Best Match-Trader Prop Firms, Checked From a US Checkout

Key takeaways

We checked 19 prop firms that sell Match-Trader or appear on Match-Trader lists, on their own checkouts, help articles and terms, plus two that recently stopped selling.

Read the full summary

We checked 19 prop firms that sell Match-Trader or appear on Match-Trader lists, on their own checkouts, help articles and terms, plus two that recently stopped selling. Thirteen sell a Match-Trader account today that stays on Match-Trader up to the first payout. Ranked by cost per $1,000 of overall loss room at $50K: Blue Guardian 2 Step Nano ($25.40, $127), AquaFunded 2 Step Elite ($44.32), Instant Funding IF Evolve ($49.50, $99), FundingPips 2 Step Flex ($49.83), TX3 Funding Instant Pro ($60.00), Goat Funded Trader ($61.60), FundedNext Stellar Lite ($63.75 outside the US, $57.50 inside), Hola Prime ($63.80, US and UK only), City Traders Imperium ($65.80), E8 Markets E8 One ($74.00), Funded Trading Plus ($79.75), Top One Trader FLASH ($81.71) and FTUK Flex ($127.67). Match-Trader is mostly the platform forex firms give US traders: it is the only US platform at FundedNext, Instant Funding, FundingPips, Funded Trading Plus and City Traders Imperium. It is often a different product from the firm’s MT5 version: FundedNext charges $25 more outside the US and stops at $50K, E8 sells it on E8 One only, and FundedNext, Hola Prime and Funded Trading Plus ban bots on it. Maven Trading and Crypto Fund Trader never name the funded platform, and FTMO, FundedElite and Lux Trading Firm appear on Match-Trader lists without selling it.

Freshness: checked October 5, 2026, with a few figures carried from reads on October 2 to 4, 2026, as noted in each section. Lux Trading Firm’s pound price is converted at the ECB reference rates of October 5, 2026 (EUR/USD 1.1204, EUR/GBP 0.8472). Firms change platforms and prices without notice, so re-check the checkout before you pay. Each Trustpilot figure carries the date it was read.

Quick picks among the best Match-Trader prop firms

• Cheapest Match-Trader loss room: Blue Guardian 2 Step Nano, $25.40 per $1,000 with a static floor, open to US clients.
• Static floor where Match-Trader is the only US platform: FundingPips 2 Step Flex, $49.83 per $1,000.
• Lowest one-time price where Match-Trader is the only US platform: Instant Funding IF Evolve, $99 for $50K, $49.50 per $1,000 on an end-of-day floor.
• No published change from MT5, second-lowest cost: AquaFunded 2 Step Elite, with the same price and a firm-wide EA permission.
• Match-Trader named for the funded stage in writing: Funded Trading Plus 2-Step Classic.
• A firm built only on Match-Trader: TX3 Funding, whose forex plans sell on nothing else.

Asking which brands “have” Match-Trader gets the wrong answer surprisingly often. Directory lists put anywhere from 20 to 61 firms under Match-Trader, but they count brands. Our test counts products a new buyer can choose on Match-Trader today and keep on Match-Trader until a payout, and that cuts the list to 13. The ranking uses each firm’s cheapest qualifying Match-Trader product on cost per $1,000 of loss room. If you trade cTrader or DXtrade instead, the same checks are in prop firms that use cTrader and prop firms that use DXtrade.

Best Match-Trader prop firms ranked by cost

Thirteen firms, one row each, cheapest per $1,000 of overall loss room first. “$50K list price” is the regular price with Match-Trader chosen, before any code. The second table keeps the same order and shows what the Match-Trader version changes against that firm’s own MT5 product.

