Zerodha Vs Upstox – Which Discount Broker is Better For Traders & Investors?

In this article, we will discuss two of the most widely known names in the Indian Brokerage houses, namely Zerodha Vs Upstox. These are two of the biggest discount broking firms in the country, with a considerable time to market as well as popularity among the Indian Investors. 

This comparison is solely based on an informative level and limited to discussion only.

The comparison is aimed at those who are new to the market so that they get to know what to look forward to in a discount brokerage firm.

So let us first take a brief tour through who they are and what they do.

Who are we comparing?

The two firms we are going to compare here are two of the best discount brokers in India. Naturally, we will compare the best in the market.

Well, Zerodha and Upstox, both fall under that category. So, without further ado, let us begin our comparison.

However, before we go into the comparison, I feel, I must introduce you to these two firms.

Zerodha:

It is one of India’s leading discount brokerage firms based in Bangalore. Founded in 2010, these discount brokerage firm deals in various trading options like Equity Trading, commodity Trading, Derivative Trading, and many such services.

They have been in the market for over a decade now. With a vast client base in and outside of India, they are no doubt one of the best in this business.

They know what it means to be a discount broker in the 21^st century, and as such offer their clients a number of online trading platforms for the ease of work. 

They won the award of “India’s best retail brokerage for 2018” and were awarded by NSE.

Upstox (Rksv)

Earlier known as Upstox(RKSV) Securities, this Mumbai based discount brokerage firm is also one of the best discount brokerage firms in the country. 

With their low brokerage costs and high margins, they are not very far off from being the best in the country.

Not to mention their generous trading platforms, those are really keeping in turn with today’s world.

Like Zerodha, they also deal in Equity, Commodity, Currency and Derivatives Trading and as such have been doing so quite well.

They also have a large client base including strong backing from some of the eminent names in the Indian share market. They have been in the stockbroking business for around 8 years since their foundation in 2011.

Zerodha vs Upstox: A full comparison

Whenever you compare between two discount brokerage firms, you must always keep in mind about the following aspects upon which one must enquire to find out a complete comparison:

• Services/Products;
• Account Opening Charges & AMC;
• Demat Accounts;
• Brokerage Plans;
• Brokerage Costs;
• Transaction Charges, Taxes & other charges;
• Exposure or Margin (Leverage);
• Features;
• Fund Add/Withdrawal Options;
• Market Research & Advisory;
• Trade Orders;
• Trading Platforms;
• Trade Support & Tools;
• Investors Category;
• Charting;
• Customer Support;
• Customer Complaints and lastly
• Pros & Cons of the firms.

We are going to look into each and every aspect one-by-one and come out with a thorough comparison. However, I would like to start off a bit differently.

Zerodha or Upstox Which is Better 

Here we will take a quick look at the various information regarding the companies themselves and not about their features, products and so on. Those will follow one after the other.

Zerodha Vs Upstox Services & Products

Both Zerodha or Upstox offer services like Stock or Equity Trading, Commodities Trading, Currency & Derivative Trading.

They offer equity and equity derivatives on both exchanges namely NSE & BSE, whereas Commodities are offered by both on MCX. They both offer online Mutual Fund investment and Exchange-Traded Funds or ETFs options. 

Zerodha vs Upstox charges

Account Opening Charges: Zerodha vs Upstox

Upstox or Zerodha offers Trading and Demat accounts to their clients. Account opening charges are quite affordable starting from Rs. 150 to Rs. 300. They do charge low AMC on their Demat accounts.

Both the firms have CDSL as their depository source and they both offer DP services.

Currently, Upstox Demat account opening free

In case, when opening a Zerodha Demat account only in equity, there is a charge of Rs. 300. Similarly, if you open an account in equity + currency, then only 300 is charged. But if you open a Demat account in equity + commodity + currency, then there is a charge of ₹ 500.

Zerodha vs Upstox Brokerage Charges

The various segments Brokerage Charge we are going to compare here is Equity Delivery, Equity Intraday, Equity Futures, Equity Options, Currency Futures, Currency Options, and Commodities Trading.

