Did MetaQuotes ban prop firms?

Not with a single public ban, but from February 2024 MetaQuotes pressured brokers to terminate the grey-label arrangements most prop firms used, which cut many firms off from MT4 and MT5. Combined with closed new white labels since around late 2022, the effect was that a lot of prop firms lost or could not get MetaTrader access.

Why did MetaQuotes crack down on prop firms?

Reporting attributes it to regulatory exposure around off-exchange retail FX, particularly in the United States, and to the fact that prop firms mostly run on demo servers that produce little licensing revenue for MetaQuotes. Cutting grey-label access reduced that regulatory and reputational risk.

What is a grey label, and why did it matter to prop firms?

A grey label is when an authorised white-label holder - a broker - sub-leases MetaTrader infrastructure to a third party such as a prop firm, without MetaQuotes' consent. Most prop firms operated this way because direct licences were hard to get. When MetaQuotes forced brokers to end these, the firms lost access.

How many prop firms were affected?

The 2024 reshuffle was significant - industry reporting described dozens of prop firms shutting down or pausing, with platform loss one contributing factor among several. Many others migrated to alternative platforms or built their own stacks.

Did MetaTrader licence fees also go up?

Yes. MetaQuotes raised MetaTrader licensing fees by an estimated 20% from January 2025, per industry reporting. On top of the access problems, the platform simply became more expensive for those who could still use it.

Where did prop firms move to?

Firms migrated to platforms like cTrader, DXtrade, TradeLocker and Match-Trader, and increasingly to purpose-built prop platforms such as PropExecutor that own the whole stack, including the rule engine and dashboard, rather than depending on a broker's grey label.

Is it safer to own your prop platform than to lease MetaTrader?

It removes a major dependency. When your platform access sits inside someone else's licence, a policy change can end your business overnight, as 2024 showed. A purpose-built platform you buy outright, running simulated evaluations, is not exposed to that particular risk.

What does PropExecutor cost compared to staying on MetaTrader?

PropExecutor is a one-time $129 purchase for the Starter plan, with no monthly licence, versus a MetaTrader stack that runs into thousands per month plus a custom rule engine build. For firms forced to move anyway, it is usually a large cost reduction as well as a safer footing.

Do I lose the familiar terminal if I leave MetaTrader?

No. PropExecutor gives traders a full web and mobile terminal with the market-watch, chart, order-ticket workflow they already know, on your own domain and brand - so leaving MetaTrader does not mean a strange experience for your traders.

Should a brand-new firm even start on MetaTrader in 2026?

For most, no. Given closed white labels, the broker-licence requirement for a full server, higher fees and the grey-label risk, a new firm is usually better starting on a purpose-built platform it owns outright. It avoids inheriting the exact dependency that disrupted the industry in 2024.

Why prop firms are leaving MetaTrader in 2026

The 2024 grey-label crackdown, rising licence fees and a broker-licence requirement pushed a wave of prop firms off MetaTrader. Here is what happened, and where they went.

The PropExecutor Team · September 27, 2026 · Updated October 1, 2026 · 8 min read

metatraderindustrymigration

Why prop firms are leaving MetaTrader in 2026

Frequently asked questions

Did MetaQuotes ban prop firms?: Not with a single public ban, but from February 2024 MetaQuotes pressured brokers to terminate the grey-label arrangements most prop firms used, which cut many firms off from MT4 and MT5. Combined with closed new white labels since around late 2022, the effect was that a lot of prop firms lost or could not get MetaTrader access.
Why did MetaQuotes crack down on prop firms?: Reporting attributes it to regulatory exposure around off-exchange retail FX, particularly in the United States, and to the fact that prop firms mostly run on demo servers that produce little licensing revenue for MetaQuotes. Cutting grey-label access reduced that regulatory and reputational risk.
What is a grey label, and why did it matter to prop firms?: A grey label is when an authorised white-label holder - a broker - sub-leases MetaTrader infrastructure to a third party such as a prop firm, without MetaQuotes' consent. Most prop firms operated this way because direct licences were hard to get. When MetaQuotes forced brokers to end these, the firms lost access.
How many prop firms were affected?: The 2024 reshuffle was significant - industry reporting described dozens of prop firms shutting down or pausing, with platform loss one contributing factor among several. Many others migrated to alternative platforms or built their own stacks.
Did MetaTrader licence fees also go up?: Yes. MetaQuotes raised MetaTrader licensing fees by an estimated 20% from January 2025, per industry reporting. On top of the access problems, the platform simply became more expensive for those who could still use it.
Where did prop firms move to?: Firms migrated to platforms like cTrader, DXtrade, TradeLocker and Match-Trader, and increasingly to purpose-built prop platforms such as PropExecutor that own the whole stack, including the rule engine and dashboard, rather than depending on a broker's grey label.
Is it safer to own your prop platform than to lease MetaTrader?: It removes a major dependency. When your platform access sits inside someone else's licence, a policy change can end your business overnight, as 2024 showed. A purpose-built platform you buy outright, running simulated evaluations, is not exposed to that particular risk.
What does PropExecutor cost compared to staying on MetaTrader?: PropExecutor is a one-time $129 purchase for the Starter plan, with no monthly licence, versus a MetaTrader stack that runs into thousands per month plus a custom rule engine build. For firms forced to move anyway, it is usually a large cost reduction as well as a safer footing.
Do I lose the familiar terminal if I leave MetaTrader?: No. PropExecutor gives traders a full web and mobile terminal with the market-watch, chart, order-ticket workflow they already know, on your own domain and brand - so leaving MetaTrader does not mean a strange experience for your traders.
Should a brand-new firm even start on MetaTrader in 2026?: For most, no. Given closed white labels, the broker-licence requirement for a full server, higher fees and the grey-label risk, a new firm is usually better starting on a purpose-built platform it owns outright. It avoids inheriting the exact dependency that disrupted the industry in 2024.