Notes on this ranking: ^* No activation fee is published for these products. We do not assume one is zero, so the cost figure covers the purchase price alone and would rise with any fee charged later. ^† The floor trails your balance before it locks or stops (Instant Funding moves it only at the end of the day; E8 Markets, Top One Trader and FTUK lock it at the starting balance), so it gives less room in practice than a static floor of the same size. The ranking still uses the dollar figure. ^‡ Hola Prime sells Match-Trader to US and UK buyers only; the figure is their price. FundedNext ranks on its non-US price with the $25 add-on; US buyers pay $57.50 per $1,000 for the same Stellar Lite, or $54.00 for the US-priced Stellar 2-Step. City Traders Imperium’s US access rests on its own help-centre wording, since its platform picker only appears after signing up; it and FTUK name Match-Trader for the whole product rather than for the funded stage separately. If Maven Trading confirmed that its funded account stays on Match-Trader, its Standard 2-Step at $55.00 would rank fifth; Crypto Fund Trader’s 2-Phase at $77.80 would rank eleventh. AquaFunded’s 2 Step Pro ($28.64) would rank second on price, but its floor trails the highest equity including open profit, so it is not ranked. Codes and promotions never set a rank; they appear in each firm’s section.

What Match-Trader is and who runs your prop firm server

Match-Trader is a trading platform made by Match-Trade Technologies, which licenses it to brokers and prop firms. The vendor sells it as web, mobile and desktop apps with TradingView charts built in, plus the tools a prop firm runs on: evaluation dashboards, rule tracking and data-feed connections. Most of page one for this search is that vendor’s sales copy, aimed at firms buying the software. For a plain definition from the trader’s side, see our Match-Trader explainer.

For a trader the useful question is who runs your copy. The firms we checked do it in four ways:

• The firm’s own branded build: FundingPips (“You cannot use the generic Match-Trader website or app. FundingPips has its own version”), E8 Markets (mtr.e8markets.com, browser only), Top One Trader (trade.toponetrader.com, no app), TX3 Funding (mtr.tx3funding.com), Instant Funding (platform.instantfunding.com), Funded Trading Plus (platform.fundedtradingplus.com) and FundedNext (platform.fundednext.com, run “under its own platform licenses”).
• A firm-owned server: City Traders Imperium says it owns both its MT5 and Match Trader servers and names Broctagon as its liquidity partner.
• A third-party host: Hola Prime’s footer reads “For Match-Trader services: Gooey Trade, GT Tech LLC,” a company in Boca Raton, Florida, separate from the Mauritius entity that runs its MT5.
• Not published: Blue Guardian, AquaFunded, Goat Funded Trader (which says its technology is “developed entirely in-house”) and FTUK name no host at all.

The host sets the login you use, whether a phone app works and who prices your fills. Branding is the visible part: the same software appears as “MatchTrader,” “Match Trader” or “MTR” depending on the firm, and Lux Trading Firm’s homepage says MatchTrader while its checkout says The Lux Trader. Support follows the firm, not the vendor: when E8’s help says there is no mobile app while its platform page links a mobile guide, it is E8 you have to ask. Match-Trade Technologies licenses software; it does not regulate any firm here.

Behind all of this sits the prop firm business model these firms describe: you pay a one-time evaluation fee, trade a simulated account, and the firm pays you a share of the simulated profit from that account. The platform you pass on is therefore the one you are paid on.

How we checked Match-Trader prop firms

1. Firm pages only: each firm’s live checkout, platform FAQ, help articles and terms, read October 5, 2026 from a US IP. Directories, roundups, the vendor’s client list and trade press were leads, never sources.
2. Per product and per stage: we graded the plan, not the brand, at evaluation, at the funded stage and at any live stage before the first payout.
3. The test: Match-Trader must be selectable for that plan today, and the firm must name it for the funded stage, describe the funded account continuing on the same platform, or offer no other platform for it.
4. The cost measure: list price plus any Match-Trader add-on plus any activation fee, divided by the overall maximum loss in dollars, times 1,000, at $50K. Never the daily loss limit, never a code price, and never an assumed zero for a fee a firm does not publish.
5. US access kept separate: a firm is ranked whether or not it serves US traders on Match-Trader; the US answer, and the test the firm uses, is shown in its row.

