How to Choose the Right Stock Broker in India – Beginners Guide

Whether you’re a seasoned trader or a beginner looking to start your investment journey, selecting a reliable, low-cost, and feature-rich stock broker can significantly impact your success.

One of the first and most crucial steps is choosing the right stock broker. With so many options available finding the best fit can feel overwhelming, especially for beginners. Whether you’re planning to open a Demat and trading account for long-term investing or active trading, your broker plays a key role in your experience, costs, and returns.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the key factors to consider before selecting a stock broker in India, including brokerage charges, account opening fees, trading platforms, customer support, and regulatory safety. Let’s help you make an informed decision to start investing with confidence.

What to Look for in a Stock Broker?

1. One of the most important aspect to keep in perspective before choosing a stockbroker is not just the mobile trading app but the desktop, downloadable as well as web version should also have great technical and fundamental analysis tools and resources, it should be user friendly, intuitive with ease of placing orders.
2. Moreover never ever consider just one USP while you choose any stockbroker i.e. to say a best broker is one who has all the services for users such as lower brokerage and other charges, segments (Equity, FnO, Commodity, currency) in which a client trade or invest, Investing opportunities other then stock market such as SIP’s in mutual fund, IPO, NFO, SGB, ETF, Bonds etc.
3. Can pre-Apply for Upcoming IPOs, Bid for Mainboard & SME IPOs and can invest in IPO at ₹0 Charges
4. If you are an option trader than do look for features such as Advanced option chain table, option moneyness data, option Greeks data (Theta, delta, gamma, vega) , Customized option strategy builder, Open interest (OI) data, Put call ratio data, Max pain data, Intrinsic value etc.
5. The stock broker should be SEBI Registered & have CDSL/NSDL Affiliation.
6. The stock broker should have Transparent Brokerage & AMC Charges.
7. offers lowest brokerage charges across industry and no brokerage charges for delivery based trades
8. The stock broker should have different types of orders available such as Gtt, Limit order, Market order, Stop-loss order, forever, after market, basket order, super order and lot more.
9. You can add – withdraw funds directly and instantly, create or back-test trading strategies use API to trade.
10. The user interface should be clean and up to the mark, you can easily know which icon will do what, as the moment you will hover to any it will tell you the functionality of it.
11. The broker must also give Margin Trading Facility (MTF)
12. A universal search tool to find simple and complex stocks.
13. Access to NSE/BSE cash, Futures and Options, commodities and Currencies scrips
14. Cutting-edge charting tools that are above industry standards
15. Japanese Candlestick Charts of multiple intervals, types and drawing styles
16. Auto-Detection of Candlestick Patterns on Charts on their trading platform which means charts should automatically recognize & display the names of widely known Candlestick Patterns.
17. Other features like 20 Depth Data, Price Alerts, Import Watchlists, etc. you have enough data to help you with your trades.
18. technical indicators on real-time charts
19. Have option to trade directly from charts with the Trade From Charts (TFC) feature
20. Checkout Fundamentals of company such as Balance Sheet, Profit/loss statement, RoA, RoCE , Results etc.
21. Can set unlimited number of price alerts for instant updates
22. Must have Option chain, Option Greek Calculator, Option Moneyness, Option Scholes Calculator etc.
23. Can get Instant Pledge Margin for options trading.
24. Realtime Pay-off Graph – Can do option analysis which helps you understand the potential P&L for your strategies before you execute them.
25. Can create unlimited number of customized watchlists
26. Should receive real-time market feeds to stay on top of your scrips
27. Can access predefined watch-list of Nifty 50, FINNifty and other indices
28. Biometric (fingerprint and Face ID – iOS) 2FA for seamless logins and better security
29. Can do Daily, Weekly, Monthly SIP in Stocks
30. Invest in ETF’s, Gold, SIP’s in Mutual Funds, and lot more options such as third party integration smallcase, sensibull, tickertape, streak, Stratzy, Thematic Investment, Swing Trader, Sentinel, Refinitiv, etc.

Choosing the right broker for trading is one of the most important steps to be taken, however many people make huge mistakes before finding the right one.

This happens due to the lack of information as well as about the wrong information available on internet, because of this one may choose the worst broker for trading rather then the best one and loose his/her hard earned money.

