Two SEBI-registered discount brokers building for active traders — with opposite engineering bets on charting. Punch Trade (SEBI: INZ000300936), operated by Market Pulse Securities Pvt. Ltd. and incorporated in 2021, runs an in-house native charting engine and routes execution through that same codebase. Zerodha (SEBI: INZ000031633), founded in 2010 and serving roughly 7.09 million active clients (December 2025), runs ChartIQ as the default chart on Kite with embedded TradingView available as an option. Both brokers cover equity, F&O, intraday, and ETFs. Beyond that, Zerodha extends through commodities, currency, mutual funds, bonds, IPOs, and a wide ecosystem of products — while Punch is currently equity, F&O, and ETFs only. This comparison covers charting architecture, brokerage charges at scale, execution and order types, ecosystem breadth, and how to choose between the two.
Quick Comparison
| Parameter | Punch Trade | Zerodha |
|---|---|---|
| SEBI Registration | INZ000300936 | INZ000031633 |
| Year of Incorporation | 2021 | 2010 |
| Brokerage — Equity Delivery | ₹1 per order or 0.10%, whichever is lower | Free (retail individuals) |
| Brokerage — F&O | ₹1 per order or 0.10%, whichever is lower | ₹20 per executed order |
| Brokerage — Intraday | ₹1 per order or 0.10%, whichever is lower | ₹20 or 0.03%, whichever is lower |
| Effective Cost incl. GST (F&O) | ₹1.18 per order | ₹23.60 per order |
| Account Opening | ₹0 (Free) | ₹0 (Free) |
| Demat AMC | ₹0 (Lifetime) | Tiered: ₹0 to ₹300/yr |
| Charting Engine | Native in-house (Market Pulse) | ChartIQ + embedded TradingView |
| Trade from Chart | Mobile (Android) + Web | Web only (Kite Web with TradingView TFC) |
| Multi-Layout Charts | Up to 8 (desktop), 2 (mobile) | Up to 8 (TradingView), 4 (ChartIQ) |
| Premium Plotting (CE/PE on spot) | Yes | Not available |
| Smart Money Concepts (FVG, BOS, ChoCh) | Native indicators | Not native to Kite |
| Trailing Stop-Loss | Yes (live) | Not available |
| GTT / AMO / Bracket / Cover | Not yet | All available |
| Order Execution Speed | 0.01s (published at punch.trade/status) | Not publicly published |
| Products | Equity, F&O, ETFs | Equity, F&O, Commodities, Currency, MFs, Bonds, ETFs, IPOs |
| iOS App | In development | Available |
| Active Clients | Not publicly disclosed | ~7.09 million (Dec 2025) |
| Funding | $10M seed (Stellaris, SIG, Prime, Innoven) | Bootstrapped |
Charting Architecture
Charting is where the two platforms diverge most clearly. Punch Trade ships a native in-house charting engine — built and maintained by the Market Pulse Technologies team, whose charting technology has reached 80 Lac+ traders across broker integrations over a decade. The engine is not a third-party embed: it runs in the same codebase as Punch’s order routing, which is what enables features like trade-from-chart on mobile, drag-and-drop SL/TP across mobile and web, and the ability to plot call or put premium movement directly on the spot price chart — a feature unique to Punch. Smart Money Concepts (Fair Value Gap, Break of Structure, Change of Character) are native indicators in the engine. Multi-layout charting supports up to 8 simultaneous charts on desktop and 2 on mobile, with 15 chart tabs in parallel.
Zerodha takes a different route. Kite ships with ChartIQ as the default charting engine, and users can switch to embedded TradingView in profile settings for up to 8 layouts. TradingView’s Pine Script library and community indicators are accessible inside the embed. Zerodha launched Trade from Charts on TradingView in May 2025 — drag-and-drop SL modification and keyboard shortcuts work on Kite Web, but trade-from-chart is not currently available on the Kite mobile app. Smart Money Concepts as native broker indicators are not part of Kite’s stack. Both platforms make charting available without a separate subscription.
The trade-off is reach versus depth. Pine Script and TradingView’s community library are an open-ecosystem advantage on Zerodha. Native control over the charting and execution layers is what lets Punch ship features that require both layers to talk to each other — premium plotting on spot, mobile trade-from-chart, default-on Protection Orders linked to the chart UI, and Trailing Stop-Loss originally shipped through Builder’s Lab.
Brokerage Math at Scale
Punch charges ₹1 per executed order (₹1.18 including 18% GST) across equity delivery, intraday, futures, and options. Zerodha charges ₹20 per executed order (₹23.60 including GST) on F&O and intraday — equity delivery is free for retail individual accounts. The cost difference scales with frequency. A trader running 15 F&O orders a day across 22 trading days pays ₹389 a month on Punch and ₹7,788 on Zerodha. At 40 orders a day, Punch costs ₹1,038; Zerodha costs ₹20,768. At 100 orders a day, the gap widens to ₹2,596 versus ₹51,920 — roughly ₹49,324 a month, or ₹5.92 lakh annualised.
| F&O Orders/Day | Punch (Monthly) | Zerodha (Monthly) | Monthly Savings | Annual Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | ₹389 | ₹7,788 | ₹7,399 | ₹88,783 |
| 40 | ₹1,038 | ₹20,768 | ₹19,730 | ₹2,36,755 |
| 100 | ₹2,596 | ₹51,920 | ₹49,324 | ₹5,91,888 |
Calculations: orders × effective cost per order × 22 trading days. Annual = monthly × 12. Statutory charges (STT, stamp duty, transaction charges, SEBI turnover, GST on charges) apply equally on both platforms. STT effective from April 1, 2026: Futures 0.05%, Options 0.15% on the sell side; equity delivery and intraday rates unchanged.
