The dropdown menu that decides which futures prop firm you can trade
NinjaTrader 8 lists seven Rithmic prop firms by default. PropFirmConnector adds 78 more and runs several logins in one window. What it does, what it costs, and who should not buy it.
Seven. That is how many futures prop firms appear in NinjaTrader 8's own Rithmic connection menu, going by the dropdown PropFirmConnector reproduces on its homepage: Apex, Topstep, TradeFundrr, UProfit, Funded Futures Network, MES Capital and DayTradingAcademy. The same page lists 78 Rithmic prop firms and 31 live futures brokers that it can bolt on instead. If your firm sits in the second list and not the first, a dropdown menu has quietly decided that you will be trading on the firm's web platform rather than on the charts you spent three years configuring.
**Disclosure: PropDNA earns a commission if you buy PropFirmConnector through the links in this article. It never affects rankings or Trust Scores, which follow our published methodology.**
What PropFirmConnector does
PropFirmConnector is a NinjaTrader 8 add-on with two jobs.
The first is to add Rithmic connections that NinjaTrader does not ship with. Install it, and the firm you actually trade with appears in the connection list alongside the seven that were already there. Your existing charts, indicators and strategies carry over because nothing about NinjaTrader changed. Only the dropdown did.
The second is to let several Rithmic logins run at the same time inside one NinjaTrader instance. The vendor's demonstration shows DayTraders.com and Bulenox connected and live together, with the account selector listing both. Without the add-on, the usual workaround is one copy of NinjaTrader per login, which is fine until you have four of them and a hotkey that fires in the wrong one.
It runs wherever NinjaTrader 8 runs: a Windows laptop, a desktop, a VPS, or a Mac that is running NinjaTrader somehow.
Why a dropdown gets to decide this
Rithmic is the order-routing backbone behind most of the futures prop industry. Apex, Tradeify, Take Profit Trader, My Funded Futures, Earn2Trade, TradeDay, Lucid, Bulenox, DayTraders.com: the evaluation you buy from any of them comes with a Rithmic login. NinjaTrader supports Rithmic. You would assume the two meet.
They meet only if the firm is in NinjaTrader's system list. If it is not, the login has nowhere to go, and the trader ends up on R|Trader Pro, on the firm's own web front end, or on whatever the firm's support desk suggests that week. None of those is a disaster. All of them are a downgrade from the setup the trader already has, imposed by a menu.
The multi-account half matters more than it sounds. Futures prop traders stack evaluations, because a second attempt costs a fraction of the funding it unlocks. Three accounts at one firm, or one each at Apex and Tradeify, is a normal Tuesday. Each is a separate Rithmic login. Trading them from one chart with one set of hotkeys is the difference between managing a book and managing a tab bar.
What it costs, and what the PropDNA link changes
At the time of writing the vendor charges $49 a month, or $499 once for a lifetime licence. Both start with a seven-day free trial, and the plan you picked is charged when the trial ends unless you cancel from the account page before then. Treat the trial as a seven-day clock, not a free month.
Through PropDNA's link the monthly plan is $10 off every payment, including renewals, and the lifetime plan is $100 off. That puts them at $39 a month and $399 one-off while those list prices hold. The link applies the code DNA on its own; the vendor says typing the code at checkout works too.
One line on the pricing page deserves a second read. The lifetime plan is the one that lists trade copying across your prop firm accounts. The monthly plan lists unlimited simultaneous Rithmic accounts, but not copying. If copying is the reason you are here, the monthly plan is not the plan.
Start the seven-day trial through PropDNA
What we have not verified
PropDNA has not run this software against a funded account yet. The vendor has given us a partner licence, and a follow-up on how it behaves across a month of real logins is the obvious next piece. The vendor's FAQ mentions a refund policy and states its position on affiliation with Rithmic, NinjaTrader and the firms; we have not tested either claim and are not repeating them here as fact. The 78 and the 31 are the vendor's own counts from its own list. We counted the list. We did not phone every firm on it.
Who this is for
- You trade a Rithmic prop firm that is not in NinjaTrader's built-in list, and you want your own charts, indicators and automated strategies on that account.
- You run two or more Rithmic logins and want them in one window.
Who it is not for: anyone whose firm routes through Tradovate rather than Rithmic, anyone on an MT5 or cTrader CFD firm, and anyone whose single firm already appears in NinjaTrader's menu. That last group would be paying $49 a month to solve a problem they do not have, which is a product category of its own in this industry.
Before you buy anything from anyone, compare the futures firms on PropDNA by Trust Score and payout data first. The add-on only matters once you have picked a firm that deserves your evaluation fee.
The dropdown has not changed. Seven firms on the inside of the menu, seventy-eight on the outside, and a $49 add-on standing at the door. It is a strange thing to need. It is a stranger thing to go without.
Trading carries substantial risk of loss. Prop evaluation fees are typically non-refundable and the majority of traders do not pass first attempts. Information on this page is for comparison only and does not constitute financial advice. Read full risk warning