Each firm’s cheapest qualifying Match-Trader plan on that measure is the one ranked, so a dearer sticker can win when it buys more room: FundingPips’ $299 2 Step Flex beats its $288 2 Step Standard because it carries $6,000 of room instead of $5,000. Products whose overall floor trails the highest equity including open profit are left out, which removes four AquaFunded plans, four Goat Funded Trader plans and FundingPips Zero. A discretionary move to another account, such as FundingPips’ Prime invitation, is listed as a warning and never changes a rank.

Match-Trader is the US route at most prop firms

Most forex prop firms cannot give US traders MetaTrader, and Match-Trader is what many of them offer instead. That makes the US answer the first thing to check on any Match-Trader account, and the firms split three ways:

• The only US platform: FundedNext (“Traders from the USA can only use Match-Trader”), Instant Funding (“If you are in the US, Match-Trader is the only platform available”), FundingPips (“US and Canada residents can use Match-Trader”), Funded Trading Plus (“MT5 platform is not available in the US”) and City Traders Imperium (“Match Trader – For EVERYONE,” MT5 for non-US traders). Maven Trading, not ranked, works the same way.
• One of two, beside TradeLocker: Blue Guardian, AquaFunded, Goat Funded Trader, E8 Markets (E8 One only), Top One Trader and FTUK. Hola Prime also offers both, but only to US and UK buyers.
• Not stated or disputed: TX3 Funding sells nothing but Match-Trader and never mentions the US; Crypto Fund Trader’s terms say “Match-Trader: No country restrictions” in one clause and restrict “new users belonging to the United States” in another.

The test changes from firm to firm. FundedNext and FundingPips go by residence, Goat Funded Trader and Hola Prime by where you are located, Top One Trader by citizenship or residence, FTUK names both citizens and people who live in the US, and FundedNext adds that MetaQuotes servers “cannot use a USA-based IP address.” A checkout tile is not permission: AquaFunded’s US flag is its only US statement, FundingPips let our US IP pick MT5 before payment, and Goat Funded Trader automatically moved a US cart from MT5 to TradeLocker. Where it matters, get the answer in writing. Our US prop firm restrictions page explains why losing MetaTrader does not amount to a country ban, and prop firms that use MT5 shows the MetaTrader side of the same split.

Two firms changed their US platform rules recently. FundedNext closed cTrader to new US accounts on March 31, 2026, leaving Match-Trader as the only US option, and archived copies of FTUK’s FAQ show its US list shrinking to “Only our TradeLocker and MatchTrader platforms” between December 2025 and March 2026.

What changes on Match-Trader compared with MT5

At most firms the Match-Trader version costs the same and follows the same loss rules as MT5. What changes, when anything does, falls into five groups:

• Price: FundedNext’s “+$25” for Match-Trader outside the US is the only surcharge among the ranked firms; US buyers pay nothing extra, and two FundedNext US list prices are lower than elsewhere. Every other ranked firm prices Match-Trader the same as MT5.
• Plans and sizes: FundedNext sells no $100K or $200K on Match-Trader outside the US and no Stellar Instant there; E8 Markets sells Match-Trader on E8 One only; Blue Guardian’s Fast Track and Top One Trader’s NOVA are not on it. Hola Prime keeps the whole platform for US and UK buyers.
• Automation: banned on Match-Trader by name at FundedNext, Hola Prime and Funded Trading Plus, and on every platform at TX3 Funding. See the bots section below.
• Devices: E8 Markets runs Match-Trader in the browser only, and Top One Trader has no app (its web build is “fully mobile optimized”).
• Later stages: FundingPips’ invite-only Prime account “runs on MT5, whatever platform the Master Account used,” and US clients cannot move to it.

For a manual trader in the US, none of this costs much: Match-Trader is the platform on offer, at the same price. For anyone outside the US running code, picking Match-Trader at FundedNext, Hola Prime or Funded Trading Plus means paying the same, or more, for less.

The ranked Match-Trader prop firms, firm by firm

In table order. Each section covers the same points: Match-Trader at each stage, US rules, what the Match-Trader version changes, the cost working, loss limits and payouts, commission and host, the main watch-out and the Trustpilot reading.

