I am an 8-year-old Zerodha customer and am fully satisfied with the experience. But recently when I came to know about Finvasia and I was totally astonished.
The reason was Finvasia don’t charge you anything whether it’s account opening charges, brokerage fee or AMC (Account maintenance charges). Nothing.
I thought of exploring more about Finvasia and tried to compare it with my all-time favorite Zerodha.
Finvasia is an old Mohali (Punjab) based company that is highly active in foreign investment in Indian markets and wealth management services. Finvasia has a more than 25000 customer base at present.
While Zerodha was started in 2010 and was the first broker to offer discount brokerage services. Zerodha has an active client base of above 1 crore.
Let’s compare Finvasia vs Zerodha in detail.
Finvasia vs Zerodha Range of Offerings
Finvasia (now Shoonya) allows you to trade in major assets like stocks, mutual funds, currencies and commodities.
Finvasia also offers wealth management services to HNIs (High Networth Individuals) and they are also active in FPI (Foreign Portfolio Investment) to allow foreigners to invest in Indian markets.
While Zerodha not only offers you to invest in stocks, mutual funds, currencies, and commodities but also –
- Bonds,
- NCDs,
- Corporate fixed deposits,
- Sovereign Gold Bonds.
| Services | Zerodha | Finvasia |
| Equity | Yes | Yes |
| Currency | Yes | Yes |
| Commodity | Yes | Yes |
| Mutual Funds | Yes | Yes |
| Bonds/ETFs | Yes | Yes |
| Debentures | Yes | No |
| Corporate FDs | Yes | No |
| SGBs | Yes | No |
| Wealth Management Services | No | Yes |
| Foreign Portfolio Investment | No | Yes |
Winner
- Regular investment/trading – Zerodha
- Wealth management/FPI – Finvasia
Finvasia vs Zerodha Charges Comparison
#1. Brokerage Charges
| Segment | Zerodha | Finvasia |
| Equity Delivery | Zero | Zero |
| Equity Intraday | 0.03% to Rs. 20 per order (whichever is lower) | Zero |
| Equity Future | 0.03% to Rs. 20 per order (whichever is lower) | Zero |
| Equity Options | Rs. 20 per order | Zero |
| Currency Futures | 0.03% to Rs. 20 per order (whichever is lower) | Zero |
| Currency Options | Rs. 20 per order | Zero |
| Commodity trading | 0.03% to Rs. 20 per order (whichever is lower) | Zero |
#2. Account Opening Charges
| Trading Type | Finvasia | Zerodha |
| Equity+Derivatives | Zero | Rs. 200 |
| Commodities | Zero | Rs. 100 |
#3. Account Maintenance Charges
| Finvasia | Zero |
| Zerodha | Rs. 300 per annum |
#4. Other Charges
As you can see Finvasia is almost a zero-cost Demat account where they don’t charge anything.
But one thing that I noticed in my research is that they demand Rs. 100 for POA (Power of Attorney) to sell your shares from a Demat account. However, Finvasia has mentioned it as an optional choice. So always prefer eDIS for selling the shares rather than POA.
POA is free of cost in Zerodha.
Winner – Finvasia
Finvasia vs Zerodha User Experience
#1. Shoonya by Finvasia
Finvasia which has revamped itself as Shoonya, allows you to invest in stocks, mutual funds and bonds.
I found their Shoonya platform dashboard quite similar to Zerodha’s Kite, which we’ll discuss in a later section.
Shoonya has Six sections to provide different services –
- Dashboard – provides an overview of your investments in stocks and mutual funds.
- Orders – check out your open and executed orders here.
- Positions – Access your open positions here.
- Holdings – Open the details of your holdings here.
- Market – access mutual funds here.
One thing I liked here is the “Margin” section in the main menu to check out margin availability directly from the dashboard.
Finvasia’s Shoonya app also has a very intuitive dashboard that is easy to use.
The Finvasia team has improved its trading platform but still has minor glitches like deposit delays or platform lag issues. Finvasia’s desktop trading software has chart-loading issues that need to be addressed.
#2. Zerodha
Unlike Finvasia, Zerodha provides separate platforms for different investors.
This means Zerodha has the proprietary Kite platform for stock investing and trading. Whereas Zerodha’s “Coin” portal is for investing in mutual funds and bonds.
I. Kite
Since I rarely invest in mutual funds or bonds, I like Zerodha’s approach of having different platforms for different investment needs making Kite’s dashboard very minimalistic and easy to use.
The Zerodha Kite app comes with a simplistic interface having 5 sections in total as discussed below.
- Watchlists – you can search and shortlist your favourite stocks and track their performance.
- Orders – Access your open and executed orders here.
