S&P 500
IndexS&P 500 ETFs compared (2026)
IVV, VOO, SPY all hold S&P 500 — the same companies at the same weights, which you can see on the constituents page. So the question isn't which index they track, it's what each one charges and what that leaves you with. IVV is the cheapest at 0.03%, 6bp a year under SPY. Total returns below are annualized from our own dividend-adjusted closes, through 2026-08-03.
| Fund | Expense | Assets | Yield | Inception | 1Y | 5Y | 10Y | 10Y vs SPY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IVViShares Core S&P 500 ETF | 0.03% | $446.6B | 1.09% | 2000-05-15 | 23.00% | 12.95% | 15.22% | +6bp |
| VOOVanguard S&P 500 ETF | 0.03% | n/a | 1.07% | 2010-09-07 | 22.95% | 12.94% | 15.23% | +7bp |
| SPYSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | 0.09% | $656B | 1.01% | 1993-01-22 | 22.90% | 12.88% | 15.16% | — |
Returns are annualized total returns (dividends reinvested) from our own adjusted closes, over windows ending 2026-08-03 — not the issuers' published figures, so small differences from a factsheet are expected. The last column is each fund against SPY, which is fund versus fund: true tracking difference measures a fund against the index itself, and index levels are licensed, so we do not have them. Assets and yield come from the fund data we hold and refresh a few times a week; where an issuer reports assets as zero we show n/a rather than a wrong number.
FAQ
- Is there any real difference between SPY, VOO and IVV?
- They track the same index and hold the same companies, so the differences are structural, not strategic: the expense ratio (0.03% for IVV against 0.09% for SPY), fund size and liquidity, and SPY's structure as a unit investment trust, which cannot reinvest dividends between distributions. Over ten years those add up to a few basis points a year of realized return — visible in the table, and small next to the choice to own the index at all.
- Which S&P 500 ETF is cheapest?
- IVV (iShares Core S&P 500 ETF) at 0.03% a year, 6bp a year less than SPY. On $10,000 that difference is about $6 a year before compounding.
- Why does this site use SPY for S&P 500 returns?
- Because it has the longest record: our price history for SPY starts 1993-01-29, so every "since 1994" claim on the returns pages is only possible through it. It is the measuring stick, not a recommendation — the table shows what the cheaper funds returned over the windows where all of them existed.
Choosing between these is a question about the vehicle, not the market. Everything about the index itself — returns by year, valuation, who is in it — is the same whichever you hold. Not investment advice.
ChartRow is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, S&P Global, or Nasdaq, Inc. "S&P 500®" and "Dow Jones®" are registered trademarks of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC; "Nasdaq-100®" is a registered trademark of Nasdaq, Inc. They are used here only to identify the indexes discussed. All index-related figures on this page are independently derived from public sources — SEC filings, Robert Shiller's public dataset, and our own computations — not from any index provider's data feed.