Prop Firms With No Activation Fee
Last updated 2026-07-16
You pass the evaluation, you are feeling good, and then the second bill shows up before your funded account does. That bill is the activation fee, and depending on the firm it can be a one-time charge, a monthly drain, or a fee that scales with account size until it costs more than the eval did. Plenty of traders budget for the eval and get blindsided by the activation, which is exactly why the firms that skip it deserve their own list.
This page ranks the firms where that second bill never comes, or where you can choose a path that removes it, so the price you see at checkout is a lot closer to the whole cost of getting funded. The order is computed from our four scores, Trust, Cost, Payout, and Rules, recomputed whenever the data changes, and commission has no say in it.
The list covers both asset classes by design; it is futures-populated today, with forex firms added when our forex coverage ships. This note comes down when they do.Scope as of 2026-07-16
Quick Picks By Use Case
No activation anywhere, strongest rules profileMyFundedFutures
All four plan families skip the fee, so the plan choice is purely about rules.
No activation and no subscription eitherTradeify
One-time pricing across the lineup means the checkout number is the number.
Prepay it and forget itApex
A checkout variant folds activation into the eval price so the funded side costs nothing extra.
No activation with a live pathTradeDay
No activation anywhere on the lineup, and the road ends at a real live brokerage account.
The Ranked List
Read the fine print before you celebrate, because no activation fee comes in three shapes. Some firms simply never charge one, on any plan. Some have specific plans with no activation sitting next to plans that charge it. And a couple sell you a no-activation variant at checkout, which really means you are prepaying the activation inside a higher eval price. Every entry below tells you which shape you are looking at.
- #1
Tradeify
77/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $99 to $796
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing
- Payout cadence: On demand
- 90 percent split
Tradeify cleared out both of the fees this page cares about at once: no activation anywhere, and no subscriptions either since the lineup went one-time. The number on the checkout page is the number, and that simplicity is worth something on its own, because most fee surprises in this industry live in the gap between the advertised price and the recurring reality. Here there is no gap to hide in, which is rarer than it should be.
- #2
Alpha Futures
73/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $79 to $859
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing
- Payout cadence: On demand
- 90 percent split
Alpha used to make activation a plan choice, and as of July 2026 it stopped charging the fee anywhere: every account purchased after the change funds with no second bill waiting behind the pass. The Zero line was built around that promise from day one and still pairs it with the loosest eval in the lineup, so it stays the natural pick here, just weigh each family's funded terms, because that is where this firm prices the difference.
- #3
Topstep
73/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $49 to $229
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing
- Payout cadence: Cycle-based
- 90 percent split
Topstep runs a choose-when-you-pay structure from the subscription side. The standard Combine charges activation when you reach funding, and a no-activation path sells at a higher monthly rate with nothing due later. The math hangs on how long your eval takes, because the pricier subscription compounds every month you are still auditioning. Fast passers should look hard at the no-activation path. Slow builders usually come out behind on it.
- #4
MyFundedFutures
70/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $95 to $477
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing, Intraday trailing
- Payout cadence: Varies by plan
- 80 percent split
MyFundedFutures does not charge activation on any plan family, which makes it one of the few rosters where the eval fee is close to the entire bill. What is left to compare is the funded rulebook, and MFFU hands you four genuinely different ones, so that is where your attention should go. No need to overthink the fee side here. Spend that effort on the rules matrix instead, because the rules are where the four families actually separate.
- #5
TradeDay
70/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $125 to $480
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing, Intraday trailing
- Payout cadence: On demand
- 50 percent split
TradeDay's current lineup, Quick Pay and Fast Pass, carries no activation fee at all, and the road here runs somewhere real: a defined path to a live brokerage account. Add day-one Quick Pay payouts and the fee-quiet lineup stays quiet all the way to your bank, which is the real reason it shortlists so well. If your plan ends with real brokerage capital and you want no fee surprises on the way, this is the shortlist entry.
- #6
Apex Trader Funding
69/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $199 to $2,290
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing, Intraday trailing
- Payout cadence: Weekly
- 100 percent split
Apex charges activation the traditional way on its standard tiers, but every size also sells a no-activation variant, a higher eval price with the activation folded in. So the question at Apex is not whether you pay, it is when. Prepaying makes sense if you expect to pass, because the funded side then costs nothing extra. If you are less sure of the pass, the cheaper standard eval puts less cash at risk on the audition. Run both totals first.
- #7
BluSky Trading
69/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $59 to $749
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing, Static
- Payout cadence: Daily
- 90 percent split
Most of BluSky's catalog carries no activation fee, including the instant lines and the Propel evals. The exceptions are the ones to know: the Launch family and the Stocks Intraday line charge their fee after you pass, right at the moment you activate funding, which is precisely the second-bill ambush this page exists to warn you about. If avoiding that bill is the goal, shop BluSky's other families, and keep in mind they are the larger share of the catalog anyway.
