The best growth ETF is the cheap one on the index you want
State Street's S&P 500 Growth fund was up 9.5% through Oct. 30, 2026, while the cheapest Russell 1000 Growth fund was down 0.2% and is the right pick if that is your index.
Key takeaways
State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Growth ETF, SPYG, is the best large-cap growth ETF if you want the growth side of the S&P 500. It charges 0.04% and is graded A, the top band among 35 U.S. growth index ETFs on cost, on doing what the fund promised, and on how it held up when markets fell. Through Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, its total return was 9.5%.
Nine of those 35 funds are graded A. The letter describes how a fund is built, not this year's return.
A growth ETF owns companies an index firm has classified as growth. It is not a promise that the share price will rise.
Two funds readers often mean by growth answer a different question. Invesco QQQ ETF, QQQ, holds the Nasdaq-100, which is not a growth-style index. iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF, DGRO, owns companies with a record of raising dividends, and its A sits in a dividend category.
Four cheap funds, four indexes
The large-cap choices below are graded A. They track four indexes, and the funds did not have the same year.
Total returns run through Oct. 30, 2026, and include reinvested distributions.
S&P Dow Jones Indices classifies S&P 500 companies as growth based on sales growth, the ratio of earnings change to price, and momentum. If that is the list you want, SPYG is the fund.
Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF, SCHG, charges the same 0.04% to track the Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index. It returned 5.6%.
VUG charges 0.03% to track the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index. Vanguard says the index represents the growth companies of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index. As of Sept. 30, Vanguard reported that the 10 largest holdings were 65.7% of the fund, and Nvidia was 13.5%.
iShares Morningstar Growth ETF, ILCG, is also graded A, at 0.04%, and it holds mid-sized companies as well as large ones. Its total return was 6.1%.
VONG is the fund if you want the Russell 1000 Growth Index. FTSE Russell's index holds Russell 1000 companies with higher price-to-book ratios, higher forecast growth and higher historical sales growth.
VONG charges 0.06% and is graded A. It was down 0.2%, which is not a reason to avoid the fund if this is the index you want.
Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet sit at or near the top of both SPYG and VONG. The weights differ, and so does the length of the list. As of Sept. 30, State Street reported Nvidia at 15% of SPYG and Microsoft at 10.3%, in a fund of 151 holdings. Vanguard reported Nvidia at 15.7% of VONG and Microsoft at 5.6%, in a fund of 371 stocks.
The fee difference between the two funds is 0.02 percentage points, or $2 a year on $10,000.
Same index, higher fee
Once the index is chosen, the expensive copy is hard to justify.
iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF, IVW, tracks the same S&P 500 Growth Index as SPYG and charges 0.18%. The gap is 0.14 percentage points, or $14 a year on $10,000. IVW is graded B.
Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF, VOOG, tracks that index at 0.07% and is also graded B. That is $3 a year on $10,000 more than SPYG.
iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF, IWF, tracks the same Russell 1000 Growth Index as VONG and charges 0.18%. It is graded B. The extra cost is 0.12 percentage points, or $12 a year on $10,000.
IVW and IWF charge 0.18% against the cheap fund on the same index
Value led Vanguard's growth fund this year
This year, Vanguard reported a 21.2% return for Vanguard Morningstar Value ETF, VTV, through Oct. 30, and 4.95% for VUG.
From Sept. 7, 2021, through Oct. 30, 2026, the share price of VUG fell as much as 36% from a peak. In that span, VTV's share price fell as much as 18% from a peak.
If the largest companies are not the goal
Mid-cap growth is a different use. iShares Morningstar Mid-Cap Growth ETF, IMCG, graded A, charges 0.06% and had a total return of 17.3%. Vanguard Morningstar Mid-Cap Growth ETF, VOT, is also graded A, at 0.05%.
A mid-cap fund does not stand in for SPYG. Own a mid-cap fund when you want growth companies that are not the market's largest.
A manager is a different bet
Paying a manager to pick growth stocks is a separate decision. S&P Dow Jones Indices reported that 93% of large-cap growth funds lagged the S&P 500 Growth index over the 10 years through June 30, 2026. The index pays no fee.
Which fund to buy
Pick the index you mean to own, then take the cheap fund that tracks it. For the S&P 500's growth stocks, that is SPYG. For the Dow Jones large-cap growth index, it is SCHG.
For Morningstar's large-cap growth list, it is VUG. For the Russell 1000 Growth Index, it is VONG.
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