First demat account? You want ₹0 delivery, painless onboarding, and an app that doesn't assume you know what a candlestick is.
✓ Pricing last verified 22 Sept 2026 against official sources.
Updated 22 Sept 2026 · Educational comparison, not personalised advice.
At a glance: 31 of 31 brokers qualify · 28 support mutual funds · 28 support IPOs · cheapest account opening from ₹0
✓Easy onboarding
✓₹0 delivery
✓Simple app
✓Learning support
Who is this guide for?
This guide is for users opening their first demat and trading account, who care about simple onboarding, low starting costs and an app that teaches rather than overwhelms.
Beginners lose money to complexity before they lose it to markets: confusing apps, percentage brokerage on small orders, and AMC they didn't know existed. The ranking below weights onboarding ease, ₹0 delivery brokerage and one-app simplicity.
Your first year has a specific cost shape: tiny order sizes (₹500–5,000), a handful of trades a month, and a high chance of mistakes like wrong order types or panic sells. On a ₹1,000 learning trade, a 0.5% percentage plan costs just ₹5 — actually cheaper than a ₹20 flat fee. But flat-fee brokers win the moment your orders cross ~₹10,000, which happens fast once you gain confidence. Starting free-to-open with ₹0 delivery covers both phases, which is why this table only lists brokers meeting at least one of those bars.
Open one account, buy one index fund or blue-chip share, and learn the mechanics with our brokerage calculator before sizing up.
TL;DR
Start where opening is free and learning is cheap: every pick below offers free account opening, ₹0 delivery, or both. Pick the app you understand on first open — onboarding quality matters daily in year one, advanced charting never.
Ranked by the same transparent scorer as the find-my-broker quiz — editorial rating plus persona fit over live fee data. A starting point for research, not personalised advice.
Every broker below, scored for beginners on account opening, AMC, delivery brokerage, intraday brokerage plus mutual-fund support, IPO support, platform scores. Sort any column, filter to what matters to you.
Top 8 of 31 · click a column header to sort
Best broker for beginners compared: Account opening, AMC / year, Delivery, Intraday, Mutual funds, IPO, Platform
Lowest marks the cheapest listed figure per column; slab plans may cost less for small trades. † means we haven't re-verified that figure yet. Statutory charges (STT, exchange, SEBI, GST, stamp duty) apply equally everywhere — see the true cost of a trade.
Open where starting is free and learning is cheap: every broker in this table offers free account opening, ₹0 delivery, or both. Beyond that, pick the app you understand on first open — you'll use onboarding quality daily and advanced charting never in year one. Brokers charging four-figure opening fees or percentage delivery are excluded; they make sense later, for advisory relationships, not for a first account.
How we compare brokers
Every broker is scored by the same transparent scorer as the find-my-broker quiz — editorial rating plus persona fit over live fee data. The comparison for this guide considers:
✓Onboarding ease (category score)
✓Equity delivery brokerage (effective ₹ at a ₹50k order size)
✓One-app coverage: mutual funds and IPOs
✓Guided-investor fit: research and support scores
✓Editorial rating
Labels like “lowest” are computed from the fee figures in the table above — never assigned by hand. Verify pricing on the official site before opening an account.
FAQs
Which broker is best for a first demat account?+
Pick one with ₹0 equity delivery, free account opening, and a simple app — onboarding ease matters more than advanced charting in year one.
How much money do I need to start?+
You can start with ₹500–1,000. Keep the first trades tiny while you learn order types, settlement (T+1) and charges.
Should beginners use intraday or F&O?+
No. Learn delivery investing first — intraday and F&O add leverage, time decay and costs that punish inexperience quickly.
What charges should I compare before choosing a broker?+
Account-opening charges, AMC, delivery brokerage, DP charges on selling, and the statutory stack (STT, exchange, GST, stamp) that applies everywhere.
Zerodha vs Groww for beginners?+
Both offer ₹0 delivery and free account opening. Groww's app is widely considered simpler for a first-timer and bundles direct mutual funds cleanly; Zerodha offers deeper education (Varsity) and Coin for MFs. Compare their rows in the table above and pick the app you understand on first open.
Is ₹20 brokerage per order or per lot?+
Per order: one buy order costs ~₹20 in brokerage whatever its size, plus small statutory charges. You won't meet per-lot pricing (₹39–100 per lot) until you trade F&O — ignore it in year one.
Do I need separate apps for stocks and mutual funds?+
No — every broker in this table supports direct mutual funds in-app alongside stocks. A separate MF app only helps if you want deeper goal-tracking analytics; start with one app and split later if needed.
Affiliate disclosure: LetsInvest earns a commission if you open an account via links on this page — at no extra cost to you. Rankings are editorial and never sold. Read how we make money and our methodology.
How we research. Every fee on this site carries a source and a verification date. Data is re-checked against official broker pages; read our editorial methodology. LetsInvest is a research publication, not a financial adviser — see our terms.