Blue Guardian 2 Step Nano is the cheapest Match-Trader loss room, priced the same as MT5

No product in this guide buys more Match-Trader loss room per dollar. Blue Guardian’s 2 Step Nano lists at $127 one-time for $50,000, with a static 10% floor: 10% of $50,000 is $5,000, so the cost is $25.40 per $1,000. Its selector prices the Match-Trader, MT5 and TradeLocker versions of every plan identically, and the firm’s Platform Rules say it plainly: “Existing and prospective US clients are restricted to using Match Trader and TradeLocker only.”

Video: “How To Use Match Trader (Full Tutorial),” Blue Guardian official YouTube channel, April 2, 2024. Source type: vendor-produced. Why selected: Blue Guardian’s own Match Trader walkthrough; it dates from April 2024, before the Nano plans, so expect newer screens.

• Match-Trader by stage: Match-Trader is a choice in the plan selector for 2 Step Nano, 2 Step Standard, both 1-Step plans, Instant and Buy Now Pay Later. No page names the funded platform outright, but each phase issues a new account and “Traders may also request a platform change when progressing to a new phase, provided the newly issued account has not executed any trades,” so the account stays on Match-Trader unless you ask to move. All accounts are simulated and the funded account pays directly.
• US traders: “US clients” may use Match Trader or TradeLocker; Blue Guardian does not say whether that means residence or location.
• What changes versus MT5: Price, leverage and commission are the same on all three platforms. Fast Track is the exception: it is sold on MT5 only, at $575 list for $50K. Blue Guardian publishes no Match-Trader-specific bot rule; its prohibited list names “Tick scalping, high-frequency trading, or arbitrage bots” on every platform.
• Cost at $50K: $127.00 list, no Match-Trader surcharge, no activation fee published, so the figure covers the fee alone, against $5,000.00 of overall loss room: $25.40 per $1,000. A 25% off banner with the code BG25 shows the plan at $95, with no end date shown.
• Loss limits and payouts: The floor is $5,000 static at both stages. The daily limit is 3% of the starting balance ($1,500) and ends the account. Payouts run on a 14-day cycle with no minimum trading days, an 80% split, and a minimum of $100 in crypto or $500 through Rise.
• Commission and host: Commission is $5 a lot on forex and commodities and nothing on indices or crypto. Blue Guardian names no host for its Match-Trader server.
• Watch out for: The funded 2 Step Nano caps each payout at 2% of the account and applies a 50% consistency rule. Recent one-star reviews dated October 2 and September 28, 2026 describe payouts refused over its CID (shared device and login) policy.
• Choose it when: You want the lowest cost per $1,000 on Match-Trader, from the US or elsewhere, with a static floor.
• Trustpilot: rating hidden behind Trustpilot’s “breach of our guidelines” banner, 2,095 reviews (read October 5, 2026).

AquaFunded flags Match-Trader for US buyers at checkout and charges nothing extra for it

AquaFunded lists MatchTrader first among its four CFD platforms, and its checkout shows it with an “Available” badge and a US flag at no surcharge, while cTrader costs “+ $15.” The 2 Step Elite costs $221.60 at $50K for a $5,000 static floor, or $44.32 per $1,000. The US flag is the only US statement we found: no help article names US residents for Match-Trader, and the US is absent from the firm’s restricted-country article.

Video: “How To Use MatchTrader Tutorial 2024 (with Prop Firms),” AquaFunded official YouTube channel, August 3, 2024. Source type: vendor-produced. Why selected: AquaFunded’s own MatchTrader tutorial from August 2024, the most direct official video on the platform.

