Vanguard exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are among the most popular funds out there, and for good reason. Investors of all stripes can make good use of this asset manager’s wide variety of investment strategies—offered up in simple, cost-effective ETFs.
The best Vanguard ETFs are big and “liquid,” meaning they are easy to buy and sell. They’re also a key part of any low-cost investing strategy; that’s because most Vanguard ETFs are inexpensive index funds that are frequently the cheapest alternatives in the marketplace.
So, if you’re trying to build a portfolio without getting drained by fees, read on as we evaluate some of the best Vanguard ETFs for 2025. We’ve got something for everyone—whether you care about emerging markets or developed markets, small-cap stocks for growth or solid blue-chip stocks for the dividends, there’s a Vanguard ETF out there for you.
We’ll start with a little ETF education, then move on to the picks.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. These funds appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.
Related: The Best Vanguard Index Funds for Beginners
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What Is an ETF?
“ETF” is an acronym for an “exchange-traded fund.” In plain English, that means it’s a grouping of different assets (stocks, bonds, etc.) into a fund—one that’s listed on an exchange, just like individual stocks. As such, an ETF can fluctuate in price across the trading day according to the value of those underlying assets.
ETFs vs. mutual funds
You might be familiar with this concept of bundled assets because that’s how traditional mutual funds work. But with mutual funds, all buying and selling happens just once each trading day, after the markets close at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. ETFs, on the other hand, are available to buy and sell across the trading day.
ETFs are also structured differently than mutual funds and their other cousins, closed-end funds (CEFs), which tends to make them a little more tax-efficient. Also, unlike mutual funds, ETFs don’t have minimum investment thresholds—the minimum cost is just one share (or less if your broker offers fractional shares).
Lastly, ETFs tend to have cheaper fees than mutual funds, on average, but that’s because most ETFs are passively managed index funds, whereas most mutual funds are run by one or more human managers. But there are more expensive actively managed ETFs and cheap index mutual funds.
Related: The 7 Best Vanguard Index Funds for Beginners
Why Vanguard?
Vanguard is the No. 2 asset manager in the world with $8.7 trillion in assets under management, only trailing peer BlackRock ($11.5 trillion), according to data from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. And with that size comes a massive breadth of investment options, as well as efficiencies of scale that are difficult for smaller investment companies to match.
It’s also worth noting that the best Vanguard ETFs are often low-cost, passive index funds. That means they are not aggressive vehicles that depend on overpaid managers to outperform the market, but rather “set it and forget it” funds tied to a fixed index of assets. This less flashy but more consistent approach has generally been shown to provide better long-term results.
The Best Vanguard ETFs
There is a massive universe of exchange-traded funds out there. So what makes the best Vanguard ETFs stand out over other ETFs?
A few factors include:
- Relative fees, not just low fees. After all, just because a fund only costs you several dollars per year doesn’t mean there isn’t an even cheaper alternative out there.
- Long-term potential. For the purpose of this article, we’re not talking about tactical or short-term bets, but rather foundational investments for the long haul.
- Different approaches for different investors. Also for the purpose of this article, we’re not looking for a single one-size-fits-all Vanguard ETF. Instead, the list is intended to be a menu of differentiated options that you can pick and choose from, based on your personal goals.
One final word of caution: Every investment carries risk, and even the best funds can lose you money if Wall Street suffers widespread declines.
With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s jump into the first Vanguard ETF on our list:
Best Vanguard ETF #1: Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
- Style: U.S. large-cap stock
- Assets under management: $597.7 billion
- Dividend yield: 1.2%
- Expense ratio: $0.03%, or 30¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
Many “best ETF” lists include an S&P 500 fund. It’s not laziness. It’s because S&P 500 funds work. Millions of American portfolios have large-cap stocks at their core, and the S&P 500 simply provides excellent exposure to large-cap stocks.
As we frequently point out, many actively managed large-cap stock funds are benchmarked to the S&P 500. Well, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, the majority of active large-cap U.S. equity funds had failed to beat the S&P 500 in 21 of the past 24 years on a total-return basis (price plus dividends) … and fund managers were on track to underperform yet again in 2024.
