Trading platforms are an important criteria while choosing a broker. High performance trading apps are required so that traders can easily trade from any place at any time as per their convenience. If the broker does not provide efficient trading platforms, then he might miss out on profitable opportunities. Here are some of the aspects that one must look into in a trading platform.

• Speed and performance
• Platform design
• Technical and fundamental analysis ability
• Scalability
• Overall user feedback
• Flexibility
• Updated 

Zerodha is one of the top discount brokers in India, and it ranks high on the list for a reason. Apart from low flat fee brokerage rates, Zerodha offers some advanced trading platforms to its users. Zerodha Pi & Kite are the two trading platforms available for Zerodha users to trade in the stock market. 

In this blog, Investyogi will discuss both the trading platforms in detail and analyse which is more powerful out of the two. The similarities and differences between both will help to figure out which is the best option. 

Zerodha Pi

Zerodha Pi is a desktop trading platform developed by TradeLab Software Pvt Ltd. in association with Zerodha in 2015. Users are required to download and install the software on their desktop or computer. This platform is available for free to all Zerodha clients. This is an advanced platform that has inbuilt strategies and quick order entry screen so that traders can create their own strategies, back test them and trade directly from chart. Pi also offers trading signal and alerts. 

Zerodha Pi offers many unique features to make trading fast and accurate. Some of them are mentioned below:

• Uses advanced technologies like AI and neural networks etc., contributing towards some powerful trading tool
• Loads of historical data is available for analysis and backtesting
• Offer automated trading advice
• Easy integration with third party tools 

In addition, Zerodha Pi offers a range of features that are suitable for all levels of traders – beginners, intermediate, and experts. Some of these features include

• Single platform to trade in multiple segments and exchanges
• Single platform for trading, charting and analysing
• Integrated OMS and RMS for fast and accurate trading
• One click direct trading from charts is available

Other features include: 

1. Backtesting : Backtesting helps traders to check their strategy accuracy using historical chart data and even semi-automate them. To backtest, traders have to code strategy in  Trade script Language. Zerodha Pi offers support for coding advanced strategies and backtesting 
2. Scripted Alerts : Trader can go live on backtested strategies using scripted alerts.
3. Expert Advisors (EA) : Very similar to scripted alerts, but it is easier to run multiple EA’s and sharing with others. Zerodha has shared 14 public EA’s  to help get started.
4. Scanner : Scanner is used to scan on a big group of scrips using TradScript for Semi-automatic trading opportunities. Zerodha Pi provides support for pattern recognition scanner for technical analysis.
5. Pi Bridge : Traders who use AFL (AmiBroker Formula Language) can fire orders directly from AmiBroker into Pi. Pi trading software is more ideal for active traders/intraday traders, who works actively on technical stuff and want to watch details like Bid rate, Ask rate, Bid quantity, Ask quantity, open, high, low, close, LTP, etc of multiple scripts on a single window. 
6. Charts & Indicators 

• Intraday data from June 2014 onwards for the top 200 NSE stocks.  Remaining stocks, futures, and Indices from January 2015 onwards.
• Live & Historical Charts with different time Intervals 1Min/2Min/3Min/5Min/ 10Min/15Min/ 30Min/Hour/1Day/ 1Week/1Month.
• 10 different chart types - Line chart, Bar Chart, Candle Chart, Candle Volume, EquiVolume, EquiVolume Shadow, Heikin Ashi, Kagi, Point & Figure, Renko, Three Line Break.
• 100+ indicators and 30+ drawing tools for annotation.

Zerodha Pi uses the basic desktop configuration, and integrates with 3rd party platforms like Ninja Trader, Meta Trader, and AmiBroker. However some of the features of Zerodha Pi take time to get acquainted with. 

Zerodha Kite

Kite is a Web & Mobile based trading platform of Zerodha, named for its super simple user interface, integrated trading and reporting (Q/Quant) platform, brilliant charting, intuitive search and filters, lightning fast trading, and more. It is light-weight trading platform that is easy to use even in low internet bandwidth. 

Here are some of the major highlights to this trading platform

• Universal instrument search
• Customer friendly user interface
• Impactful data widgets
• Advanced charting facility
• Accurate P&L reports
• Integration with other investment apps
• Multiple Marketwatch
• Floating order window
• Advanced order types like brackets with trigger entry and cover with limit entry
• Universal instrument search for instant search over 90,000 stocks and F&O contracts.
• Live ticks, quotes, and order alerts
• In-built integration with Quant tool for performing fundamental analysis using behavioural analytics
• Integrates well with other investment apps developed by Zerodha partners 

Other features include: 

1. Multiple languages : Zerodha has launched this platform in 11 languages which makes traders more comfortable as most of the time English is not their primary language. Language preference can be selected at the bottom of the login page. Initially it was available only in English and now available in  Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Gujrati and Punjabi. 
2. User-Friendly : Kite application is very well designed; hence, even a new Investor/ Trader can easily understand the tools with no much of research. 
3. Browser Notifications - Never miss any important notifications from Zerodha with the new browser notifications on Kite. Users can see all the messages on Kite no matter what application they are using. 
4. Chrome Extension - Access Kite account from any website with just a single click on the extension. 
5. Charts & Indicators : Extensive charting with over 100 indicators and 6 chart types. Kite application is more ideal for beginners and Investors.  

Here are some of the additional benefits that one can avail from the Zerodha Kite trading platform.

• Simple and effective User Interface
• Works well even in low internet bandwidth
• Provides access to APIs
• Easy fund transfer options are available 

Despite the above advantages and user-friendly features, there are some advantages of the platform like, there is no option of investment in IPOs, and the back office is managed in a separate application ‘Q’.

To summarize, here is a comparison between Pi and Kite. 

Conclusion:

Pi and Kite both are great trading terminal provided by Zerodha and both are having their own advantages and disadvantages. 

In case you are looking to get started with stock market investments,let us assist you in taking the next steps ahead.

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