In this Dhan vs ICICIDirect comparison, we will try to find out who is best amongst two and why? Having said that if we talk about both this broker, Dhan is a discount broker whereas ICICIDirect is a full-time broker, so to be honest comparing both on one scale can’t be the right thing to do.
However, they both are in same business and industry and functioning among same group of people, therefore a comparison can be made on the different services offered by them in every segment.
By the way if you want you can read the separate review of Dhan and Icici direct by clicking on this links.(Dhan Review, ICICI Direct Review.
Dhan made their entry in one of the highly competitive broking industry in September 2021 and they have more than 1 million+ users who have installed their app from playstore. Looking at this number it does shows the trust they have created for users in their products and services.
But why one would even choose dhan as they seem to be somehow new in the industry at first place.
It is because believe me or not but dhan have evolve as one of the best stockbrokers in the current league and giving the tough competition to ICICIDirect Zerodha and Upstox in terms of best trading platform, lowest brokerage structure, better investing features etc.
Dhan has one of the best web based trading platform I have personally seen and it beats even Zerodha trading platform due to the various features available under the same page such as technical, advanced option chain, customised strategy builder, fundamentals of company, financials etc.
ICICIDirect have more than 2.9 million, 29,56,887 clients as per NSE data. (the no. keeps on changing) there are many other banks in India who offers the broking services, but ICICI is at the top amongst them due the major changes they do internally time to time, few of them I have tried to show you below as well while comparing.
Let us see now through comparing Dhan vs Icici direct on different parameters see what both has to offer to their clients and which is best for you as an individual trade and investor.
Just to let you know this review guide is going to be long, you can switch from table of contents to look for the relevant info you want to know.
However below is overall comparison points between ICICIDirect Vs Dhan to tell you in short about who is best by which you can make instant decision to open account instantly instantly.
Dhan Vs ICICIDirect Overall Comparison:
I have already used both their services as well as wrote the reviews about them in detailed way separately, based on my experience and facts below are things you can consider before opening an account with them.
- You can trade and invest in all segments i.e. stocks (equity) FnO, Commodity, Currency, at NSE, BSE, MCX on both ICICIDirect and Dhan.
- Both stock brokers ICICIDirect and Dhan, have best trading platform for desktop/mobile app, you can do fundamental as well as technical analysis quite easily.
- ICICIDirect also offers a downloadable trading platform version but Dhan do not have this as of now. On the other hand dhan have a dedicated option trading platform (Web + App) which is not available at ICICIDirect.
- ICICIDirect have also tied up with third party service such as Sensibull for options trading strategies and smallcase for making portfolio based investment.
- Recently Dhan have also made tie up with smallcase for making portfolio based investment moreover they do have a stock recommendation tool as well which gives long term investment ideas known as Stratzy (free).
- ICICIDirect is a full time broker, you may enjoy stock recommendation/Free research reports, IPO Reports etc. This service is not available with Dhan.
- Dhan has also partnered with Tactic who provides Trade Ideas & Strategies of top SEBI registered traders in currently 3 modes – Intraday, Positional & BTST. This feature will greatly help the new as well as experience traders.
- 1Cliq by oipulse is integrated with Dhan which helps fast traders to identify trends especially scalpers. You can have trade execution with pre defined SL, auto Trailing SL, MTM target and stop loss are some of it’s amazing features which is not available with ICICIDirect.
- ICICIDirect has option for you to make investment in US stocks such as Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. using ICICI Direct trading platform whereas Dhan does not have this feature as of now.
- Dhan brokerages are lower than ICICIDirect brokerages when comparing. ICICIDirect NEO Plan charging Rs.20 per executed order whereas Dhan charging Rs.20 or 0.03% (whichever is lower). Dhan also offers free delivery i.e. brokerage free trades, ICICIDirect charges 0.05% for same.
- Dhan offers brokerage or say commission free mutual funds investment and platform for its users. ICICIDirect charges 1-1.5% commission for same but they do give recommendation as well for investing in MF.
- If we talk about Margin at Dhan vs ICICIDirect, after SEBI Rules on Intraday margin every stockbroker is giving same margin in equity throughout India, hence this does not matter anymore.
- ICICIDirect also offers buy now pay later feature which means you get extra margin for delivery based trades as well.