Brokerage Comparision List

Compare Brokerage Other Broker:

Zerodha vs Upstox margin / Exposure/ Leverage

You may have heard the word leverage in connection with the real estate market. However, you will also find it here in the stock market. Here it is known as Margin money where an investor would borrow capital to invest in more stocks. This can sometimes increase the returns on your investments. There remains a risk involved.

There are various margins depending on the trade segments.

Zerodha Vs Upstox Multiple Plans 

We are going to compare the various Brokerage & Margin Plans and Charges for these two firms. Zerodha has only one Brokerage Plan whereas Upstox has two plans: Upstox Basic & Upstox Priority. None of these firms have a monthly or yearly subscription plans.

Plans

Brokerage Charges Plans

Upstox Vs Zerodha Transaction Charges

You get to see different trading transaction charges in different brokers, in the same way, Zerodha and Upstox also have their respective transaction charges. Zerodha levies about 0.00325% on buy and sell on equity delivery whereas 0.0019% on equity future only on sell. 

These rates or percentages are defined and regulated by the various stock exchanges the firm or firms are associated with like NSE, BSE, MCX, etc. However, there is no strict limit on these rates; firms can manipulate these rates but only within a specified limit. For example, the BSE rate for equity delivery with Zerodha is 0.003% whereas the same for Upstox is 0.002%.

The figures in the percentages amount to Rs. per Crore, i.e. 0.003% means Rs. 300 per Cr. of transaction done. A simple example can clear out this confusion. Let us say that you have bought 1000 shares of a company A. Now, let us also assume that each share costs around Rs. 950.

This means that the total transaction turnover in purchasing 1000 such shares is = Rs. (950 X 1000)

= Rs. 950000.

Let us take the first segment i.e. Equity Delivery.

In this segment, the NSE rates for both Zerodha and Upstox is 0.00325%.

This means the transaction charge in this case is = Rs. (950000 X 0.00325%)

= Rs. 31.82.

However, for BSE the rates differ like 0.003% for Zerodha and 0.01% for Upstox. Thus the respective transaction charges can be calculated as above to Rs. 28.5 for Zerodha and Rs. 95 for Upstox.

There are various brokerage calculators available for more correct calculations. This is just a rough example to explain how the calculation works generally.

Zerodha Vs Upstox Other Charges

Taxes and other Government Charges

These are taxes paid to the government by the customer, i.e. investors. Both Zerodha and Upstox have the same margins in these taxes as they have no control over the margin or the ownership of those amounts.

These are paid to the Government of India. These include Securities Transaction Tax or STT, SEBI Charges, Goods and Services Tax or GST and Stamp Duty.

Compare Zerodha vs Upstox Customer Rating

Zerodha vs Upstox (Rksv) Research & Advisory

This section is all about the various researches and advisory services provided by the stock broker firms. However, since both Zerodha & Upstox are discount brokers, neither of them provides such services. Still, a table has been given below, pointing out the areas of researches and results from analysis’s provided by the full-service brokers. Among them, only Zerodha provides Equity Reports only.

Zerodha Vs Upstox Trading Platforms Comparison

These are basically software, used for various trading options like opening and closing of accounts and management of market options and positions.

Investors can access them through a financial liaison such as the discount brokers. They often offer their clients with Trading Platforms.

While some offers for free, others charge a nominal discounted rate and in return, they maintain a funded account along with executing a certain number of trades per month.

Both Zerodha and Upstox offer free Trading Platforms, which makes them stand out from the rest of the discount brokers in the country.

In spite of free accounts, both firms offer various features in their platforms like real-time updates, portfolio details, research reports, live market reports and many more.

While they both offer various demo platforms on desktops, mobiles and tablets, neither of them offers MAC platforms. However, their mobile and tablet apps are for both Android and iOS users.

