Upstox Vs Stoxkart Comparison: Which One is Better?

Comparison: Upstox vs Stoxkart

In this article, we will compare and discuss the features and many other metrics of comparison between Upstox, one of the best discount brokerage firms in India and Stoxkart, a somewhat new brokerage firm.

Who are we comparing?

As I said above, here we will compare between two very well-known discount brokerage firms in India; Upstox and Stoxkart.

The former firm has been around for quite some time now and has placed themselves into one of the best brokerage firms in India. The latter one, i.e. Stoxkart is a newer but popular one. Before we start comparing the metrics let us get to know about these two firms a little more.

Upstox (RKSV): –

Upstox is a Mumbai based discount brokerage firm and was earlier known as RKSV Securities. As I said a number of times, it is one of the best discount brokerage firms in India.

They charge very affordable brokerage costs and at the same time, you can find quite high margins. Moreover, their trading platforms are quite generous as well as user-friendly.

The firm deals in a number of trade segments like Equity, Currency, Commodity as well as Derivatives Trading. They have grown quite a large client base over the years with their brilliant products and satisfactory customer service.

Stoxkart (SMC Global): –

Stoxkart is one of the newer discount brokerage firms in India. It is a subsidiary company of the full-service brokerage firm SMC Global Corporations based out in Tokyo, Japan.

Stoxkart India is their discount brokerage firm. With many young talents in their payroll, Stoxkart has rapidly grown into the Indian Stock Market as a reliable discount stock brokerage firm.

They offer various common trade segments with the addition of Mutual Fund investment as well.

So, let us start our comparison of these two discount brokerage firms. We will look at a number of metrics to compare them as well as the pros & cons of working with these two firms.

Upstox vs Stoxkart: A full comparison

As I said, we will be comparing the two firms based on a number of metrics. The most important of them are the various transaction charges and brokerage plans & charges, as well as the various account opening charges.

We will also look at the Demat accounts and its features as offered by the two firms; the various products on offer as well as the various trading platforms available and their features and compatibilities.

We will also look at the various research and advisories if provided or not along with the margin or exposure provided by these two discount brokerage firms.

Company Overview

However, before we go into all those points of comparison, let us make a quick overview of the two firms so that you get a clearer picture of the two.

Stoxkart Vs Upstox Services/Products

we will take a look at the various services or products these firms have to offer. Here we will only look at the services without dwelling deep into them; just an overview.

Both Upstox and Stoxkart offer services like Equity Trading, Commodities Trading, and Currency & Derivative Trading.

In case of equity, both the firms are supported on NSE & BSE exchanges, whereas Commodities are offered by both the firms on MCX. Both Upstox and Stoxkart offer online Mutual Funds investment options.

Upstox offers Exchange-Traded Funds or ETFs while Stoxkart does not. Another noticeable thing is the availability of MF SIP from Stoxkart, whereas Upstox does not offer such services. This really helps Stoxkart to stand out from the rest of the discount brokers in the country.

However, they do have some shortcomings, where neither one of the two firms offer certain services like Debt, Banking, Forex, Insurance, Equity SIP, Portfolio Management Services (PMS) and online Initial Public Offerings (IPO).

Account Opening Charges and AMC

In this section, we will compare between the different account opening charges for various trading accounts as well as Demat accounts. There is some opening charge as well as an annual maintenance charge or AMC associated with the account. I have dedicated another section totally to Demat accounts and its features.

Both Upstox and SAS Online offer Trading and Demat accounts to their clientele. Opening charges are also quite affordable. However, they are a bit higher in the case of Stoxkart. Trading AMCs are not free for Stoxkart in comparison to Upstox where it is free.

The depository source for Upstox is CDSL whereas Stoxkart deals in both CDSL and NDSL. Both Upstox and SAS Online provide DP services.

Demat Account Comparison

The word Demat comes from the word ‘dematerialised’. This means that all the assets a trader buy or sell is held in their Demat account after these assets are converted from their physical form to an electronic form. A trader can use his/her Demat account to deposit a dematerialised share or to withdraw one and sell.

Various depositories such as NSDL, CSDL, etc provides depository sources for these Demat Accounts. They are of course provided via the intermediaries or discount brokers like the ones we are comparing here and many others in the business.

The Demat account opening charges are higher for Stoxkart in comparison to Upstox. Neither one of the firms requires advance deposits to open Demat accounts. The costs for AMC are also higher in the case of Stoxkart.

Both Upstox & Stoxkart offer DP services, i.e. Depository Participant services; the sources differ somewhat as Upstox deals with the only CDSL whereas both CDSL and NDSL act as the depository source for Stoxkart.

There are various other related charges like Demat & Remat charges, transaction charges on Debit per ISIN, Pledge creation and closure as well as Pledge creation and closure confirmation charges, Pledge Invocation charges and failed instruction charges. Refer to the table below for all of this informations.

