 July 2026 and are not partnered with TradeDay as of publication.
Finding 5 — A firm widely described as “UK-registered since 2018” has a dissolved UK company
City Traders Imperium is routinely introduced as a long-standing UK-registered firm. Checking the public registry (checked 2026-08-05):
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Company number | 11463147 (UK Companies House) |
| Incorporated | 13 July 2018 |
| Original name | CITY TRADERS IMPERIUM LIMITED (2018-07-13 to 2024-05-21) |
| Renamed | CITY TRADERS IMPERIUM ACADEMY LIMITED (2024-05-21 to 2025-01-22) |
| Renamed | GOLDEN TRADER PROGRAM ACADEMY LIMITED (from 2025-01-22) |
| Status | Dissolved, 2 June 2026 |
The 2018 founding date is accurate. The UK entity, however, was renamed twice and dissolved on 2 June 2026.
The entity that contracts with traders today is not that company. The live terms name “City Traders Imperium Limited, a company incorporated under the laws of Comoros Union with company number 15969 (License No. L15969/CTI)”, operating from Costa Rica, with the academy courses supplied by CTI FZCO in Dubai (DSO-FZCO-21340), checked 2026-08-05.
Same trading name, different country of registration, different legal system. That difference decides which courts and which law apply if a payout is disputed — which is exactly when it matters.
In the interest of consistency: our own City Traders Imperium page still carries its 22 June 2026 wording and lists the firm as UK-based. It has not been updated for this registry change. We will correct it at the next update. Publishing a report on disclosure while quietly sitting on our own stale entry would not be defensible.
Finding 6 — Widely repeated figures that do not match the source
Numbers we repeatedly encountered on comparison sites and in AI answers, against what the source actually says:
| Commonly repeated | What we verified | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| FTMO has 100,000+ Trustpilot reviews | 4.8 / 47,387 | Trustpilot profile read directly, 2026-07-31 |
| The5%ers starts at $95 | $19 (High Stakes New, $2,500 account) | the5ers.com/high-stakes/, 2026-08-05 |
| FTMO challenges start at $89 | Fees are quoted in EUR. FTMO publishes no USD price at all | ftmo.com plan pages, 2026-07-31 |
| City Traders Imperium is UK-registered since 2018 | UK company dissolved 2 June 2026; contracting entity is a Comoros LLC | Companies House / firm’s terms, 2026-08-05 |
| Funded7 has 4.8 across 1,000+ reviews | Trustpilot shows 2.8 / 46 | Trustpilot profile read directly, 2026-07-31 |
| Fundora starts at $89 | $177 to $2,999 after the 5 March 2026 revision | fundora-trading.com official plan list, 2026-07-31 |
The FTMO pricing point needs expanding, because it propagates further than the others. FTMO’s product pages display account sizes in USD, but the fee line is denominated in EUR, and the firm publishes no USD price. Every “$89” and “$540” in circulation is a EUR figure with the currency symbol swapped, so the amount charged moves with the exchange rate. The only reliable figure is the one on the checkout screen.
On Funded7: the firm’s own homepage claims 4.8 across 1,000+ reviews. That is not Trustpilot data and it cites no source. The Trustpilot profile on the same date showed 2.8 across 46 reviews, with 46% one-star. Aggregator sites variously list 3.5, 3.8, and 4.7; none matches. Funded7 is an affiliate partner of ours and carries our Low trust rating.
Finding 7 — Products and programs disappear without notice
Conditions that existed at purchase and later stopped existing:
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-10-15 | MyFundedFutures announces it will phase out every affiliate below 50 lifetime purchases, with accounts closed after 31 October | Finance Magnates |
| 2024-12-19 | Smart Prop Trader announces closure; the domain now redirects to fxnity.com | Finance Magnates; redirect re-checked 2026-08-05 |
| 2026-06-13 | Goat Funded Trader discontinues its 2-Step PRO model | Firm’s help centre, checked 2026-07-31 |
| 2026-07-12 | Alpha Futures closes its Premium Plan and states that pending payouts already earned under it will not be honoured | Finance Magnates |
| around 2026-07-16 | After public backlash, Alpha Futures resumes paying approved claims — a partial reversal | Finance Magnates |
| date unclear | The5%ers’ Instant Funding product page disappears; the rulebook reference remains | 404 confirmed 2026-08-05 |
| date unclear | Topstep has no open affiliate application route | Checked by us 2026-07-30 |
| date unclear | Lucid Trading closes affiliate applications entirely (invitation only) | Checked by us 2026-07-30 |
The Alpha Futures episode is the heaviest item here. Payouts that had been earned and in several documented cases already approved were declared void because a platform partnership collapsed, then partially reinstated under pressure. It establishes that “approved” is not the same as “safe” — the scenario covered in our guide to retroactive rule changes.
Every row above now lives as a standing record in the rule-change tracker, with the terms on both sides of each change, who it applies to, the source and the date we checked it. Later findings are added there rather than left in this article.
Where the numbers were strong
This report concentrates on problems, which is not the same as saying every firm is equally opaque. The strong results, recorded on the same basis:
| Firm | Trustpilot (2026-07-31) | 1-star | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| MyFundedFutures | 4.9 / 20,557 | 2% | No suppression notice |
| FTMO | 4.8 / 47,387 | 3% | No suppression notice; operating continuously since 2015 |
| The5%ers | 4.7 / 33,853 | 3% | No suppression notice |
| Alpha Capital Group | 4.7 / 21,176 | 6% | No suppression notice |
| TradeDay | 4.6 / 1,402 | 6% | No suppression notice |
| FundedNext | 4.5 / 74,640 | 7% | Largest review base in the set |
| FundingPips | 4.5 / 64,099 | 8% | Second largest |
FTMO holding 4.8 across 47,387 reviews is unusual in this industry. A 3% one-star share on a base approaching 50,000 is a hard number to manufacture. The5%ers holds 4.7 across 33,853. Our Low trust rating for The5%ers rests on the firm acknowledging payout delays in March 2026, not on its Trustpilot data — third-party reputation is worth 10 of the 100 points in our weighting.
