[fgpwd]

I currently use zerodha for investing in mutual funds. Both offer direct funds. There are no transaction charges with zerodha coin, no demat charges either, but they do charge a flat monthly fee of Rs.50, regardless of the number of transactions or funds you invest in. With piggy, as per their website, the fee is Rs.30 per transaction for every time you buy a fund, and Rs.100 per year for every fund you SIP. RS.3 for every time you buy a liquid fund.

So piggy turns out to be cheaper for most people who would start an SIP with 2-3 mutual funds. Since I guess most people won't have needs that extend beyond this, piggy is probably the cheapest platform to buy mutual funds. However, for someone expecting a larger number of transactions or SIP with more than 6 funds, zerodha would turn out to be cheaper. Also, if instead of an SIP, for some reason you wish to invest a different amount every month, zerodha would turn out to be cheaper.

A big advantage of having a zerodha account is that I can also invest in index ETFs which I feel are much safer than mutual funds for the long term. Index mutual funds have very high expense ratios of more than 1%, but in comparison the index ETFs have lower expenses, like the NIFTYBEES etf has an expense ratio of just 0.1%. The SBI NIFTY etf has an expense ratio of 0.05%. There are no exit loads or transaction charges. These are passive funds that just track the basket of companies in the NIFTY index.

I think index ETFs should also form an important portion of a person's long term/retirement investment portfolio, apart from mutual funds.

[nikhilmantha]

Hello! Thanks for taking time to give us a detailed feedback. The pricing for all the services will remain competitive I'm sure. To start off with we made the app simple for people to use and on mobile as a lot of people would like to manage their portfolio on the go. We have received a lot of positive feedback on that.

Regarding your point on ETF you're correct. ETFs are a low cost option in the long run and are ideal for retirement. But that is primarily true in developed markets currently where it is difficult for most managers to beat the indices. In India atleast for now actively managed mutual funds are providing more returns than the index. As our markets develop we would converge with the trends of the developed markets.

Having said that we would definitely be adding meaningful products for our customers on the app! Do give it a try and let us know what you think.

[balladeer]

You are forgetting that Zerodha needs you have a demat account and then you pay for it. Because you can't do MF with Zerodha w/o a demat account (can do so with many other brokers).

Also, for this monthly charge Zerodha doesn't provide any analytics or advisory while many other direct fund providers, at a similar monthly cost, do (and couple of them won't even ask you to have a demat a/c and pay for it).

[fgpwd]

You are right. I forgot about the charges for the demat account - there are AMC charges of Rs.300 per year. So that makes zerodha coin about Rs.75 per month.

But there are no transaction charges in zerodha on buying equity (delivery) or MF. So it is still cheaper than piggy for someone wishing to make a large number of transactions or someone who doesn't want an SIP but wishes to invest manually every month.

Also, if you need a demat account for some other purpose - like investing in ETFs or equities then maybe it makes more sense for some people.

If all you are doing is an SIP with a couple of mutual funds, which is what most people around me do, piggy is probably cheaper. You can always have a zerodha (or equivalent) account for equity/ETFs/etc. and piggy for MFs.

But for someone like me with slightly different requirements, zerodha would be cheaper. I have a variable income so SIPs are not an option for me. I invest money as a percentage of my income so the amounts vary every month. In this case zerodha turns out to be cheaper despite the demat charges.

[nikhilmantha]

Do take a look at the charges section in our app. We have something out there that might work for you! :)

[fgpwd]

I saw that; free transactions forever on 5 referrals till 20 aug - that is very clever. The app is also very well designed. Congrats!