Topstep vs Apex vs Lucid for you: compare firms by your results
Reviews describe other traders. Compare Topstep, Apex, Lucid or any firm by your own results: cost per account, days lasted, pass rate, blowups and payouts.
Ask which prop firm is best and you'll get a hundred confident answers. Each one is somebody else's experience, with somebody else's trading style, often from a time when the rules were different. None of it tells you how you will do at Topstep, Apex, Lucid or anywhere else.
The better question is "which prop firm is best for me?", and the answer is already in your trading history. Compare firms by your own numbers: cost per account, days each account lasted, pass rate, what ended each account, and what each firm has paid you. Then match those results to the rules that caused them.
Why reviews can't answer this for you
Reviews are useful for one thing: checking that a firm is legitimate and actually pays people (see are prop firms legit?). Beyond that, they describe anecdotes. Firms don't publish pass rates or payout rates in a consistent, comparable way, so most "best firm" claims can't be checked.
Even accurate reviews don't transfer. A scalper who closes every trade in two minutes and a trader who holds for an hour can have opposite experiences at the same firm, because the same rules hit them in different ways.
A firm's rules are neutral. What matters is how they meet the way you trade.
The rules that decide your fit
Before comparing results, write down the rules each firm uses for the exact account you buy. Rules change often, so check each firm's current help pages rather than any article, including this one.
- Drawdown type. Intraday trailing, end-of-day trailing or static. If you often give back open profit before closing a trade, an intraday trailing drawdown will hurt you more. Trailing drawdown explained walks through each with examples.
- Daily loss limit. Whether there is one, how big it is, and whether hitting it ends the account or just the day.
- Consistency rule. Whether one big day can count for too much of your profit. See the consistency rule explained.
- Payout rules. Minimum trading days, buffers and how often you can request. See how prop firm payouts work.
- Costs. Evaluation price, monthly rebills, reset price and activation fee.
What to compare from your own results
Then pull these numbers for each firm you've used. Here's a hypothetical trader's comparison. The firms are labeled A, B and C on purpose: this is about the method, not about any real firm.
| Measure | Firm A | Firm B | Firm C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drawdown type | Intraday trailing | End-of-day trailing | Static |
| Accounts bought | 9 | 6 | 3 |
| Cost per account | $118 | $142 | $165 |
| Average days lasted | 5 | 16 | 11 |
| Passed / finished | 0 of 8 | 2 of 6 | 1 of 3 |
| Main cause of blowups | Trailing drawdown (6 of 8) | Daily loss limit (3 of 4) | Max loss (2 of 2) |
| Payouts | $0 | $1,100 | $0 |
| Net | −$1,062 | +$248 | −$495 |
Firm A is the cheapest per account and the most expensive overall. Accounts there last 5 days and six of eight ended on the trailing drawdown, which follows intraday highs. Firm B costs more per account, but accounts last three times as long, and it's the only one that has paid out. The pattern suggests this trader's style (letting trades run and giving some open profit back) clashes with an intraday trailing drawdown.
That's a conclusion about the trader and a rule, not about the firm. Another trader, one who takes profits quickly, could produce the opposite table. It's also the insight most people miss: the cheapest account is often the most expensive one, because the price you pay per account matters far less than how long accounts last under that firm's rules.
Don't confuse the firm with the stage you were in
The firm where you bought your first accounts will almost always look worst, because that's when you knew the least. A sample trader in our demo had first accounts that lasted about 5 days and latest accounts that lasted about 20. Their spending by firm was very uneven too: Topstep $4,755, Apex $1,007, Lucid $510, Tradeify $417 and MyFundedFutures $330. An all-time table by firm mixes up two things: which firm, and which year of learning.
The fix is to compare firms over the same period. Look at the last 12 months only, or at the accounts you bought after a change you made, like dropping to one micro contract. If a firm still looks bad for you in your recent trading, that's real information.
Three things your comparison might tell you
- Every firm ends your accounts the same way. If the daily loss limit kills your accounts at all three firms, switching firms won't help. The problem travels with you, and the fix is a rule of your own, like a daily loss limit stricter than the firm's.
- One rule type clearly suits you better. If accounts with an end-of-day drawdown last three times as long as intraday ones, in recent months too, that's a real fit. Lean toward that rule type, whichever firm offers it.
- You don't have enough accounts yet. Two or three accounts at a firm is too few to judge. Note what you see, but don't build a decision on it.
The first one is the most common, and the most useful. Many traders hop from firm to firm looking for one that fits, when the same mistake is ending every account. Your comparison will show you that in one table.
How to run your own comparison
- List every account by firm with its start and end dates, cost (including resets and rebills) and payouts.
- Write how each account ended: daily loss limit, trailing drawdown, max loss, consistency, rule break, or still active.
- Total by firm: accounts, cost per account, average days lasted, passed out of finished, payouts and net.
- Find the main cause of blowups at each firm and match it to that firm's rules.
- Repeat for the last 12 months to take your early learning curve out of the picture.
- Decide one change: a different drawdown type, a smaller size, or no new account until the pattern is fixed.
Sometimes the honest answer is to stop buying accounts for a while. Stop buying prop firm accounts explains when that's the right call.
Doing it in My Trading Journey
In Market Matrix, Am I profitable? in My Trading Journey lists every prop account with cost, payouts, net, days lasted, outcome and how it ended. It's sortable, with By firm totals and cost per account, and the period selector lets you compare the last 12 months or a single year instead of all time.
Am I getting better? adds a chart of how long your prop accounts last over time and the lessons you wrote for each blown account, so you can see which rule keeps ending them and whether that's changing.
Compare your firms in My Trading Journey →
We don't rank firms and we don't use affiliate links. If you want a general overview of how the big firms are set up first, Topstep vs Apex vs MyFundedFutures compares their structures. Then let your own numbers decide.
This article is for education only and isn't financial advice. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss.