Best Stock Brokers in India

Best Stock Brokers in India are listed based on the overall value they bring to the table in terms of quality of service, brokerage rates, trading products offered, margin, offline support and more.

However, figuring out which stockbroker works the best for you out of the total 300+ stockbrokers in India is easier said than done. Each stockbroker executive who calls you will position itself as the best stock broker in India. Because that is their job.

But, you need to be cautious while you choose a stockbroker for yourself. You must weigh in the different pros and cons, compare stock brokers and then make a choice.

Let’s find out the best stock brokers in India based on all the above-mentioned aspects and other related areas that are important while you choose a stockbroker for yourself.

Best Stock Brokers in India Review

Indian Stock Broking market is a fragmented space filled with numerous Share trading companies. To place itself as one of the best Stock brokers in India, each share trading company tries to differentiate itself from multiple metrics such as:

• Brokerage/commission,
• Market tips & Research reports
• Customer base
• Trading platforms
• Customer Service
• Range of Trading Products
• Exposure
• Company legacy
• PAN India offline presence and so on.

Some of the names among best stock brokers in the retail Share trading industry include Angel Broking, ShareKhan, Zerodha, India Infoline etc.

If you are a beginner or a small investor though, you can check out this detailed article on Best Demat Account for Beginners and Small Investors.

From a consumer’s point of view, all they need is growth. The consumer has entered the market to make a profit over his/her investment and that is why the choice of the broker or share trading company is a very crucial decision he/she has to make.

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Finding the Best Stock Brokers in India

But before making that choice, the consumer must understand a few things that can help him/her to make that choice:

Are you a Trader or an Investor?

This question can help you to decide on the basic fundamental of trading.

In the share trading world, if you are looking to reap profits in quick time and want results in minutes, hours or days – then you are basically a trader. Thus, you will be making a higher number of transactions on a regular basis.

On the other hand, if you are looking to put your money in the market on some trusted stocks and then hold the stocks for a long period (for instance 6 months, 2 years, 10 years etc.), you are an investor.

For more information, check  this detailed review on

What a potential trader or investor looks for in a stockbroker?

Once you have made a choice on whether you are a trader or an investor, there are an array of expectations you might have from your stockbroker, especially if it is one of the best stock brokers in India, such as:

• Reasonable brokerage charges
• High-performance trading platforms
• No or low account opening or annual maintenance charges
• An array of trading and investment products
• Decent customer service
• Wide offline presence through sub-broker and franchise network
• Accurate market tips and recommendations
• Initiatives on Trading and Investment education
• Integrated trading and bank account
• High exposure or leverage across trading segments
• Low/no hassles in fund transfers

How to check the credibility of the Share Broking Company?

Don’t get overwhelmed or impressed by the branding or market image created by the share trading company among the consumers. Have a detailed & thorough check before making a choice.

• Visit SEBI‘s website to get an idea of some of the reputed share trading companies.
• Talk to people who are already trading/investing with a stockbroker and learn from their experience.
• Look at the company’s offerings, their trading platforms, their regular research reports,  brokerage charges, customer support, experience in the industry etc.
• Do secondary research on the internet and see what past customers have to say about the company. Be a little cautious here at the same time as some of the comments might be forged.

Here are few Share Trading companies in India who have shown pretty good performance in the past 2-3 years and are challenging each other across technology, customer service & product innovations.

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Best Stock Brokers in India List

Without further ado, here are the details on the best stock brokers in India along with the corresponding rationale behind putting them on this list.

ShareKhan

ShareKhan is one of the oldest pioneers in the online share trading space in India. Although it has been sold out to BNP Paribas for ₹2200 Crores recently, there has not been a change in focus post the acquisition. ShareKhan continues to boost this brand equity built over the last 16 years and has multiple trading platforms to offer to its customer base.

• Active Clients: 5,08,107
• Complaints Percentage: 0.05%
• Free Tips: Yes
• Trading Platforms Performance: Good

Their online platforms include Trade Tiger, Share Mobile & ShareKhan Classic.

ShareKhan is ranked 5th in the Indian stock market industry and has an existence in more than 675 cities in India. This is one of the major reasons that this has been kept under the best stock brokers list.

They charge in the range of 0.015% to 0.1% depending on the margin money scheme picked by the customer. Sharekhan charges 0 as Account opening fees and ₹400 as AMC.

You can check this Sharekhan Brokerage Calculator for reference.

One of the concerns with Sharekhan is its relatively high brokerage charges, which generally is the case with mainstream full-service stockbrokers.

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ICICI Direct

ICICI Direct enjoys a good amount of brand equity through its ICICI Banking services. This brand equity helps high-scale customer acquisition at a low cost. Due to its high brand value, ICICI charges high commission charges for the simple reason of trust factor inhibited among the user base.

• Active Clients: 8,70,070
• Complaints Percentage: 0.025%
• Free Tips: Yes
• Trading Platforms Performance: Good

It charges in the range of 0.5% for intra-day and 0.75% as commission charges. ICICI opens the Demat account for ₹975 while charges ₹500 as AMC. At the same time, it offers USPs such as a 3-in-1 trading account, Classroom programs to learn stock market, seamless integration with its trading platforms.

You can check this ICICI Direct Brokerage Calculator for reference.

ICICI has a total customer base of 2.6 million with coverage in 87 cities with 200 branches.

It offers Trade Racer for its customer base to trade online. Trade Racer comes with features such as a market watch, streaming quotes, advanced charting and quick transaction support.

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HDFC Securities

HDFC Securities is another full-service share trading company that has an advantage of brand equity gained via its banking services. However, a notch ahead, HDFC securities offers a one of its own kind 4-in-1 trading accounts. This allows the customers to seamlessly move funds and securities within their savings, demat and trading accounts.

• Active Clients: 6,58,668
• Complaints Percentage: 0.001%
• Free Tips: Yes
• Trading Platforms Performance: Average

HDFC Securities has been around for more than 15 years and has high coverage with more than 200 branches. HDFC also has desktop as well as mobile trading applications.

HDFC securities are known well for its research reports and accuracy of the information on stock trends, market movements & industry dynamics.

HDFC charges 0.5% as brokerage commission, ₹999 for opening the demat account & ₹550 as AMC.

You can check this HDFC Securities Brokerage Calculator for reference.

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IIFL

India Infoline or IIFL is one of India’s leading full-service and certainly one of the top stock brokers. They have recently introduced a discount stockbroking solution in the form of 5Paisa as well.

India Infoline is majorly known for its wide offline presence, especially in North India. IIFL has a reasonable prominence in its research and offers regular tips, recommendations to its clients.

• Active Clients: 2,09,244
• Complaints Percentage: 0.05%
• Free Tips: Yes
• Trading Platforms Performance: Good

Further, they have been putting a good amount of emphasis on their trading platforms including IIFL Markets, which is their primary trading platform.

You can check this IIFL Brokerage Calculator for reference.

Established in the year 1995, IIFL has a wide offline presence through its 4000 sub-broker and franchise branches. IIFL charges ₹225 for opening a trading account and ₹555 for opening a demat account from its clients. It also charges ₹300 as annual maintenance charges on a yearly basis.

But when it comes to the IIFL brokerage charges, it comes up with the z20 plan under which you are charged the flat fees to trade in different segments.

Some of the concerns around IIFL including its okayish customer service and clients cannot invest in mutual funds through IIFL. Other than that, IIFL is definitely one of the best stock brokers of India.

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5Paisa

5Paisa is a leading discount stockbroker in India (which used to have the backing of IIFL (India Infoline) until recently when it was set up as a separate entity and in fact got listed on the stock market) launched a few years back and has a presence in Mumbai.

• Active Clients: 1,21,542
• Complaints Percentage: 0.02%
• Free Tips: Yes
• Trading Platforms Performance: Average

It offers one of the lowest brokerage charges in India at ₹10 per executed order. Apart from the 5paisa brokerage, the broker offers advanced trading platforms.

The trading platform includes a decent performing mobile app to go along with a web-based browser application Trade Station and terminal software. With backing from IIFL, it definitely adds up the reliability factor as well with 5Paisa.

You can check this 5Paisa Brokerage Calculator for reference.

One of the best parts of opening an account with it is that 5Paisa offers free tips and recommendations on a regular basis to its clients despite being a discount stockbroker.

No discount stock broker provides that luxury. To open an account with 5Paisa, account opening fees is ₹250 and AMC (annual maintenance charges) stand at ₹400.

The first 5 trades with 5Paisa are free and no brokerage is charged. Additionally, if you start with a capital to INR 25,000 or more, then the AMC and account opening charges are also made Free. Check out the 5paisa offer here!

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Motilal Oswal

Motilal Oswal or MOSL is one of the oldest full-service stock broking houses in the country with its establishment in 1987. They have, majorly been looking at Institutional securities but have recently pivoted towards retail stockbroking as well.

• Active Clients: 3,25,585
• Complaints Percentage: 0.01%
• Free Tips: Yes
• Trading Platforms Performance: Good

Motilal Oswal also falls in the expensive stockbrokers category but what these full-service stockbrokers are doing recently is introducing multiple brokerage plans.

With different options, the choice lies with the consumer on how much brokerage charges to pay. Motilal Oswal charges ₹1000 as trading account opening charges and ₹441 as Demat account annual maintenance charges.

You can check this Motilal Oswal Brokerage Calculator for reference.

Motilal Oswal has done few innovations in customer service including Motilal Oswal Genie that allows its clients to get answers to a few basic queries directly through an automatic bot.

Apart from that, MOSL is known well for its wide range of trading applications across mobile, web, desktop and even a smartwatch application!

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Zerodha

Zerodha was the first discount broker in India with its establishment as recent as 2010. Like other high-volume traders and investors, the CEO of Zerodha, Nitin Kamath faced the same concern of paying out high brokerage charges to the stockbroker.

• Active Clients: 9,60,992
• Complaints Percentage: 0.06%
• Free Tips: No
• Trading Platforms Performance: Good

Even though he’d spend most of his time in setting up his technical and fundamental analysis on stocks, a major chunk of the profits reaped was being taken away by the full-service stockbrokers. With Zerodha, he fixed this concern as Zerodha works on the flat rate brokerage model.

Zerodha, today, is known for its amazing digital initiatives and product innovations, giving them a positioning of a digital-first share trading company in India. Zerodha offers different trading platforms such as Zerodha Kite Web, Kite Mobile, Zerodha Pi, Kite Connect API, Zerodha Coin (a platform for investment in Zerodha Mutual Fund) etc.

They also introduced the concept of making sure the customer learns while trading with their product ‘Zerodha Varsity‘. Varsity is a full-fledged learning web app that guides beginners on the basic fundamentals of investing and trading in the share market.

Zerodha brokerage charges are minimal with the clear-cut pricing model of ₹20 per transaction on Intra-day and no charges for equity delivery. Like the way discount broking works, they don’t charge you any other commission percentage irrespective of your transaction volume or size. Zerodha charges ₹200 while opening the demat account.

You can check this Zerodha Brokerage Calculator for reference.

Zerodha, however, does not allow you to invest in IPOs and its customer service is one area that still lacks maturity.

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Angel Broking

Angel Broking is a well-known full-service share trading company and has been in existence for the last 29 years. Established in 1987, Angel Broking has a presence in 1000+ cities in India with more than 8500 sub-brokers. Apart from the other offerings, its offline coverage helps the broker to be among the best stock brokers in India.

