Prop Firms Offering a Free VPS, and Which Ones Allow One

Key takeaways

We checked 23 prop firms on two questions their VPS-seller competitors skip: does the firm itself supply a VPS, and do its own rules let you trade the evaluation and the funded account from one.

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We checked 23 prop firms on two questions their VPS-seller competitors skip: does the firm itself supply a VPS, and do its own rules let you trade the evaluation and the funded account from one. Only Boxcar Trading supplies a free VPS, a Chicago server “free while you have an active Boxcar account,” and its BoxcarScale 50K costs $67.50 per $1,000 of loss room, but the firm began trading on October 1, 2026 and has no payout history yet. Nine firms allow your own VPS, from FundingTraders (allowed, static IP recommended) to Blue Guardian ($33.40 per $1,000 with a $40 server month, never shared), Alpha Capital Group (static IP plus email notice) and Tradeify (trade from a VPS at your own risk, never log in through one). FundedNext charges $10 for VPS permission and bans it at $50,000 and above. Six firms publish no VPS rule at all. Goat Funded Futures, Topstep, FundingPips and TradeDay ban VPS use outright. Our figure adds one $40 month of hosting (ForexVPS.net Core list price) to every firm that does not supply a server, then divides by the max-loss floor.

Freshness: checked October 5, 2026. Firms change VPS rules without notice; FundingPips and Goat Funded Trader both changed theirs in mid-2026. Re-check before you buy. Each firm’s Trustpilot figure carries the date we read it.

Quick picks among prop firms with a free VPS

• Free VPS supplied: Boxcar Trading, BoxcarScale 50K, $67.50 per $1,000. A free Chicago VPS with every account; new firm, no payout history yet.
• Clearest permission for your own VPS: FundingTraders 1-Step Pro 50K, $73.80 per $1,000. Allowed, with a static-IP VPS recommended.
• Cheapest with your own VPS: Blue Guardian 2 Step Nano 50K, $33.40 per $1,000. Allowed, but a VPS linked to two traders is banned.
• Firms that ban it: Goat Funded Futures, Topstep, FundingPips and TradeDay.

The honest finding first: a prop firm that gives you a free VPS is rare. Of 23 firms, one does it on its own pages. Most of the page-one results for this search are VPS sellers telling you that “most prop firms allow VPS,” which is wrong for at least four firms here and only half right for several others. So this guide answers the question that actually matters before you rent a server: can you run this firm’s account on a VPS, at the evaluation and once funded, and who pays for it.

Free VPS versus a free trial at prop firms

Searches for a “prop firm free VPS” often return free challenges and free trials instead. They are different things. A free VPS is a remote Windows server the firm pays for so your platform, EA or copier can run around the clock. A free trial is a practice account, usually with no payout. A free challenge or giveaway is an evaluation you did not pay for. Boxcar Trading is the only firm here offering the first. For the others, see our guide to prop firms with free trials.

How we checked each prop firm’s VPS rules

1. Sources: each firm’s help centre, FAQ, terms and checkout, read October 5, 2026. Never a VPS seller’s compatibility list, a review site or a competing roundup.
2. Supply: does the firm itself give you a VPS at no charge, under what term, or does it only name a partner you pay?
3. Permission by stage: what the firm’s own sentence says for the evaluation and for the funded account, up to the first payout. Silence is shown as not published, never as permission.
4. Order: free VPS first, then firms that allow your own VPS (plain permission, then conditional), then the firm that charges for permission, then firms that publish nothing, each group sorted by the cost figure below.
5. Exclusions: firms that ban a VPS at the evaluation or funded stage are listed with their own words, not ranked. Firms with a serious warning (an open payout queue, a floor that follows open profit) are shown separately.

VPS cost per $1,000 of loss room = (evaluation list price + activation fee + firm VPS fee + one month of hosting) ÷ max-loss floor × 1,000

One month of hosting is $0 when the firm supplies the server. Otherwise it is $40, the monthly list price of ForexVPS.net’s Core plan, which we re-read on October 5, 2026 (the same page showed $36 with a countdown code and $28.80 a month billed yearly). We use one reference price for every firm, futures and forex alike, so no firm moves up or down because of which provider it partners with. We do not rank VPS providers. Worked example, Tradeify Growth 50K: $145 + $0 + $0 + $40 = $185; $185 ÷ $2,000 × 1,000 = $92.50. Boxcar’s free server is worth exactly that $40: the same arithmetic without it gives $67.50 on its BoxcarScale 50K. The floor is the overall maximum loss at its smallest stage, never a daily limit. A fee a firm does not publish is never treated as $0 by assumption; such rows are marked. Full method: how we rank.

