Prop Firm With No Monthly Fee: 3 One-Time Accounts

What counts as a monthly fee

A monthly fee, as this article uses the phrase, is a subscription on the account itself: a charge that repeats every billing cycle for as long as the account stays open. Some market data is billed apart from the account, and the data fee in the list below covers it. Four different charges can sit around a prop firm account, and they behave differently:

• Subscription: a payment that renews on a schedule until you cancel it.
• Activation fee: a separate charge that some accounts add on top of the price.
• Reset fee: the charge for restarting a challenge.
• Data fee: a charge for market data, separate from the account price.

Of the four accounts in the table below, Phoenix Trader Funding uses a subscription on one, an activation fee on one and reset fees on three.

On the dxFeed data feed, Level 1 data (the best bid, best ask and last price) is included. Level 2 DOM (the depth-of-market ladder of resting orders) is optional at $15 a month per exchange or $40 a month for a four-exchange bundle, and a Live account carries the CME Professional data fee.

How each Phoenix account bills

The Billing column answers the question in the title, and the Activation fee column shows which account adds a charge on top of its checkout price.

Classic Starter, Growth and Scale start at $89, $128 and $269 and renew every 30 days. Daily Seed, Starter and Growth cost $99, $199 and $329, paid once. Spark Seed and Starter cost $44 and $74, paid once, and Merit costs $69, paid once.

Classic bills every 30 days

A Classic challenge is a subscription. It renews every 30 days, you can cancel anytime, and the challenge has no time limit, so you decide how many renewals you pay for.

Two rules apply at each renewal:

• A challenge that has failed gets its reset free.
• A challenge that has not failed earns 1 reset coupon, a free reset you can bank, and coupons stack.

Because a Classic challenge has no time limit, a longer attempt means more renewals, and every renewal of a challenge that has not failed adds to your banked resets.

Daily, Spark and Merit are paid once

Bought today, each of the three is charged once at checkout and does not renew. None of them carries a subscription.

Daily has no activation fee, so nothing is added at checkout and nothing more is due when you pass.

Spark is not billed monthly either. Its price is paid once, and a separate one-time activation fee of $29 falls due when you pass, so the checkout price is not the whole cost.

Merit is paid once for a $2,000 account, with no profit goal, no activation fee and no subscription. It is a 30 calendar day assessment: a human decides live funding, and funding is never guaranteed. Merit runs on TFeed only.

Paid once covers the account price. A reset is its own charge, a Live account carries the CME Professional data fee, and a TFeed account needs a separate leader account with market data, so none of the three is part of the checkout price.

What a reset costs

A reset restarts a challenge for a fee. Daily resets cost $59 on Seed, $114 on Starter and $189 on Growth. Spark resets cost $29 on Seed and $59 on Starter, and on both accounts a reset costs less than buying again.

A Classic reset is listed at $89 on Starter, $128 on Growth and $269 on Scale, and a banked coupon makes one free. Merit allows no reset, because it is one attempt for the life of the account.

What a funded account costs

Phoenix lists no subscription on a funded account. Pre-Funded is the simulated funded stage, and Live is the stage after it, which Merit reaches directly.

A Live account carries the CME Professional data fee, which is $135 monthly per exchange and is deducted from the account.

The risk lines beside each price

A price is half of a comparison, so this table sets the drawdown and the data feed beside it. A trailing drawdown is a loss floor that rises when your highest balance rises, and it stops rising at your starting balance.

An end-of-day drawdown updates when the trading day closes, and a real-time drawdown updates as your balance changes.

For drawdown, Classic and Daily use an end-of-day trailing drawdown in the evaluation and when funded, and Spark moves to real time once funded. Classic, Daily and Spark evaluations carry no daily drawdown. Merit has a static $2,000 total loss limit and a 25% dynamic daily drawdown.

Paid once or monthly: which suits your attempt

• Classic, for a trader who expects a long attempt: the challenge has no time limit and renews every 30 days, you can cancel anytime, and each renewal of a challenge that has not failed banks a free reset coupon. It carries no daily drawdown and no activation fee.
• Daily, for a trader who wants one payment and nothing more due on passing: $99 on Seed, $199 on Starter or $329 on Growth, paid once, with no activation fee.
• Spark, for a trader whose first concern is a low checkout price: $44 on Seed or $74 on Starter, paid once, plus a separate one-time $29 activation fee that falls due when you pass.
• Merit, for a trader who wants one attempt with no profit goal: $69 paid once for a 30 calendar day assessment with no reset at any price, where a human decides live funding and funding is never guaranteed.

How to read a price before you pay

1. Find the billing lineIt says whether the account is paid once or renews every 30 days.
2. Find the activation feeOf the accounts on sale, only Spark has one, and it is separate from the checkout price.
3. Find the reset feeIt is what a restart costs, and Merit allows none.
4. Read the risk linesThe drawdown type and the daily drawdown show how much room an attempt has.

This article describes account billing and rules. It is education, not financial or trading advice, and trading futures carries a risk of loss.

FAQ