Our review process
How we research, evaluate, and publish every review on Monkeytrade.
Every review on Monkeytrade follows a structured process with defined scoring criteria and a clean separation between editorial decisions and commercial ones. We cover two types of platforms: forex and CFD brokers, and prop firms. Each type has its own rating methodology.
Uniform scoring scale
Dimensions per platform type
Analysis levels (Desktop / Real Account)
What we cover
Forex & CFD brokers
Regulatory registry checks, published-fee review, account opening, and support contact. In real-account analyses: live trading, withdrawals, and testing every support channel.
Prop firms
Challenge-rule review, payout policy, and company registration. In real-participation analyses: buying and passing the challenge, active funded account, and verifying payouts.
Presence in the database isn’t a recommendation. Low-scoring platforms appear alongside high-scoring ones. The reader reads the full review and decides.
Two analysis levels
The resources needed to run a real account or complete a prop firm challenge mean we can’t apply the full analysis to every listing from day one. Monkeytrade handles this with two clearly labelled levels on every page.
| Desktop Analysis | Real-Account Analysis | |
|---|---|---|
| Account opened | Verified registration | ✔ With real funds deposited |
| Live trading | ✕ Not applicable | ✔ Real orders, multiple instruments |
| Verified withdrawal | ✕ Not applicable | ✔ Full process documented |
| Support tested | Pre-sales contact | All channels, all stages |
| Scoring scale | 0 to 5 | 0 to 5 |
| Minimum update | Every 6 months | Every 12 months + events |
| Label on page | "Desktop Analysis" | "Real-Account Analysis" |
How we score
Both platform types are scored on a 0-to-5 scale across five weighted categories. Sub-factors of each category are scored individually, combined with their weights to produce the category score, and the five categories combine to produce the global rating.
| Score | Classification | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 4.5 – 5.0 | Exceptional | Top-tier across all categories |
| 4.0 – 4.4 | Excellent | High performance with minor areas to improve |
| 3.0 – 3.9 | Good | Solid with concrete limitations to know |
| 2.0 – 2.9 | Acceptable | Relevant weaknesses; consider alternatives |
| 1.0 – 1.9 | Not recommended | Significant issues across multiple areas |
| 0.0 – 0.9 | Critical | Avoid; material warning signs |
Things we explicitly cover
Three angles we cover explicitly that often go unaddressed in broker comparison content.
Operating entity
We identify which legal entity actually serves the customer — often different from the one in the marketing — and under which regulator (FCA, ASIC, CySEC, NFA).
Investor protection
We check whether an investor compensation scheme is actually applicable to your account, plus negative-balance protection where it applies.
Simulated vs. real capital
We flag whether a prop firm operates with real capital or a simulated environment — a distinction many reviews skip.
Editorial independence
Monkeytrade earns revenue through commercial relationships with platforms listed on the site. This table summarises exactly what those relationships affect — and what they don’t.
| ✔ What they affect | ✕ What they don't |
|---|---|
| Fixed position in the directory | The review score |
| Promotional visibility on category pages | The written review content |
| Verified-partner badge | Inclusion in comparisons and rankings |
| Sponsored placements (labelled) | Pre-publication access to the review |
If Monkeytrade published favourable ratings in exchange for money, traders would stop trusting them. They’d have no value to anyone — including our commercial partners.
Platforms with no commercial relationship: included in the database, comparisons, and rankings based on score alone. Being a partner doesn’t guarantee any recommendation that hasn’t been earned on merit.
Affiliate relationships: some reviews contain affiliate links. They’re disclosed on the corresponding pages and have no effect on the score or the review content.
Detailed methodologies
Scoring categories, sub-factor weights, and test procedures for each platform type are documented in detail in the individual methodology documents.
How we rate brokers
Five dimensions, sub-factor weights, two analysis levels, and the step-by-step process applied to broker reviews.
See broker methodology →How we rate prop firms
Five specific categories, sub-factor weights, analysis from challenge to payout verification.
See prop firm methodology →Questions about our process?
Questions about how a review was put together, want to report a factual error, or share information that could affect a rating? Write to us at hello@monkeytrade.com.