• Active Clients: 4,24,207
• Complaints Percentage: 0.01%
• Free Tips: Yes
• Trading Platforms Performance: Good

Angel Broking charges a flat rate brokerage of ₹15 per executed order if the order value is equal to or less than ₹50,000.

However, if the order value is more than ₹50,000 then the brokerage charge is flat ₹30 per executed order.

You can check this Angel Broking Brokerage Calculator for reference.

They have different online trading platforms such as Angel Broking Trade, Angel Broking App and Angel Speed Pro. Angel Broking runs different offers for customers at different times of the year.

If have any doubt in using App, then read How to use Angel Broking App.

Angel Broking has recently been coming out as a quick mover in multiple digital facets and very recently, they came up with a concept of ARQ, an engine that basically predicts the future performance of a stock by going through billions of data points collected over the past 20+ years.

Among other aspects, Angel broking also provides decent market tips, research, and recommendations at both technical as well as fundamental levels.

Also, know about Angel Broking Sub Broker

However, Angel Broking has an average customer service to go along with a few concerns about its mobile app usage.

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Trade Smart Online

Trade Smart Online comes from the house of VNS finance, a financial house for the last 20 years in India. This discount stock broker is known for its flexible brokerage plans based on the client’s preferences.

• Active Clients: 35,029
• Complaints Percentage: 0.08%
• Free Tips: No
• Trading Platforms Performance: Average

For example, you can opt for percentage level brokerage (0.007% for Intraday) or a flat rate of ₹15 per executed order or you can also opt for ₹3999 monthly subscription price for unlimited trades.

You can check this Trade Smart Online Brokerage Calculator for reference.

Working on the low brokerage business model, Trade Smart Online is known for its impeccable customer service which comes in handy at crucial junctures such as a high shift in the stock market or during heavy traffic times.

Although Trade smart online (or TSO) primarily offers NEST and NOW as the trading platforms they have recently introduced SPIN, a terminal-based trading platform suitable for heavy traders. TSO charges ₹200 for both Demat and Trading accounts separately along with AMC (Annual maintenance charges) of ₹300.

The only concerns with Trade smart Online include its high transaction charges and you cannot invest in IPOs while using TSO’s services.

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Kotak Securities

Kotak Securities is another bank-based stock broker that offers you a 3-in-1 demat account while cashing on its high brand equity gained through its banking services. Kotak Securities, with its 1200 branches across 360 cities and towns of India, provides a large offline network like Angel Broking and India Infoline.

• Active Clients: 4,35,815
• Complaints Percentage: 0.05%
• Free Tips: Yes
• Trading Platforms Performance: Good

It has consistently put in its focus towards technology and its trading platforms across devices are few of the highest performing trading platforms in India. To go along with different trading softwares, Kotak securities offers some technical tools as well that help users to perform their analysis.

Kotak Securities charges ₹750 to open a trading account and levies a maintenance charge of ₹600 which can be paid monthly at the rate of ₹50.

As far as the brokerage is concerned, Kotak securities has a range of plans – including fixed percentage brokerage plans (which are generally expensive) as well as plans based on subscription charges. Know how does Kotak Securities charges brokerage with the help of digital calculator.

All being said, Kotak securities is one of the expensive stockbrokers when it comes to brokerage.

 

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This concludes the list of best stock brokers in India.

The share trading industry requires your time and effort as an investment as well apart from the monetary investments you, as an investor, make. Be wary of the offerings your share trading company opens up for you and understand in length how they are better than the competition.

If you want a thorough understanding and knowledge coming from the research team, make sure how their researchers are looked upon. Do they have a regular presence on business channels among other things?

If you are looking to test the waters, go with discount brokers because you will know how much money will be at stake while making the transactions.

Furthermore, if you need any assistance whatsoever, in finalizing a stockbroker for yourself or you need any advice on a recommended stockbroker, you can provide your preferences and details below: