Zerodha Vs Upstox are the leading discount brokers of the country. They have served customers for over a decade now and are ruling the security broking industry for a decade now. Their hard work, dedication, expertise, and professionalism has made them the best Demat account brokers in India.
Background
We all have faced an extremely depressing situation of being quarantined and businesses had been under lockdown for quite a sometime now. There has been enough pressure on our wallets to earn more money by working more than they used to work before lockdown. It has been extremely critical to ensure that you perform extremely well and get in more business with each passing day. It is good to work hard and achieve your goals, but it is even wiser to achieve your goals smartly.
Post the lockdown, there have been various businesses that would be formulating their strategy to overcome the losses of the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21. And a smart person always analyses the economy and could predict reasonably as to which industries are likely to perform better and which industries will have to work on a lot to get back on track. One could use this prediction to help you earn money. You could invest in shares of the listed companies and earn based on your understanding of businesses. If you feel like the company is going to perform better, you buy shares or call options. However, if you feel that the company might lose some money, buy a put option or short sell the shares of the company.
Investing in shares not only helps you to earn money by way of an increase in share prices but also provides returns in the form of dividends. This is a kind of additional income by taking no extra efforts. To start investing in share markets, one has to open a Demat Account. Demat account is a simple virtual account that maintains the record of transactions you make on the stock exchange. It is an account that maintains your share certificates electronically.
Nowadays, there have been a lot of Demat account brokers. But the best Demat account brokers are Zerodha Vs Upstox. These brokers are the best Demat account in India and have served many elite clients. They have a number of advantages that help their clients to earn more money by investing in the stock market.
Let us now analyze and compare the best Demat account brokers in different categories.
Zerodha VS Upstox Review
There are various charges that a Demat account broker charges like account opening charges, brokerage charges, Demat maintenance charges, etc. I will take you through all the charges for the two of the best Demat account brokers. Also, we will be analysing other factors to compare the two discount brokers.
Zerodha vs Upstox: Background of the brokers
| Overview | Zerodha | Upstox |
| Company Type | Private | Private |
| Broker Type | Discount Broker | Discount Broker |
| Headquarters | Bangalore, India | Mumbai, India |
| Founder | Nithin Kamath | Raghu Kumar, Ravi Kumar & Shrinivas Vishvanath |
| Established Year | 2010 | 2009 |
Both Zerodha and Upstox have been in existence for a long time now. These brokerage houses have been in the business of brokerage and have been serving their clients to successfully earn from share markets. Zerodha came into existence in 2010 under the leadership of Mr. Nithin Kamath and Upstox was founded by Mr. Raghu Kumar, Mr. Ravi Kumar and Mr. Shrinivas Vishvanthan in 2009. Their guidance has helped their brokerage houses to be the best brokerage houses in India
Zerodha vs Upstox: Brokerage Charges
| Comparison of Brokerage Charges | Zerodha | Upstox |
| Equity Delivery | Free | Free |
| Equity Intraday | Rs 20 or 0.01% whichever amount is lower | Rs 20 or 0.01% whichever amount is lower |
| Equity Futures | Rs 20 or 0.01% whichever amount is lower | Flat Fee Rs. 20 |
| Equity Options | Flat Fee Rs. 20 | Flat Fee Rs. 20 |
| Currency Futures | Rs 20 or 0.01% whichever amount is lower | Flat Fee Rs. 20 |
| Currency Options | Flat Fee Rs. 20 | Flat Fee Rs. 20 |
| Commodity Trading | Flat Fee Rs. 20 | Flat Fee Rs. 20 |
| Minimum Brokerage | NIL | NIL |
| Call and Trade Charges | Rs 20 For Every Executable Order | Rs 20 For Every Executable Order |
| Brokerage Plans | Zerodha offers ‘Pay as you go’ Brokerage Plans and has no prepaid brokerage plans. | Upstox offers a priority brokerage package for those customers who need high leverage. |
This helps us to analyse that both the best Demat account brokers charge somewhere the same brokerage charges. However, the brokerage charged by Zerodha is relatively less compared to Upstox for some of the transactions, as it levies a lower charge for low valued transactions. This helps the small investors and the beginners to have a lesser cost for their securities. For the brokerage charges section, Zerodha has an upper hand and is considered better than Upstox.
Zerodha vs Upstox: Account Opening Charges
| Comparison of Account Opening Charges | Zerodha | Upstox |
| Trading Account Opening Charges (One Time) | Rs. 200 | Rs. 150 |
| Trading Annual Maintenance Charges | Rs. 0 | Rs. 0 |
| Demat Account Opening Charges (One Time) | Rs. 100 | Rs. 0 |
| Demat Account Annual Maintenance Charges | Rs. 300 | Rs. 150 |
For opening an account, we must pay account opening charges. These charges differ if we compare the charges for the two brokers. For a trading account, Upstox has a lower account opening charge by Rs. 50. Whereas, for Demat Account, there are two types of charges, Demat account opening charges, and Demat account annual maintenance charges. Overall, Rs. 250 is charged less by Upstox. This is one of the points, where Upstox has a slightly upper hand. However, this small difference of money would be offset by the savings made by using Zerodha Demat account as their brokerage charges are low.
