How we score prop firms
Proptary exists to answer one question honestly: does this firm actually pay traders, or does it find reasons not to? Everything else comes second, because a firm that does not pay is not worth trading with no matter how good its terms look on paper.
What the Proptary Grade is
Every firm we cover gets a Proptary Grade from 0 to 100, plus a letter that turns the number into a quick read. The number is the plain average of five pillar scores, so anyone can recalculate it from the figures shown on the firm’s page.
Every pillar starts at 60. Points are added only for evidence we can verify, and removed only for problems we can document. A firm we cannot verify sits in the low sixties, and that is deliberate: an unknown firm is not the same thing as a safe one, and a high grade here is earned, never assumed.
The five pillars
Each pillar is scored 0 to 100 on its own. Every pillar starts at a base of 60, earns points for what the firm can prove, and loses points for problems we can document. Silence earns nothing: a firm that publishes no rulebook, names no owner and shows no payout record stays near the base, because none of those things has been shown to be true.
01
Payout reliability
Weighted equally · counts the same as the other four
This is the pillar that decides whether anything else about the firm is worth caring about. We track real, dated payout records: how much was requested, how much was paid, and how many days it took.
02
Rule clarity
Weighted equally
Prop firm rules are technical and easy to misrepresent. A balance-based drawdown and a trailing drawdown play out very differently for a trader who does not realize the difference until it costs them an account.
03
Customer support
Weighted equally
Support is easy to overlook until an account gets flagged or a payout runs late. At that point it may be the only thing standing between a trader and a lost account. We record the channels a firm offers, its stated availability, and what traders publicly report about getting an answer during a dispute.
04
Track record and transparency
Weighted equally
Prop firms close more often than most trading-adjacent businesses, and time in business without incident is one of the few trust signals here that is genuinely hard to fake. We also look at whether the firm discloses who owns and runs it.
05
Community sentiment
Weighted equally
Beyond our own records, we track what traders are saying across public review platforms and trading communities. That sentiment is weighed alongside our payout and rules data rather than instead of it. A firm with polished marketing and a steady stream of complaints about denied withdrawals scores accordingly, even before that pattern reaches our own records.
How the overall score is set
The overall score is the plain average of the five pillars, rounded to the nearest whole number. Nothing is added, weighted, or adjusted after the fact.
Every pillar counts the same. Payout reliability tends to decide how a firm is judged in practice, and it is the pillar most likely to drag an overall score down. However, it carries no extra weight in the arithmetic.
The letter grade is derived from the overall score using the bands in the table above. It is never set by hand.
You can check our maths
Add the five pillar scores shown on any firm’s page, divide by five, and round. That is the overall score. If it does not match, we have made a mistake, and we would like to hear about it.
How a firm earns and loses points
Every pillar starts at a base of 60. The tables below list everything that adds points, everything that removes them, and by how much. Earned rows require evidence: a firm gets no credit for a claim we cannot check, and each row is granted in full or not at all. Where two deduction rows describe the same problem at different severities, only the heavier row is applied.
One finding overrides the tables entirely. If a firm terminates or seizes multiple funded accounts in a single event, that event is not individual rule enforcement, and the firm has not reinstated or paid the affected traders within 90 days, every pillar is scored zero. The overall score is therefore zero and the grade is F. We apply this only when at least two independent public sources document the event, and we archive each source. Where the facts are still disputed, or the firm has reinstated the accounts, we use the point deductions in the tables instead. No other finding works this way.
Two findings cost points in more than one pillar. A pattern of denied payouts is a payout problem and a track record problem, so it is deducted in both. Reported group account closures that fall short of the conditions above are a payout problem, a rule problem and a track record problem, so they are deducted in all three. This is deliberate. The overall score is an average, so a finding that sits in a single pillar can only move it so far, and these two are serious enough that they should move it further than one pillar allows. No other finding is counted more than once.
Payout reliability
base 60Earned with evidence
Deducted for incidents
Rule clarity
base 60Earned with evidence
Deducted for incidents
Customer support
base 60Earned with evidence
Deducted for incidents
The old “not enough reports” deduction is gone. Thin evidence now simply means the pillar stays near its base of 60, and we no longer score a firm down for something we could not find.
Track record and transparency
base 60Earned with evidence
Deducted for incidents
A new firm is deducted nothing. It simply cannot yet earn the 24-month row, so a fully transparent new firm tops out at 90, and that ceiling lifts by itself with time.
Community sentiment
base 60Earned with evidence
Deducted for incidents
The first three earn rows are tiers. A firm takes the one tier that matches, never more than one.
Where our data comes from
We build each score from a firm’s own rulebook and terms, from payout records, and from what traders report in public. These are checked against each other rather than taken at face value. When a firm’s marketing claims something our data does not back up, we note the gap instead of defaulting to the firm’s version.
