SPLG vs VOO: Which ETF Is Better in 2026?

Approximate as of mid-2026; verify with each issuer.

Cost. SPLG charges 0.02% a year and VOO charges 0.03%. On a $10,000 holding that is roughly $2 versus $3 a year. The gap looks tiny, but SPLG keeps a little more of your return every year, and over two or three decades of compounding that difference grows into real money.

Dividend yield. SPLG yields about ~1.13% and VOO about ~1.0%. SPLG pays more income today, which matters if you are drawing from the portfolio. If you are reinvesting for growth, total return (price plus dividends) matters more than the headline yield.

Size and liquidity. SPLG holds about ~$97.3 billion versus VOO's ~$1.7 trillion. Both are large enough to trade with tight bid-ask spreads, so for a buy-and-hold investor the size gap rarely changes anything in practice; it mostly tells you how widely each fund is already held.

Concentration. SPLG's largest position is NVDA at about 7.38%, and VOO's is NVDA at ~7.9%. They share top names (NVDA, AAPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL), so owning both is less diversification than it looks: you are doubling down on the same companies.

Issuer. SPLG is run by State Street Investment Management and VOO by Vanguard. State Street SPDR launched the first US ETF and runs many sector funds. Vanguard is investor-owned and known for rock-bottom fees.

Because SPLG and VOO track the same index (S&P 500), either works as the same core holding for any time horizon. The practical choice is cost, so SPLG at 0.02% is the sensible default unless you specifically prefer the other issuer's platform. SPLG's higher yield leans more toward income and steadier names; the other tilts more toward growth and price appreciation.

Tracks the S&P 500, the standard US large-cap benchmark, at a 0.02% expense ratio, one of the cheapest of any equity ETF. Exposure is effectively identical to VOO, IVV, and SPY; the draw is the fee and the low share price that makes round-lot buying easy.

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

• Pick SPLG if you want S&P 500 exposure at 0.02%.
• Pick VOO if you want S&P 500 exposure at 0.03%.
• Overlap: they share top holdings (NVDA, AAPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL), so owning both adds less diversification than it appears.
• Cost: 0.02% vs 0.03%, a small but compounding difference.

SPLG and VOO track the same index (S&P 500), so this comes down to cost (0.02% vs 0.03%), issuer, and structure rather than what you own. They overlap heavily, so owning both mostly doubles a fee. Walnut can show the overlap against your real portfolio before you decide.

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