Zerodha vs Upstox: Transaction Related Charges
| Transaction Related Charges | Zerodha | Upstox |
| Transaction Charges | 0.003% of Total Turnover | 0.003% of Total Turnover |
| STT | 0.0126% of Total Turnover | 0.0126% of Total Turnover |
| SEBI Turnover Charges | 0.0002% of Total Turnover | 0.0002% of Total Turnover |
| GST | 18% of (Transaction and Brokerage Charges) | 18% of (Transaction and Brokerage Charges) |
While comparing the transaction-based charges, the two of the best Demat account brokers share a similar pricing model. This means that the transaction-based charges are the same, whether you open your account with Zerodha or Upstox, this factor remains indifferent. So, considering the analysis until now, Zerodha seems to be better than Upstox.
Zerodha VS Upstox: Technical support
| Comparison of Technical support | Zerodha | Upstox |
| Trading Platforms | Zerodha has trading platforms such as Coin, Streak, GoldenPi, Varsity, Smallcase, Console, and Sensibull. | Upstox Pro Web has Trading Platforms such as Coin, Streak, GoldenPi, Varsity, Smallcase, Console, and Sensibull. |
| Mobile Trading App | Zerodha Kite 3 mobile App is available for both active and passive day traders. This can be downloaded on Android and iOS without any charges. | Upstox has a mobile trading App which can be downloaded on Android and iOS without any charges. |
| Developer Console | Zerodha has no developer console to build own trading App. | Upstox provides the Developer Console that can be used to create trading App with the help of languages e.g. Python. |
It is important that the Demat account broker is technically advanced. If the broker is not technically advanced, there might be issues while trading and delays in placing orders. This could make you helpless and decisions taken could result in losses. Comparing the technical aspects of the best Demat brokers, it appears that both the brokerage houses have similar technical support to provide a strong backbone to support their operations. The mobile trading application of both the brokerage houses is freely available on the play store and app store. Therefore, in terms of technical support, it can be inferred that both, Zerodha and Upstox are at par in performing their operations and serving their clients.
Zerodha vs Upstox: Client support
| Customer Support | Zerodha | Upstox |
| Dedicated Dealer | No | No |
| Offline Trading | No | No |
| Online Trading | Yes | Yes |
| 24*7 Support | Yes | No |
| Email Support | Yes | Yes |
| Chat Support | Yes | No |
| Toll Free Number | No | No |
| Branches | Zero | Zero |
This factor is important, as client support portrays the tone of the management. Better customer service means that the broker is committed towards maximizing the client satisfaction. For both the brokerage houses, the clients do not have access to a personal relationship manager, nor they can trade offline, nor any one of them has a branch office. However, there are some common points like online trading and email support for customer queries which is available for both the brokerage houses. The points of difference are that Zerodha provides 24 X 7 support to its clients and is there to help their clients at all points of time. Also, it has a feature of chat support that helps their clients to resolve their queries instantly. These factors have proved that Zerodha believes in client servicing more than anything else. This makes Zerodha a better brokerage house than Upstox.
Zerodha vs Upstox: Client complains and its resolutions
| Complaints (Current Year) | Zerodha | Upstox |
| Lodged in BSE | 120 | 185 |
| Resolved in BSE | 117 | 126 |
| Percentage of resolution in BSE | 98% | 68% |
| Lodged in NSE | 89 | 175 |
| Resolved in NSE | 85 | 139 |
| Percentage of resolution in NSE | 96% | 79% |
The complaints are made against the brokers in case they do not function within their limits or do not perform their duties appropriately. Aggrieved clients then make a complaint to the relevant authorities for getting justice. The lesser cases mean better performance. In case of Zerodha vs Upstox, there have been a lot of cases against Upstox in both BSE and NSE than Zerodha. If we check the percentage of resolution of cases in BSE and NSE for Zerodha, it is 98% and 96% respectively. Whereas in the case of Upstox, it is 68% for BSE and 79% for NSE. This makes Zerodha more responsible towards their clients and provides them with satisfactory resolutions for minor complaints lodged with the stock exchanges. Upstox has a poor track record for resolution for complaints lodged. This makes Zerodha better than Upstox in terms of governance and transparency of maintenance and operations of their functions.
Overall Analysis and Conclusion for Zerodha VS Upstox
We have analyzed the best Demat account brokers in great detail and have understood the advantages and disadvantages of Zerodha VS Upstox on various parameters. To summarize the same, we can compare both the broking houses on each parameter.
| Sr. No | Parameter | Better Broker |
| 1 | Background of Brokers | At par with each other |
| 2 | Brokerage Charges | Zerodha |
| 3 | Account opening charges | Upstox |
| 4 | Transaction related charges | At par with each other |
| 5 | Technical support | At par with each other |
| 6 | Customer support | Zerodha |
| 7 | Client complains and its resolution | Zerodha |
Conclusion
We have understood that both the brokers are in existence from almost the same period of time, so they have equal experience in the business. The brokerage charges for Zerodha is less as it provides a lower brokerage in some cases where Upstox Zerodha. The transaction-related charges and technical support is almost the same for both the broking houses. Zerodha has a client wealth maximization approach, which can be seen by the way they support their clients as rapidly as possible. In the case of client complaints and their resolutions, Zerodha has performed really well by having a few complaints and the resolution rate is 96% and more.
The abovementioned factors have made things very clear that Zerodha is the best Demat account Broker in India. A person who wishes to start his journey with investing in stock exchange shall open an account with Zerodha and save upon costs. Also, Zerodha is an excellent broking house and has an inhouse research team that provides its clients with well-researched guidance on stocks and their future performance. This helps the investor to have timely information about the events that could probably change the value of your portfolio positively. If at all you are stuck at any point, the customer care executives are technically sound enough to guide you to understand the process of trading and investing in share markets.