BrightFunded

Yes. The official help center's "Can I use EA?" article states: "Absolutely, at BrightFunded, we allow the use of Expert Advisors (EAs)." It's allowed on both evaluation and Funded, with no pre-approval needed. There are three conditions, though. ① The daily-loss and max-loss rules apply equally to EAs (the official wording stresses "even when trading with an EA"). ② DXtrade doesn't support the API or automated trading, so choose MT5 if you want to run an EA. ③ Trades closed in under 60 seconds get flagged. The official site also states it doesn't guarantee the compatibility or performance of third-party EAs, and takes no responsibility for issues caused by an incompatible EA. Banned are HFT bots, latency arbitrage, tick scalping, and grid trading without technical justification.

Pick 2-Step Classic if you want the most room (10% max drawdown, 5% daily). Pick 2-Step Bright for the best balance of cheapness and pass-ability — it's the cheapest of the three plans, and its target ÷ max drawdown of 1.63 is the best. 1-Step has the tightest room (a 6% max drawdown that's trailing, plus a 3% daily limit), and it costs the same as 2-Step Classic, so there's not much reason to pick it beyond "I want to finish in one phase." In our own one-year simulation, at 1% per trade and a 55% win rate, 2-Step Bright made +$19,793 and 2-Step Classic +$19,375, versus +$10,682 for 1-Step (BrightFunded's expected value). Note that 2-Step Bright's Phase 2 target disagrees between the official comparison table (4%) and checkout (5%) — we use the checkout figure (5%).

The starting value is 80%. To reach 90%, you need to either buy the +20%-of-fee add-on or complete your first scale-up. The homepage's "Keep up to 100%" is the ceiling you could eventually reach by fully working through the uncapped scaling plan — it's not the figure you get right after buying. There's also a loyalty program called Trade2Earn, where tokens accrue even on losing trades and can be redeemed for a free challenge or a higher split.

It's a mechanism where you get 15% of the profit you make during the evaluation stage (the challenge). It's not paid in cash right away, though — it's credited to your next Funded account once you hit the 10% growth target. If you fail the evaluation, you obviously don't get it. It effectively lets you claw back part of the challenge fee, which is a rare feature among the firms we cover.

The first withdrawal is 30 days after your first Funded trade. After that it's on a 14-day cycle; buying the "Weekly Payouts" add-on (+25% of fee) shortens that to 7 days (there's also a "Bi-weekly" option at +15%). They advertise a "24-hour payout guarantee."

Yes. The official help center's restricted-country list has only 6 countries — Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Vietnam, and Pakistan (Pakistan can continue trading on existing accounts, confirmed September 27, 2026) — and Japan isn't among them. That said, there's no Japanese-language site or Japanese support (support is listed as 24/7 in 5+ languages, but whether Japanese is one of them is unconfirmed). Note that MT5 access is restricted for US and UAE residents.

As of September 23, 2026, Trustpilot's rating is unavailable due to "guideline violations." Despite that, the official homepage keeps displaying "4.5" and "loved by 42.9K+." Since they're showing a suspended score, this figure can't be used as a basis for judgment. The official site also claims "$16M+ paid out," "40,000+ active traders," and "155+ countries," but these are self-reported and unverified by any third party. Founded in 2023, they've been operating for about three years.

Because checkout billing is in euros (the $100K 2-Step Bright is €477). Account sizes are labeled in dollars but billed in euros, so an FX conversion is needed to compare unit prices with dollar-priced competitors. Our comparison table shows values converted at EURUSD 1.146, with the actual billed amount kept in the notes. Keep in mind that a stronger euro effectively raises the price.