In 2024, a lot of prop firms discovered that the platform their entire business ran on was never really theirs. This is the short history of what happened with MetaTrader, why it happened, and what firms did next - because the lesson shapes how you should choose a platform today.

What changed

Two things, stacked. First, MetaQuotes effectively stopped issuing new MetaTrader white labels around late 2022, so new firms could not simply buy in. Second, and more dramatically, from February 2024 MetaQuotes pressured brokers to terminate the grey-label arrangements that most prop firms relied on - the setups where a broker quietly sub-leased its MetaTrader infrastructure to a prop firm. When those were cut, firms lost access, in some cases with little warning.

Then, from January 2025, MetaQuotes raised MetaTrader licensing fees by an estimated 20%. For the firms that still had access, the platform got more expensive at the same time it got harder to keep.

Why MetaQuotes did it

Industry reporting points to two motives. One is regulatory exposure: off-exchange retail FX draws scrutiny, especially in the United States, and prop firms operating on grey labels represented risk MetaQuotes did not want to carry. The other is commercial: prop firms mostly run on demo servers, which generate little licensing revenue, so the business case for tolerating the regulatory risk was weak. Cutting grey-label access reduced both problems at once.

What it meant for firms

The dependency became visible. A firm whose platform access lived inside someone else's licence found that a policy decision it had no part in could end its operations. Dozens of prop firms shut down or paused during the 2024 reshuffle, with platform loss one factor among several. The survivors mostly did one of two things: migrated to another platform, or moved to owning their stack outright.

Where they went

Some moved to other trading platforms - cTrader, DXtrade, TradeLocker, Match-Trader. That solves access, but on the execution-platform options you still build or license a rule engine and a dashboard, and you can still be a broker relationship away from the same kind of disruption.

The more durable answer that emerged is a purpose-built prop platform you buy outright, where the rule engine, the dashboard, provisioning and the API are part of the product and the accounts are simulated evaluations rather than routed real orders. That is the category PropExecutor is in.

Own your platform instead of leasing someone's licence. Start from $129. Start from $129

The lesson for choosing a platform today

The 2024 episode is a good filter for any platform decision. Ask: if the vendor changed its policy tomorrow, would my business survive? On a grey-label MetaTrader setup, the honest answer was no. On a platform you purchase once, that runs simulated evaluations and includes everything you need to operate, the answer is much stronger - and it costs a fraction of a monthly licence.

Where PropExecutor fits

PropExecutor replaces the whole leased stack with a one-time purchase from $129: a branded terminal on your own domain, the rule engine, a dashboard in every account, bulk provisioning, credential rotation and a full API - with no monthly licence and no broker grey-label to depend on. For a firm that just learned the hard way what dependency costs, that is the point.

A prop platform you own, not one you rent. See the plans. See the price list

Keep reading: the best MetaTrader 5 alternative, PropExecutor vs MetaTrader 5, or the full platform comparison. When you are ready, see the plans.

Sources and price check

What each vendor publishes about its own pricing, from its own page. Where a vendor publishes no price, this article says so rather than estimate one; ask the vendor for a written quote.

MetaTrader 5 (MetaQuotes): publishes no price list; pricing is on request. metatrader5.com, checked October 3, 2026.
cTrader (Spotware): publishes no price list; pricing is on request. spotware.com, checked October 3, 2026.
Match-Trader: Not published; $2,500/month (white label, basic), $4,000/month (white label, turnkey with prop CRM), $5,000/month (server). match-trader.com, checked October 3, 2026.

PropExecutor's prices are on the pricing page, next to every sourced competitor price.

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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