But even if you compare the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and other low-cost S&P 500 index funds to all large-cap funds—active and index—they routinely land in the top quartile by performance across most meaningful time periods.
VOO tracks the S&P 500—a collection of 500 of the largest American companies. It’s often used as a stock-market gauge of the U.S. economy given that its components encompass just about every type of business there is.
But that doesn’t mean it’s evenly spread out. Technology is a huge part of our economy, and thus a huge part of VOO—a third of its assets right now, in fact. On the flip side, real estate, materials, and utilities merit less than 3% apiece. This happens because the S&P 500 is market capitalization-weighted, which means the greater the size of the company, the more “weight” it’s given in the index. So currently, trillion-dollar-plus companies Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA), and Microsoft (MSFT) top the S&P 500.
Simply put: VOO is one of the cheapest ways to buy one of the stock market’s most important and productive indexes. That makes it one of Vanguard’s best ETFs.
Want to learn more about VOO? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
Related: 8 Best Stock Portfolio Tracking Apps [Stock Portfolio Trackers]
Best Vanguard ETF #2: Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF
- Style: U.S. total stock market
- Assets under management: $465.0 billion
- Dividend yield: 1.3%
- Expense ratio: $0.03%, or 30¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
If you want a little more exposure to stocks of all sizes, a “total stock market” fund might be more up your alley.
The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) is a one-stop shop for investors who want exposure to the totality of the U.S. stock market in a single investment. All told, this fund holds roughly 3,600 different stocks, representing all sectors and sizes of companies.
However, like the aforementioned VOO, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF does not treat every component equally. It’s weighted most heavily toward the largest stocks, with multitrillion-dollar tech giants Apple and Nvidia each representing more than 5% of the entire fund themselves (11% combined). As a result, large caps are still king at 70% of assets, though you do get a 20% weighting in mid-caps and another 10% in small companies.
This top-heaviness is common among the cheapest index funds, regardless of the index they track. And VTI remains an elegantly simple solution for investors who just want to buy … well, virtually the whole U.S. stock market!
You’d also be in good company. This is one of the top five exchange-traded funds in the U.S. by assets. So while it’s not particularly sophisticated, it’s still a favorite of investors who think long-term, buy-and-hold strategies are preferable to more complex options.
Want to learn more about VTI? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
Related: 10 Monthly Dividend Stocks for Frequent, Regular Income
Best Vanguard ETF #3: Vanguard U.S. Multifactor ETF
- Style: U.S. multifactor
- Assets under management: $323.2 million
- Dividend yield: 1.6%
- Expense ratio: 0.18%, or $1.80 per year for every $1,000 invested
Most investment funds are designed to give you exposure to a certain part of the market, however wide or narrow that part of the market might be. The whole stock market. A sector. A country. Certain types of bonds. You get the picture. To find more ideal holdings within that slice of the market, index funds might have certain inclusion criteria, and actively managed funds will rely on managers’ discretion. But the purpose of these funds largely remains “access to such and such part of the market.”
But what if you just want, say, a great collection of stocks, whatever they might look like?
Well, you might want to seek out “multifactor” funds.
Index provider MSCI defines factors well: “A factor is any characteristic that helps explain the long-term risk and return performance of an asset.” If you’ve invested for any amount of time, you’re already well-aware of the two most prominent factors: value and growth. But there are others, including volatility, dividend yield, price momentum, and more. A “multifactor fund” invests in securities that meet criteria across several factors, in hopes of building a more optimal portfolio.
The Vanguard U.S. Multifactor ETF (VFMF) is an actively managed multifactor fund, though it sticks tightly to a rules-based quantitative model to ensure its holdings meet several factor gates. After an initial universe of U.S. stocks is screened to remove the 20% most volatile stocks across each market cap grouping, the remaining stocks are chosen based on three more factors:
- Value: Book value-to-price and forward earnings-to-price (also operating cash flows-to-price for non-financial-sector companies)
- Quality: Financial sector: Return on equity, share issuance; Non-financials: Return on equity, gross profitability, change in net operating assets, leverage
- Momentum: Total returns (price plus dividends) from 12 months ago to one month ago, total returns from 7 months ago to one month ago, and the intercept from a one-year regression of stock returns on their regional benchmark.
