1. Reliability, History, and Corporate Background
The most striking difference between these two entities is their market tenure and geographical footprint.
- FTMO is the industry pioneer, founded in 2015 in the Czech Republic. It has established a reputation for reliability over a decade, which is reflected in its high Trustpilot score and its transparent corporate structure under CEO Otakar Suffner.
- Blueberry Funded is a newcomer, established in 2024, based in Vanuatu and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. While it is led by Marcus Fetherston (associated with Blueberry Markets), it lacks the long-term track record of FTMO.
- Restricted Regions: FTMO has a very extensive list of banned countries (including India, Kazakhstan, and specific regions of Ukraine). Blueberry Funded focuses its restrictions on the United States and Australia, making it an alternative for traders in regions FTMO might not service, provided they are not in the US/Australia.
2. Challenge Models and Account Variety
There is a fundamental difference in the philosophy of "choice" between these two firms.
- FTMO's Specialization: FTMO focuses exclusively on the 2-Step Evaluation model (Standard and Swing). They do not offer Instant Funding or 1-Step models, prioritizing a rigorous selection process.
- Blueberry’s Diversity: Blueberry Funded offers a much wider array of products, including 1-Step, 2-Step, 3-Step, and Instant Funding (Lite and Elite).
- Synthetic Markets: A unique feature of Blueberry is its Synthetic Challenge, which uses algorithmically generated instruments (SYN, Surge, Drop, and Leap indices). This allows for trading in controlled volatility environments that are not tied to real-world market hours or news events.
3. Leverage and Market Access
The capital efficiency provided by leverage differs significantly across all asset classes.
- Forex Advantage: FTMO provides up to 100:1 leverage on Standard accounts. Blueberry Funded is much more conservative, offering 1:50 on 2-Step accounts and only 1:30 on 1-Step or Instant models.
- Indices and Metals: FTMO maintains a higher leverage for indices (50:1) compared to Blueberry’s flat 10:1. This means FTMO traders can control larger positions with the same amount of margin.
- Platform Availability: Both firms support MT4, MT5, and DXTrade. However, Blueberry adds TradeLocker, which is geared toward mobile-first and modern UI preferences, while FTMO offers cTrader, a favorite for professional manual traders.
4. Drawdown Rules and Risk Management
The way "failure" is calculated is a critical factor for account longevity.
- Daily Drawdown Calculation: FTMO uses an Equity-based daily drawdown. This means if you have large floating profits that pull back, you could breach the daily limit even if your balance hasn't changed. Blueberry uses the highest value between equity and balance, which is a similarly strict rule designed to limit "floating" risk.
- Maximum Drawdown: FTMO uses a Static drawdown (10% total). Blueberry uses Static drawdown for 1 and 2-step challenges, but employs a Trailing drawdown for its Instant Funding accounts. Trailing drawdowns are significantly harder to manage as the "floor" moves up with your profit, making it easier to lose the account during a retracement.
5. Trading Restrictions and Flexibility
- News Trading: FTMO allows news trading without restrictions only on their Swing accounts. On Standard accounts, there is a 4-minute restricted window (2 mins before/after). Blueberry Funded enforces a similar 4-minute window for new trades across its challenges but allows closing existing positions.
- Weekend Holding: FTMO requires Standard traders to close positions over the weekend. Swing traders have no such restriction. Blueberry allows weekend holding across the board, which is a major advantage for long-term position traders.
- Execution Rules: Blueberry Funded has a specific "Scalping" rule where 50% of trades must last longer than 1 minute. FTMO has no such time-based restriction, making FTMO a superior choice for high-frequency scalpers.
- Risk Limits: Blueberry Funded implements strict lot size limits based on account size. FTMO does not impose specific lot size caps, relying instead on the margin/leverage limits.
6. Payouts and Career Progression
- Profit Split: Both start at 80% and can scale to 90%.
- Scaling Potential: FTMO’s scaling plan is performance-based (10% profit over 4 months) and leads to the Premium Programme (Prime, Supreme, and Quantlane). The "Quantlane" level offers an actual job contract with a fixed salary in Prague, which is a unique career path in the prop firm industry.
- Refunds: FTMO provides a full refund of the fee with the first payout. Blueberry Funded does not offer refunds for their challenges, which increases the "sunk cost" for the trader.
7. Summary: When to Choose Each Firm
Choose FTMO if:
- You prioritize institutional-grade reputation and a decade-long track record.
- You are a Scalper who needs to open and close trades in seconds without time-duration penalties.
- You require higher leverage (100:1) to execute your strategy.
- You are looking for a professional career (Quantlane) rather than just a retail payout.
- You want your initial fee refunded upon successfully passing.
Choose Blueberry Funded if:
- You want Instant Funding to bypass the evaluation phases entirely.
- You are interested in Synthetic Indices that are available 24/7 and independent of news.
- You prefer a 1-Step or 3-Step evaluation process to suit your specific risk appetite.
- You live in a country restricted by FTMO but allowed by Blueberry.
- You need to hold trades over the weekend without being forced into a specific "Swing" account type with lower leverage.
