Methodology
How FundedGuide chooses firms, checks the numbers and calculates its score, so you can judge how far to trust what you read.
Last updated October 7, 2026
Which firms we cover
FundedGuide currently covers three futures prop firms: Apex Trader Funding, Lucid Trading and Tradeify. We add a firm only when we can document its pricing and rules and keep them current. Firms we do not cover have no page on this site.
How pricing and rules are checked
Each firm page is built from one data record: plans, prices, profit targets, drawdown, payout terms and scaling limits. Prices and rules are taken from the firm's own published pages and checked by hand. Every record stores a last-verified date and a source link, and the same record feeds the firm page, the marketplace, the comparisons and the calculators, so a number cannot differ between pages.
Anything we have not checked against the firm's official rules (for example news trading or copy trading policy) is shown as “not yet verified” instead of being guessed.
How fresh the data is
The verified date only changes after someone re-checks the data. It never changes because the site was rebuilt. The label next to the date follows a simple rule:
- Checked recently: verified within the last 45 days
- Needs review: verified 46 to 120 days ago
- Outdated: verified more than 120 days ago
Prices and promotions can change at any time. Always confirm on the firm's site before buying.
The FundedGuide Score
The FundedGuide Score is an internal 0 to 100 number calculated only from the data above. It is not a customer review rating, and FundedGuide does not collect or display user reviews. It exists to help you sort plans, not to tell you which firm to choose.
| Category | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Cost Efficiency | 25% | Buying power per dollar of evaluation price (plus any activation fee) on the $50K plan, scaled so lower cost scores higher. |
| Risk Structure | 20% | Static drawdowns score highest, then end-of-day trailing, then intraday trailing. |
| Scalability | 20% | Concurrent funded accounts allowed, capped at 20 accounts for a full score. |
| Payout Structure | 20% | The best first-tier profit split, plus a bonus for shorter payout cycles. |
| Trading Flexibility | 15% | Higher when there is no evaluation consistency rule and when plans have no daily loss limit. |
The score is a weighted average of the five category scores. Categories we cannot calculate from firm data, such as customer support or operational reliability, are not included.
How comparisons are produced
Head-to-head pages compare the plan closest to a $50K account at each firm, using the same data as the firm pages. Conclusions are conditional: they name which kind of trader each firm fits and never declare a universal winner.
How affiliate relationships work
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on this site. Commissions do not change scores, tables or the order in which firms appear. Affiliate links are marked rel="sponsored". Read the full affiliate disclosure and our editorial policy.