TradeDay has a small base at 1,402 reviews, but it replied to 93% of negative reviews and filed only 17 review flags with Trustpilot in the preceding twelve months — the least review suppression of the 31 (checked 2026-07-30).
Topstep’s 3.6 is the lowest score in the table above, and it was also the only score in the entire set that rose. A low score is partly evidence that a firm is not suppressing complaints. With 14,514 reviews behind it, that 3.6 is statistically meaningful. A score built on a few dozen reviews is not, in either direction.
Our own financial interests
A report about disclosure has to disclose.
As of 5 August 2026 PROP NAVI holds affiliate relationships with four firms:
| Partner | Our trust rating | How this article treats them |
|---|---|---|
| FTMO | High | Listed among the strong results |
| Fintokei | Medium | Documentation contradiction recorded (Finding 4) |
| The5%ers | Low | Funding-figure contradiction and dead pages recorded (Finding 4) |
| Funded7 | Low | Gap between self-published and measured rating recorded (Finding 6) |
Only one of the four carries our High rating. Three of the four appear in this article as findings. A rating system that responded to commercial relationships would not produce that table.
Trust-label definitions and the full 100-point weighting are published on the methodology page, and the ranking follows that weighting. Affiliate links carry rel=“sponsored” and every page carries a disclosure notice.
What we could not verify
This section is the difference between a research report and marketing.
- The Trustpilot figures are from 31 July 2026. We attempted a re-read on 5 August 2026 and Trustpilot refused automated requests from our environment with HTTP 403, so five days of drift are not captured. Open the profiles yourself before acting on any of it.
- For the eight suppressed firms, the internal figures still on the profiles are numbers Trustpilot has withdrawn. We hold them only as evidence of suppression. They are not printed here and are not usable as ratings.
- Trustpilot does not publish why each of the eight was found in breach, or who submitted the removed reviews. We do not treat the notices as proof of misconduct by the firms.
- FTMO’s price table renders client-side, so our 5 August 2026 static re-fetch could not read any fee string. The EUR-denomination finding rests on the 31 July reading of the product and checkout pages. The flip side of that limitation is the finding itself: the price cannot be read without reaching checkout.
- On Topstep discontinuing its affiliate program, our internal note cited a Finance Magnates article dated 15 October 2024. Checking that citation, the article of that date concerns MyFundedFutures’ affiliate overhaul, not Topstep. We can confirm Topstep has no open application route (checked 30 July 2026); we cannot confirm a formal discontinuation announcement, so this article claims only the former.
- No independent audit exists of any firm’s cumulative payout claims. TradeDay publishes on-chain verification by Payout Junction ($13,178,877 across 11,490 payouts as of 29 July 2026) and Hola Prime publishes a Deloitte review of its withdrawals, but both are firm-commissioned. There is no common industry audit standard.
- The 31 firms are a sample of the major operators reachable from Japan, not a census. Several hundred firms exist and many last under a year.
- Apex Trader Funding and FundingPips block automated access to their sites (403 / 429), so a subset of their rule values comes from third-party reviews. Those fields are attributed in the comparison table.
- Rules vary by program within a firm. One row in the comparison table is the flagship plan, not every plan.
Reproducing this yourself
Every claim above can be re-checked without special tools.
- Open the firm’s Trustpilot page and look for a score. A notice that the rating is unavailable due to a guidelines breach means any score quoted elsewhere for that firm contradicts Trustpilot’s current position.
- Read the review count and star distribution, not just the average. Under 500 reviews, the score carries almost no statistical weight. The one-star share often describes the firm better than the mean.
- Look for the same number in two places on the firm’s own site: homepage against product page, product page against terms, English against local-language pages. Where they disagree, the checkout screen is the one that binds.
- Click the help-centre link. A help centre returning 404 means there is no authoritative public statement of the current rules.
- Read the bottom of the terms of service for the contracting entity and its country of registration. The company named there is your counterparty, not the city in the site’s footer.
- Check the currency symbol. Swapping $ for € is the single most frequent transcription error in this market.
Related data and reading
- Prop firm comparison table — the full 31-firm dataset (JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0)
- Shutdown tracker — closures and wind-downs with sources
- Rule-change tracker — terms that changed after purchase, before → after, with sources
- Ranking — ordered by trust weighting
- How we rate — trust-label definitions and the 100-point weighting
- Reading Trustpilot for prop firms — interpreting scores and counts
- How to spot a failing prop firm — seven warning signs
- Prop firm red flags 2026 — a ten-minute pre-purchase check
Firms discussed: FTMO · The5%ers · Fintokei · Funded7 · City Traders Imperium · TradeDay · Topstep · MyFundedFutures · Goat Funded Trader · FunderPro · E8 Markets · Maven Trading · Instant Funding · ThinkCapital · Audacity Capital · Funded Trading Plus
This page is information, not investment advice. Prop firm evaluations are speculative and the fee may not be recoverable. Terms change without notice, so confirm prices and rules on the firm’s own site and checkout screen before paying. If you find an error, send us the source and we will correct it and note the correction.