Zerodha Vs Upstox Platform Features

Zerodha Vs Upstox Trade Orders

The different types of Orders, which are placed on the trading exchanges for obtaining various financial assets like stocks and futures contracts, are called Trade Orders.

The trading mechanism works in an order-driven style which means it matches a buyer’s and a seller’s order criteria. A trade is executed only when the buyer’s purchase price matches the seller’s selling price.

There are various order types such as:

1.  Cover Order (CO)

⇒ Allows you to trade in equity and index derivatives;

⇒ The broker gives an additional margin;

⇒ Both Zerodha & Upstox offer CO.

2.  Bracket Order (BO)

⇒ Allows you to trade in equity and index derivatives;

⇒ You get a higher margin by limiting your losses;

⇒ Both Zerodha & Upstox offer CO.

3.  After Market Order (AMO)

⇒ Sent to exchange on the next trading day;

⇒ Both Zerodha & Upstox offer CO.

4.  Good Till Cancelled Order (GTC)

⇒     Only Zerodha offers GTC Orders.

There are various other Order Types such as Cash N Carry or CNC Order, Margin Intraday Square or MIS Order, Normal Order (NMRL), BTST and STBT orders, etc. both firms provide these Order Types.

Zerodha Vs Upstox Charting Comparison

Charting refers to the process of analysing and forecasting the stock market and commodity prices in the market and current trends.

Both Zerodha and Upstox offer charting but in a limited approach. Look out to the table below for more details.

Zerodha vs Upstox Brokerage Calculator

There are Brokerage and SPAN Margin Calculators available for both Zerodha and Upstox.

Zerodha and Upstox Feature

Now many of you might be unclear about what a Demat Account is and what its benefits are. Before we move on to comparing the Demat Account services of these firms, I’d like to address the questions mentioned above.

Well, the word Demat comes from the word dematerialized. A Demat account is used to hold shares, government securities ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, etc. all in one place.

These shares are brought and converted from their physical form to an electronic form which is then held in these account(s). This makes online trading very easy.

In India, free Demat Account services are provided by the depositories namely, NSDL, CSDL, etc. They are provided via the intermediaries, i.e. discount brokers like Zerodha, Upstox and many others in this business.

There are various benefits you can get from a Demat Account:

• It makes share transfer between investors very easy;
• You can use the shares in your Demat account as collateral while securing various loan schemes from the bank
• It is very easy to convert your physical shares into electronic forms and vice-versa;
• Issuing a DIS to the depository can be smoothly executed via a Demat Account.

As we saw earlier, the account opening charges for a Demat Account with Zerodha is slightly more than that with Upstox. Zerodha charges Rs. 300 while Upstox charges Rs. 100 for the same.

The AMC for a Demat account with Zerodha will cost you Rs. 300 annually whereas the same would cost Rs 150 per annum with Upstox.

Both Zerodha and Upstox provide DP or Depository Participant services with the CSDL Depository. The DP ID of Zerodha is 81600 whereas that of Upstox is 81800.

Other than that there are various other charges like Demat & Remat charges, transaction charges on Debit per ISIN, Pledge creation and closure charges, Pledge creation and closure confirmation charges, Pledge Invocation charges and failed instruction charges.

Zerodha Vs Upstox Branches/Office

Customer Service

Zerodha Vs Upstox Pros & Cons

In thi9s section, we are going to make a list of the pros and cons of both the firms in a comparative perspective.

Zerodha Vs Upstox Customer Complaints

This is the last point of comparison that we are going to keep.

Account Opening Request Contact Broker

Zerodha Call Back Request

Upstox Call Back Request

Zerodha vs Upstox Gernal Quora FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Q.1 Which is better Zerodha vs. Upstox?
Ans. Both Zerodha and Upstox are two of the leading discount brokers in India. Both the firms have unique offerings, like free Trading account AMCs, a maximum of Rs. 20 brokerage charges and many such similar offers. However, while you have gone through the detailed comparison above you may have noticed some dissimilarities in their services, platforms, charges, advisory services, etc
While Zerodha costs are more for opening a trading account, Upstox has lower charges. Similarly, Zerodha offers few more services then Upstox. Ultimately the choice is yours; being two of the flagships in their genre of business, both are equally capable and trustworthy options.