- Portfolio/Positions – To check out your holdings and open positions.
- Tools – Advanced trading methods like Baskets, and SIPs, are available in this section.
- Profile – Your account settings, funds, and back office portal “Console” are available here.
Check out our article on the best desktop trading software in India to know about other top trading software available in the market.
II. Coin
Zerodha’s Coin platform allows you to invest in more than 3000 mutual funds. You can invest in direct mutual fund schemes without paying any commission to Zerodha that’s a plus point.
You can also invest in government securities like treasury bills, corporate bonds, Sovereign Gold and ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) with the Coin app.
Similar to Kite, Coin is also well-arranged and very intuitive to use even for a newcomer.
III. Console
Zerodha also has a separate back-office portal “Console” that allows you to access stuff like contract notes, trade books, and profit & loss statements. You can also open heat maps to analyse your past performances to improve your trading strategies.
You can also access the “Referal & Rewards” section to utilize your rewards to access Zerodha’s different platforms at discounted prices.
Winner – Zerodha
Note – If you usually invest in both stocks and mutual funds, then you might prefer to have a single dashboard to track all the investments as provided by Finvasia Shoonya.
You can also explore other discount brokers from this list that offers cheap brokerage on stock trading.
Finvasia vs Zerodha Add-ons & Education Platforms
#1. Finvasia vs Zerodha Add-ons
Finvasia has partnered with Tradetron to provide the Algo Trading platform free of cost. You can create, test and deploy your own trading strategies even if you don’t know the coding.
You can use their other partnership platforms like NEST, a robust terminal-based trading platform for a seamless intraday trading experience.
On the other hand, Zerodha has an in-house platform Zerodha connect to create your own API but you have to pay a hefty amount which is Rs. 2000 per month.
Zerodha has other add-on platforms to enhance your trading and investing flavors. Major such add-on platforms are –
- Sensibull – for an algorithm-based options trading
- GoldenPi – for corporate bonds, NCDs, and corporate FDs
- Smallcase – for a theme-based stock investment
Winner
- Algotrading – Finvasia
- Overall – Zerodha
#2. Finvasia vs Zerodha Education Platforms
Zerodha clearly wins this comparison with its in-house education platform – Varsity.
You can learn from short lessons having byte-sized information in Varsity along with small quizzes at the end of each lesson. You can also enjoy expert opinions on important topics like F&O trading.
You can install the Varsity app on your smartphone or you can subscribe to their Zerodha Varsity channel on YouTube.
Finvasia’s Youtube channel is more focused on how to use different Shoonya platforms rather than educating beginners about stock investing.
Winner – Zerodha
You can also read our detailed Zerodha Review article for a further understanding of the merits and demerits of Zerodha.
Finvasia vs Zerodha Customer Support
Finvasia has a relatively small team as compared to Zerodha which sets Zerodha apart from this new competitor.
However, they have seriously improved their customer support and now have a dedicated escalation matrix.
The best part is that they have kept the CEO also in the escalation matrix. You can contact their CEO if your issue has not been resolved at the other levels.
| Contact Person | Contact No. | Timings | ||
| Customer Care | Adity Chhiba | 0172-6670000/459 | [email protected] | 9:30 am to 6:30 pm |
| Head of Customer Care | Kapil Abrol | 0172-6670000/418 | [email protected] | 9:30 am to 6:30 pm |
| Compliance Officer | Ramanjeet Kaur | 0172-6670000/1509 | [email protected] | 10:00 am to 6:00 pm |
| CEO | Sarvjeet Singh | 0172-6670000 | [email protected] | 11:00 am to 5:50 pm |
In my personal experience, I found Zerodha’s customer support very quick and efficient as compared to other established discount brokers like Upstox and 5paisa. Zerodha has a 48-hour ticket window to resolve the client’s issue.
| Account Opening | Trading Support | Call & Trade |
| 080 4719 2020 080 7117 5337 | 080 4718 1888 080 4718 1999 | 080 4718 1888 |
You can also create a ticket from their support portal by selecting an appropriate topic.
Winner – Zerodha
Final Verdict
No doubt Zerodha is an overall winner over Finvasia but I really liked Finvasia’s offer of providing all the trading segments at ZERO brokerage.
Zerodha introduced its discount brokerage, disrupted the market and set a trend for discount brokers in India. It seems like Shoonya (Finvasia) could be the next Zerodha and set a new trend of Shoonya (ZERO) brokerage in India.
FAQs
I have seen similar questions on various social media platforms and would like to answer the same here.
Finvasia offers multiple services like HNI wealth management and FPI investment services to foreign investors that sustain them without charging any brokerage fees on your retail demat+trading account.