The firm’s own documents
Every rule, price, and payout term on a firm’s page is taken from that firm’s own rulebook, terms, or pricing page. Where a marketing page and a terms document disagree, we use the terms document and note the gap.
What traders report publicly
Payout records, support experiences, and community sentiment come from what traders post in public. Where a figure comes from an outside source, the firm’s page names that source and links to it. You can read it yourself instead of taking our summary of it.
We do not run first-party tests on support, and we do not claim to. What a firm’s page reports is what traders report, collected on a stated date. A firm without enough public record to score fairly does not get a placeholder score. It simply does not get covered yet.
What the Proptary Grade does not measure
A score is only useful if you know what it leaves out. This one leaves out a great deal.
Execution quality
Spreads, slippage, and fill quality are not measured and do not affect the score.
Your odds of passing
A high score says nothing about whether you will pass an evaluation. Most traders do not.
Platform reliability
Uptime, outages, and how a platform behaves during volatility are not tracked.
The company’s finances
This is not a measure of the firm’s financial health or solvency. It measures conduct we can document.
What happens next
A score reflects a firm’s record up to the date shown, not a prediction about how it will behave.
Your individual experience
An A firm may still handle one account badly. A score is a pattern, not a guarantee.
When a score changes
We revisit a firm’s score whenever we become aware of a rule change, a payout dispute pattern, or anything else significant enough to move the number. Additionally, we review every covered firm at least once a quarter regardless.
Every firm page shows the date it was last updated, so you can see for yourself how current the data is rather than taking our word for it. If that date looks old to you, treat the score as older than it should be. We would rather you notice than not.
What we will not do
- No firm can pay for a better score
- Nothing a firm does commercially touches its Proptary Grade or its position in any table on this site. Scores and ordering come from the criteria on this page and nothing else.
- We say where a number came from
- A payout, a rule, or a claim goes on this site because we found a source for it, not because a firm asked us to say it. Where a figure comes from what traders report rather than from the firm’s own documents, the page names the source and links to it.
- Every firm is measured the same way
- The same five pillars, the same scale, the same criteria, whether a firm has been around for a decade or launched last month.
- Scores move when the facts move
- If a firm’s rules change or its payout pattern shifts, the score changes with it. We do not let a review sit stale while the firm underneath it changes.
- We would rather cover fewer firms accurately
- A firm without enough verifiable data to score fairly does not get a placeholder score. It just does not get covered yet.
- If a firm will not be measured this way, we do not cover it
- We do not soften the criteria to make room for anyone.
What a score cannot protect you from
Many prop firms are not regulated, and that is normal
Many prop firms operate without a financial services license. They argue that traders use simulated accounts and the firm risks its own capital, so no client money is held and no license is required. That is a normal and legal arrangement in this industry.
However, it also means no regulator supervises the firm, there is no complaints body to escalate to, and there is no compensation scheme if the firm stops paying. A registered company name is not the same thing as a license. It tells you who is behind the brand and that they can be identified. However, it is not supervision.
This is why our Track record pillar cares so much about whether a firm names the company behind it, and why a payout record matters more here than anywhere else. Where there is no regulator, a payment record is the only thing left to check.
The fee is at risk from the moment you pay it
An evaluation fee buys an attempt, not an account. Most traders do not pass. A high Proptary Grade says a firm documents its rules and pays the traders who do pass. However, it says nothing about your odds of being one of them.
Check the firm’s own page before you buy
Rules, pricing, and payout terms change without notice, sometimes days after we check. Our grade reflects the date shown on the firm’s page. Confirm the current terms on the firm’s own site before you pay for anything.
If we have something wrong
Everything on this page is checked against sources we can point to, but we get things wrong, and firms change their terms faster than we can re-check them. If something here does not match what you can verify, tell us.
Email official@proptary.com with a link, a screenshot, or a document. We compare what you send against the firm’s own published materials before we change anything, and we do not change a score without evidence.
When a published score or fact changes, the date on that page changes with it, so you can see that it was revised.
This applies to the firms themselves. If you work for a firm we have graded and believe a finding is wrong or out of date, use the same address. We will look at your evidence the same way we look at anyone else’s.
Disclaimer
This page is for informational purposes only. Nothing here is investment or trading advice, a recommendation to buy any evaluation, or tailored to your circumstances. Proptary is not a regulated financial adviser and does not hold client funds.
Prop firm evaluations carry real risk. Most participants do not pass, and you can lose your evaluation fee and any funded account. Past payout records do not predict future behavior. Rules, pricing, and payout terms change without notice, and a Proptary Grade reflects our check on the date shown, so confirm current terms directly with the firm before buying, and never commit money you cannot afford to lose. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Proptary is not liable for losses arising from reliance on information published here.