A product shape, at five firms
When you only pay on passing, the challenge gets easier — at four firms out of five
Five firms here sell an evaluation whose fee falls due mostly on passing, and of the five that also sell ordinary challenges, four make it the easiest thing they sell — by 22 to 57 percentage points on the chance a losing streak ends the attempt.
That is not published anywhere, and it has a plain explanation: on a conventional challenge the fee is revenue from failure, and on this one it is revenue from success. The5ers' Bootcamp is the exception and runs the other way, which is the reason to read the rules rather than the label.
The five, and what each firm’s own alternative looks like
| Firm | Programme | Target | Daily | Losses | Fails | Their best other | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maven Trading | Buy Now, Pay Later | 4% | none | 10 | 2% | Prediction Markets One-Step Elite 59% | −57 |
| Goat Funded Trader | Pay Later Model | 4% | none | 8 | 5% | GOAT Blitz 60% | −55 |
| For Traders | Pay After Pass (Forex) | 2% | 3% | 3 | 42% | Fast Pro (Crypto) 64% | −22 |
| Blue Guardian | Buy Now Pay Later | 4% | 4% | 4 | 48% | 1 Step 84% | −36 |
| The5ers | Bootcamp | 18% | none | 5 | 84% | Hyper Growth 43% | +41 |
At 1% risk per trade, a 40% win rate and 2R winners. A negative difference means the pay-on-pass product is easier than the best ordinary challenge that firm sells. One caveat sits inside the table: Goat Funded Trader's Pay Later Model carries a drawdown that trails within the trading day, which this model applies at its starting level and therefore measures optimistically. Its figure is the most flattering here and the least trustworthy.
Why the incentive points the other way
A conventional challenge is paid for before it is attempted. Whatever happens next, the firm has the fee, and the cheapest outcome for it is a trader who fails quickly and buys another attempt. Nothing here suggests any firm designs for that, and nothing needs to: the money arrives either way.
Split the fee around passing and that stops being true. The large half is collected only from people who reach the target, so a failed attempt returns the entry fee and no more. A firm setting the rules of that product is setting the rules of its own revenue, and four of the five price lists show exactly what you would predict — the loosest evaluation the firm sells, by 22 to 57 points.
It is worth being careful about what that does and does not say. It is a pattern in five price lists with an explanation that fits, not a statement about anybody’s intent, and one firm in five breaks it. What it is useful for is narrower: when a firm offers you this shape, the rules are worth reading, because they are unusually likely to be better than the ones next to them.
The one that runs the other way
The5ers' Bootcamp asks 18% profit — the largest target of the five — and computes at 84%, which is 41 points harder than Hyper Growth, the best ordinary challenge the same firm sells at 43%.
So the structure is not a promise. It changes who carries the cost of a failed attempt, and it says nothing on its own about how likely that attempt is to fail. The label is the same at all five firms and the answer is not.
What the second half costs
The entry fee is the number these products are advertised on, and it is the smaller one. Here is what falls due on passing, on the $100K account at each firm.
| Firm | Account | To start | On passing | Both |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| For Traders | $100K | $49 | $489 | $538 |
| Blue Guardian | $100K | $10 | $686 | $696 |
| The5ers | $100K | $225 | $350 | $575 |
Maven Trading and Goat Funded Trader publish that the balance falls due on passing without publishing what it is, so no figure is recorded for them rather than the entry fee being recorded as if it were the price. At every firm here that publishes both halves — 3 of them — the two together come to more than the dearest ordinary challenge that firm sells at the same size: For Traders $538 against $449, Blue Guardian $696 against $347, The5ers $575 against $491. The structure moves when you pay and who carries a failed attempt; it does not make the funded account cheaper.
What this does not measure
- · The clock on the second half. For Traders cancel the account if the activation fee is not paid within five days of passing, and their own Terms leave the number blank — clause 6.4 reads “within [X] days”, so the five come from the help centre alone.
- · That the entry fee never comes back. It buys the attempt, not a deposit against the account.
- · What changes once funded. Consistency rules, tighter daily limits and news restrictions appear on the funded accounts here that do not exist in the evaluations measured above. Maven add a 4% daily limit that the evaluation does not have at all.
- · Assumes each trade is independent. Correlated positions — three majors against the dollar — lose together and count as one.
- · Assumes every trade risks the same amount. Raising size after a loss shortens the streak you can survive.
- · Uses your stated win rate. If that came from a demo account or a good month, the figure below is optimistic.
- · Whether any of these firms pay. No published rule answers that.
On the numbers above
Maven Trading — Buy Now, Pay Later
It comes out ahead on the chance a losing streak ends the attempt, at 1% risk per trade, at 2% — 41 percentage points clear of For Traders' Pay After Pass (Forex), the next best.
This is computed from the published rules, not chosen. Whichever programme wins that calculation appears here, including firms we earn nothing from, and it changes when the rules do. It says nothing about what falls due on passing, what changes once funded, or whether the firm pays.
One thing to know before you act on it: Maven Trading does not publish a fee for this programme by account size, so what it costs cannot be shown here. Any “from” price beside it in a table on this site is the cheapest across everything that firm sells, not the price of this.
Questions
- What is a pay-after-pass prop firm challenge?
- An evaluation where you pay a small amount to start and the bulk of the fee only if you pass. The names differ — Buy Now Pay Later, Pay After Pass, Pay Later Model, Bootcamp — and the structure is the same: an entry fee that buys the attempt and an activation fee that buys the funded account. Fail and you have spent the first half only.
- Are pay-after-pass challenges easier?
- Usually, and by a lot. Of the 5 firms here selling both this and ordinary challenges, 4 make the pay-on-pass product the easiest evaluation they sell — between 22 and 57 percentage points better on the chance a losing streak ends the attempt at 1% risk. The exception is The5ers' Bootcamp, which is 41 points harder than the best ordinary challenge that firm sells. So the label guarantees nothing; the published rules decide, and they are in the table.
- Why would a firm make its pay-later challenge the easy one?
- Because the incentive reverses. On a conventional challenge the fee is collected whatever happens, so a failed attempt is revenue. On this shape the large half is collected only from people who pass, so a failed attempt earns the entry fee and nothing more. That is an explanation of the pattern rather than a claim about anybody’s intent, and it is worth holding alongside the next answer.
- So is it cheaper?
- Only if you fail. For Traders charge $49 to start and $489 on passing at $100K; Blue Guardian charge $10 to start and $686 on passing at $100K; The5ers charge $225 to start and $350 on passing at $100K. At every one of them the two halves together come to more than the dearest ordinary challenge the same firm sells at that size. The structure moves when you pay, and shifts the cost of a failed attempt onto the firm; it does not make the funded account cheaper.
- What is the catch?
- Three, and they are the same three at every firm here. The second half is due quickly — For Traders cancel the account if the activation fee is not paid within five days of passing. The entry fee is never refundable. And the evaluation is not what you go on to trade: consistency rules, tighter daily limits and news restrictions appear on the funded account that do not exist in the challenge. The figures on this page measure the evaluation only.
Where these rules were read
Maven Trading — FAQ — read 2026-08-23
Goat Funded Trader — models — read 2026-08-06
For Traders — our rules — read 2026-08-23
Blue Guardian — account model rules — read 2026-08-18
The5ers — challenge programmes explained — read 2026-08-05