As there are more than 100+ stock brokers available on playstore today in India, in other words similar number of stockbrokers as per the latest available NSE Data, it is quite a possibility to be selecting the wrong one.

Even the stockbroking companies sometime makes wrong promises and even have hidden charges associated, hence it becomes very important for you to only choose the best ones.

Which Stock Broker Is Right For You?

Dhan has one of the best app & web based trading platform I have personally seen and it has numerous features available under the same page such as technical, option chain, customised option strategy builder, fundamentals of company, financials etc.

Let us first know in brief about Dhan Stockbroker.

Dhan Stock broker made their entry in one of the highly competitive broking industry in September 2021. Pravin Jadhav who was also the former Paytm Money CEO is the CEO of Dhan. Dhan is backed by leading investor such as MIRAE ASSET, BEENEXT, BLUME, 3ONE4 CAPITAL, Social Leverage etc.

Dhan is SEBI Registered (INZ000006031) online stock broker offering trading on all exchanges (BSE, NSE, MCX) and across all segments (equity, exchange-traded funds, futures, options, currency, commodities). Dhan have partnered with CDSL for depository services.

The company is registered by the name Moneylicious Securities Private Limited and have corporate office in, Borivali East, Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Dhan offers different financial instrument to trade and invest such as Mutual Funds IPO’s, NFO’s, ETF, SGB, Bonds etc.

1. Dhan has 3 trading platform for all devices known as Dhan App for Mobile, Dhan for desktop web version and dedicated option trading platform (Web + App) by dhan. You can do fundamental as well as technical analysis quite easily on all its platform.
2. Pre-Built Option Trading Strategies for FREE plus customized Option strategy builder which you won’t be getting at any other broker.
3. You can Invest and trade in all segments at Dhan broker i.e. Equity (Stocks), FNO, Commodity, Currency on NSE, BSE & MCX.
4. Dhan offers lowest brokerage charges across industry they are charging Rs 20 or 0.03% (Whichever is lower) per order.
5. There are no brokerage charges for delivery based trades at Dhan. 
6. If we talk about Margin at Dhan, after SEBI Rules on Intraday margin every stockbroker is giving same margin of 5X throughout India, hence this does not matter anymore.
7. With Dhan you can also invest and trade in IPO’s, NFO’s, Bonds, ETF, SGB, and many other financial products with so much ease.
8. Recently Dhan have also made tie up with smallcase for making portfolio based investment moreover they do have a stock recommendation tool as well which gives long term investment ideas known as Stratzy.
9. You can also do monthly, weekly, yearly  SIP in stocks and ETF using Dhan Broker.
10. Dhan mobile App have been downloaded on playstore for more than 1 million with a user rating of 4.5 which also shows the trust they have created among users within small time period.
11. Dhan also offers another feature known as WelathBasket, it is a basket of stocks/ETFs, based on a strategy, theme or idea. WealthBaskets are professionally managed and help you invest in Stock Markets in a systematic way.
12. Dhan has also partnered with Tactic who provides Trade Ideas & Strategies of top SEBI registered traders in currently 3 modes – Intraday, Positional & BTST. This feature will greatly help the new as well as experience traders and is not available with any discount broker as of now.
13. 1Cliq by oipulse is integrated with Dhan which helps fast traders to identify trends especially scalpers. You can have trade execution with pre defined SL, auto Trailing SL, MTM target and stop loss are some of it’s amazing features
14. Dhan also has Auto-Detection of Candlestick Patterns on Charts on their trading platform which means charts will now automatically recognize & display the names of 37 widely known Candlestick Patterns. Combine this with dhan other features like 20 Depth Data, Price Alerts, Import Watchlists, etc. you have enough data to help you with your trades.
15. Dhan also gives Margin Trading Facility (MTF) for up to 4X leverage (75% funds) from Dhan for Equity Delivery trading. You can buy 950+ stocks and hold them for unlimited period of time.
16. There are different types of orders available at dhan such as forever, after market, basket order and lot more.
17. Overall, Dhan is best for intraday traders as well as investors as the brokerage is very less, moreover the trading platform is best and available with all tools and resources in all 3 versions.
18. For a limited time period you can open a Free Dhan trading/demat account with Zero Annual Maintenance Charges online here.

Want a Safe & Trusted stock market app with Advanced Features, Fast Order Execution, Seamless Charts, Simple UI, and Helpful Customer Support? Dhan share market app has it all!

