11 firms, every plan, every rule

Two account types × drawdown flavor: Full (trailing — EOD calmer-but-DLL, or Intraday no-DLL-but-ratchets-on-live-equity) and Static, which is a different product: a fixed floor plus its own lower target — the 100K Static is a $2,000 target / $625 fixed drawdown, not 6%. Every account runs Evaluation → PA → PA Pro. Activation dropped in May 2026 (a $0-activation mode now exists too). 50% consistency on the funded account. Apex 4.0 (Mar 2026) retired 75K/250K/300K and the 5:1 rule. 80–90% promos run almost non-stop — which is exactly what makes the billing dangerous. ⚠️ Evaluations are a monthly subscription and they keep charging. The promo gets you in for $30–70, then the account renews at full price every 30 days whether you trade it or not. Blow it, forget it, walk away for a month — it bills anyway. Cancel the ones you are done with; this is the most common way traders lose money at Apex without placing a trade.

Cleanest reputation, fewest sizes. Express payout needs 5 winning days (or 3 days + 40% consistency on the consistency path). MLL trails at end-of-day but is monitored live — touch it intraday and you're liquidated. Unusual twist: the Responsible Trading Advantage bundle (daily loss limit + double payout caps) makes the account cheaper, not dearer — $10/$20/$30 off the monthly. Accepting a guardrail is the discounted option here.

The plan names hide the one decision that matters. Every eval runs on an EOD trail — but pass on Rapid and your funded account switches to an intraday trail, while Rapid EOD costs exactly the same and keeps the EOD trail. The price of that is two extra days to pass (4 instead of 2). If you don't want your floor ratcheting on unrealized profit, Rapid EOD is the same money for a softer account. Builder is the cheapest way in and passes in a single day, but it's the only plan carrying a 50% consistency rule, and it pays 80/20 every 48h. No daily loss limit and no activation fee on any plan. Rapid EOD and Builder stop at 50K. (Old Starter/Expert/Milestone retired mid-2025.)

No daily limit + no activation fee = clean rules. Pass → real funded PRO account with daily payouts from day 1 and no withdrawal cap. One nuance: during the Test the trailing drawdown is EOD, but once you're in PRO it switches to intraday — unrealized gains push your floor up tick by tick.

Growth vs Select is a straight trade, and it isn't the one the pricing suggests. Growth is cheaper and passes in a single day, but carries a daily loss limit at every size. Select deletes the daily limit entirely — the price is 3 days and 40% consistency. The twist: Growth's total drawdown is the looser one at the big sizes ($3,500 / $5,000 vs Select's $3,000 / $4,500). So Growth gives you more rope overall but caps each day; Select lets any single day run but keeps a tighter floor underneath. Once funded, Select lets you pick your payout mode — daily payouts, or the flexible route with a larger payout every 5 winning days. Lightning skips the eval for 3–4× the price, sits at 20% consistency, and quietly re-introduces a daily loss limit from 50K up (the 25K is the only one without). Activation is free on all three, 90/10 from payout one, up to 5 funded accounts.

The daily loss limit is the part you get to switch off — on Pro, Flex and Daily it's a toggle, not a rule, which is rare in this list. The drawdown itself is EOD everywhere; only LucidDaily also lets you flip it to intraday, and there's no reason to. LucidFlex is the cheapest route at every size ($89 / $146 / $293), not Pro — and it's the softer one too: 50% consistency in the eval, then none at all once funded. LucidPro buys you speed instead (hit the target in one session and you're through, since Feb 2026) for roughly 30% more. LucidDirect skips the eval and runs a two-tier limit: a fixed daily loss below your initial trail, and above it LucidScale — 60% of your peak EOD balance, a floor that only ever rises. Its 100K also carries a looser $3,500 max loss. Activation is free on everything, split 90/10, payouts on demand in ~15 minutes. LucidMaxx is invite-only and isn't shown publicly.

Premier is the only plan in this whole document with no consistency rule at either stage — none in the eval, none once funded — and it pays out every 5 days at 50% of profit. That is the reason to be here. Prime pays faster (every 3 days) but attaches 40% consistency to the funded account. Velocity inverts it: 40% in the eval, nothing afterwards, daily payouts, the cheapest entry — but the biggest target and the tightest drawdown, so you pay for the speed up front. No daily loss limit anywhere, 90/10 throughout, up to 5 funded accounts, funded reset $649. Payout caps: $2,000 per payout ($1,000 on Velocity), minimum $500 ($100 on Velocity). One caution — FFF's own site contradicts itself on Velocity: the plan card calls the drawdown "Intraday Trailing", the full rules table calls it "End-of-Day (EOD) Drawdown". Those are very different accounts. Ask support before you buy that one.

Apprentice looks like the cheap way in and mostly isn't. It bills monthly, adds an activation fee on top ($59–89), starts at 50K, and — the part nobody mentions — hands you half the contracts Elite gives you at the same account size: the 100K Apprentice trades 4 minis where the 100K Elite trades 8. What you buy for that is the absence of a consistency rule and a one-day pass. Elite is a single payment with no activation, double the size, and the standard 40% consistency. Unless the consistency rule is specifically what breaks you, Elite is the better structure. EOD trail and no daily loss limit on both, 90/10, payouts twice monthly. Funded up to $1.5M. Reviewers flag: read the funded-account rules carefully.

The consistency rule moves between stages, and that is the whole decision. Signature has none in the challenge — pass in a day, nothing to satisfy — but then carries 35% once funded, plus a daily pause that stops you out for the day. Zero inverts it: 40% consistency to get through the eval, then nothing at all in the funded stage, no daily pause, and payouts from day zero. Softer entry versus softer payout — pick the one that matches where you actually struggle. ⚠️ Zero MAX and Zero Starter publish identical rules — same targets, same drawdown, same 40%, same day-zero payout — yet MAX costs roughly double. The configurator shows no rule that differs; only the advertised "average first payout" does (2× higher). Whatever you are buying for that premium is not disclosed on the page, so ask before you pay it. E8 also runs a separate CFD track (E8 One, $5K–500K, configurable 4–14% drawdown with a 1.5× target) under "Classic Markets" — not re-verified in this pass.

Static (absolute) drawdown is the softest structure here — it doesn't trail your profits. Fee is fully refunded with your first payout. Split starts 80%, scales to 90%. The name everyone benchmarks against.

2-Step is the cheapest path in the whole list ($17 for a $5K; $5K from ~$36). Instant carries a 15% consistency rule and pays bi-weekly. Up to 100% split, paid via Rise / crypto (USDC/ETH/BTC) / Skrill; first payout ~14 days after funding.