Every firm we checked was open for purchase on October 5, 2026. None of the 23 has an official video on VPS use, so the firm sections carry no video. A discretionary move to a live account is shown as a warning, never as a reason to rank a firm lower. For automation permission in general, as opposed to where it runs, see our guide to prop firms that allow automated trading.

Prop firm VPS rules and cost compared

Prop firm prices, floors and live-stage VPS rules

The only prop firm with a free VPS we found

A free server is worth one month of hosting, $40 at our reference price, and only if the firm lets you trade from it at every stage that matters. Boxcar passes both checks on its own pages.

Boxcar Trading gives every account a free Chicago VPS, but the firm is days old

Boxcar is the only firm in this guide whose own pages hand you a VPS at no charge. Its free VPS page says, “Buy any Boxcar Eval or Straight-to-Funded account and get a free High Performance Chicago Trading VPS. It stays free while you have an active Boxcar account,” and the checkout shows the same line as an included item. The catch comes first: Boxcar is new. It began trading on October 1, 2026, four days before we checked, and we found no published payout history yet. The server is pitched at futures automation, with a “Chicago Location” and a claimed “Ultra-Low Latency <1ms to NinjaTrader, Rithmic, CME.” RAM, CPU, the platforms installed on it and how you claim it are not published. The BoxcarScale 50K lists at $150; choosing the optional $1,200 daily loss limit at checkout, a session lockout that does not by itself breach the account, lowers it to $135, the price we rank on. At $150 the figure would be $75.00 per $1,000.

Video: no official Boxcar Trading video covers VPS use, and we do not substitute third-party videos.

• What the firm supplies: A free VPS with any Eval or Straight-to-Funded account, every plan and size, “free while you have an active Boxcar account.” What happens to the server after your last account closes is not published.
• VPS rule by stage: Evaluation and funded: allowed. The all-plans automation article says, “You may run your strategies and copier on a VPS or your own computer. VPS use is optional.” It names no stage, so the funded reading is inferred from that unscoped sentence. Live accounts: no VPS sentence.
• Conditions: “You remain responsible for orders placed by your software, including errors, malfunctions, duplicate entries, disconnections, and unexpected fills.” Copying across your own Boxcar accounts is allowed, including third-party copier software.
• Cost on BoxcarScale 50K: $135 + $0 + $0 + $0 = $135; $135 ÷ $2,000 × 1,000 = $67.50 per $1,000 of loss room (with a $40 server month added it would be $87.50).
• Watch out for: Brand new firm with no payout history. The live move is a review after five approved payouts, live accounts start at a $0 balance, and whether you can decline and keep your balance is not published. A 30% ONTRACK code was advertised as “Limited time” with no end date.
• Trustpilot: no reviews yet on its Trustpilot profile, which carries the banner “This company may be associated with high-risk investments” (read October 5, 2026). No BestProps profile yet.

Prop firms that allow your own VPS

Nine firms allow a VPS you rent yourself. FundingTraders comes first because its permission carries no condition; the other eight attach one, from a static IP to pre-approval, and are sorted by cost. The difference between them is mostly in the conditions column, not the price.

FundingTraders says yes to a VPS in plain words and even recommends a static IP

Most firms tolerate a VPS. FundingTraders is the only one here that recommends one: “For professional setups, we recommend using a Virtual Private Server (VPS) with a static IP address to ensure stability, security, and low latency.” Its General Trading Guidelines state, “FundingTraders allows the use of VPNs, VPSs, and proxies for enhanced privacy, stability, and security,” then add the honest warning that these tools “may cause false positives in our monitoring system” and that the risk team may contact you to verify. That makes it the only firm in the bring-your-own group whose permission comes with no condition attached, which is why it heads that group.

Video: no official FundingTraders video covers VPS use, and we do not substitute third-party videos.

• What the firm supplies: No VPS supplied; a help search for VPS returns only the guidelines article.
• VPS rule by stage: Evaluation and funded: allowed, from one sentence that covers all accounts (no stage is named). No live stage.
• Conditions: “Accessing a trading account from several IP addresses may trigger security alerts and additional review,” and trading several accounts from the same IP, “including across other prop firms,” may be treated as a security violation. Confirmed IP-policy breaches mean “an account breach and forfeiture of profits.” Only EAs you built yourself may place trades.
• Cost on 1-Step Pro 50K: $329 + $0 + $0 + $40 = $369; $369 ÷ $5,000 × 1,000 = $73.80 per $1,000 of loss room. Marked: activation not published.
• Watch out for: The activation or funded fee is not published, so the figure is computed on the price alone and marked. A dated firm reply confirms its Discipline Program can cut the profit split. The CHALLENGE code (50% off, $165) ran on a countdown timer only.
• Trustpilot: rating hidden behind Trustpilot’s “breach of our guidelines” banner, 3,260 reviews, read October 5, 2026. FundingTraders profile.

