Given the boom in equities and the time millionaires were left with owing to the work from home regime, numerous Indians in the country took to equities. For the purpose they obviously turned to brokers who provide with the demat and trading services. Demat accounts are where these securities or shares are held in dematerialized form or electronically and trading account facilitates trading in the underlying securities.

While there can be a whole lot of parameters on the basis of these stock brokers may be ranked such as their past performance, user reviews etc, here we will discuss 5 such Indian stock brokers who have the highest active client base as of July 2021.
Before we get into the details of these stock broking entities and their unique offerings, here we tell you in brief about the history of stock broking in India and the type of stock brokers in the country:
History of Stock Broking in India:
Stock broking companies enable its client deal in securities and execute buy and sell orders on their behalf. Only after they secure recognition from a stock exchange they are deemed or officiated as a broker.
In 1602, the Dutch East India Company for the first time came up with the publicly traded stocks via the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Then later in the 17th century, London Stock Exchange was established. Thereafter in the year 1875 came up the Bombay stock exchange today referred to as the BSE.
Then there are different type of brokers
- Full service or traditional brokers: These brokers offers a comprehensive basket of offerings and charge a comparably higher fee given the vast set of services such as stock broking, investment management etc.
- Discount brokers: These are primarily online entities who are offering stock broking services together with convenience.
- Jobbers: They are independent brokers who engage in trade for their own self and not on behalf of any other client. Also, they are not licensed to do trading for others and also cannot levy commission. They work by quoting 2 prices i.e. buy and sell price and the gap is the profit for them.
- Arbitragers: They take advantage of the price differential on the two exchanges i.e. one at a lower price from one exchange and then sells on the other at a higher rate.
Now coming to the core topic, here are the top brokers in the country in 2021 considering active clientele:
1. Zerodha:
This is a Bengaluru headquartered stock broker entity which pioneered the discount broking model in the country. The company started its operation in 2010 and combined 'Zero' and 'Rodha' i.e. a Sanskrit word meaning barrier and hence the objective of providing seamless and hassle free services to its customers in respect of cost, support as well as technology.
The brokerage company's offerings include Kite i.e. its trading platform; Console- i.e. the dashboard for your Zerodha account; Zerodha Coin-for purchase of mutual funds; Sentinel for enabling market alerts on the cloud.
Active clientele of the company as per Chittorgarh site is 37,96,628
2. Upstox:
It is a fastest expanding Mumbai based broking firm that empowers investors and traders on the path of financial success. Initially started as RKSV Securities in the year 2010 and then offered zero brokerage for delivery trades and a flat fee of Rs. 20 for intra-day orders in all other segments.
The company has the backing of some of the Tiger Global and Ratan Tata. With regard to its services, the company's offerings include trading and investment related support for stocks, F&O, mutual funds, digital gold and IPOs.
Active clientele of the company is 23,69,796.
3. Angel Broking:
The retail broking firm is the leading firm backed by technology. The company offers advisory services, margin funding as well as loan against shares. Also, the company is into distribution of financial products. The company's network comprises 11,000 Authorised persons.
The company is a member of the BSE, NSE as well as member of 2 of the leading commodity exchanges- NCDEX and MCX.
Active clientele of the firm include 16,60,058.
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