The resulting portfolio is … well, Morningstar categorizes it as “mid-cap value,” but that’s misleading. In truth, it’s just extremely well-balanced across market caps right now, at 30% of assets in large caps, 25% in mid-caps, 25% in small caps and even 20% in micro-caps (stocks between $50 million and $300 million, often included as part of a fund’s small-cap count). From a sector perspective, financial stocks are the top weight at 27%, followed by consumer cyclicals (14%) and industrials (13%).
But Vanguard U.S. Multifactor’s nature suggests that these size and sector weightings could fluctuate. Again, what matters is whether you’re getting something better than ordinary, and on that front, VFMF does the job.
VFMF is fairly young, having launched in 2018, so five-year returns are our best gauge. Vanguard’s ETF has underperformed the S&P 500 over that time on a total-return basis, but the S&P 500 is predominantly large-cap, which has beaten the pants off of mid- and small caps over the past five years. A better measure would be pitting VFMF against a portfolio similarly weighted across Vanguard’s large-, mid-, and small-cap funds. On that front, Vanguard U.S. Multifactor has provided about 7 percentage points of outperformance.
Want to learn more about VFMF? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
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Best Vanguard ETF #4: Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF
- Style: U.S. dividend-growth stock
- Assets under management: $87.2 billion
- Dividend yield: 1.7%
- Expense ratio: 0.06%, or 60¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
One of the popular ways for investors to reduce their risk profile in the stock market is to lean on dividend stocks. Some companies pay a portion of their profits back to shareholders in the form of cash distributions, called “dividends.” Dividends can provide another source of income aside from price returns.
But also, stocks that pay dividends regularly tend to produce significant, reliable profits that they can afford to share. That implies a certain level of quality. For investors who want to take that level of quality one step further, there’s the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG), which is composed of dividend stocks with track records of growing those payments over time.
Dividend growth is an important measure of health, but it’s also an important factor in compound returns over time. Your initial investment might be fixed, but the dividends should get larger and larger over time, meaning you could find yourself reaping massive regular paydays years down the road if you’re patient enough to buy and hold.
VIG’s portfolio, which is currently about 340 stocks, includes dividend growers such as semiconductor firm Broadcom (AVGO), mega-bank JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and credit card titan Visa (V), to name a few.
If you want to focus on rock-solid companies like this in 2025, this Vanguard ETF is worth a look.
Want to learn more about VIG? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
Related: 5 Best Vanguard Dividend Funds [Low-Cost Income]
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Best Vanguard ETF #5: Vanguard Real Estate ETF
- Style: Sector (Real estate)
- Assets under management: $33.8 billion
- Dividend yield: 3.9%
- Expense ratio: 0.13%, or $1.30 per year for every $1,000 invested
You might have noticed that while VIG’s holdings might offer lower risk and growing payouts, the current dividend yield isn’t particularly impressive. Some investors prefer more yield up front; for those, one option is the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ).
This is the best Vanguard ETF for investing in real estate. VNQ holds real estate investment trusts, or REITs—a special class of company that enjoys operational tax breaks to accommodate the capital-intensive nature of real estate and property management. However, in exchange for those tax breaks, REITs must deliver 90% of taxable income back to their shareholders. This typically results in greater-than-average dividends. And the best REITs, which are able to produce the most regular and growing cash flows from their properties, are as consistent an investment as you’ll find on Wall Street.
The Vanguard Real Estate ETF currently holds about 160 REITs, including everything from industrial warehouse giant Prologis (PLD) to telecom tower operator American Tower (AMT) to mall operator Simon Property Group (SPG). And best of all, this portfolio collectively delivers a yield that is more than twice that of the previous fund, and roughly thrice the broader market.
Most of us can’t afford to buy a second home or an office building to rent out to tenants directly. But ETFs like VNQ allow us to tap into the big income potential of the real estate market.