Blue Guardian 2 Step Nano is the cheapest per $1,000 if your VPS is yours alone

On cost, nothing in the bring-your-own group comes close: $127 buys a 50K account with a static $5,000 floor, so even with a $40 server month the figure lands at $33.40. The rules article says, “While VPNs and VPS are allowed, using either service to bypass rules related to copy trading, group trading, or signal trading is strictly prohibited.” The rule that actually costs people money is the device policy: “The use of shared devices, including mobile phones, desktops, laptops, or VPS services linked to multiple trader accounts, is strictly prohibited,” and “Accounts linked to shared devices may be flagged for review during payout.” We found three dated cases between September 24 and October 2, 2026 where a payout was rejected over a device match.

Video: no official Blue Guardian video covers VPS use, and we do not substitute third-party videos.

• What the firm supplies: No VPS supplied.
• VPS rule by stage: Evaluation and funded: allowed with conditions; the 2 Step Nano rules article names no stage, so both are inferred. No live stage: “All accounts provided by Blue Guardian, including funded accounts, are demo accounts.”
• Conditions: Never use the VPS to get around copy, group or signal trading rules, and never share a VPS with another trader’s account. US clients are limited to Match-Trader and TradeLocker, which run in a browser and need no VPS.
• Cost on 2 Step Nano 50K: $127 + $0 + $0 + $40 = $167; $167 ÷ $5,000 × 1,000 = $33.40 per $1,000 of loss room. Marked: activation not published.
• Watch out for: Activation fee not published (figure marked). Payout rejections citing a CID or device match on September 24, September 28 and October 2, 2026. A 25% BG25 banner showed $95 with no end date.
• Trustpilot: rating hidden behind Trustpilot’s “breach of our guidelines” banner, 2,095 reviews, read October 5, 2026. Blue Guardian profile.

Blueberry Funded wants a static IP and nothing else, though its cheapest plan trades only synthetics

Blueberry Funded’s answer is short: “Yes. You can trade through a VPN or VPS, provided it uses a static IP address.” No pre-approval, no fee, no email. The reason for the static IP is spelled out: “A shared or rotating IP changes between sessions and can look like account sharing or unauthorised access, which may pause your account while we review it.” The product that wins on our figure is the Synthetic Plan at $225, which trades synthetic indices only and does not allow EAs, so a VPS there serves manual trading or uptime. For forex, the Flex 1-Step $50K at $490 with a $6,000 floor works out to $88.33 per $1,000, and the Prime 2-Step at $406 to $89.20.

Video: no official Blueberry Funded video covers VPS use, and we do not substitute third-party videos.

• What the firm supplies: No VPS supplied. Its sister broker’s retail VPS offer is not mentioned on any Blueberry Funded page and does not apply to a prop account.
• VPS rule by stage: Evaluation and funded: allowed with a static IP; the article is unscoped, so both stages are inferred. The post-reward move to the Blueberry brokerage has no VPS sentence.
• Conditions: “Only one account per household can be accessed from the same IP address.” Masking an IP is a hard breach “with the exception of static IP VPN/VPS usage which is permitted.” Up to two devices at once.
• Cost on Synthetic Plan $50K: $225 + $0 + $0 + $40 = $265; $265 ÷ $5,000 × 1,000 = $53.00 per $1,000 of loss room.
• Watch out for: The move to the brokerage after a reward is the firm’s decision, and no decline option is published. US buyers are restricted. The Synthetic Plan bans EAs and has a 4% daily limit that ends the account.
• Trustpilot: rating hidden behind Trustpilot’s “breach of our guidelines” banner, 1,739 reviews, read October 4, 2026. Blueberry Funded profile.

ThinkCapital bans VPS use except one named provider you pay for yourself

ThinkCapital’s FAQ opens with a ban, “we do not allow the use of VPN or VPS to access trading accounts as it disrupts our internal data tracking systems,” and then makes a single exception: “You’re permitted to use a VPS from ForexVPS.” It explains why that one provider: “Our preferred VPS provider, ForexVPS, is co-located with our trading server hub,” with ThinkMarkets platforms pre-installed. ForexVPS is also the provider whose Core plan we use as the $40 reference month, so the figure here is the real bill, not an estimate. One mismatch to know: the FAQ describes MetaTrader-style platforms on the server, while ThinkCapital’s EA FAQ says it currently offers accounts only on ThinkTrader.

