I understand that as a beginner or even experienced trader you would be interested to know who are Top 10 Stock Brokers in India with whom you can expect good service.
It is not so easy to change your share broker so easily once you open a demat account with them. I also faced difficulties when I switched from Sharekhan to Zerodha in year 2012.
So it is better to compare them before making your decision to go with a particular broker.
I recommend you to visit the side by side analysis of major stock brokers in India page to see how they equate against each other.
In this article, I intend to bring out details 10 best brokerage firms of India, their brokerage and account opening charges etc.
List of Top 10 Stock Brokers in India
Here is the list of Top 10 stock brokers in India.
I have considered few points for rating these 10 prime Indian share brokers,
- Reasonable Brokerage Charges
- Decent customer service
- Advanced Trading Platforms
- Superior mobile apps
- Availability of multiple investment/trading products
- Moderate level of margin/exposure limits
- Educational initiatives on Stock Market
- Hassle free online account opening
I have included 5 brokers each from discount broker and full service broker categories.
(If you don’t know , discount brokers charge fixed commission irrespective of traded value like Rs20/trade while full service broker charge a certain percentage like 0.1% of traded value. Hence if you trade higher amount, brokerage would be higher with full service brokers.)
So let us go through each one of these leading stock brokers of India,
#1 Zerodha
Zerodha is my favorite stock broker and I trade with them as well.
What I like in them is the innovation they bring into their products and services. For example, when every broker was charging heavily, they announced Zero brokerage for delivery trades. ( If you are not aware, delivery trades are ones in which you don’t sell the shares purchased on the same day).
Suggested Read : Detailed Review of Zerodha and Its Products
I switched from Sharekhan to Zerodha in year 2012 and happy with them.
Suppose you buy shares of worth Rs 10,00,000 (quite possible as you will be using leverage) then lets see how much brokerage you need to shell out in case of Sharekhan and Zerodha
Sharekhan on average charges 0.1% of traded value. So 0.2% if we consider both buy and sell trades.
Rs 10,00,000 * 0.2% = Rs 2,000
In comparison Zerodha Charges no brokerage. Even if you do intraday your brokerage is capped at Rs 20 for buy and Rs 20 for sell hence total Rs 40 for entire trade.
That is the reason why Zerodha has overtaken Sharekhan and ICICI Direct to become largest stock broker in India.
Zerodha account can be opened instantly online through Aadhaar Card. ( Read : Step by step procedure to open Zerodha account online)
They provide trading platform called Zerodha KITE for free of cost (no monthly subscription fees) ( Read : 9 Outstanding trading platforms of India)
Take a look at the introductory video of Zerodha KITE,
Zerodha Account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
Zerodha Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
For more details about the Zerodha brokerage charges, Check this post.
#2 Upstox
Upstox was formerly known as RKSV Securities and based out of Mumbai.
Upstox also started their operation at almost same time as that of Zerodha.
Their brokerage structure is almost same as that of Zerodha. So you can expect to save similarly compared to premier stock brokers.
So if your choice of best stock broker in India is not Zerodha, second option should be Upstox without any doubt.
Suggested Read : Review of Upstox Brokerage and their Brokerage Charges
Upstox PRO is the advanced trading platform built in house from Upstox.
Below is the screenshot of Upstox PRO.
Upstox account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
Upstox Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
#3 5Paisa
5Paisa entered comparatively late in 2016, by that time Zerodha and Upstox had already established themselves as most reputed stock brokers of India.
Suggested Read : Detailed review of 5Paisa Brokerage and their Brokerage Charges
But as on today, 5Paisa claims to be 2nd biggest discount broker after Zerodha.
5Paisa is a discount broking subsidiary of India Infoline (IIFL) who is a major stock broker of India with more than 2 decades of share broking experience.
Their offer probably lowest brokerage charges among all discount brokers. (Read : Lowest Brokerage Charges in India). Hence 5Paisa would be good broker for you if you looking to save on commission.
5Paisa offer ‘5Paisa Trader Terminal’ for desktop trading and ‘5Paisa Mobile’ for mobile trading.
Here is the screenshot of 5Paisa Trader Terminal,
5Paisa account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
5Paisa Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
#4 TradeSmartOnline
TradeSmartOnline (TSO) is discount broking arm of VNS Capital and Financial Limited.
VNS is a Mumbai based leading stock broker offering wide range of products and services to their clients.
Suggested Read : Detailed Review of TradeSmartOnline and Its Products
One distinguishing aspect of TSO is that they have flexible brokerage plan.
Customer can switch between flat Rs15/trade plan (Known as Basic Plan suitable for high value traders) or 0.007% Plan (Known as Value Plan suitable for low value traders).
Earlier they used to offer fixed monthly brokerage plans with unlimited trading. But recently they have taken out those schemes.
TSO offers trading platform loaded with features called ‘SINE’.
Below is the screenshot of SINE Mobile
TradeSmartOnline account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
TradeSmartOnline Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
#5 Tradejini
Tradejini is Bangalore based discount broker.
Tradejini was started by 2 entrepreneurs having a combined experience of over 60 years in stock broking and Stock Investing.