Q.2 Is RKSV and Upstox same?
Ans. RSKV is the erstwhile name of Upstox. Founded in 2009, the firm changed its name to Upstox in 2016. The firm was founded by Raghu and Ravi Kumar and Shrinivas Viswanath. Through various re-modeling plans and reforms in a span of 10 years, they have grown into one of the best discount stock broker in India. They offer various trade segments with state of the art trading platforms and a maximum of Rs. 20 brokerage charges. They have many other cool and unique features that you can find in this brokerage comparison guide.

Q.3 How is Upstox/RKSV different from Zerodha?
Ans. Both Upstox and Zerodha are discount brokerage firms and two of the best ones in the country for that matter. However, they have some minor differences in their products and offerings. Other than that they are almost alike in their service structures. The administrative structure, however, is out of the scope of this article.
One major difference is the brokerage plans. While Zerodha has only one, Upstox has a multiple brokerage plan feature, namely Upstox Basic and Pro. The charges vary marginally.

Q.4 How good is RKSV as compared to Zerodha?
Ans. In comparison to Zerodha, Upstox does have some rather unique features like the multiple brokerage plan feature which can satisfy clients of different budgets. Trading platforms from Upstox are more technically advanced in comparison to Zerodha’s. Another cool feature is Upstox’s margin or leverage; this is obviously more impressive than Zerodha.
Having said so, it should be kept in mind that both of them have some features that are unique to them. So, you cannot definitely say one is better than the other.

Q.5 What is MTM in Upstox?
Ans. MTM or Mark to Market is a metric in the share market. It measures the “fair value” of any account you hold over time. The account here refers to your assets and liabilities. MTM provides a realistic evaluation of your current economic or financial situation. Let us take an example to understand better how it is calculated:
Assume the available cash margin to be Rs. 20,000 in F&O stock. With Upstox a trader will get a 5x leverage. Total exposure becomes Rs. 100,000. Again assume that he/she buys 100 shares at Rs. 1000 and sells all 100 of them at Rs.900.
Thus, loss incurred = [100 shares X Rs. (1000-900 = 100)] = Rs. 10,000.
In comparison to his actual share, his/her MTM has now reached 50% = (20,000 – 10,000)/20,000 = 50%. Now, with every additional loss of 10% Upstox will issue warning notifications to the trader and at 80% MTM, the trader will need to deposit more funds in his/her account. If failed to do so, Upstox will revert to squaring off positions.

Q.6 How do I change my bank account on Upstox?
Ans. Follow the steps mentioned below: Download/Print the application for changing bank accounts; Select either “Change Primary Bank Account” or “Add Secondary Bank Account” for changing trading accounts, whereas for Demat accounts go to “Demat modification”;
You need to submit a canceled cheque with your name, account number, IFSC code, and MICR of the bank account you wish to change to;
As you can see the process is very easy to follow. However, you need to keep in mind the last point; your credentials should be impeccable.

Q.7 How can I close my Zerodha account?
Ans. The first and foremost thing you should keep in mind that you cannot have any debit in your account before you close the account. Another thing to consider is that there are no securities in your Demat account.
Having said that, let us see how you can close your Zerodha account. All you need to do is to download the closure form, select the Close Account option, fill out the form and send it to the head offices of the firm.
You can also use an e-sign, i.e. digitally sign the document after filling it up online and submit it. It will be processed within 5 to 7 days.

Q.8 How can I change my phone number in Upstox?
Ans. All you need is to download the KYC form from their website, fill it out and mail it at their address. You can find all the details here. You can do the whole thing on the internet as well. You can download the form from this link.
For your Demat account closing, you can do the same thing. Try looking under the drop-down menu Download Forms. With their recent updates, you can do the whole thing from their website.

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