Zerodha Review 2022: Benefits & Drawbacks

Zerodha is India’s first broker to offer a discount brokerage fee. Zerodha became the largest stockbroker in 2020 which currently has a 50 lakh customer base.

Before Zerodha, you had to pay hefty percentage-based brokerage fees to full-service brokers like ICICI Direct, Sharekhan, or Motilal Oswal. Full-service brokers charge high brokerage because they provide research advisory services like stock buying or selling tips.

Zerodha introduced a discount brokerage service in which the broker provides only the trading platform, not the advisory service.  For that, Zerodha charges a lower brokerage fee 

Let’s have a quick look at Zerodha brokerage charges.

Zerodha Overview

Zerodha offers multiple investment options as

• Stocks
• Mutual funds
• IPO
• Bonds
• Options trading (in partnership with Sensibul)

Zerodha offers direct mutual fund investment, so you don’t have to pay commission to Zerodha if you want to invest in mutual funds as well. You can use the Zerodha Coin app for mutual funds investment. You can also invest in bonds and government securities using the coin platform.

To learn stock trading, you can download the Zerodha Varsity app from the play store that will help understand complex stock market topics in an easy-to-understand language.

For an IPO subscription, you need to open the Zerodha Console dashboard that we’ll discuss in the later section of this article.

Zerodha Charges

#1. Zerodha Account Opening & Maintenance Charges

• Account opening charges (online)- For equity Rs. 200 and for commodity Rs. 100
• Account opening charges (offline)- For equity Rs. 400 and for commodity Rs. 200
• Account maintenance charges – Rs. 75 per quarter

I would suggest you open an online account, that would save your money and time.

#2. Zerodha Brokerage Charges 

Zerodha charges ZERO brokerage for equity delivery orders. Zerodha charges a flat Rs 20 or 0.03% (whichever is lower) per executed order on both buying and selling in intraday. 

For example, You trade for Rs. 10,000 in a day your brokerage charges would be –

10000 X 0.03% = 3

Brokerage = Rs. 3 (because lower than Rs. 20)

If you trade for Rs. 1,00,000, your brokerage would be –

100000 X 0.03% = Rs. 30

Brokerage = Rs. 20 (because Rs. 20 is lower than Rs. 30).

Let’s discuss brokerage charges (segment-wise) in detail.

#1. Equity charges (Delivery & Intraday)

#2. F&O charges

#3. Currency charges

#4. Commodities charges

#3. Zerodha Other Charges

• Call & trade charges – Rs 50 per call.
• Auto square off charges – Rs 50 per executed order for MIS/BO/CO positions
• Physical contract note charges – Rs 20 per contract. Courier charges are extra.
• Trade SMS alerts (optional) charges – Rs 1 for Equity, F&O, and Currency trade alerts and Rs 0.50 for Commodity trade alerts.
• Payment gateway charges – Rs 9 per transaction.
• DP charges – Rs 13.5 + GST per transaction. For selling equity delivery stocks.

Zerodha Margin Leverage

Zerodha offers a maximum margin for intraday trading of up to 6x (varies stocks) and 1.3x across F&O (Equity, Currency, and Commodity) trading. 

Note – Zerodha doesn’t offer additional margin on carrying forward positions for F&O and equity delivery trades.

Zerodha Trading Platforms

#1. Zerodha Kite 

Zerodha Kite platform is a web-based trading platform that is easy to use and even works at slow internet speeds. No worries if you don’t have a stable 4G connection in your locality.

Kite provides you access to 90,000+ stocks and F&O contracts to trade in all your favorite stocks.

You get more than 100 indicators like Bollinger bands, Fibonacci retracement, Standard deviation to analyze the market trends and set your trade accordingly.

Pros of Zerodha Kite

• Minimalist user interface
• In-depth market analysis with 100+ technical indicators 
• Works at slow internet speed
• 90,000+ stocks and F&O contracts available for trading

Cons of Zerodha Kite

• Slows down sometimes

#2. Kite App

Kite is a simple, easy-to-use and fast app to enjoy trading on the go. You can trade in stocks, commodities, IPOs and invest in mutual funds.

and learn about stocks in varsity through the Kite app.

You can open other Zerodha apps like Coin, Varsity, and Console within the Kite app making it easy to use all features like IPO, mutual funds in one place.

Pros of Zerodha Kite App

• Sleek app interface
• Snappy performance
• Integration with other apps like coin and console 
• Buy IPO within Kite app (No need to open console)

Cons of Zerodha Kite App

• No fingerprint authentication

Check out – Best stock market apps

Zerodha Products & Services

#1. Zerodha Products

A. Zerodha Coin

You can invest in direct mutual funds using Coin. Direct mutual funds mean there’s no commission charged on buying or selling of mutual fund units.

The Coin also offers you to invest in Sovereign gold bonds (SGB), exchange-traded funds (ETF), government securities, and corporate bonds.

Key benefits

• No commission on the mutual fund’s investment
• One place to invest in gold bonds, government securities, corporate bonds, ETFs
• Enjoy New fund offer within the Coin app
• Simple to use interface

B. Zerodha Console

Zerodha Console is a  back-office portal that allows you to access multiple trading reports such as contract notes, tax reports, and profit & loss reports.

Graphical representation of your past trading reports helps you analyze and improve your previous trades.

You can also change your primary or secondary bank accounts and update other personal information in the console.

You can also invest in an IPO through the Console.

Key benefits

• Visual representation of past trading reports
• Invest in IPO
• Important reports like contract notes available
• Add remove banks and update other personal information

C. Zerodha Varsity

If you are new to stock investing, you can easily learn from the Varsity app. Varsity app provides you in-depth knowledge about the stock market and personal finance education.

You get small-byte-sized cards (chapters) in an easy-to-understand language and read anywhere when you are free.

Key benefits

• Easy to understand language
• Every topic is broken down into three difficulty levels
• Quizzes and games at the end of each level
• Get virtual certificate on completion of each module

#2. Zerodha Services

Pros of Zerodha 

• Discount brokerage
• Minimalist and efficient trading platform
• Quick account opening process
• Better customer service among other discount brokers
• Varsity app for easy stock trading learning
• 3-in-1 account with IDBI bank
• Direct mutual fund services (no commission)
• Collaboration with brands like Sensibul or SmallCase for better services

Cons of Zerodha

• Platform lags in peak hours sometimes
• 3-in-1 account opening and working is not as smooth as Upstox
• No advisory services
• No portfolio management

Also read – HDFC Securities vs Zerodha

Zerodha Customer Care

Final Thoughts

Zerodha is one of India’s most trusted online brokers and doesn’t happen overnight because Zerodha kept a customer-oriented approach. 

Not only by offering the low brokerage but also by keeping things transparent. 

No doubt their platform crawls sometimes during peak hours but the way they have improved their platform, account opening process, and customer support in the last couple of years is amazing. 

If you are a new investor or a professional trader, Zerodha is a good platform to go ahead with.