Want to learn more about VNQ? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
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Best Vanguard ETF #6: Vanguard Information Technology ETF
- Style: Sector (Technology)
- Assets under management: $87.7 billion
- Dividend yield: 0.6%
- Expense ratio: 0.10%, or $1.00 per year for every $1,000 invested
The flip side of low-risk dividend stocks and REITs are high-growth companies that are focused on investing in future opportunities rather than sweeping their profits back to shareholders.
That’s what the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) has to offer.
VGT’s portfolio is composed of roughly 320 different technology stocks, ranging from the big names you know like Apple and Microsoft, to smaller software developers, chipmakers, and other growth-oriented technology firms.
Tech had a heck of a year in 2023 and 2024 (and appears set to carry the momentum in 2025 as well), and VGT was among the best Vanguard ETFs as a result. But keep in mind the sector doesn’t always come out on top. In 2022, even the biggest and most established names in Silicon Valley faced serious headwinds.
Still, if you’re taking a long view, it’s difficult to imagine a future where high-tech stocks are not among the biggest winners—and this Vanguard ETF plays into this trend.
Want to learn more about VGT? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
Related: 7 Best Growth Stocks to Buy [Find Your Edge]
Best Vanguard ETF #7: Vanguard Total International Stock ETF
- Style: International stock
- Assets under management: $75.8 billion
- Dividend yield: 3.4%
- Expense ratio: 0.08%, or 80¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
So far we’ve only covered different ways to slice up the U.S. stock market. However, there’s a great big universe of companies out there beyond our borders.
That’s where the Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS) comes in.
This Vanguard ETF is an “ex-U.S.” offering, meaning it is designed to exclude companies in the United States to ensure the holdings don’t overlap with any domestic stock ETFs. However, VXUS’s massive portfolio of nearly 8,600 stocks still includes plenty of familiar names, including chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), Danish Big Pharma name Novo Nordisk (NVO), and Swiss foods multinational Nestlé (NSRGY).
Indeed, VXUS, like many of the other Vanguard funds on this list, is market cap-weighted, so it leans heavily on large caps, which account for roughly three-quarters of assets. The upside? International dividend payers tend to offer up bigger yields than their American counterparts, resulting in a solid 3%-plus yield that’s more than twice the S&P 500.
In an interconnected global economy, it’s a bit naive to think that multinational companies only rise and fall based on their local economies. That’s true for big U.S. names as well as the international giants that lead this Vanguard ETF. So if you want international diversification to truly play broad economic trends in 2025, consider layering VXUS into your portfolio.
Want to learn more about VXUS? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
Related: 15 Best Stock Research & Analysis Apps, Tools and Sites
Best Vanguard ETF #8: Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF
- Style: Emerging-markets stock
- Assets under management: $79.6 billion
- Dividend yield: 3.2%
- Expense ratio: 0.08%, or 80¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
One potential downside to VXUS is that it’s heavy in so-called developed markets—more established but also slower-growth economies.
However, if you’re looking for a way to invest in higher-growth international names in markets like China and South America, the best Vanguard ETF for you would likely be the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO).
This exchange-traded fund is a simple option that allows investors to tap into emerging markets in one simple, diversified holding. All told, there are some 5,900 stocks in VWO at present. The top regions represented are China (29% of assets), India (24%), and Taiwan (20%).
A few of VWO’s holdings—blue chips like Asia e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (BABA), for instance—trade on America’s major exchanges and are accessible to most investors. But many smaller components only trade “over the counter” in the U.S., or worse, only on foreign exchanges, creating a lot of headaches for self-directed investors.
This Vanguard ETF patches you into all of these stocks in one efficient, inexpensive bundle.
Want to learn more about VWO? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
Related: 10 Best Stock Advisor Websites & Services to Seize Alpha
Best Vanguard ETF #9: Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF
- Style: U.S. intermediate-core bond
- Assets under management: $121.2 billion
- SEC yield: 4.5%*
- Expense ratio: 0.03%, or 30¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
Investors looking for ways to add income and relative safety to their portfolios often opt for bonds.
Of course, bonds come in all shapes and sizes—from U.S. government bonds, to high-quality corporate bonds from top blue-chip companies, to riskier “junk” bonds from borrowers who are facing real challenges to operations. So if you’re already confused by the thousands of options in the stock market, looking into bonds on top of that would probably be downright overwhelming.