- Dhan also gives Margin Trading Facility (MTF) for up to 4X leverage (75% funds) from Dhan for Equity Delivery trading. You can buy 950+ stocks and hold them for unlimited period of time.
- With Dhan and ICICIDirect you can also invest and trade in IPO’s, NFO’s, ETF, SGB, and many other financial products with so much ease.
- ICICI Direct is much better for people who not only do intraday trade but make other investments, such as investment in ELSS, PPF, SIP’s, FD, RD, ETF’s etc., or looking for Loans or credit cards, Insurance etc.
- ICICIDirect, there is no AMC (Annual Maintenance charges) for Demat Account for the first Year. However, charge of ₹700 (excluding taxes) is levied from 2nd year onwards.
- For a limited time period you can open a Free trading/demat account with ICICIDirect, although they do charges one time account opening fee of Rs.975.
- Account opening charges as well as AMC (Annual Maintenance Charges) is Zero for Dhan for a limited time period.
- Dhan also offers another feature known as WelathBasket, it is a basket of stocks/ETFs, based on a strategy, theme or idea. WealthBaskets are professionally managed and help you invest in Stock Markets in a systematic way.
So overall if we you are more of an investor than a trader than ICICIDirect will be a perfect stockbroker for you but if you are an active trader placing regular trades than choose Dhan without any doubt.
Now, it is up to you to decide which one you choose as both have everything that is needed to trade and invest in stock market hassle free online.
You can Open a free Dhan trading/demat account with Zero AMC when you open through this link.
Now, let us go dive deep to cover all different services and features of Dhan and ICICIdirect step by step and see who is best between both stock brokers by doing in depth analysis.
About Dhan Vs ICICIDirect:
Before we dig deeper to understand the various services offered it becomes utmost import to know in brief about ICICI Direct and Dhan history.
Dhan Stock broker made their entry in one of the highly competitive broking industry last year in September 2021. Pravin Jadhav who was also the former Paytm Money CEO is the CEO of Dhan. Dhan is backed by leading investor such as MIRAE ASSET, BEENEXT, BLUME, 3ONE4 CAPITAL, Social Leverage etc.
Dhan is SEBI Registered (INZ000006031) online stock broker offering trading on all exchanges (BSE, NSE, MCX) and across all segments (equity, exchange-traded funds, futures, options, currency, commodities). Dhan have partnered with CDSL for depository services.
The company is registered by the name Moneylicious Securities Private Limited and have corporate office in, Borivali East, Mumbai, Maharashtra.
ICICIdirect.com is a part of ICICI Securities and offers retail trading and investment services in India. ICICI Direct was founded in the year 2000.
ICICI direct has a wide range of financial products and services related to investment banking, institutional broking, retail broking, private wealth management etc.
ICICI Direct has facility to invest in Equity, Derivatives, Commodity, Currency Futures, Mutual Funds, IPOs along other services like Fixed Deposits, Loans, Tax Services, New Pension Systems, and Insurance etc.
ICICI Securities has more than 280 offices across 80 cities in India and they provide trading in both exchanges NSE BSE as well as MCX.
They are depository participant (DP) for both NSDL and CDSL. Apart from this they have also won Outlook Money Awards for Best Retail Broker of the year 2018,’16,’15 ,Best e-Brokerage house of the year 2014,’13,’12,’11,’09,’07 and many more.
Dhan Vs ICICIdirect Margin Comparison:
Margin in stock market refers to buying/selling of securities (shares) by borrowing money from your broker. This is very much similar to taking loan for short period of time. This helps traders in buying or selling more with less money in intraday trading.
If you are an active trader or a beginner who knows what exactly going on with recent changes brought by SEBI, Higher Margin won’t be a factor anymore, now the competition among the broking industry is in terms of better trading platforms and lower brokerages plans.
The upfront margin collection in cash segment has been kept at flat 20%, which means now the leverage for all stocks would be 5x also the penalty provision for short-collection/ non-collection of upfront margin in cash segment.
This means regardless of any broker you won’t get more than 5X times margin in equity cash segment and in FNO you need to have the full margin span+exposure to take any position.
You can read more about it here.
Therefore, the margin or leverages offered will be equal irrespective of the stock brokers in India going forward. Keep in mind this also applies to Currency and commodity derivatives as well.
