Explained
Activation fees, the most opaque line item
They fall due after you pass the evaluation — which is to say at the moment you are least willing to walk away. Here is how they work and why they reorder the rankings.
What it is
Passing an evaluation does not give you the funded account: you have to activate it first. Depending on the firm, that activation is free, billed once, or billed every month for as long as the account lives. The headline price on the pricing page never accounts for it.
The three models
| Model | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Free | The evaluation price is the total price. Rare, and usually offset by a dearer evaluation. |
| One-off | A single payment when you move to funded. Predictable: add it to the evaluation price and you are done. |
| Monthly | The most expensive line over time: it runs for as long as you keep the account, including the months you take no payout. |
When the amount is not published
Some firms mention an activation fee without ever showing the amount on the product page. You find out the price after paying for the evaluation and passing it — the worst possible moment to compare.
This site does not quietly drop those cases: the line stays visible marked "not published", and the calculator's total becomes a minimum ("≥"). That is the only honest treatment, because removing the line would make the firm look artificially cheaper than it is.
The "no activation fee" alternative
Several firms offer, alongside their standard plan, a variant that costs more up front but has no activation to pay afterwards. The arithmetic is not obvious: the all-inclusive variant pays off if you expect to hold the funded account for a while, and loses if you fail the evaluation or cash out fast.
That is exactly the trade-off the all-in cost calculator makes visible: change the number of funded months and watch the ranking invert.
What to check before you buy
- Is activation one-off or monthly? Over a year the difference runs into hundreds of dollars.
- Is the amount published before you buy the evaluation?
- Is it due once per account, or once per tier as you scale?
- Is it refunded, deducted from your first payout, or kept by the firm outright?
The comparison table filters directly on this with the Activation filter — including to isolate the offers whose amount is not published.
The thirteen firms, item by item
The 13 firms tracked here, read one by one on their own sites. Every row carries the date it was read; the most recent reading on this page is from August 18, 2026.
| Firm | What the firm charges | Read on | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha Futures | states the item is free on 13 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at Alpha Futures |
| Apex Trader Funding | states the item is free on 4 plans; does not publish the amount on 8 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at Apex Trader Funding |
| Bulenox | charges $148 (one-off) on 2 plans; states the item is free on 16 plans; does not publish the amount on 6 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at Bulenox |
| Funded Futures Network | charges $120 (one-off) on 1 plan — 9 of 10 plans carry no line in our record | August 16, 2026 | The detail at Funded Futures Network |
| FundedNext Futures | states the item is free on 9 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at FundedNext Futures |
| Lucid Trading | states the item is free on 20 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at Lucid Trading |
| My Funded Futures | states the item is free on 10 plans | August 16, 2026 | The detail at My Funded Futures |
| Phidias Propfirm | charges $149 (one-off) on 1 plan; states the item is free on 6 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at Phidias Propfirm |
| Take Profit Trader | charges $130 (one-off) on 5 plans | August 16, 2026 | The detail at Take Profit Trader |
| Topstep | charges $149 (one-off) on 3 plans; states the item is free on 6 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at Topstep |
| TradeDay | states the item is free on 9 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at TradeDay |
| Tradeify | states the item is free on 12 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at Tradeify |
| YRM Prop | states the item is free on 4 plans | August 18, 2026 | The detail at YRM Prop |
There are no blank cells here. When a firm does not publish an amount the row says so; when it is we who have not read it, the row says that too — and they are not the same thing.
The other items: Which prop firms charge for a reset, and how much · Data feeds and monthly fees, firm by firm · What each prop firm charges to start, tier by tier
Other ways to sort the 144 plans: Plans with no activation fee · One-off evaluations · Plans with end-of-day drawdown · Plans with no daily loss limit · The cheapest 50K, among complete totals · The cheapest 100K, among complete totals