1. Access 4,000+ Scrips and major Indices like Nifty 50, Bank Nifty, FinNifty
2. Stock Trading App offers 1,600+ Stocks for Intraday Trading
3. MTF with 4x Leverage on 1,000+ Stocks & Unlimited Holding Period
4. Create a Basket of Stocks & Place Order in 1-Click
5. Daily, Weekly, Monthly SIP in Stocks
6. Busy Between 09:15 AM to 3:30 PM? Place After Market Orders
7. ₹0 Brokerage on Stock Investing & ₹20 for Intraday Trading
8. Buy/Sell Directly from Option Chain
9. Get Real-time Payoff Graph, Greeks & Live Trade Volumes
10. Advanced Order Types like Trailing Stop Loss, Iceberg, Forever (GTT)
11. Get Instant Pledge Margin for Option
12. Buying/Selling on 1,500 Stocks
13. Buy Options Quickly with Flash Trade
14. ₹20 on Options for All Segments
15. ₹20 or 0.03% (whichever is lower) on Futures for All Segments
16. Choose from 1,000+ Direct Mutual Funds
17. Start SIP in Equity, Debt, Hybrid, and Index Funds
18. Save Taxes with ELSS Funds
19. Find Top Rated Funds Easily on Mutual Funds SIP App
20. Add Multiple Funds in Cart and Invest in 1-Click
21. Manage Mutual Fund SIP with AutoPay or 1-Tap Top-up
22. Pay ZERO Charges for investing mutual funds – Absolutely Free!
23. Access to All Stock Market ETFs – Nifty BEES, Gold, Debt, Global
24. Daily, Weekly, & Monthly SIP in ETFs
25. Pledge ETFs in your Portfolio to get Money for Trading
26. MTF with 4X Leverage for Swing Trading ETFs
27. Separate ETF Dashboard for Tracking Returns
28. ₹0 Brokerage on ETF Investing
29. Trade All Currency Pairs: 4 INR & 3 Cross Currency
30. Trade All Commodities: Gold, Silver, Crude Oil, Natural Gas etc.
31. Trade Currencies & Commodities from Charts
32. Pre-Apply for Upcoming IPOs
33. Bid for Mainboard & SME IPOs
34. Invest in IPO at ₹0 Charges

Special Features Built by Dhan Broker to Solve Problems:

• Trade Options on TradingView.com only via Dhan
• Access & Trade NIFTY, NIFTY BANK, FINNIFTY from Charts
• Set Alerts on Losses and Over Trading with Trader’s Controls
• Evaluate what went right and wrong in your strategy with Traders Diary
• Save your Order and Execute later whenever you want with Draft Order

Incredible Dhan Features for Option Trading:

1. Readymade Option Strategies – Fast create and execute popular option strategies like Straddle, Strangle, Iron Condor, and many more with our options app.
2. Custom Strategy Builder – Create your own derivative trading strategies and execute them from the same platform. Simple. Convenient. Powerful option strategy builder!
3. Options Screener & Scanner – Identify and monitor scrips based on Volume, OI, Trends, Buildup, IV, and more with our option trading analysis app.
4. Outlook Based Ideas – Search scrips available for option trading ideas based on Bullish, Bearish, or Netural market outlook.
5. Realtime Pay-off Graph – Dhan app for option analysis helps you understand the potential P&L for your strategies before you execute them.
6. Dedicated Commodity & Currency Dashboard – If you are Trading Across Segments than you can Manage your positions in separate, dedicated dashboards.
7. Forever Order with OCO – Set a target price that stays active on Dhan FnO app until the specified price hits, including OCO for F&O trading.
8. Instant Pledge Margin – Pledge shares from your demat account to get more margin for f&o trading within minutes.
9. Option Chain – Trade calls and puts directly from the option chain with Greeks and other awesome insights on Dhan option trading app.
10. Synced Across All Dhan Platforms – All Dhan platforms are synced in real-time all across Positions, Orders, Basket, Margin & Funds, Portfolio, Charts, Watchlist and Tradebook.

Dhan mobile App have been downloaded on playstore for more than 1.5 million with a user rating of 4.5 which also shows the trust they have created among users within small time period.