For example: if there is a 20% margin requirement on a particular stock, then you will have to pay only Rs.20 to buy a stock of Rs.100. Another way to look at it is that if you have Rs.100, you will be able to buy five stocks instead of one.
Hence, the margin requirement will be same for all brokers including ICICIDirect and dhan for intraday trading in equites and derivatives.
One need to understand taking more margin means more risk and chances of your money getting wiped out is even more, so it is always advisable to use it in limited way.
So going forward please choose stock broker not in terms of margin or leverage as it is same for all brokers through out India.
You can Open a free Dhan trading/demat account with Zero AMC when you open through this link.
Dhan Vs ICICIDirect Brokerages Comparison:
Brokerage is the most important factor when you trade and invest, both ICICIDirect and Dhan have quite low brokerages. Let us know brokerage for both discount brokers one by one.
Dhan Brokerage Structure:
Brokerage charge at Dhan is very low, there is no charge for taking delivery of the trades to your demat account. Whereas for intraday trades across equity, currency, commodity, it is flat Rs.20 or 0.03%(whichever is lower) and for options segment it is Rs. 20 per order.
Brokerage Structure of ICICIDirect:
Let us now move on check the brokerage at ICICI.
ICICIdirect have listened to the people demands and have slashed the brokerage in every segment. They have come up with new brokerage plan termed as NEO, Here is the new brokerage structure as per ICICIdirect
Apart from above segments i.e. equity intraday, Future and options they have also reduced the brokerage in Commodity and Currency segments:
The New ICICIdirect NEO Brokerage In Currency Segment (FNO):
New brokerage would be @ ₹20 per order only. There would not be any brokerage on lots.
The New ICICIdirect NEO Brokerage In Commodity Segments (FNO):
New brokerage would be @ ₹20 per order only. There would not be any brokerage on lots.
Overall, Dhan in terms of brokerages is better then ICICIDirect.
Dhan Vs ICICIDirect Account Opening Charges:
There are no account opening charges as of now with dhan for a limited time period. You can open dhan trading and demat account with zero AMC (Annual Mainenetance Charges).
- ₹0 Demat Account Fees
- ₹0 AMC
- ₹0 Platform Fees
- ₹0 Brokerage for Delivery Trades
- ₹20 per order for Intraday Trades
- ₹10 per order for Intraday and F&O Trades for all women investors on Dhan
If we talk about ICICI Direct it offers 3-in-1 accounts which includes ICICI bank account, ICICI trading account, and ICICI demat account. The 3-in-1 trading account gives you the convenience of opening a demat, trading & bank account.
You can seamlessly trade in Shares, Futures & Options, Currencies, commodities, invest in Mutual Funds, IPOs and Life Insurance.
»» Trading Account Opening Charges: Free for a limited time period
»» Trading Account AMC: Free for a limited time period
»» Demat Account Opening Charges: Free for a limited time period
»» Demat Account AMC: Rs 700 PA (Waived for 1st year) Excluding taxes
However, if the Demat account is under Basic Service DEMAT Account (BSDA), no AMC is levied for holding value up to 50000.
Get additional benefits with ICICI Direct now:
Overall, If we see apart from free trading/demat account, Dhan is charging no AMC so it’s more of money saving for you.
ICICIDirect Vs Dhan Online Account Opening Process:
The account opening process is online and it’s very seamless and smooth. Here is what you need to do:
To open an account with Dhan online, you can sign up using your mobile number through this link.
Similarly, To open an A/c online with ICICIDirect , Click on this link and first enter your mobile number.
You will receive an OTP to your number and you can get started with the process.
You will be required to enter your PAN, Bank account details and personal details to continue with the sign-up.
Once you sign up you need to upload certain documents listed below:
1. Your PAN card
2. Your Aadhaar
3. To complete the e Sign process, you will have to authenticate it with an OTP. So, make sure you have the number linked to your Aadhaar handy. If not, you will not be able to complete the process. If the number linked to your Aadhaar is inactive, or if you don’t have any number linked, then you can visit your nearest Aadhaar Seva Kendra to get it updated.
4. A photo or scanned copy of your signature proof will be required to be uploaded.
6. Income proof – It is mandatory to submit income proof if you wish to trade in Futures and options – Equity, Commodity, and Currency.
You can submit one of the below documents.
