Brokers serve as a middleman between buyers and sellers since they are market makers. They either create or remove liquidity based on the type of order. Brokers typically consist of entire businesses rather than a single person.
Top 10 Stock Brokers in India – List of Top Stock Brokers in India
These businesses usually offer their clients a variety of services, including money management, investment guidance, and even the creation of financial instruments like ETFs or mutual funds. Brokers receive commissions on each transaction and interest as account custodians. In order to increase their clients’ assets under management, brokerage houses frequently provide signing bonuses to new customers.
You may get a quick overview of the top bargain and full-service stockbrokers in India from this list of the best stock brokers in India.
Zerodha
With over 4 million clients who account for +15% of daily retail trading volumes on Indian stock exchanges, Zerodha is the largest and best brokerage in India.
With a no-brokerage model for investors and a flat Rs 20 per trade brokerage price for intraday and other trades, Zerodha, founded in 2010, promoted the idea of discount brokerage in the Indian equity market. Although competing with major companies like ICICI and HDFC is challenging, Zerodha has maintained its position as the nation’s top bargain broker. Discount broking has other rivals as well, although Zerodha, the biggest discount broking company in India, has a sizable customer base there.
To assist its clients, from trading tools to education, Zerodha offers a wide range of trading platforms and solutions. Their trading platform is made up of Kite 3.0, Kite Mobile, Kite Console, Pi, Sentinel, and Coin.
Angel Broking
With over 30 years of expertise in the broking industry and one million satisfied customers, Angel Broking, which was founded in 1987, is a well-known brand. They are present in more than 1800 Indian cities. Angel Broking provides trading services in equity, futures and options, commodities, and foreign exchange on the BSE, NSE, NCDEX, and MCX.
Although for more than 20 years Angel Broking operated as a full-service broker and charged its clients a 10% brokerage fee. To counter rapidly expanding discount brokers like Zerodha, 5Paisa, Upstox, etc., they just switched from percentage brokerage to flat fees (Nov 2019).
ICICI Direct
The top spot on the list of full-service stockbrokers belongs to ICICI Direct, which is a division of ICICI Securities. It is equipped and supported by the ICICI Group, a major provider of private financial services that was founded in 1994. The company relies on its tailored, high-quality services and 3-in-1 account feature to attract such a large number of active customers.
Prior to 2019, Zerodha, the leading discount brokerage, surpassed ICICI Direct in terms of the number of active consumers, with a clientele of more than 2 million. However, the most popular trading platform in India is ICICI Direct.
HDFC Securities
The largest private sector bank, HDFC, has a subsidiary called HDFC Securities Limited that has been around for 20 years and has a significant online and physical presence. The organization, which has its headquarters in Mumbai and more than 270 offices and branches throughout the nation, is recognized as one of the best full-service stockbrokers in India.
The distribution of financial products is combined with a wide range of stockbroking services by HDFC Securities Limited, which is renowned for providing comprehensive services to a variety of clients and professional traders. Customers of this broking business can invest in and trade through a variety of financial instruments, including commodities, FDs, bonds, and stocks.
5Paisa
The cheapest stock brokerage in India is provided by 5Paisa, which is a division of IIFL (India Infoline). IIFL created 5Paisa to compete with the rapidly expanding discount brokerage market and provide clients with a reduced brokerage platform.
Services provided: In addition to trading in stocks, foreign exchange, and commodities, 5Paisa also provides services in the areas of mutual funds, insurance, and personal loans.
Sharekhan
In 2000, the full-service stockbroker Sharekhan was established in India. It offers Indian investors the chance to trade and invest in the stock market. Sharekhan was bought by BNP Paribas in 2016. It is managed by BNP Paribas as a wholly-owned subsidiary. The largest bank in Europe is BNP Paribas S.A. It is traded on the French stock exchange, Euronext Paris. With 676631 clients, Sharekhan is India’s eighth-largest stockbroker and the country’s fifth-largest full-service retail brokerage firm. In India, Sharekhan pioneered online trading. Among the financial products and services it offers are wealth management, mutual fund distribution, loan against shares, ESOP financing, IPO financing, and securities brokerage.
Retail brokerage services are offered by Sharekhan in equities, commodities, currency, initial public offers (IPOs), and portfolio management services, as well as mutual funds.
Axis Direct
Arun Thukral created Axis Direct, the stockbroking division of Axis Bank, in 2011 as a full-service stockbroker. With more than 75 locations all throughout India, Axis Direct is one of the burgeoning stockbrokers in the offline market. Axis Direct also boasts one of the busiest clientele in the Indian stockbroking sector.
Users of this supplier broker can trade in a variety of financial segments, including equity, derivative trading, currency trading, initial public offerings (IPO), NCDs, mutual funds, bonds, and ETFs. This supplier broker has subscriptions to the NSE, BSE, MSEI, and MCX-SX. Over 300,000 people are active clients of Axis Direct. Users can open a Demat 3-in-1 account with Axis Direct, an Axis Bank affiliate, without having to worry about complicated fund transfers.
Upstox
Upstox is a rapidly expanding discount broker that is supported by a number of notable investors, such as Kalaari Capital, Ratan Tata, GVK Davix, and others. RKSV is another name for it. In 2012, RKSV launched Upstox, which changed its name to Upstox in 2015. Upstox, behind Zerodha, has the second-highest number of active clients on the NSE as of January 2021.
Upstox provides trading services for stocks, currencies, and commodities.
Fees for Upstox Brokerage
Equity delivery deals made through Upstox are cost-free. Trading commissions for intraday orders on the BSE, NSE, MCX, and F&O are 0.05%, or up to Rs. 20 per order. No matter how big the transaction, the brokerage fee is merely Rs. 20 per traded order.
Motilal Oswal
One of the most recognized stock brokers in India has more than 20 years of experience in trading and investing, is distributed throughout more than 500 cities, and has more than 2,200 business locations.
Mr. Motilal Oswal and Mr. Ramdeo Agrawal, who transitioned from sub-brokers to pioneering business owners in the financial services sector, are two well-known figures in the Indian stock market. They have focused on giving clients high-quality stock recommendations based on research, and today they are major players and one of the biggest stock-broking firms in this sector.
They eventually ventured into numerous new fields in addition to the broking industry, including private equity, investment banking, mutual funds, portfolio management service, wealth management, and all of those conventional fields.
Kotak Securities
Kotak Securities Ltd., a subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank with operations in more than 360 cities, was established in 1994. Kotak Securities Limited, one of the top five full-service brokers and one of the few stockbrokers to offer a 3-in-1 account facility, is renowned for being unconventional when it comes to providing clients with one-of-a-kind services.
As a member of the well-known financial services company The Kotak Mahindra Group, Kotak Securities and its group provide a wide range of clients in India and around the world with a variety of multi-asset class investment and trading products and services, distribution services, insurance products, investment banking, and much more.
For an updated shortlist, the leading stock brokers in India for 2026 compares features and pricing.