• Match-Trader by stage: MatchTrader is a checkout option on every CFD model. Platform changes are allowed on an evaluation account with no trades, and an ongoing evaluation can request “a new trading platform … for the next phase,” so the funded account stays on MatchTrader unless you change it. Every account is simulated; there is no live stage.
• US traders: The checkout flag is the whole basis. We read it from a US IP on October 5, 2026, with TradeLocker flagged the same way and MT5 and cTrader unflagged. Ask support to confirm in writing before paying from the US.
• What changes versus MT5: Nothing that AquaFunded publishes. The price is the same as MT5, and its EA rule is firm-wide: “Yes, EAs are allowed, provided they are used as part of your own personal trading strategy.” TradingView appears as charts inside MatchTrader and TradeLocker, not as a separate login.
• Cost at $50K: $221.60 list, no Match-Trader surcharge, no activation fee published, so the figure covers the fee alone, against $5,000.00 of overall loss room: $44.32 per $1,000. A “25% OFF | Limited Time” banner with the code AUTUMN shows no end date.
• Loss limits and payouts: The 2 Step Elite floor is $5,000 static on equity including open trades, at both stages, and the 4% daily limit ($2,000) ends the account. The split is 80%, with add-ons for 90% or 100%.
• Commission and host: AquaFunded publishes no spread or commission figures for MatchTrader and names no host; the footer entity is Aqua Funded FZCO.
• Watch out for: Funded accounts add a Wave Stop: 2% of combined open loss closes every trade, and a second trigger breaches the account. Four other AquaFunded plans on MatchTrader (2 Step Pro, 1 Step Standard, Instant Pro and Instant Flex) carry floors that trail the highest equity including open profit, so we did not rank them.
• Choose it when: You want a static floor on Match-Trader at MT5’s price and are happy to rely on a checkout flag for US access.
• Trustpilot: rating hidden behind Trustpilot’s “breach of our guidelines” banner, 1,194 reviews (read October 4, 2026).
• Further reading: AquaFunded profile.

Instant Funding makes Match-Trader the only US platform, with a $99 account and no daily loss limit

“If you are in the US, Match-Trader is the only platform available,” Instant Funding says, and its configurator marks the Match-Trader tile “Works in” with a US flag. IF Evolve costs $99 one-time at $50K, the lowest sticker among the ranked products, against a 4% end-of-day floor of $2,000: $49.50 per $1,000. The firm’s help adds that its programs “require only a one-time payment,” so no activation fee applies.

Video: Instant Funding’s channel carries trader interviews only, with no Match-Trader or rules video, so there is none to show.

• Match-Trader by stage: Match-Trader is selected at purchase and you log in at platform.instantfunding.com, which opens on the Match-Trader sign-in screen. The firm’s switch rule keeps the account where you bought it: “Yes, you can switch to any available platform for a one-time fee of $20.” The funded account is simulated and pays from that account.
• US traders: Location or residence (“If you are in the US,” “US-based traders”), and “US-based traders can only use Match-Trader at this time,” so a US trader cannot pay to switch away.
• What changes versus MT5: Nothing for current plans: the $50K Match-Trader, MT5 and cTrader versions are priced the same, and the commission rates are “the same … across every programme.” Only a few legacy plans are listed as MT5 only. The EA rule is firm-wide: public third-party EAs are restricted, your own are allowed.
• Cost at $50K: $99.00 list, no Match-Trader surcharge, no activation fee, against $2,000.00 of overall loss room: $49.50 per $1,000. No code applies to Evolve; the site’s IF30 code is “Not valid on Evolve.” The firm’s One-Phase Lite ($284, $94.67 per $1,000) and One-Phase Pro ($424 with a $4,000 static floor, $106.00 per $1,000) also sell on Match-Trader.
• Loss limits and payouts: The $2,000 floor applies at the Challenge and funded stages and moves only at the end of the day; “Evolve does not have a Daily Loss limit.” A payout needs 5 profitable days of at least 0.25%, a best day under 40% of total profit, and at least $250, at an 80% split.
• Commission and host: Choose a commission-free account or RAW spreads at checkout; RAW pays $5 a lot on currencies and metals, $2 on commodities, about $2 on indices and $1 on crypto. Instant Funding runs its own web build and names no liquidity provider; its operator, IF Pro Ltd, says it “does not conduct brokerage services.”
• Watch out for: Evolve force-closes every position at 4:55pm EST, allows no weekend holding, and has “temporarily” cut funded leverage on metals, oil and indices to 1:5. Recent one-star reviews dated September 23 and October 2, 2026 dispute closures for risk-per-trade-idea breaches.
• Choose it when: You trade from the US by hand, close out every day, and want the cheapes