- Form-16
- Income tax returns acknowledgment
- 6-month Bank statement
- Latest salary slip
- Demat holding statement, or
- A CA certifying your net worth
Note: The documents mentioned are for a Resident Individual Account.
Dhan Vs ICICIDirect Trading Platform Comparison:
The most important part of any trading platform is the tools and resources it has for technical and fundamental analysis. If we talk about Dhan first below is what you can expect as an trader and investor:
Dhan have 3 trading platform for all devices known as:
- Dhan App for Mobile
- Dhan for desktop web version
- Option trading platform (Web + App) by dhan
It is not possible to review all of them under one post however, will review the dhan web version trading platform and as the functionalities and features remains same across different version hence it does not matter.
Dhan web or say browser based trading platform, which can be opened on any web browser you use. Just like a website but with all the tools and resources needed.
Honestly, this is one of the best web based trading platform I have personally seen it may sound little exaggerated but it beats even the Zerodha trading platform due to the various features available under the same page such as technical, advanced option chain data, customised option strategy builder, fundamentals of company, financials etc.
On left hand you will see the market watch, from here you can add or delete the scrips. When you move and hover over any stock it will give you different options.
If you know how to trade options then all the important details such as option chain, option delta, option moneyness etc. is easily available for you.
With Dhan platform you get the maximum no. of indicators you want in life. They are just one click away.
You can display and use any type of chart with different candlestick patterns
Whether you want to use:
Support and Resistance indicator and many others
Dhan gives Trading View charts along with ChartIQ on both web and mobile application. Different Candlestick patterns etc. you name the indicator and it will be there.
As, you can see in the above image of order window, you can place different types of orders in intraday trading, if you select the option delivery, it will give you the option to place different order for delivery.
You can add- withdraw funds directly, create or back-test trading strategies use DHAN API to trade and lot more.
The user interface is so clean and up to the mark, you can easily know which icon will do what, as the moment you will hover to any it will tell you the functionality of it.
So all in all Dhan trading platform has everything what is needed for a hassle-free trading platform.
Open a Free Dhan trading/demat account with Zero Annual Maintenance Charges online here
Let us now check ICICIDirect trading platform in comparison to Dhan in a detailed way:
ICICI Direct have three trading platforms for users:
- Web based trading platform : Trade Racer web
- Desktop based trading platform : Trade Racer
- Mobile trading platform: ICICI Direct mobile
Trade racer web as well as the downloadable software have similar functionalities. Let us know more about them:
Seamless convenience with Market Scanners, spot real time trading opportunity conveniently by customizing your preferred technical parameters.
Trend Scanner – Easily view all trending scrips in a single window
Trend Scanner is tool based on pre-defined Technical parameters, which tracks Intra-day Price Movement for finding Trending Scrips.
Bullish- Bearish
- Pivot : Based on Pivot levels
- Miscellaneous
Bullish
Live Scanner – Instantly identify stocks making new highs / lowsLive Scanner is tool which tracks New Highs and New Lows for Stocks with Price Movement.
Live Scanner helps you to identify Scrips making :
- New Day High/Low
- New Weekly High/Low
- New 1 Month High/Low
- New 3 Month High/Low
- New 1 Year High/Low
Take Complete control with Market Tracker. Now spot real time trading opportunity conveniently by customizing your preferred technical parameters.
Snap View
Snap View gives a complete picture for any scrip with following information.
- Quote/Market Depth
- Pivot Levels (Resistances & support level)
- Peer Group
- Chart
- Bulk and Block Deals
- Gross Delivery data
- Corporate Announcements
Market at fingertips
Equity @ finger tips is a flexible tool which would fetch the scrips on the basis of following predefined search :
Sr. No. |
Predefined Search |
1. |
Stocks with high price momentum |
2. |
Bargain Buys |
3. |
Highest – yielding Stocks in Sensex |
4. |
Poor Man’s Stocks |
5. |
Distressed Stocks |
6. |
Estimated Earnings Upgrade/Downgrade |
7. |
Momentum Stocks |
8. |
Year’s Top Performers |
9. |
Top Tech Companies |
10. |
Top Revenue Companies |
11. |
Top Profitable Companies |
12. |
Medium and Large Cap Stocks with high dividend yield but low P/E ratios. |
13. |
Delisting Candidates |
14. |
FII Favorites |
Bulk and Block DealsBulk deals refers to transactions where the total quantity traded in a stock ( whether bought or sold) is more than 0.5% of the number of equity shares of the company listed on the stock exchange. The quantity bought or sold could be through single trade or multiple trades.