It has memberships of NSE,BSE,MCX,MSEI and is a Depository Participant with CDSL.
Starting from scratch it has scaled up its operations from being a 5 member team to over 60 now and a turnover of over 1000 crores a day reaching across over 1000 cities all over India and abroad
Suggested Read : Review of Tradejini Brokerage and their Brokerage Charges
Best part of Tradejini is that they offer 30 days of unlimited trading free of any brokerage across all segments.
Tradejini does not have their own trading platform. They bank on the well established and stable platform available in market called NEST Trader.
NEST Trader is developed by a company called Omnesys Technologies limited.
Following is the screenshot of NEST Trader,
Tradejini account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
Tradejini Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
#6 ICICI Direct
ICICI Direct was the No.1 stock broker of India until displaced by Zerodha.
Acquiring clients was never difficult for ICICI Direct as people who open savings bank account and interested in investment normally tend to open demat account with them.
Suggested Read : Detailed Review of ICICI Direct and their offerings
Being a 3-in-1 demat account, ICICI Direct offers seamless transfer of funds between saving account and trading account.
They are pioneer in popularising online trading in India around year 2000.
They command huge reputation because of their parent bank – ICICI bank.
Big disadvantage of ICICI direct is their brokerage charges which is one of the highest in brokerage industry.
They do not provide brokerage calculators either like the one provided by discount brokers through which we can know the breakup of the charges even before initiating the trade.
ICICI Direct Trader Racer is one of the state of the trading platform from ICICI Direct.
There is subscription fee of Rs75per month for usage of the software.
Below is the screenshot of Trade Racer
ICICI Direct account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
ICICI Direct Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
#7 HDFC Securities
HDFC Securities is broking subsidiary of HDFC Bank.
HDFC Securities is 3rd Topmost stock broker of India after Zerodha and ICICI Direct.
Suggested Read : Review of HDFC Securities Brokerage and their Brokerage Charges
They have more than 250 branches across India. They provide wide variety of products such as equities, derivatives, mutual funds , insurance, ETFs, Bonds, IPOs and FDs under a single umbrella.
‘BLINK’ is the high speed trading platform from HDFC securities which needs to be installed in the system.
BLINK is not free, it is charged at Rs2999for 6 months and Rs3999 for 1 year subscription.
Below is the screenshot of BLINK,
HDFC Securities account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
HDFC Securities Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
#8 Sharekhan
Sharekhan is popular stock broker of India having huge network of branches and sub brokers.
Suggested Read : Detailed Review of Sharekhan and their offerings
You can easily see their branches in all major cities and towns of India.
They were established in year 2000 and taken over by BNP Paribas in 2015 for Rs2200 crores.
Brokerage charges of Sharekhan is pretty high in comparison to its peers. But they have some prepaid schemes wherein you pay the brokerage charges upfront to avail the lower brokerage slabs
‘Trade Tiger’ is the desktop based trading platform and it is offered free of any subscription charges.
Below is the screenshot of TradeTiger
Sharekhan account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
Sharekhan Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
#9 Angel Broking
Angel Broking is another top rated stock broker of India headquarted at Mumbai.
They have strong network of 8500+ sub brokers across 900+ cities across India.
Owing to competition from discount brokers, Angel Broking inspite being a fullservice broker has started charging Rs30/executed order.
Suggested Read : Review of Angel Broking Brokerage and their Brokerage Charges
They are the member of National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) and Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX)
Angel Broking was established in year 1987 and offer many avenues of investments to their clients.
‘Speed PRO’ is the desktop based trading platform offered by Angel Broking.
Here is the sreenshot of the Angel Broking Speed PRO,
Angel Broking account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
Angel Broking Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
#10 Kotak Securities
Kotak Securities is broking arm of its parent entity Kotak Mahindra Bank.
They are present in more than 350 cities with in excess of 1250 branches
Suggested Read : Detailed Review of Kotak Securities and their offerings
Kotak Securities Portfolio Management Service (PMS) is popular service for their HightNetwoth Individual (HNI) clients.
They provide two types of research and recommendations, ‘Investors Research’ – for Investors for long term investment and ‘Trader’s Research’ for day traders.
Kotak Securities account opening and Account Maintenance Charges :
Kotak Securities Segment wise Brokerage Charges :
Top 10 Stock Brokers in India – Final Thoughts
First decide what are you expecting from your broker.
I wanted to save on brokerage I was paying unnecessarily to Sharekhan. I does not mean that Sharekhan is not a good broker.
However, most of the products they offered were not required to me. I saved tons of money by switching to Zerodha.
The same amount I have invested in good quality companies. Penny saved is penny earned.
I have seen many traders who recive trading tips and recommedation from many full service brokers but trade with discount brokers to save brokerage.
So you need to decide your preference and open account with a reputed stock broker in India preferably with one in above list of 10 brokers.
Finally my advice is, never risk your hard earned money by going with a broker who is not register with SEBI. There are few broker who charge even Rs5/trade. you dont knw when they would go broke.
Always be with leaders on whom maximum traders have trust.
If you think this list of best stock brokers in India needs any modification, please let me know through comments.
If you are still confused about broker, write to me through this for below,