- #8
Funded Futures Family
69/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $79 to $734
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing, Intraday trailing
- Payout cadence: On demand
- 90 percent split
Funded Futures Family charges no activation fee on anything, from the entry tiers to the Straight to Funded track. For a budget-positioned firm that matters more than usual, because the traders shopping the low end are the ones a surprise post-pass fee hurts most. Take the money you are not spending on activation and spend the attention on the family differences instead, since the funded rulebooks here vary a lot from plan to plan.
- #9
Lucid Trading
65/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $100 to $840
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing
- Payout cadence: Cycle-based
- 90 percent split
Lucid charges no activation on any of its three families, and the one-time purchase model means no monthly rebills stacking up behind a slow eval either. On LucidDirect there is not even a reset fee to think about, because there is no eval to fail. The bill you pay at checkout is effectively the whole bill, which makes Lucid unusually easy to cost out. Just weigh that fee simplicity against the shorter operating history before you commit real plans to it.
- #10
Phidias Propfirm
58/ 100TrustCostPayoutRules- Evals from $88 to $1,125
- Drawdown: End-of-day trailing, Static
- Payout cadence: Cycle-based
- 75 percent split
Phidias sells every account on two pay paths, and that split is the whole fee story here. The Evaluation path charges activation at the moment you pass, while the One-Time Payment variant rolls everything into a single upfront price and zeroes activation by construction. The prepaid path costs a good deal more at checkout, so the choice really comes down to your pass odds: pay more up front and owe nothing at funding, or risk less on the audition and take the fee later. Run both totals before you buy, and read the full review, because the fee question is the simplest thing about this firm.
How We Ranked These
This list covers every roster firm with at least one funded path that carries no activation fee, read from the tier data, and each blurb tells you whether that is the whole firm or a specific plan. Within that filter the order is our composite four-score ranking, the same math as every list on the site, recomputed whenever the data changes. No firm paid for a spot and commission plays no part in the order. The full method is on the score calculation page.
What To Look For
Activation is only one line on the fee sheet, so the way to shop this category is to know the whole taxonomy and then check each line. Prop firm costs come in five flavors: the eval fee, which everyone advertises; the activation fee, which this page is about, charged when you convert a passed eval into a funded account; recurring fees, either a subscription that bills until you pass or cancel, or platform and data fees that ride along monthly; reset fees, charged when you fail an eval and want to restart it; and withdrawal costs, the rail fees and minimums that nibble at the payout end. A firm can be generous on one line and make it back on another, which is why a zero in the activation column does not automatically make a firm cheap.
The prepaid variants deserve their own math. When a firm sells a no-activation option at a higher eval or subscription price, you are buying insurance against a fee you only owe if you succeed. Prepaying wins when you pass, because the funded side is then free. It loses when you fail, because you paid extra to remove a fee you never reached. Be honest with yourself about your pass odds before you pick which side of that bet to stand on, and no need to feel bad either way, both choices are rational at different confidence levels.
Subscription models flip the risk in time instead. A cheap monthly entry with no activation reads friendly, but every extra month in the eval is another bill, so slow, careful traders can end up paying more in months than fast traders pay in fees. Make sure you match the fee model to your own pace, not to the pace the marketing assumes.
So the real question is never which fee is zero, it is what the total cost of getting funded looks like for the way you actually trade. Add up the path you realistically expect, eval plus months plus resets plus activation, and compare firms on that number. Each firm's review carries the full fee detail in its cost section when you are ready to go deeper.
FAQ
What is an activation fee at a prop firm?
It is a charge some firms collect after you pass the evaluation, at the moment your funded account is created. It can be a one-time payment, a monthly fee, or a fee that scales with account size, and it is separate from the eval fee you paid at checkout.
Which prop firms have no activation fee?
The ranked list above covers every roster firm with a no-activation path, in three shapes: firms that never charge one on any plan, firms with specific zero-activation plans, and firms selling a prepaid no-activation variant at checkout. The blurbs identify which shape each firm is.
Do prop firms have a monthly fee?
Some do and some do not. Subscription firms bill monthly until you pass or cancel, while one-time firms charge a single eval price. Both models appear on this list, and the buying guide above explains how to match the model to your own trading pace.
Is a no-activation plan always cheaper overall?
No. Prepaid no-activation variants cost more upfront, and cheap subscriptions with no activation can out-cost everything if your eval runs long. The number that matters is the total cost of getting funded on your realistic path, not any single fee line.
Do I pay activation again after a reset?
Resets and activation are separate fee lines. A reset restarts a failed eval; activation converts a passed one. The interaction differs by firm, so check the cost section of the specific firm's review before assuming either way.