Last updated – 09.01.2021
Motilal Oswal is a full service broker which offers research-based advisory. Whereas, Zerodha, is the leading discount broker in India which is best for traders. Comparing Zerodha (a disocunt broker) with Motilal Oswal (a full service broker) is like comparing tea with coffee. Both has their own pros and cons.
You can choose the best demat account based on your requirements. Let’s have a brief comparison of Zerodha Vs Mostilal Oswal
Motilal Oswal vs Zerodha
| Zerodha | Motilal Oswal |
| Flat Rs. 20/order or 0.03% (whichever is lower.) | 0.05% brokerage on intraday |
| Free equity delivery | 0.50% charges on delivery |
| Equity Options at flat Rs. 20 per executed order | Equity Options at flat Rs. 75 per lot |
| You can get a 3-in-1 account facility if you have a savings account in IDBI Bank. | No 3-in-1 account facility |
| Zerodha offers direct mutual funds investment. | Motilal offers regular mutual funds investment. |
| No market research advisory provided | High-quality market research advisory |
Let’s have a detailed review of Zerodha and Motilal Oswal for a better understanding of two leading brokers of India.
Zerodha Demat & Trading Account Review
Zerodha (check complete Zerodha review) was founded in 2010 and broke the trend of paying a hefty amount as brokerage charges. Zerodha introduced a flat fee brokerage structure in India.
You save a decent amount of money if you are paying a flat fee like Rs. 20 per order instead of paying the percentage amount of your order.
Because, in trading, orders are usually of big amounts and you end up paying handsome charges in traditional brokerage system.
Zerodha Brokerage charges
Zerodha takes no fee on the stock delivery. That means, if you are investing in stocks for long-term & not selling shares on the same day, you won’t have to pay any brokerage.
For intraday, trading charges are Flat Rs. 20 or 0.03%, whichever is lower.
Intraday trading includes equities, currency, and commodity trading.
| Category | Charges |
| Equity Delivery | Zero |
| Equity Intraday Trading | Rs. 20 or 0.03% (whichever is lower) |
| Equity Options | Flat Rs. 20 per executed order |
| Equity Futures | Rs. 20 or 0.03% (whichever is lower) |
| Currency Options | Rs. 20 or 0.03% (whichever is lower) |
| Commodity F&O | Rs. 20 or 0.03% (whichever is lower) |
Zerodha Margin Provided
Zerodha offers margin on 3 different products; MIS, Bracket, and Cover Orders.
The margin provided on all products is 3-12.5% that is up to 8x depending on the script.
For Intraday orders in F&O –
- For Index, the margin required is 35%.
- For Stocks, the margin required is 45%.
- For Commodities & Currency, it is 50%.
As per SEBI’s new guidelines, no broker can give a high amount of leverage to their customers.
Zerodha Account Opening Charges
- Trading & Demat account opening – Rs. 200
- Commodity account – Rs. 100 ( Free for the first year)
- Annual Maintenance Charge – Rs. 75 every three months.
Zerodha Trading Platforms Review
#1. Zerodha Kite
Kite is a fast & intuitively designed trading platform that allows you to trade equities, F&O, commodities, and currency. You receive updated information with live streaming of the latest market trends without any lag.
You can search across 90,000+ stocks and live market depths up to level-3.
You get deeper insights into the market and allows you to set trading strategies accordingly.
You get 100+ indicators with an advanced charting interface.
#2. Zerodha Kite Connect
Kite Connect is a tool to create powerful trading platforms using simple HTTP/JSON APIs.
You can build your own investment app using these APIs.
#3. Zerodha SmallCase Review
SmallCase allows you to build a diversified, low-cost portfolio for long-term investment purposes. A small case diversifies your portfolio with multiple stocks and protects you against market volatility of the market.
You can invest in stocks and mutual funds hold them in your account.
You can also invest in SIPs through smallcase.
#4. Streak
Streak is the world’s first platform for traders to create, backtest, and deploy trading strategies without any coding skills.
You can track real-time market trends, get alerts, and manage positions.
Streak work in 3 steps:
- Create Strategies
- Backtest Strategies
- Deploy Strategies
#5. Sensibull
Zerodha has collaborated with Sensibull to provide customers with the ‘Options Trading’ platform.
You get expert advice in real-time on Whatsapp.
You can also practice virtually without investing real money.
Sensibull is paid. It has three plans; Free, Lite, and Pro.
#6. GoldenPi
Golden Pi is India’s first online platform to invest in bonds and debentures. You can invest in bonds & debentures to get fixed returns on your investments.
3 steps to start investing using GoldenPi-
- Choose bonds that match your goals
- Complete KYC online
- Make the payment online and receive bonds in your Demat account.
Best For
Zerodha is best for both newcomers where you get free equity delivery & low-cost trading. On the other hand, if you are an expert trader, you can leverage the flat fee structure as well as create trading strategies.
Another benefit of Zerodha is that you can also apply for IPOs using UPI (BHIM).
Also Read – How to open Zerodha Account.
Pros of Zerodha Demat Account
- Free equity delivery
- Flat brokerage is cost-effective for a regular trader
- Hassle-free investments in IPO using UPI payments
- In-depth reports and vast historical data for better analysis
- Enable user to invest directly in mutual funds
- Ease of creating multiple trading strategies & alerts
- Better customer support, they even quickly respond to Google play reviews.
Cons of Zerodha Demat Account
- Server slows down during peak hours
- Limited bank acceptance for NRI account
- No research based advise facility for customers.
- Low margin leverage as compared to Motilal Oswal
Motilal Oswal Demat Account Review
Motilal Oswal is a full service broker that provides award-winning research advice and based on their top-class advice, they cover around 95% of market capitalization.