Note: From April 2026, Zerodha applies a conditional ₹40 per order on F&O for traders who do not maintain at least 50% of collateral in cash with a shortfall above ₹5 lakh. The standard ₹20 per order applies to compliant traders. Verify current rates at zerodha.com/charges.
Execution and Order Types
Punch publishes live system metrics at punch.trade/status — 0.01-second order execution, 99.99% order reliability, and 99.999% platform uptime. Trailing Stop-Loss is live across the platform, originally a Builder’s Lab–shipped feature. Protection Orders ship default-on: stop-loss and target are pre-attached to entries with friction designed to discourage removal rather than addition. Standard order types — Market, Limit, Stop-Loss (SL and SL-M) — are supported. Punch does not yet offer GTT, AMO, Bracket, or Cover orders.
Zerodha supports GTT (Good Till Triggered) with OCO functionality, AMO (After-Market Orders), Bracket, and Cover orders. Kill Switch lets traders disable trading segments for 12 hours; the Nudge framework displays in-window risk warnings; Market Protection caps order execution prices during volatility. Zerodha does not publish a public real-time status dashboard equivalent to punch.trade/status.
Ecosystem and Product Breadth
Zerodha’s ecosystem extends well beyond the trading screen. Coin offers zero-commission direct mutual funds. Sensibull provides options analytics, IV charts, and a strategy builder, free for all Zerodha users. Streak handles no-code algo trading and backtesting. Kite Connect is the developer API. Varsity offers 850+ chapters of free trading and investing education. Console handles tax-ready reporting. Smallcase enables thematic investing. The platform supports commodities, currency derivatives, mutual funds, bonds, and IPOs — segments not currently on Punch.
Punch Trade’s surface area is narrower by design. The product is currently equity, F&O, and ETFs. There is no Punch API yet, no native commodities or currency desk yet, no in-app mutual funds or IPOs yet, and no iOS app yet. Stock Research and Reports are launching soon. What Punch does run is Builder’s Lab — an open roadmap board on which traders post requests and upvote what they want next. Over 500 requests have been processed there. Shipped examples include Drag & Drop SL/TP (471 votes), Trade-wise PnL (247 votes, shipped in 9 days), Split Charts (189 votes, shipped in 11 days), Fair Value Gap (313 votes), Scalper Mode (241 votes), and Trailing Stop-Loss. The trade-off is breadth (Zerodha) versus roadmap velocity tied to user votes (Punch).
Who Should Consider Each
Punch Trade suits traders whose workflow centres on charting and F&O execution — native trade-from-chart on mobile and web, multi-layout charting up to 8 desktop and 2 mobile, Smart Money indicators, premium plotting on spot, and Scalper Joystick with preset SL/TP and Trailing Stop-Loss. Active F&O and intraday traders running 15 or more orders a day will see brokerage costs land structurally lower at ₹1 per executed order. Punch is not the right pick for traders who need commodities or currency yet, an iOS app yet, mutual funds or IPOs yet, or a developer API yet.
Zerodha suits traders who need a multi-asset account spanning equity, F&O, commodities, currency, mutual funds, bonds, and IPOs. Sensibull, Streak, and Kite Connect are relevant for options analytics, no-code algo, and programmatic trading workflows. iPhone and iPad users currently have a native Kite app on Zerodha; Punch’s iOS app is in development.
FAQs
What is the brokerage difference per F&O trade between Punch Trade and Zerodha?
Punch Trade charges ₹1.18 per executed F&O order including 18% GST. Zerodha’s standard rate is ₹23.60 per executed F&O order including GST. The difference per trade is ₹22.42. For 100 F&O orders a day across 22 trading days, monthly brokerage works out to ₹2,596 on Punch and ₹51,920 on Zerodha.
Does Zerodha offer ₹1 per order brokerage?
No. Zerodha’s standard F&O and intraday brokerage is ₹20 per executed order or 0.03% of trade value, whichever is lower. Equity delivery is free for retail individual accounts. From April 2026, traders without 50% cash collateral and a shortfall above ₹5 lakh are charged ₹40 per F&O order; the standard ₹20 rate applies to compliant traders.
Are Punch Trade’s charts native or based on TradingView?
Punch Trade’s charts are fully native, built in-house by the Market Pulse Technologies team. There is no TradingView embed and no separate charting subscription. Zerodha’s Kite, by contrast, ships ChartIQ as the default with embedded TradingView available in profile settings.
Can both brokers offer trade-from-chart on mobile?
Punch Trade supports trade-from-chart on Android and on the web platform. Zerodha’s Trade from Charts (TFC) on TradingView is currently available on Kite Web only — not on the Kite mobile app.
Is Punch Trade available on iOS?
Not yet. The iOS app is in development. iPhone and iPad users access Punch via the mobile web at punch.trade. The Android app is live on Google Play. Zerodha’s Kite app is available on iOS today.
How do execution speeds compare?
Punch publishes live execution metrics at punch.trade/status: 0.01-second order execution, 99.99% reliability, and 99.999% uptime. Zerodha does not maintain an equivalent public real-time status dashboard.
Does Punch Trade support commodities, currency, or mutual funds?
Not yet. Punch supports equity delivery, intraday, index futures, stock futures, index options, stock options, and ETFs. Commodities, currency derivatives, mutual funds, bonds, and IPOs are not currently available. Stock Research and Reports are launching soon.
Does Punch Trade offer Trailing Stop-Loss and GTT?
Trailing Stop-Loss is live across the Punch platform, originally shipped through Builder’s Lab. GTT (Good Till Triggered), AMO, Bracket, and Cover orders are not yet available on Punch. Zerodha supports all four.
