Earn2Trade vs Topstep (2026): Same Lock, Different Lifecycle
Both lock the trailing drawdown at Starting Balance. Both drop the consistency rule on the funded account. After those two facts, the firms diverge hard — payment timing, funded capital model, platform stack, even when the trail moves. Here's the honest side-by-side.
~10 min readAudience: futures prop tradersBy Aurafy
We're not an affiliate of either firm. This is an independent breakdown to help you pick. Rules change — always verify on each firm's current rulebook before you buy an account.
TL;DR — the 30-second verdict
Pick Topstep if you want the most established US futures funding brand, you trade primarily on TopstepX or NinjaTrader 8, and you're comfortable paying the activation fee upfront on the way to a real-capital funded account.
Pick Earn2Trade if you want zero upfront activation cost (the $139 fee is deducted from your first withdrawal instead), you want the choice to stay on LiveSim indefinitely or convert to Live, and you trade on Tradovate, R|Trader, TradingView, or Finamark in addition to NinjaTrader.
Same lock, same family: both firms lock the trailing drawdown at Starting Balance. Once your EOD balance crosses that threshold, your stop-out is fixed at the starting balance for the life of the account. Same lock-archetype family as TPT funded. NOT the same as Apex 4.0, MFFU, Tradeify, or Bulenox (which all lock at SB + $100).
Side-by-side: the rules that matter
Rule
Earn2Trade
Topstep
Phase structure
1-step eval → LiveSim funded → (optional) Live capital
Combine eval → XFA (Express Funded) account
Trail type (eval)
EOD only
Intraday (high-water mark on Combine)
Trail type (funded)
EOD only
EOD only (XFA)
Lock point
Starting Balance
Starting Balance
Daily loss limit
Yes — $550 / $1,100 / $2,200 / $3,300 / $4,400
Yes on NinjaTrader; removed on TopstepX (Aug 2024) for both Combine + XFA
Optional — 94.77% of 2025 passers stayed on LiveSim
XFA is real-capital funded
2025 pass rate
8.89% (publicly disclosed)
Not publicly disclosed
Trail mechanics: same lock, different timing
Both firms belong to the Starting-Balance lock family — once the trail catches up to your starting balance, it freezes there permanently. Same archetype as Take Profit Trader funded. Different from Apex 4.0, MFFU, Tradeify, and Bulenox, which all lock at SB + $100 (a $100 cushion that those four firms share and these two don't).
On a 50K account, the lock fires at $52,000 of equity (50,000 + 2,000 drawdown) and the trail floor freezes at $50,000 forever. From that point on, profit no longer raises the floor — only the original starting balance can stop you out.
The difference: when does the trail move before the lock?
Topstep Combine (eval): Intraday high-water mark. Every new tick of unrealized profit pushes the floor up. A $1,200 intraday spike that closes at +$400 still moves the floor by the $1,200 high. Aggressive scale-out traders earn floor-headroom faster, but get punished for wicks.
Topstep XFA (funded): EOD only. The floor only updates at session close on a new EOD equity high. Same forgiving mechanic as Earn2Trade.
Earn2Trade (eval + funded): EOD only across both phases. Intraday wicks never push the trail; only the closing-balance high matters. Most forgiving for traders who take heat intraday and exit flat.
The mechanic that bites: Topstep Combine punishes wicks during the eval — intraday spikes raise the trail and now the EOD has to hold above the higher floor. Earn2Trade and Topstep XFA both ignore intraday spikes. If you tend to spike intraday and close lower, an EOD-trail eval (Earn2Trade) is structurally easier to pass than an intraday-trail eval (Topstep Combine) at the same dollar drawdown.
Model the trail before you commit
Our free trailing-drawdown calculator runs both Topstep Combine intraday and Earn2Trade / XFA EOD presets. No login.
Consistency rules: same posture, very different thresholds
This is one of the cleanest comparisons in the prop-firm cluster. Both firms apply consistency only on the evaluation and explicitly drop the rule once funded. That single design choice puts Earn2Trade and Topstep in their own family of two — Apex, MFFU, and Bulenox all keep consistency on the funded side. But the thresholds are very different.
Earn2Trade: 30% on the eval
Applies at the point of passing the evaluation.
Single best day ÷ total profit ≤ 0.30. Same threshold as Apex 4.0.
Max safe single-day P&L formula: total × 0.30 ÷ (1 − 0.30) = total × 0.429. If your total profits at submission are $3,000, no single day can be more than ~$1,286.
Once you pass and move to LiveSim or Live: the rule is gone.
Topstep: 50% on the Combine
Applies during the Combine eval.
Single best day ÷ total profit ≤ 0.50.
Max safe single-day P&L formula: total × 0.50 ÷ (1 − 0.50) = total × 1.00. If your total profits during the Combine are $3,000, your single best day can be up to the full $3,000 — in practice this is rarely the binding constraint at 50%.