Block deals is a trade with a minimum quantity of 500,000 shares or minimum value of Rs. 5 crores, executed through a single transaction on a special “Block Deal Window” The window is opened for 35 minutes in the morning trading hours.
SEBI rule states that block deal orders should be placed for a price not exceeding +1 percent to -1 percent of the previous day’s closing or the current market price.
Advance Decline ratio
Advance Decline ratio is market-breadth indicator used in technical analysis to compare the number of stocks that are trading positive with the number of stocks that are trading negative with respect to their previous day’s closing prices.
This widget shows the Advance-Decline Ratio for all NSE & BSE Indices. It shows a color coded bar in which Blue depicts Advances, Red depicts Declines and Grey Depicts No change.
Heat MapHeat Map is a Tabular representation of stocks for a Group/Index in ascending order of their price movement with respect to yesterday’s closing price. The table is color coded where the negative stocks are displayed in Red background and positive stocks are displayed in Blue Background.
Moving AveragesMoving Averages means the average price of a security over a specified time period. The most commonly used are 3, 5, 13, 20, 50, 100, 200 days.
Moving Averages are used in order to spot pricing trends by flattering on large fluctuations. This is perhaps the most commonly used variable in technical analysis. Its data is also used to create charts that show whether a stock’s price is trending up or down.
Global IndicesIt keeps your informed about Major American, European and Asian Market Indices.
Gross Delivery DataGross delivery of shares is the ratio of deliverable quantity of shares to the total quantity of shares traded in the exchange on that trading day.
For Example:
Quantity Traded:4,371
Deliverable Quantity (gross across client level) : 2,556
% of Deliverable Quantity to Traded Quantity : 58.48 %
You get the similar functionalities on all three trading platforms, however the downloadable platform is much better than other two in terms of seamless operation. Moreover all different technical tools and resources are available to do technical and fundamental analysis as well.
Overall Dhan in comparison to ICICIDirect trading platform offers much better user interface as well as they have many other services integrated under one page which makes it very easy to find all resources.
Having said that the kind of free research, recommendation and analysis you get from ICICIDirect for trading and investing is surely the plus point for ICICIDirect.
You can Open a free Dhan trading/demat account with Zero AMC when you open through this link.
My Opinion On Dhan Vs ICICIDirect:
I hope you have now thoroughly understood most of the services offered by Dhan and 5Paisa, if you ask me in Dhan vs ICICIDirect who is better?
ICICIDirect is a one stop solution for trading and investing in any financial instruments in India. It has everything setup at one place, if you open account with them there is no need to look for any extra service here and there.
What makes ICICI direct different from other is the strong hold and backup from ICICI Bank, India’s top private bank. Other than this there are no charges to open an account so nothing to lose.
Secondly, the kind of technological advancement in there trading platforms, apart from this they also offer PMS (portfolio management services), insurance, loans, gold investment, research advisory, mutual funds, ETF and lot more.
If I have to rate the ICICI direct in comparison with other Dhan, I will give 9.3 out of 10. So, go ahead and open an free account now here. There is no better deal you can get apart from ICICIDirect as an full-time broker.
On the other hand if we talk about dhan stockbroker
According to the latest NSE reports there are about 250+ stock brokers in India, however what makes Dhan a leading and strong contender in the stock broking industry is the tools and resources they have in their trading platform.
Moreover there are no hidden charges and the brokerages are very minimal if we do the industry comparison. They are also backed by cash enriched investors so nothing to fear.
If I have to rate Dhan broker after looking at there breakthrough pricing model for brokerages as well as other charges and experiencing there simple yet great user interface for trading platform I would give it 9.5 out of 10.
I am still being harsh as it is a new company, but you may see the ratings may go higher with time in my opinion.
So if you are thinking of opening a trading/demat/mutual fund combined account, than do not put any second thought, go ahead and Open Free dhan trading and demat account with Zero AMC (Annual Mainenetance Charges) there is nothing to lose its a win-win deal.
So, all in all It really depends on what exactly are you looking to do, ICICIDirect is like a supermarket where you will find everything related to financials services, where as Dhan as of now is only dedicated towards intraday trading and investing in stock market.
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