Open a Free Dhan trading/demat account with Zero Annual Maintenance Charges online here

Brokerage charge at Dhan is very low, there is no charge for taking delivery of the trades to your demat account. Whereas for intraday trades across equity, currency, commodity, it is flat Rs.20 or 0.03%(whichever is lower) and for options segment it is Rs. 20 per order.

What they mean is, suppose you bought stock xyz priced at Rs.100, quantity 100 on intraday basis,

so the total turnover would be bought 100, sold 100 (100*200)=  20,000 on this amount they will charge either whichever amount is lower as 0.03% of 20000, is Rs.6 so they will charge that instead of flat Rs.20.

There are no account opening charges as of now with dhan for a limited time period. You can open dhan trading and demat account with zero AMC (Annual Mainenetance Charges).

1. ₹0 Demat Account Fees
2. ₹0 AMC
3. ₹0 Platform Fees
4. ₹0 Brokerage for Delivery Trades
5. ₹20 per order for Intraday Trades

The account opening process is quite simple and can be done in 3 easy steps. To open an account online, you can sign up using your mobile number through this link. You will receive an OTP to your number and you can get started with the process.

You will be required to enter your PAN, bank account details and personal details to continue with the sign-up.

Once you sign up you need to upload certain documents as listed below.

Documents Required To Open An Online Account with Dhan:

In order to open your demat account, you will require the following documents.

1. Identity proof: PAN Card
2. Address Proof: Driving license/ Voter’s ID/ Aadhaar Card/ Passport/ Rent Agreement (Registered)/ Latest utility bill (which has the name of the account holder)
3. Income Proof (not required for Equity and MF): Bank Statement (last 6 months)/ Salary slip (last 3 months)/Latest ITR copy or Form 16
4. Signature copy: Your signature on a blank sheet of paper

Please note: In case if the PAN isn’t KYC compliant, you will need to open your account via In Person Verification (IPV). For this, you will need to upload two videos of 10 seconds each; one with your PAN Card in hand and other with the Address Proof document in hand.

What are Payment Gateway Charges at Dhan?

There are no charges for payment gateway if making the payment through UPI and Net Banking at Dhan. You can use UPI / GPay / Net Banking / IMPS to fund your Dhan account. Fast Withdrawals are at no extra cost.

What are Call-N-Trade Charges at Dhan?

Dhan do not have any charges for you when you call Dhan Customer Care, however for call and trade at dhan you will be charged Rs 50 + GST per order placed through Dhan trade desk.

Dhan Contact/Toll-free Number?

You can call dhan on 02248906273 anytime between 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM from Monday to Saturday.

What are Auto squared off charges by Dhan?

The charges are INR 20/order + GST for auto square off at dhan.

What time does Dhan automatically square-off the intraday positions?

Auto-square off means when the system (Dhan in this case) or the Risk team at Dhan squares off of your open intraday position. The square off time for intraday positions on Dhan is 3:20 PM.

Open a Free Dhan trading/demat account with Zero Annual Maintenance Charges online here

Final Thoughts:

Opening a Demat and trading account is a foundational step for anyone looking to invest in the Indian stock market. But with so many brokers offering different features, charges, and platforms, making the right choice can be confusing—especially for beginners.

By understanding your investment goals and evaluating factors like brokerage fees, account safety, platform usability, and customer support, you can confidently choose a broker that aligns with your needs.

Remember, a well-chosen broker can not only save you money but also enhance your trading and investing experience. Take your time, compare your options, and start your journey with clarity and confidence.

If I have to rate Dhan broker after looking at there breakthrough pricing model for brokerages as well as other charges and experiencing there simple yet great user interface for trading platform I would give it 9.7 out of 10 which is one of the highest rating I have ever give to an stockbroker.

So if you are thinking of opening a trading/demat/mutual fund combined account, than do not put any second thought, go ahead and Open Free dhan trading and demat account with Zero AMC (Annual Mainenetance Charges) there is nothing to lose its a win-win deal.

If you are a beginner in trading and investing, please read this amazing guide on how share market works in India?

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Note: Please do your own research and make investment. Moneycontain will not be responsible for any of your losses at all. The point made is for educational purpose only and intended to give information. All investments are subject to risks, which should be considered prior to making any investments.

Disclaimer

The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Readers are advised to conduct their own research or consult with a certified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. The mention of specific brokers is not an endorsement. Brokerage charges, features, and policies may change over time—please verify all information directly with the respective broker’s official website.