XFA funded: no consistency rule.
The honest take: Topstep's 50% threshold is permissive enough that most traders never hit it; their pass is gated by the trail and the profit target. Earn2Trade's 30% threshold actively shapes how you pace your eval — one big day can force you to grind several small days to get the ratio back below 0.30 before submission. If you trade in bursts, Topstep's eval is easier to plan around. If you trade in steady singles, Earn2Trade's 30% rule won't bother you.
Deep dive →The consistency rule across 6 prop firms — Earn2Trade and Topstep form the cluster's only pair sharing the eval-only-then-drops scope archetype: both apply consistency at the pass-gate and both explicitly remove it on funded. That archetype is rare. Apex runs uniform 30% across eval AND funded; MFFU runs split thresholds with 40% on Core both phases; Bulenox keeps 40% on funded; Tradeify runs three different scope models in parallel (Growth inverts 0→35%, Select inverts 40→0%, Lightning is progressive 20→25→30%). The explainer maps every cluster firm against the scope axis — useful when this same-scope-very-different-threshold (30% vs 50%) pair turns out to be the cluster's clearest demonstration that scope ≠ threshold.
Check your days against either threshold
The consistency calculator runs Earn2Trade's 30%, Topstep's 50%, and custom thresholds. Tells you the max-safe-next-day P&L so a payout submission doesn't fail on geometry.
Every prop firm in the 7-firm cluster except Earn2Trade charges an upfront activation fee when you sign up for a Combine or eval. Earn2Trade is structurally different.
Earn2Trade
Monthly subscription only ($150–$550 depending on product + size). The $139 activation fee is deducted from your first withdrawal, not paid upfront. If you never pass, you never pay activation. Total cost to attempt = monthly subscription × months until pass or quit.
Topstep
Monthly Combine subscription per account size (the $49 starter price for the 50K Combine is the most-promoted tier). Activation fee is paid upfront when you pass the Combine and convert to an XFA account. Total cost to attempt = Combine subscription × months + upfront activation on pass.
The economic difference: Earn2Trade carries less downside risk if you fail (no sunk activation cost), but charges more per month while you're in eval. Topstep has the most-trusted brand in US futures funding and a lower monthly Combine subscription on its entry tier, but you pay the activation on top once you pass.
LiveSim vs Live capital: Earn2Trade's defining feature
Once you pass at Topstep, you go to an XFA — an Express Funded Account using real firm capital. There's no choice. Earn2Trade's funded model works differently.
Earn2Trade LiveSim: Pass the eval and you're funded on simulated capital. You receive 80% of the profits in real dollars, paid out weekly. The firm hedges or absorbs your trades on its own book.
Earn2Trade Live: Optionally convert to real-capital live trading. Same 80/20 split. Same payouts.
The remarkable fact from Earn2Trade's 2025 public stats: 94.77% of passers stayed on LiveSim. Only 5.23% converted to Live. Withdrawal participation is roughly equal across both groups (~18%). For nearly all funded Earn2Trade traders, the "funded" account is a simulated environment that pays real money — permanently.
Why it matters: if you're a discretionary scalper or someone who values execution speed without slippage variability from a real broker fill, LiveSim is the path of least resistance. If you specifically want the experience of trading real-capital live (and being recognized by the firm as a real-capital trader for resume / track-record purposes), Topstep XFA is the cleaner answer.
Platforms: TopstepX vs an open stack
Earn2Trade supports
NinjaTrader 8, Tradovate, R|Trader (Rithmic), TradingView, Finamark. Widest platform spread in this dataset.
Topstep supports
TopstepX (proprietary, default), NinjaTrader 8. As of August 2024 TopstepX removed the default daily-loss-limit on Combine and XFA — NinjaTrader still enforces it.
If your workflow is built around NinjaTrader 8, both firms work. If you're on Tradovate, TradingView, or any Rithmic-native interface besides NinjaTrader, only Earn2Trade is native. If you specifically want the no-DLL TopstepX experience, only Topstep offers it.
Deep dive →Daily loss limits across 6 prop firms — Earn2Trade and Topstep sit at the architectural extremes of the cluster's DLL design space. Earn2Trade is the cluster's uniform always-on firm: every account size ($550 / $1,100 / $2,200 / $3,300 / $4,400 scaling linearly with GAU size), every platform, no opt-out, no fork at purchase — the DLL is simply a fixed feature of every Earn2Trade product. Topstep is the cluster's only platform-toggled firm: same firm, same product, but the DLL exists on NinjaTrader and was removed on TopstepX in August 2024 — your platform choice is your DLL choice. The explainer maps the cluster's DLL archetypes (uniform-always-on / platform-toggled / EOD-trail-coupled / configured-per-program / deleted-firmwide) and where every firm lands.
