Overview
The5ers has funded traders from the United Kingdom since 2016, which makes it — after FTMO — the oldest firm in this comparison and one of the very few to have survived a full decade of the prop industry's boom and shake-out. Its 4.7 Trustpilot rating across more than 1,300 reviews reflects that longevity.
For EA traders the reason to look here is simple: The5ers has the most usable EA policy of any firm in this comparison. Where FundedNext buries automation in add-ons and account caps, The5ers allows EAs on every program with a single, sensible hard requirement — a stop-loss on every position.
Challenge Model & Cost
The5ers runs a spread of programs at different speeds. The Bootcamp is a low-cost 3-step ramp (from about 22 USD for a 20K account), Pro Growth and Hyper Growth are 1-step routes, the Summer Plan is a 2-step, and High Stakes is the aggressive, high-split option. Account sizes span 5,000 to 250,000 USD, and platforms are MT5, cTrader and TradingView.
The stand-out is entry cost. A Pro Growth 5K starts around 52 USD and a Bootcamp 20K around 22 USD — cheap enough to prove an EA on a funded evaluation before committing to a large account, which is exactly how we would recommend approaching any prop firm with a robot.
Profit Split & Payouts
Split structure depends on the program. Bootcamp, Pro Growth and Hyper Growth start at 50% and scale — quickly, by the next stage in the scale-up plan — to 75% and onward to 100%. High Stakes starts higher, at 80%, and also scales to 100%. Payouts are bi-weekly.
The trade-off is a payout cap per cycle: 2,000 USD on a 100K Summer account, 3,000 USD on a 200K, and similar caps on High Stakes. For a strong EA this throttles how fast profit can be withdrawn — a real consideration if your robot is genuinely productive. Minimum withdrawals run from 150 to 500 USD depending on program.
Rules
The5ers publishes a clear prohibited-practice list — one-sided bets, arbitrage, the news "bracket" strategy, system exploitation, over-leveraging and inconsistent position sizing. Drawdown rules are program-specific; the Summer Plan, for example, uses a 3% daily and 6% total limit with a 50% best-day consistency rule.
What makes the rulebook EA-friendly is not that it is loose — it is that its hard requirement is the same discipline a good EA already has: a stop-loss on every position. An EA built to survive live trading passes The5ers' core rule by construction.
EA & Algo Suitability
Expert Advisors are allowed on all programs, including Bootcamp and Instant Funding (Hyper Growth). The one mandatory condition is a stop-loss order on every position. The prohibited EA functions are exactly the behaviours our own methodology marks down: copying other people's signals, tick scalping, latency arbitrage, reverse and hedge arbitrage, and the use of emulators.
The one hard limit is the platform list: no MT4. An MT5, cTrader or TradingView-based EA is fully supported; an MT4-only robot simply cannot run here. For most modern EAs — and every one built on MT5 — The5ers is the cleanest prop environment in this comparison for a defined-risk, stop-loss strategy.
Scaling
The scale-up plan is the mechanism that turns the modest starting split into a real income. Growth and Bootcamp accounts move from 50% toward 75% and up to 100% as you clear stages; High Stakes runs 80% to 100%. Combined with account growth, a consistent EA can climb the ladder without buying a larger challenge up front — the reason the cheap Bootcamp entry is more than a gimmick.
Verdict
For an EA trader, The5ers is the standout of this group. A ten-year record, the clearest EA rules — a stop-loss on every position, exactly what a sound robot already does — and a cheap entry that lets you prove the EA before scaling. The two caveats are concrete: no MT4, so MT5 or nothing, and payout caps that throttle a very productive account. If your EA is MT5-based with a stop-loss on every trade, start here and read passing a prop-firm challenge with an EA for the sizing; if you need MT4, look at FTMO or FundedNext instead.