VEA over SCHF if this is your only developed-markets fund

Buy Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF, VEA, rather than Schwab International Equity ETF, SCHF, if you want one fund for developed stock markets outside the United States. You get the small companies Schwab's fund leaves out, and you do not pay extra for them. Both charge 0.03% a year, $3 on a $10,000 investment.

Buy SCHF instead if you do not want those small companies, or you already own them in another fund.

What VEA and SCHF hold

VEA tracks the FTSE Developed All Cap ex US Index, large, medium-sized and small companies in Canada and the developed markets of Europe and the Pacific, weighted by company size. SCHF tracks the FTSE Developed ex US Index. In its summary prospectus of Feb. 27, 2026, Schwab describes that index as large and medium-sized companies, about the largest 90% of the companies eligible for it, in those same markets.

South Korea sits in both funds because FTSE Russell classifies it as a developed market, and has since 2009. MSCI still calls it emerging. In the review it released on June 23, 2026, MSCI kept South Korea in that category. Under the FTSE list these funds use, neither holds emerging markets.

As of Sept. 30, 2026, Vanguard reported 3,903 stocks and $231.6 billion in the ETF. Its index held 3,828 stocks. Schwab reported $67.9 billion that day, so Vanguard's ETF was more than three times as large.

Vanguard's April 28, 2026 summary prospectus describes VEA as a share class of Vanguard Developed Markets Index Fund. The fund's fact sheet for Sept. 30, 2026, showed 21.9% of its stocks in Japan, then the United Kingdom, Canada and South Korea, which was 9.2%. Samsung Electronics was the largest holding in the ETF, at 3.2%.

A comparison of holdings files refreshed Nov. 4, 2026, matched company by company, found 98.5% of Schwab's weight in companies Vanguard also held. The 2,448 companies only in Vanguard's file were 9.5% of VEA.

The fee no longer separates them. Both charged 0.06% at the start of 2025. Vanguard cut VEA to 0.03% on Feb. 1, 2025, and Schwab cut SCHF to 0.03% on June 10, 2025.

How the returns compare

Net asset value is the value of one share of the fund. These are each fund's reported total returns at net asset value through Sept. 30, 2026, with dividends reinvested. Figures past one year are annualized.

Schwab's fund was ahead in every window. For a holding you mean to keep, the lead that matters is the ten-year one, 0.17 percentage points a year. Over the year through Sept. 30, 2026, the gap was wider, 1.48 percentage points.

The two funds follow different indexes, and those indexes part ways on company size. The gap belongs to that difference before it belongs to either fund's managers.

Getting in and out

Vanguard's 30-day bid-ask spread was 0.01% as of Nov. 2, 2026. Schwab's 30-day median spread was 0.04% over the 30 days ended that date. On a $10,000 trade that is about $1 of spread versus $4. You pay it when you buy and again when you sell, so a round trip is about $2 versus $8.

On a holding you keep for years, that cost will not choose the fund. The small companies will.