The cheaper doors
Facts checked October 22, 2026
When the verdict is no, it is never "go away." It is one of these three doors, priced.
The rules tested are identical at every size; the discipline is the product, not the account balance. FTMO's 2-Step tests the same 10%/5% at €89 (10K) as at €540 (100K): the expected cost to funded falls from ≈€3,860 to ≈€636. If the point is to find out whether you can pass, the smallest size is the rational purchase.
A demo traded under the program's exact rules for 20 consecutive sessions costs nothing and answers the pass question at demo stakes. See the demo under challenge rules.
The honest alternative is not a $100K cash account — this audience doesn't have one. It is a small account of your own money, where there is no consistency rule, no news blackout, no payout discretion, and 100% of a smaller profit is yours. Whether your capital is ready for that door — and what its true minimum is — is a computed verdict at our sister site:
The family · StartOrWait
Then the challenge question comes second. Start with the verdict at StartOrWait: start, or wait — computed from your capital, your market and your own regulator's published loss number, by a site that takes no money from brokers either.
The verdict gives you the expected cost and the rule that applies to you. The Challenge Odds Kit gives you, program by program, the before-you-buy checklist, the style-versus-rules worksheets, the expected-cost workbook, and the payout-protection playbook: how to never hand a firm the excuse to refuse your payout.
Included in the $39 Challenge Odds Kit
Sources: the firms' own published pages (price grids and program terms), the FPFX Technology dataset of 300,000+ accounts reported by Finance Magnates (2024), pass and payout figures published by the firms themselves, and regulator publications (CFTC, FSMA, Consob, CNMV). Recorded and checked October 22, 2026. Prices on this site are the list prices recorded on that date, promotions excluded; if a price or a rule has moved since, the firm's own page wins — and write to help@doogex.com so we can correct ours.