SPLG vs VOO: Which ETF Is Better in 2026?

Fee (this is the whole decision). SPLG charges 0.02% and VOO charges 0.03%. On a $10,000 holding that is about $2 vs $3 a year. SPLG keeps a little more of your return every year, and over decades of compounding that grows into real money.

Liquidity (only if you trade). SPLG holds about ~$87 billion and VOO about ~$1.7 trillion. For buy-and-hold this changes nothing; if you trade options or in size, the larger, more liquid fund gives tighter spreads.

No performance table, on purpose. Two funds tracking S&P 500 deliver essentially the same return. Any past-performance gap between them is tracking noise, not manager skill, and comparing it would mislead more than it informs.

The label is the same; the portfolio is not. Their top holdings overlap about 37% by weight (9 shared names: NVDA, AAPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL, AVGO). That is real overlap, but each still tilts differently, so the two are genuinely different bets under one label.

Overlap reflects top holdings by weight (an approximation of full-fund overlap), as of early 2026. Verify full holdings with each issuer.

SPLG tracks S&P 500, and VOO tracks S&P 500. Because both funds follow the same benchmark, their constituent lists and weights are essentially identical, so what you own barely changes between them. The decision is about cost, structure, and issuer, not exposure.

On construction, SPLG is market-cap-weighted and VOO is market-cap-weighted. They share a weighting approach, so any difference comes from the underlying index rather than the method.

In practice, tracking the same index means the two are interchangeable exposure; a past-return gap between them reflects tracking differences and fees, not a difference in what the fund is designed to hold.

SPLG is the cheaper fund at 0.02% versus 0.03%, a gap of about $1 a year on a $10,000 holding. When two funds track the same or a very similar index, that fee gap is close to pure savings: it compounds into roughly $30 of fees avoided over 30 years on that $10,000 (more as the balance grows), with essentially no change in what you own.

On scale, SPLG holds about ~$87 billion and VOO about ~$1.7 trillion. Larger funds generally trade at tighter bid-ask spreads and carry deeper options markets, which matters if you trade actively or in size; for buy-and-hold investors it rarely changes the outcome. SPLG currently pays the higher dividend yield (~1.2% versus ~1.0%), which shifts more of its return into cash today.

Since SPLG and VOO track S&P 500, the same investor is well served by either. A cost-focused buy-and-hold investor should lean to SPLG, the cheaper fund at 0.02%, while an active trader who uses options or trades in size may prefer the larger, more liquid of the two for tighter spreads.

These are descriptive profiles, not recommendations. What fits you depends on your goals, horizon, and what you already own. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

The overlap that decides most ETF purchases is not between SPLG and VOO, it is with what you already hold. ETF redundancy is invisible without looking through to the underlying holdings: you can already own most of SPLG inside a broad fund like an S&P 500 or total-market ETF and not realize it.

This is the part a generic comparison cannot answer, because it depends on your account. Connect your brokerage and Walnut looks through your funds to show your real, combined exposure, flags how much of SPLG or VOO you already own elsewhere, and tells you whether adding either just buys the same companies twice, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

The SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF is State Street's low-cost core S&P 500 fund. It tracks the S&P 500 Index, which represents roughly 500 of the largest U.S. companies weighted by market capitalization, using a sampling approach that may hold a representative subset of index constituents. With a 0.02% expense ratio it is one of the cheapest ways to own the broad U.S. large-cap market, and it has grown to roughly $87 billion in assets. The fund delivers the same index exposure as the much larger and pricier SPY (0.0945%), with a lower share price that makes it accessible for smaller dollar amounts. Effective October 31, 2025, State Street renamed the fund the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF and changed its trading symbol from SPLG to SPYM; the underlying strategy and holdings were unchanged.

Full SPLG guide

Tracks the S&P 500 Index, the standard measure of US large-cap equity. Effectively identical exposure to SPY and IVV at a 0.03% expense ratio. Used as a core building block in most diversified portfolios.

Full VOO guide

Permission to stop deliberating: SPLG and VOO are equivalent exposure, so take the cheaper one, SPLG at 0.02%, unless you actively trade options, in which case the larger, more liquid fund is the practical pick.

For the full detail, see the SPLG and VOO guides.

Approximate as of early 2026; verify with each issuer.

State Street SPDR launched the first US ETF and runs many sector funds. Vanguard is investor-owned and known for rock-bottom fees.

SPLG and VOO track the same index, so this is cost and issuer, not what you own: take SPLG at 0.02%. Either way, the decisive check is overlap with your real portfolio. Walnut can show that before you buy. It is not an investment adviser.

Both funds lean on NVDA, so understanding that one company explains a lot of what drives either ETF.