Prop firm or broker with IB rebate: which path suits a cost-focused scalper?

[FXS London Scalper]

Two common routes for a scalper with limited capital: trade a prop firm account, or trade a small personal account at a broker with a rebate to keep costs low.

Prop firm route:
- Access to larger capital for a fee.
- Strict rules: daily loss, max drawdown, sometimes minimum hold times, news restrictions.
- Profit split, often 80% or more.
- Costs: challenge fees, sometimes wider spreads or commission markups.

Personal account with rebate:
- Full control, no rules except your own.
- Lower costs per trade if the rebate is good.
- Limited by your own capital.
- All profit is yours.

For a cost-focused scalper, the questions are:
- What are the true trading costs on the prop account (spread + commission)?
- How many challenges will it take to get funded, on average?
- What's the realistic monthly profit on each route after all costs?

A rough calculation often shows that a profitable scalper with modest capital does better on prop, while a scalper still finding their edge does better learning on a small personal account with low costs.

Which route did you take, and would you choose it again?