With a prop firm, you pay up front while you're being evaluated, but it's a lot less than you can lose trading futures or options in a real account. Once you earn a funded account you'll have to pay just the exchange data fees. When you make a withdrawal from your funded account, you split it with the prop firm. Usually 90/10 or 80/20, with the larger share going to you.

For futures trading I recommend Topstep. They're the oldest and best in the business. They've really simplified the process recently. You trade in sim and just have to hit the profit target once. Then they set you up with a funded account of $50k-150k and have a 90/10 profit split when you make withdrawals.