What our methodology covers
Every broker page and comparison table on BestDemat draws on four things that come from very different places. We don't blend them into one proprietary score.
Charges & fees
Account opening fee, AMC, equity delivery and intraday brokerage, and other recurring charges — taken directly from each broker's own published rate card. Brokers often bury these details in fine print beneath promotional offers, in a way that's designed to confuse; BestDemat pulls out the same figures and shows them plainly, side by side, with nothing hidden.
Brokerage Calculator
Our compare tool and brokerage calculator compute the real, all-in cost of a trade — brokerage plus STT/CTT, exchange transaction charges, SEBI charges, stamp duty and GST — for a given turnover, so you can compare brokers on total cost, not just headline brokerage.
Star rating & reviews
Entirely from the public — real users rate and review the broker they use. The star rating shown is the plain average of those submissions, not a BestDemat opinion.
Comparison
Compare a broker's rating, account opening fee, AMC and DP charges alongside brokerage — all side by side against other brokers — on the main comparison page.
How the star rating is calculated
The rating on every broker page comes straight from the reviews submitted for that broker — nothing is weighted or adjusted by BestDemat.
Each review is a 1–5 star rating. We add up every approved rating for a broker and divide by how many approved reviews there are, then round to one decimal place — the same number you see next to the star row on that broker's page.
A review only counts once it's moderated and marked "approved" — this filters out spam, duplicate submissions and reviews that fail our checks.
Every approved review carries equal weight — there's no boosting for review length, recency, or any other factor.
The average recalculates the moment a new review is approved, so the number you see is always current.
A broker with zero approved reviews shows no rating rather than a default or estimated score.
How the brokerage calculator works
The calculator (and the charge tables on every broker page) work out the true, all-in cost of a trade for a given turnover — not just the headline brokerage figure.
GST is charged at 18% on (brokerage + SEBI charges + transaction charges) — stamp duty and STT/CTT are calculated on turnover directly and aren't part of the GST base.
Brokerage — either a flat fee per executed order or a percentage of turnover, whichever the broker charges for that segment.
STT/CTT — securities/commodities transaction tax, charged on the buy, sell, or both sides depending on the segment.
Exchange transaction charges — set by NSE/BSE/MCX and applied on turnover; rates differ by segment and exchange.
SEBI charges — a small regulatory fee applied per crore of turnover, uniform across all brokers.
Stamp duty — a state-mandated charge on the buy side of a trade, uniform across all brokers for the same segment.
GST — 18% applied on brokerage, SEBI charges and transaction charges combined, as the final step.
Segment-specific rates (equity, F&O, currency, commodity) are sourced from each broker's tariff sheet and current exchange/SEBI circulars — see "Where our data comes from" below.
Where our data comes from
We don't estimate charges — every figure is sourced and cross-checked before it goes live.
Broker tariff sheets & official pricing pages — the primary source for brokerage, AMC and account opening charges.
SEBI & exchange circulars — for STT/CTT, transaction charges, SEBI charges and stamp duty rates that apply uniformly across brokers.
Direct broker correspondence — when published documentation is unclear or out of date, we confirm directly with the broker's support or compliance team.
Verified user reviews — moderated submissions from users, checked for duplicates and abuse before counting toward a broker's rating.
Reader-reported corrections — flagged discrepancies are re-verified against the primary source before any figure is updated.
How often we update
Charges and features can change without much notice, so we keep a regular review cycle on top of ad-hoc corrections.
Spotted something that looks outdated?
Tell us which broker and which charge — we verify every report against the primary source before updating.