Video: no official ThinkCapital video covers VPS use, and we do not substitute third-party videos.

• What the firm supplies: No VPS supplied and no discount stated; you rent ForexVPS yourself.
• VPS rule by stage: Challenge and simulated funded: allowed only on ForexVPS. Any other VPS falls under the ban. No live stage.
• Conditions: No VPN or VPS during identity checks: “your funded account may be disabled or breached if it’s discovered that you completed the KYC/AML process using a VPS or VPN.” You must be the sole trader on the account.
• Cost on Nexus 3-step $50K: $199 + $0 + $0 + $40 = $239; $239 ÷ $4,000 × 1,000 = $59.75 per $1,000 of loss room. Marked: activation not published.
• Watch out for: The firm cancelled pending payouts when it left Pakistan (firm reply, July 6, 2026). Activation fee not published (figure marked). A 4% balance-based daily limit ends the account.
• Trustpilot: rating hidden behind Trustpilot’s “breach of our guidelines” banner, 612 reviews, read October 5, 2026. ThinkCapital profile.

FunderPro allows a VPS on both phases but never from a restricted country

FunderPro’s support article reads, “VPNs and VPSs may be used during the FunderPro Challenge and Funded Phase,” which is one of the few permissions in this guide that names both stages outright. The limit is geography: “you must not connect from a restricted country, even if using a VPN or VPS,” and where a jurisdiction requires it, “you must obtain FunderPro’s written approval before using a VPN, VPS, proxy, or similar technology.” Every 50K product listed today runs on TradeLocker, a browser platform, so a VPS here is optional rather than needed.

Video: no official FunderPro video covers VPS use, and we do not substitute third-party videos.

• What the firm supplies: No VPS supplied.
• VPS rule by stage: Challenge and funded: allowed with conditions, both named. No live stage.
• Conditions: Restricted list includes Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Syria; “Connecting from a restricted country, directly or via masked IP, may lead to account suspension or disqualification.”
• Cost on 50K Classic Challenge: $319 + $0 + $0 + $40 = $359; $359 ÷ $5,000 × 1,000 = $71.80 per $1,000 of loss room. Marked: activation not published.
• Watch out for: Two Trustpilot reviews on September 10, 2026 describe payouts denied over multiple or different IP addresses. Activation fee not published (figure marked).
• Trustpilot: rating hidden behind Trustpilot’s “breach of our guidelines” banner, 1,559 reviews, read October 5, 2026. FunderPro profile.

City Traders Imperium wants pre-approval and may ask for your VPS logins

City Traders Imperium writes the strictest permission of the firms that still allow a VPS. “Yes, VPS usage is permitted only under the following conditions”: the VPS runs an EA that follows its EA rules, or a copier that follows its copy trading policy, and “If you wish to use a VPS, you must request pre-approval before trading.” Manual trading from a VPS “is not permitted unless explicitly approved by CTI,” and “VPS Remote Desktop Connection logins must be provided to CTI team once requested.” Its partners page lists ForexVPS.net as its VPS hosting partner, but with no discount or code, so you pay full price.

Video: no official City Traders Imperium video covers VPS use, and we do not substitute third-party videos.

• What the firm supplies: No VPS supplied; a partner listing with no discount.
• VPS rule by stage: Evaluation: allowed after pre-approval. Funded: the same article governs all accounts, so it is inferred. No live stage; a move to a third-party broker is by invitation.
• Conditions: “The VPS must not use a VPN, proxy, or any IP-masking service.” “Only one account per household may use a single IP address.” Up to two devices, and the same devices across every phase.
• Cost on 2-Step Challenge $50K: $329 + $0 + $0 + $40 = $369; $369 ÷ $5,000 × 1,000 = $73.80 per $1,000 of loss room. Marked: activation not published.
• Watch out for: The live invitation is at the firm’s sole discretion. “Trading from an unapproved VPS may result in account review or breach.” The EA route needs MT5, which is for non-US clients. Activation fee not published (figure marked).
• Trustpilot: 4.2/5 on 1,628 reviews, read October 5, 2026. City Traders Imperium profile.

Alpha Capital Group needs a static IP and an email before your first VPS login

Alpha Capital Group allows a VPS on two conditions, and the penalty for skipping them is severe. “It must have a static dedicated IP address. You must notify our support team by email at support@alphacapitalgroup.uk before using it, stating the account(s) involved.” Then: “Using a VPN or