Comparison

Topstep vs Tradeify

Both use EOD trailing drawdown — the same core mechanic. The differences that matter are the daily loss limit, minimum trading days, and payout structure. Here's the straight side-by-side for Pine Script traders.

Rule-by-rule comparison — 50k accounts

What each rule difference means for Pine Scripts

Daily loss limit: Tradeify's most important advantage

Topstep's $1,000 daily loss limit is enforced at the broker level — when your daily P&L hits -$1,000, trading stops for the session. Every Pine Script running on a Topstep account must include a daily kill switch that halts new entries once this threshold is reached. If your script doesn't implement this natively, you risk a forced position closure at an inopportune moment.

Tradeify Growth operates with a soft daily loss guidance rather than a hard platform cutoff. In practice, a script running on Tradeify Growth can trade freely through volatile sessions without needing a session-level circuit breaker baked into the logic. This is a meaningful difference for momentum strategies that run multiple entries during high-volatility sessions where the first few trades might be losers before the trend confirms.

Trailing drawdown amount: Tradeify gives more room

Topstep's maximum trailing drawdown on a 50k account is $2,000. Tradeify's is $2,500 — 25% more cushion. On a strategy sized to risk $200 per trade, that's 10 allowable losers before breach (Topstep) vs 12 (Tradeify). Over the course of a 5-day minimum evaluation window, that extra $500 makes a material difference for strategies with higher variance or larger individual position risk.

Minimum trading days: Tradeify enables speed

Topstep's 5-day minimum means your evaluation takes at least a full week of active trading sessions regardless of profit velocity. Tradeify Growth requires just 1 day. A script trading NQ that captures a trending session on the first day can complete the entire evaluation in a single session. For traders running multiple evaluations simultaneously or using multiple script variants, this faster cycle time reduces overall cost and commitment per attempt.

Payout structure: Topstep's strongest advantage

The single most compelling reason to choose Topstep over Tradeify is the payout split for large first withdrawals. Topstep pays 100% of your first $10,000 in funded-account profits — keeping all of it rather than splitting 90/10 with the firm. After $10,000, the split drops to 90%. Tradeify pays a flat 90% from the first dollar. For a trader who routinely makes $5,000–$10,000 in a single funded-account cycle, Topstep's first-payout structure is worth thousands of dollars more.

Which firm should you choose?

FAQ

Does Topstep or Tradeify have a better daily loss limit?

Topstep enforces a hard $1,000 daily loss limit — every Pine Script on a Topstep account needs a daily stop built in. Tradeify Growth has no hard daily limit. For strategies that generate multiple consecutive losing entries before recovering, Tradeify Growth is the more forgiving environment.

Which has a better payout — Topstep or Tradeify?

Topstep pays 100% of your first $10,000 in funded profits, then 90%. Tradeify pays a flat 90%. For large single-cycle payouts, Topstep is meaningfully better. For smaller, frequent withdrawals the difference is minimal.

Do both Topstep and Tradeify use EOD trailing drawdown?

Yes. Both use End-of-Day (EOD) trailing drawdown — the drawdown floor only advances based on your closing equity, not intraday peaks. This is more forgiving than realtime trailing drawdown used by firms like Bulenox, where intraday highs permanently reduce your cushion even if they're never realized.