Thankfully, Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) is the best Vanguard ETF for diversified exposure to all these categories (except for the riskiest bonds out there). BND has a gigantic portfolio of more than 11,000 “investment-grade” debt issues—including U.S. Treasury and agency bonds, corporate bonds, even mortgage-backed securities—that boast high credit quality, so you get a ton of diversification as well as a ton of peace of mind.
Bonds don’t deliver the quick gains that stocks can. But they offer steady and reliable income—which for many investors, is worth the lower potential reward to provide a lower overall risk profile to their portfolio.
* SEC yield reflects the interest earned across the most recent 30-day period. This is a standard measure for funds holding bonds and preferred stocks.
Want to learn more about BND? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
Related: 15 Best High-Yield Investments [Safe Options Right Now]
Best Vanguard ETF #10: Vanguard Short-Term Treasury ETF
- Style: Short-term U.S. Treasury bond
- Assets under management: $21.0 billion
- SEC yield: 4.3%
- Expense ratio: 0.04%, or 40¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
Just like stocks, bonds have varying levels of risk and potential reward. The Vanguard Short-Term Treasury ETF (VGSH) focuses on a subset of bonds that have very low risk for two reasons: they have short maturities, and they’re issued by the U.S. Treasury.
Maturity helps determine risk. Generally speaking, the longer the bond, the greater the risk that the bond might not be repaid. Interest rates come into play, too. When rates go higher, new bonds pay more, which tempt people to sell their old bonds for the new, higher-paying bonds. But the temptation is much greater when you’re dealing with longer-term bonds with lots of payments remaining—and not so great for short-term bonds with one or just a couple payments left.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury bonds, which are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, are some of the highest-rated bonds on the planet. Is there 100% certainty they’ll be repaid? No. But is there a higher likelihood of repayment than the vast majority of issuers out there? You betcha.
VGSH invests in fewer than 100 Treasury bond issues with maturities of between one and three years. And the lower risk is reflected in the averaged duration, which currently sits at just 1.9 years, compared to 6.0 for Vanguard Total Bond Market. This means that, in theory, a 1-percentage-point hike in interest rates would knock BND 6% lower, but VGSH would only decline by 1.9%. The flip side? VGSH wouldn’t rise as much if interest rates declined.
But that’s OK, as long as you know what you’re buying! If all you want is portfolio protection that can still generate some yield (just above 4% currently), VGSH is one of the best Vanguard ETFs you can buy.
Want to learn more about VGSH? Check out the Vanguard provider site.
Related: The 7 Best Vanguard Index Funds for Beginners
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Are ETFs the same thing as index funds?
Not always. Most ETFs are index funds, meaning they are tied to a fixed “index” or list of securities. However, mutual can also be tied to indexes and thus be categorized as index funds, too. Similarly, both ETFs and mutual funds can instead follow a more dynamic or “active” list of investments. It can be confusing sometimes, but the bottom line is you should always read the investment materials an asset manager provides and look for a description. In the case of Vanguard, you’ll find a heading labeled “investment style” at the top of most ETF pages that will clearly identify whether funds are index funds, or active funds.
Does Vanguard offer a minimum-volatility ETF?
Yes: The Vanguard U.S. Minimum Volatility ETF (VFMV). But investors should note two things about this ETF:
- This is not an index fund. VFMV is actively managed by the Vanguard Quantitative Equity Group. Despite that, it does charge a fairly low fee of just 0.13%, or $1.30 annually for every $1,000 invested.
- This is a minimum-volatility ETF, which is different than a low-volatility ETF. Min-vol funds typically try to reduce volatility while still maintaining some similarity to an underlying index–in this case, VFMV management will try to pick stocks they expect will have lower volatility than the market, but still hold stocks of varying sizes (large, mid, and small), from different industries and groups. Low-vol ETFs, however, typically invest in stocks based on backward-looking measures of volatility, and often aim for the lowest volatility possible without trying to mimic an index. For instance, a min-vol market ETF might be required to hold at least a 5% weight in all 11 sectors; a low-vol market ETF might hold the lowest-volatility stocks within the market, and as a result, some sectors simply might not be included.
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