How we rank
The Refer Score is a number from 0 to 100. It is calculated, not assigned by hand. These are the exact weights, and they are the same for every firm.
| Signal | Weight | Better when |
|---|---|---|
| How fast they pay | 24% | Lower |
| Trader ratings | 18% | Higher |
| Rule transparency | 15% | Higher |
| Years operating | 15% | Higher |
| Regulated broker behind it | 12% | Higher |
| Cost to get funded | 11% | Lower |
| Open complaints | 5% | Lower |
| Total | 100% |
How the maths works
Each signal is scaled from 0 to 1 across all the firms we track, so the best firm on a signal scores 1 and the worst scores 0. That scaled value is multiplied by the weight, and the results are added together.
Ratings use a Bayesian average with a prior of 30 reviews. That stops a firm with four five-star reviews outranking one with nine hundred reviews averaging 4.7.
If we have no data for a signal, that signal is excluded from the firm's score rather than counted as zero. A firm is not penalised for something we have not collected yet.
Two signals worth explaining
Years operating carries real weight because survival is the strongest evidence available in this industry. Prop firms that fail almost always fail early, and they take funded accounts down with them. A firm that has paid traders through several years and a bad market has demonstrated something no landing page can claim. It is not the heaviest signal, though, and that is deliberate — an eight-year-old firm that pays in three weeks is still worse to trade with than a three-year-old firm that pays in a day.
A regulated broker behind it asks whether the firm owns, or is owned by, a licensed brokerage. That means real capital and a regulator who can be complained to; the alternative is an offshore book with neither. We score this only where we have the broker's name and its regulator on file, because the claim is easy to make and the badge is meaningless without them. A firm we have not checked is left unscored on this signal rather than marked as having no broker.
What money does and does not do
We earn a commission when you buy through our links. That commission has no input into the Refer Score — it is not one of the signals above, and there is no way for a firm to pay for a better one.
We do sell featured placement. Anywhere it appears it is labelled Featured. If it is not labelled, nobody paid for it.
Editors can manually move a firm within the table in unusual situations — a live incident, for example. Every such change requires a written reason and an expiry date, and is recorded in an internal audit log.
What we are not
We are not a regulator and we have no authority over any firm. Listing a firm is not an endorsement, and a high score is not a guarantee you will be paid. Trading carries risk of loss.