VOO vs VTI: What's the Better U.S. Stock ETF Buy?

• These ETFs are some precise investor-friendly options for owning a portion of U.S. stocks.

• The Total Stock Market ETF includes small- and mid-cap stocks, giving it a somewhat antithetic hazard profile.

• Over the agelong term, I similar the summation of tiny caps. They've started 2026 beardown and person a batch of built-in worth yet to unlock.

• 10 stocks we similar amended than Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ›

If you privation wide vulnerability to the U.S. banal market, 2 Vanguard ETFs are the wide and evident candidates: the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEMKT: VTI). While they some bash a bully occupation of covering the U.S. equity market, the Total Stock Market ETF covers much ground, including tiny caps and mid-caps successful the mix.

Over the past respective years, that added sum hasn't helped. Large caps have, by a reasonably important margin, outperformed smaller institution stocks, and that's created a show resistance for that money comparative to the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC).

As a semipermanent investment, some are inactive large options for investors. But you should recognize the advantages and disadvantages of each earlier choosing.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF does precisely what the sanction suggests. It tracks the S&P 500, giving investors vulnerability to astir 500 of the largest publically traded companies successful the United States. That includes dense weightings to megacap tech companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Tesla.

The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF takes a broader approach. It owns the S&P 500 stocks, but besides owns much than 3,500 different stocks crossed large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap companies.

Essentially, the determination of which of the 2 ETFs you'd privation to ain comes down to whether oregon not you privation tiny caps successful your portfolio.

As is the lawsuit with galore Vanguard ETFs, investors wage a minimal terms to ain the funds. Both funds travel with disbursal ratios of conscionable 0.03%, meaning you'd wage lone $3 a twelvemonth successful fees for each $10,000 invested.

Over agelong periods of time, the show spread betwixt the S&P 500 ETF and the Total Stock Market ETF is apt to beryllium comparatively small. Over the past respective years, however, that evidently hasn't been the case. The constrictive bull marketplace successful tech and artificial quality (AI) stocks has fixed ample caps a humble show advantage.

Over the past 5 years (as of Jan. 13), the S&P 500 ETF has returned an mean of 14.45% compared to a 13.05% mean yearly instrumentality for the Total Stock Market ETF. The dense large-cap vulnerability of some funds has kept the spread small, but there's small question that tiny caps person been a resistance lately.