What a prop firm platform really costs
Setup fees, monthly licences, per-account pricing, revenue share: what each model costs at 50, 250 and 1,250 accounts - and the four costs vendors leave off the quote.
The PropExecutor Team · · 9 min read
Frequently asked questions
- What is the cheapest way to run a prop firm platform?
- A one-time purchase with per-account credits is the cheapest structure for almost every firm below a few thousand accounts, because there is no fixed monthly cost to carry while the funnel is unproven. PropExecutor starts at $129 one-time with accounts included and no setup fee.
- Why do prop firm platforms charge a setup fee?
- Usually because the product is a retail or broker platform being adapted for you: bridges, servers, branding and configuration are real work for the vendor. Software built for prop firms from the start does not need that work, which is why it can be sold with no setup fee at all.
- Should the platform take a share of my revenue?
- Revenue share looks free at launch and becomes the most expensive model the moment it works. Model it at your target volume before you sign: a few percent of every evaluation fee, forever, usually dwarfs any per-account price.
- What is included in the platform price?
- Everything the platform does: a branded terminal on your own domain, a prop dashboard in every account, the tick-level rule engine, bulk provisioning with credential rotation, and API access on every account. Higher plans add accounts, rules and branding depth, not a different product.
- Is there a per-account fee?
- No recurring per-account fee. Each account uses one permanent credit whatever its balance, so a 5K and a 200K evaluation cost the same, and the effective rate falls to about $0.64 an account at the largest top-up.
- Are there hidden costs?
- Not on the platform side: no setup fee, no monthly licence, no spread markup and no per-balance banding. Your other costs are the ordinary business ones - payment processing, a company and marketing.
- How does it compare to a white label?
- A white label of MT4 or MT5 typically means a five-figure setup fee plus a monthly licence before your first trader. A one-time executor removes both, so the platform stops being a recurring line on your P&L.
- What does a first year cost?
- Whatever plan you bought, plus any top-ups you chose - and nothing else, because there is no renewal. A quiet month costs zero, which is the whole point of a one-time model.
- Does upgrading cost extra?
- You pay only the difference between plans, which grants the account difference, and unused credits carry over. You never pay twice for capacity you already bought.
- What is the real cost per trader?
- Divide your plan by the accounts it includes: about $2.58 an account at entry, less as you top up. Against a monthly licence billed twelve times a year, the one-time figure is usually a fraction of the cost.
Every prop firm platform quote looks different on purpose. One leads with a setup fee, one with a monthly licence, one with a per-account rate, one with a revenue share. They are hard to compare, which is the point.
So here they are on the same axis: what each model costs to run 50, 250 and 1,250 accounts for a year.
The four models
1. Setup fee plus monthly licence. The classic white-label shape. A four or five figure fee to get started, then a fixed monthly charge. You pay it in month one, and in every month where you sell nothing.
2. Per account. You pay for each trading account you create, usually with the price dropping as you buy more. Cost tracks usage.
3. By account size. A $200K evaluation costs you more than a $5K one. The work is identical; the bill is not.
4. Revenue share. No upfront cost, a percentage of every evaluation fee. Cheapest at zero volume and most expensive at any volume you would actually want.
A year, three volumes
Take a firm that creates 50 accounts in year one, one that creates 250, and one that creates 1,250. Two illustrative competitor shapes against PropExecutor's actual list price:
| Accounts in year 1 | Setup + monthly ($3,000 + $400/mo) | Revenue share (10% of $99 fees) | PropExecutor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | $7,800 | $495 | $129 |
| 250 | $7,800 | $2,475 | $499 |
| 1,250 | $7,800 | $12,375 | $1,799 |
The setup-and-monthly column does not move with volume, which is exactly the problem: it is the same $7,800 whether your funnel works or not. The revenue-share column starts tiny and ends as the most expensive row on the table. The third column is the whole bill: one payment, accounts included, nothing monthly.
Run the same numbers against your own funnel before you sign anything. The shape matters more than the sticker.
The four costs that are not on the quote
Spread markup. If the platform widens the spread on fills, it is charging your traders and spending your reputation. Ask for the fill policy in writing. PropExecutor fills against the raw feed - we do not take a cut of your traders' trading.
The dashboard you have to build. Traders need to see equity, progress to target, and how much drawdown headroom is left. If the platform does not show it, you are building it: a designer, an engineer, an API integration, and maintenance forever. On PropExecutor it is inside the executor already, one tab across from the chart.
Rule enforcement you have to supervise. If breaches are checked on a schedule rather than on the tick, someone has to catch what the schedule missed, and argue it with the trader afterwards.
Credential and account hygiene. Reassigning an account, rotating a password, cutting off a refunded trader - if these are manual, they are support tickets forever.
Questions worth asking a vendor
- Is there a setup fee, and what exactly does it pay for?
- Is the monthly charge fixed, or does it scale with accounts?
- Does the price change with account size?
- Do you mark up the spread on fills?
- Is there a trader-facing dashboard, or do I build it?
- When is a breach detected - on the tick, or on a schedule?
- Do accounts expire, or are they mine once bought?
- What happens to a trader's live session when I rotate a password?
How PropExecutor prices it
One purchase, and a pool of account credits that never expires. Each trading account you create uses one credit, whatever balance it starts with. When you need more, top up at your plan's rate - the more you add, the lower the rate, down to $0.64 an account. No setup fee, nothing monthly, no revenue share, no markup on the spread.
See the plans, or read how a firm gets launched end to end.
Written by
The PropExecutor Team
Product and engineering
We build PropExecutor: prop firm software that lets anyone launch a fully branded firm from $129, paid once, with a real-time rule engine and a dashboard in every trading account. These guides come from the same product we ship. About PropExecutor
