Methodology

How we rate prop firms

Every score on this site comes from the same seven criteria, applied the same way, whether a firm pays us or not. This page shows you the whole system so you can check our work and argue with it.

Version 1.0 · Effective 30 August 2026 · Applies to all 30+ firms currently listed

1. What a score means

A PropFirmPrime score is a number out of 10 that summarises how a firm performs against seven weighted criteria. It is an editorial judgement based on documented evidence, not a certification and not a guarantee.

A high score means a firm has clear terms, a credible payout record, fair rules and responsive support at the time we last checked. It does not mean the firm will pay you, will still exist next year, or will not change its rules tomorrow. Prop firms are largely unregulated. Firms with strong reputations have collapsed before.

2. The seven criteria and their weights

Weights reflect what actually decides whether a trader keeps their money. Payout reliability carries the most weight because a firm that does not pay makes every other feature irrelevant.

Reviews carry the smallest weight deliberately. Review volume is easy to manipulate in this industry, in both directions, so we treat trader reports as a signal that triggers investigation rather than as a score on their own.

3. What we look at in each criterion

4. Score bands

Scores are rounded to one decimal place. The bands mean the following.

We keep poorly rated firms on the site on purpose. Removing them would hand the search result to whoever ranks next, which is usually the firm itself or an affiliate promoting it.

5. Red flags that override the score

Some findings are serious enough that a firm's other strengths stop mattering. When one of these is confirmed, we cap the score, add a visible warning to the firm page, or remove the firm from recommendation lists entirely.

• Confirmed non-payment. Multiple credible reports of funded traders not being paid, with no adequate explanation from the firm.
• Retroactive rule changes. Terms altered in a way that affects accounts already purchased.
• Payouts made conditional after the fact. New requirements introduced once a trader requests withdrawal.
• Mass account closures. Breaches applied in bulk without individual explanation, often after a profitable period.
• Undisclosed rules. A trader failed for breaking a rule that was not in the terms at the time of purchase.
• Fabricated social proof. Fake payout screenshots, invented team members, or purchased review campaigns.
• Deceptive marketing. Landing page claims that the terms document contradicts.
• Undisclosed rebrand. Relaunching under a new name after a failure, without disclosing the connection.

Where we apply a red flag, we state what triggered it and roughly when, so you can judge whether it still matters.

6. Where our data comes from

Five sources, in the order we trust them.

• The firm's full terms document. We read the actual agreement, not the landing page or the FAQ. This is where drawdown methods and consistency rules are usually buried.
• Our own accounts. Two of our team have traded since 2019, and we have bought more than five challenges with our own money since 2024. We do not accept free evaluations from firms, because a free account is not the same product a paying trader receives.
• Our support test. Described in section 7.
• Change tracking. We monitor firm terms pages, announcements and social accounts, and log what changed and on what date.
• Trader reviews. Submitted through our own form only. We do not import or purchase reviews.

7. Our support test

Support claims are easy to make and easy to check, so we check them the same way for every firm.

We contact support as an ordinary prospective customer, without identifying ourselves as PropFirmPrime, and ask a specific question about the drawdown calculation or the payout process. We record the time of the first human reply and whether the answer actually addressed the question or returned a template.

We repeat the test when a firm is re-reviewed. A firm that answered in twenty minutes last year and ignores tickets today loses points, and that change is recorded on its page.

8. How reviews are handled

Reviews come only from our own submission form. Every one is read before it is published.

We remove submissions that are abusive or threatening, that allege fraud with nothing at all behind them, that contain someone's personal details, that carry promotional links, that appear coordinated or submitted in bulk, or that appear to come from a firm about itself or a competitor.

We do not edit the substance of a genuine review and we do not remove one because the firm objects. Firms may reply publicly and we will publish the response next to the review.

9. How often we update

• Every firm page carries a last checked date. If the date is old, treat the details as old.
• Full re-review of each listed firm at least every six months.
• Immediate review when a firm changes its terms, changes ownership, alters a profit split or payout schedule, or when complaints about it start clustering.
• Scores can move at any time and can move without a full re-review if something serious emerges.

10. Corrections and disputes

We get things wrong. Terms change, we misread something, a firm updates a page quietly. When that happens we want to know.

Email support@propfirmprime.com with the page URL and, where possible, a link to the firm's official terms. We investigate every report and correct confirmed errors within 48 hours. Corrections are noted on the page rather than made silently.

Any firm may dispute a rating. We will review the evidence, and we will change a score if the evidence supports it. We will not change a score because of commercial pressure, and we will not remove genuine trader reviews on request. Where a firm gives us a written response to criticism, we publish it alongside.

Every rating change is logged with the reason it moved.

11. Independence

We earn commission when a trader buys a challenge through our links. That is a real conflict of interest and no policy erases it, so here is what we do about it.

• The criteria and weights on this page are applied identically to every firm.
• Commission rates are not an input to any score, and the person scoring works from the criteria alone.
• We list firms that pay us nothing, including firms we rate below 5.
• A firm cannot pay to raise a score, remove a review, hide a warning or exclude a competitor.
• If a firm makes favourable coverage a condition of a partnership, we decline and we say so on that firm's page.
• We do not accept free evaluation accounts.

Full commercial detail is in our Affiliate Disclosure. If you want to know whether we earn from a specific firm, ask us and we will tell you.

12. What we cannot verify

The honest limits of this methodology.

• We have not traded with every firm. We have bought accounts at a handful of the firms listed. For the rest, our assessment rests on terms, support tests, tracking and trader reports. Where we have traded with a firm ourselves, we say so on its page.
• We cannot audit a firm's finances. We do not know whether a firm can pay its liabilities. Nobody outside the firm does.
• We cannot confirm most reviewers. See section 8.
• We cannot see private disputes. Many settlements come with confidentiality attached, so some problems never reach us.
• We cannot predict collapse. Firms have failed within weeks of being well regarded across the whole industry. A good score is not protection.
• Our scores are opinions. Considered, documented and consistently applied, but opinions.

Questions about a rating

If you disagree with a score, tell us why. Traders challenging our conclusions is how this gets better. Email support@propfirmprime.com with the firm name and what you think we got wrong.