They have more than 2200 business locations and a larger 10 lakh customer base. Motilal Oswal put sincere efforts on research by spending 10% revenue on research.
Let’s have a look at other features of Motilal Oswal.
Motilal Oswal Brokerage Charges
Motilal Oswal charges two types of brokerage on stock purchases – Intraday Charges and Delivery Charges.
- For each intraday transaction, the brokerage is 0.05% of the executed order.
- For stock delivery, the amount is 0.5% of the executed order.
Let’s have a look on different charges that Motilal charges-
| Category | Charges |
| Equity Delivery | 0.50% per executed order |
| Equity Intraday Trading | 0.05% per leg |
| Equity Options | Rs. 75/lot |
| Equity Futures | 0.05% per leg |
| Currency Options | 0.05% per leg |
| Commodity F&O | 0.05% per leg |
Mostilal Oswal Margin Provided
Motilal Oswal offers 20x Margin on intraday trades and 4x margin in Delivery. But in delivery, you have to pay a 25% upfront margin for select stocks.
However, as per SEBI’s new guidelines, no broker can give a high amount of leverage to their customers.
Motilal Oswal Account Opening Charges
Motilal Oswal offers FREE account opening of Demat and trading accounts.
Demat Annual Maintenance charges = Rs. 400.
Motilal Oswal Trading Platforms
#1. MO Investor
MO Investor is a financial fitness platform for value Investors. MO investor provides you an extensive Portfolio Snapshot.
It provides you goal-based advisory whether you want to invest in stocks or mutual funds.
MO Invest provides personalized insights on your portfolio along with advice on alternatives that can improve your financial well-being.
Benefits of MO Investor
- Get complete information about the company searched by you on Quote Page
- On the Mutual Fund page, you get a snapshot of your holdings, SIPs & track record.
- Algo based investment strategies
- 24*7 Portfolio Restructure that provides you with the right asset allocation
- Execute bulk orders in one go
- You can also view multiple types of charts with intervals starting from 1 minute to 5 years with 9 technical indicators.
- MO genie, a chatbot to handle instant queries
#2. MO Trader
MO Trader is a robust trading platform that provides realtime charts with historical records. MO Trader’s market screeners help you spot the trends.
Benefits of MO Trader
- Set and manage alerts under MyAlert option.
- 20 screeners to identify the stocks which suit your strategies
- Bulk orders in one list and edit price & no. of stocks from saved orders and delete any unwanted orders from the list
- Robo-advisory products like Trade guide signal, Option Writer, Option Decoder
#3. MO Desktop (Desktop)
MO Desktop is a super-fast Desktop Application that allows you trading at a 1-second refresh rate. You can enjoy high-speed trading across all asset classes ranging from Equities, Derivatives, Commodities, Currencies.
You can also invest in Mutual Funds, Bonds & IPO ‘s from Desktop.
Benefits of Desktop
- Get solid research-based recommendations, as well as auto-generated buy/sell ideas.
- You get 40 technical indicators in a single scrip.
- Get more than 30,000 research reports across all asset classes in a single click
- Get In-depth research reports across 260+ companies & 21+ sectors in a single click.
- Portfolio restructuring report helps you review and restructure your portfolio instantly.
#4. MO Smartwatch (Smartwatch)
India ‘s first SmartWatch App to update regarding your investments. Smartwatch app provides notifications and alerts on the latest market statistics, positions/limits updates.
App also provides you with real-time trading alerts when you are on the move.
Benefits of Smartwatch App
- Get instant notifications on all important market updates
- Get instant updates on global indices
- Get information about market top gainers & losers
- Check your portfolio net worth across asset classes
- Get Position updates
- Check your margin in both cash & commodities.
Mostilal Oswal Best For
Motilal Oswal is best for beginners who don’t know much about the market and like to get deep research-based quality advice.
Pros of Motilal Oswal Demat Account
- Best in class investment advice
- High-end super fast trading platforms
- New generation Robo Advisory
- Smartwatch app for tech-savvy Millenials
- Invest in mutual funds, bonds, IPOs right from a single place
Cons of Motilal Oswal Demat Account
- High brokerage on trading and delivery.
- Tailor-made plans are also expensive
- No direct investment in mutual funds, so you have to pay a commission.
Zerodha vs Motilal Oswal (Complete Comparison Table)
Let’s have a detailed comparison of both leading brokers.
| Zerodha | Motilal Oswal |
Low Brokerage Only one brokerage for all customers – Flat Rs. 20/order or 0.03% (whichever is lower.) No Delivery Brokerage fee. | High Brokerage Intraday Transaction Brokerage at 0.05% per order). Delivery Brokerage is 0.50% per order. |
| Account opening charges Demat – Rs. 100 Commodity – Rs. 200 | No account opening charges |
| AMC – Rs. 300 per year (Pay Rs. 75 per quarter) | AMC – Rs. 400 per year |
| Largest brokerage firm in India based on the number of customers | 4th largest brokerage firm in India based on the number of customers |
| The online platform gets sluggish in peak hours at times | The robust high-speed online platform |
| Create trading strategies without coding skills using Streak platform | Create investing strategies with the help of the research team. |
| No market research advice. Purely Execution platform | Award-winning market research and wealth management advisory |
| No Robo advisory in Zerodha | ACE is the Robo advisor for Motilal Oswal |
| Zerodha offers direct mutual funds investment to save more money | You can invest in regular mutual funds |
| You can get a 3-in-1 account facility if you have a savings account in IDBI Bank. | No 3-in-1 account facility |
Conclusion
If you are a trader who wants to save on brokerage charges by paying a flat fee and good trading platform, then go with Zerodha.
In case, you want to invest in stock for long term, then you can go with Motilal Oswal.