Worked examples
Example 1: 50K eval, $3,000 profit target, one big day
Trader has $3,000 in total Combine / eval profit. One day was $1,500. Other days summed to $1,500.
Earn2Trade GAU50: 30% rule. $1,500 ÷ $3,000 = 50% — violates. Trader must grind small days until the ratio comes under 0.30 (need total profit ≥ $5,000 for that single $1,500 day to be inside the rule).
Topstep 50K Combine: 50% rule. $1,500 ÷ $3,000 = 50% — exactly at the line. Most interpretations of the rule require strictly less, so plan for ≤ 49% to be safe. Need at minimum total profit ≥ $3,001 with no additional outlier day.
Example 2: 100K eval, intraday wick
Trader on a 100K eval spikes to +$2,500 intraday and closes the day at +$800. Drawdown specs: Earn2Trade GAU100 has $3,500 EOD trail; Topstep 100K Combine has $3,000 intraday trail.
Earn2Trade GAU100: EOD only. The intraday wick is ignored. Floor advances based on the $800 close: max(prior floor, 100,000 + 800 − 3,500) = $97,300 (assuming under the lock trigger).
Topstep 100K Combine: Intraday HWM. The $2,500 wick pushes the floor: max(prior floor, 100,000 + 2,500 − 3,000) = $99,500. Now your EOD has to stay above $99,500 to survive — tighter than Earn2Trade by $2,200.
At the same $3,000-class drawdown, an EOD trail (Earn2Trade) is structurally more forgiving of intraday volatility than an intraday trail (Topstep Combine). Topstep XFA — the funded account — uses EOD and removes this difference.
Which firm fits you?
Pick Earn2Trade if…
You want zero upfront activation cost (deferred to first withdrawal)
You trade on Tradovate, TradingView, R|Trader, or Finamark (not native at Topstep)
You're fine staying on LiveSim funded indefinitely (most 2025 passers did)
You prefer an EOD trail through the eval — no intraday-spike penalty
You want a published 2025 pass rate (8.89%) for honest expectation-setting
You value the 30% consistency discipline as a training constraint
Pick Topstep if…
You want the most established US futures funding brand
You trade on TopstepX (proprietary) or NinjaTrader 8
You want the no-DLL TopstepX experience on Combine and XFA
You want real-capital funded trading on XFA from day one
You like the permissive 50% consistency rule on the Combine
You want 100% of the first $5K profit paid to you before the 90/10 split kicks in
FAQ
Can I run an Earn2Trade account and a Topstep account at the same time?
Yes — the two firms are independent. Cross-firm hedging is not enforceable by either firm's rulebook (they can't see your other firm's positions), but cross-account hedging within the same firm is restricted at both. If you run accounts at both, do not coordinate equal-and-opposite positions between them.
What is the actual cost to attempt at each firm?
Earn2Trade: monthly subscription only ($150–$550 depending on product/size). The $139 activation only fires from your first withdrawal — if you never pass, you never pay it. Topstep: monthly Combine subscription (entry-tier 50K Combine is the cheapest, often promoted at $49) plus the upfront activation fee paid on Combine pass when converting to XFA. The activation amount has shifted historically — check Topstep's current pricing page before signup.
Is the Earn2Trade LiveSim "real money"?
The trading is on simulated capital — meaning your fills are not routed to a live exchange and Earn2Trade hedges or absorbs the trades on its own book. The payouts are real money. 80% of LiveSim profits, in real US dollars, paid weekly with a $100 minimum. The 94.77% of 2025 passers who stayed on LiveSim treated it as their permanent funded account.
On TopstepX (the proprietary platform), the default DLL was removed for both Combine and XFA in August 2024. On NinjaTrader 8 connected to Topstep, the DLL is still enforced ($1,000 / $2,000 / $3,000 for 50K / 100K / 150K). Earn2Trade enforces a DLL on every account size, on every platform.
Which firm pays out faster?
Earn2Trade processes payouts weekly — submit by 2:00pm CT Friday, paid the following Wednesday. Topstep processes payouts on request, usually within a few business days, via ACH or Wire. Earn2Trade's cadence is more predictable; Topstep's is more flexible.
What about Apex, MFFU, Tradeify, or Bulenox?
All four lock the trail at SB + $100, not at the Starting Balance — a different lock-family from Earn2Trade and Topstep. They also all keep some form of consistency on the funded account (unlike the two firms in this post, which drop it). We cover each in a dedicated landing page: Apex, MFFU, Tradeify, Bulenox.
How does Aurafy help with either firm?
Aurafy tracks your trail floor, consistency ratio, and daily loss against either firm's preset in real time as you upload Tradovate, NinjaTrader, or TopstepX fills. Multi-account, multi-firm — one journal across every prop firm you trade.
Track Earn2Trade + Topstep accounts in one place
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