Compare Transaction Charges

Discount brokers offer various trading options with reduced or discounted transaction charges in comparison with full-service brokers. They generally levy a percentage on the trade value of each and every one of your buy and sell orders executed. Different trade segments have different rates and hence charges associated with them.

These rates (or percentages) are both defined and regulated by the various stock exchanges the firm or firms are associated with. In India, exchanges like NSE, BSE, MCX, etc. monitor these regulations.

However, there is no strict limit on these rates; firms can manoeuvre these rates within a certain limit as set by the exchanges mentioned above.

For example, the BSE defined rate for equity delivery with Upstox is 0.01% whereas the same for Stoxkart is 0.003%. In the case of NSE, the rates in the currency futures segment for Upstox is 0.0011% and for Stoxkart it is 0.0009%.

The various segments compared here include Equity Delivery, Equity Intraday, Equity Futures, Equity Options, Currency Futures, Currency Options and Commodities Trading.

Brokerage Plans & Charges

In this section you will find a comparison between the various Brokerage Plans and Charges from these two firms. Upstox has two different plans namely, Upstox Basic & Upstox Priority. However, Stoxkart has only one plan which can be called a flat Rs. 15 Plan. Neither have any monthly or yearly plans in their arsenal.

In the case of Upstox, the charges differ somewhat for the two plans. Upstox offers free Equity Delivery in both their plans; it is the same for Stoxkart.

Other segments like Equity Intraday, Equity Futures, Equity Options, Currency Futures, Currency Options and Commodities Futures and Commodities Options are all charged under the two Upstox plans. However, in case of Stoxkart’s Flat Rs. 15 plan the charges as the name suggests is Rs. 15 for all the segments.

None of the two firms has any minimum brokerage charge or any kind of hidden charges, which makes them ideal discount brokers as this type of brokers have a very transparent charging system. A charge of Rs. 20 is taken by both the firms for offline trading and both of them provide brokerage and SPAN margin calculators.

Taxes & other Government Charges

Traders and/or investors need to pay some taxes to the government of India. In this section we will look at the various taxes you need to pay while working with these two firms. Incidentally this remains the same for both as these taxes are set up by the government and the firms have no influence whatsoever over the tax amounts and rates. These include, Securities Transaction Tax or STT, SEBI Charges, Goods and Services Tax or GST and Stamp Duty.

Stoxkart Vs Upstox Exposure/Leverage or Margin

The word leverage or margin in this regard refers to the value up to which the stock can amount to in case of an increase in its value.

This means that in Margin Trading, when a trader borrows stocks and/or capital that are above his affordable budget, the figures in the table represent the amount up to which it can increase. However, there is a risk associated with Margin Trading; the value will not always increase.

Research & Advisory

Being discount brokerage firms, neither of the two firms provides any sort of research results, market analysis or advisory services to their clients.

However, a table has been provided below, which can give you a basic idea of the types of researches that are done in the stock market.

Even though Stoxkart is a discount brokerage firm, they do offer free trading tips to their clients. Other than that, their parent firm SMC provides them with the options to offer certain other advisory privileges to Stoxkart clients. This is possible due to the fact that SMC is a full-service broker

Trading Platforms & their Features

In this section we will look at the various trading platforms or softwares provided by these two firms and their features. There are about three different desktop platforms from Upstox whereas Stoxkart have two mobile platforms.

Pros & Cons

Conclusion

In this age of technological advancement, a country’s economic status is highly influenced by its stock market.

This is the very reason why the government regulates the share market and the industry keeps a close eye on it. It is the very premise of this discount brokerage comparison that we have brought to you in this article.

However, before we start comparing, I’d like to say a few words about the stockbrokers in the market. As you are all aware, there are mainly two types of stock brokers in the field: Full-Service Brokers and Discount Brokers.

The former type of brokers not only executes your buy and sell orders on the market, but also provides their clientele with various market research reports and advisories as well as various other features.

The latter type i.e. discount brokers, as their name suggests, executes your entire buy and sell orders on the market at a discounted rate. This means they will charge a discounted rate to their clients on every transaction made.

However, discount brokers do lack in certain areas such as research reports, advisories, etc.

Nowadays, the Indian stock market is buzzing with discount brokers. This is mainly due to the fact that these brokers take advantage of the various technologies of the current time.

With the advent of these brokers, traders and investors from different economic backgrounds can indulge in the stock market. Due to the higher rates of the full-service brokers, not everyone could afford to hire one.

However, the discount brokers with their rebated rates have made it possible for those who could not hire the full-service brokers to opt for the discount brokers.

As I said, there are a number of discount brokers emerging almost daily. This can make it somewhat difficult for newcomers to choose their discount brokers. Each brokerage firm has distinctive features that are unique to that firm. This is where a discount brokerage comparison becomes important.

You might know a thing or two about the most popular ones in the country, but what about the newer ones? What features do they have to offer? And how can they be beneficial to my case in comparison with the next?

We all have asked ourselves these questions. Not to worry, in this article, I have tried to address these queries as best as possible.