Wealthy PotVOOG vs VUG: Two Definitions of Growth, One Nearly Identical Decade
VOOG and VUG are both Vanguard large-cap growth ETFs, and they are built on growth screens written by two different index providers using two different sets of factors. VOOG applies S&P's three-factor screen to the 500 companies in the S&P 500. VUG applies Morningstar's six-factor screen to the top 85% of US investable market value. Despite that, about three quarters of the two portfolios is literally the same stock at nearly the same weight, and over the ten years to 30 June 2026 they returned 18.01% and 18.02% a year. VUG charges 0.03% against VOOG's 0.07%, and on the published record that fee is the tiebreaker.
Table of Contents
The Short Answer
- Buying one and holding it? VUG. It charges 0.03% against VOOG's 0.07%, and it has tracked its own index more closely over every period Vanguard publishes.
- The indexes really are different. VOOG tracks the S&P 500 Growth Index, whose growth score is built from three factors, one of which is price momentum. VUG tracks the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index, whose growth score is built from six factors, two of which are analysts' forecasts of future earnings, and none of which is momentum.
- The universes are different sizes. VOOG screens the 500 companies in the S&P 500. VUG screens the top 85% of cumulative US investable market value, which is a share of the market rather than a headcount.
- They do not hold very different numbers of stocks. At 30 June 2026 VOOG held 148 and VUG held 147. If you have read that the Morningstar index is much wider in practice, that is out of date.
- About 74.9% of the two portfolios is the same position at the same weight, measured from each fund's own SEC holdings filing. 82.0% of VOOG's money and 89.4% of VUG's money sits in companies the other one owns too.
- The ten-year returns are a rounding error apart. 18.01% a year for VOOG against 18.02% for VUG, to 30 June 2026. A hypothetical $10,000 would have ended about $44 apart after a decade.
- The short-run gap is large. Over the year to 30 June 2026 VOOG returned 25.63% and VUG returned 18.61%. Same idea, different year, seven percentage points.
- One live risk: S&P is consulting on deleting momentum from the growth definition, with a proposed effective date of 21 December 2026. That would change what VOOG owns. No decision had been published as of 28 September 2026.
What Growth Means to S&P and to Morningstar
Most comparisons of these two funds stop at the expense ratio and a sentence about VUG being "broader". The more useful fact is that the word growth means two measurably different things in the two rulebooks, and both rulebooks are public.
S&P uses three factors, and one of them is a price signal. The S&P U.S. Style Indices Methodology names them in a single exhibit, word for word:
- "Three-Year Net Change in Earnings per Share (Excluding Extra Items) over Current Price"
- "Three-Year Sales per Share Growth Rate"
- "Momentum (12-Month % Price Change)"
The method is plain: "Raw values for each of the above factors are calculated for each company in the S&P Total Market Index (TMI) universe. These raw values are first winsorized to the 90th percentile and then standardized ... A Growth Score for each company is computed as the average of the standardized values of the three growth factors." Companies within each underlying index, the S&P 500 in VOOG's case, are then ranked, and "the companies at the top of the list, comprising 33% of the total index market capitalization, are designated as the Growth basket."
Two of those three inputs are backward-looking accounting figures. The third is simply whether the share price went up over the last twelve months. A stock can score well on S&P's growth screen partly because it has already risen.
Morningstar uses six factors, and two of them are forecasts. The Morningstar Market Indexes Methodology Guide dated July 2026 says the model "uses five value and six growth factors" and names them:
- "Future Long-term Growth in Earnings Per Share (FLGE)"
- "Future Short-term Growth in Earnings Per Share (FSGE)"
- "Three-year Historical Growth in Earnings Per Share (HGE)"
- "Three-year Historical Growth in Sales Per Share (HGS)"
- "Current Investment-to-Assets Ratio (INV)"
- "Return on Assets (ROA)"
The rulebook also prints the weights. The composite growth score is G = (2/3 × FG) + (1/3 × HG), where the "future" super-factor FG is two thirds made of the two forecast factors and one third of investment intensity and return on assets. In other words, two thirds of a company's Morningstar growth score rests on what it is expected to do, and none of it on what its share price has done.
That is the whole difference in one line. S&P's growth is history plus price. Morningstar's growth is expectation plus profitability.
The two universes are defined in different units. VOOG's pool is the S&P 500, a fixed list of 500 companies. VUG's pool is defined by market value instead: the Morningstar rulebook sets breakpoints "at 70%, 85%, and 98% of the cumulative market cap of the index-eligible universe" and puts the Morningstar US Large Cap Index in the range "0% < X ≤ 85%". So VUG screens whatever set of companies makes up the largest 85% of the investable US market on ranking day. The rulebook adds that "micro cap companies are not eligible for inclusion in the value and growth Indexes."
Neither index has a hard constituent count, and both split some companies between growth and value. S&P assigns the top 33% of index market value entirely to growth and the bottom 33% entirely to value, then says the "middle 34% of FMC consists of companies with similar growth and value ranks. Their FMC is distributed among the Style indices based on their distances from the midpoint of the Growth basket and the midpoint of the Value basket." Morningstar does the same thing under a different name, tracking each holding's partial allocation as a "Style Multiplier" that "is set to 1 if fully allocated to this style" and moving stock across the boundary in 50% steps. That middle band is why a growth fund can hold companies nobody would call growth stocks, which you can see in the holdings further down.
They also rebalance on different clocks. S&P DJI's index page gives the S&P 500 Growth rebalancing frequency as "Annually in December with quarterly reviews in March, June, and September." Morningstar reviews all of its market indexes four times a year: "The review process is completed on the ranking day, after the close of the first Friday of March, June, September, and December," and then phases the changes in over five days, moving "20% of the change in holdings from the current index to the target pro forma index each day." Vanguard reports 20.1% portfolio turnover for VOOG's latest fiscal year against 12.3% for VUG, which is the opposite of what the two schedules alone would lead you to expect.
One naming point, because it trips people up. Morningstar bought CRSP, and on 29 July 2026 Vanguard renamed the funds and the benchmarks. The SEC supplement is explicit: the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index became the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index, the Vanguard Growth ETF became the Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF, and "each Fund's investment objective, strategies, and polices remain unchanged." The ticker is still VUG. Anything describing VUG as tracking a CRSP index is using the pre-July name for the same index. We cover the rename in more detail in VUG vs VOO.
VOOG vs VUG Side by Side
| VOOG | VUG | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF | Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF (named Vanguard Growth ETF until 29 July 2026) |
| Index | S&P 500 Growth Index | Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index (named CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index until 29 July 2026) |
| Index provider | S&P Dow Jones Indices | Morningstar, which acquired CRSP |
| Screening universe | The 500 companies in the S&P 500 | The top 85% of cumulative US investable market value |
| Growth factors | 3: three-year change in EPS over price, three-year sales per share growth, 12-month price momentum | 6: forecast long-term EPS growth, forecast short-term EPS growth, three-year EPS growth, three-year sales per share growth, investment to assets, return on assets |
| Index rebalance | Annually in December, quarterly reviews in March, June, September | Quarterly ranking on the first Friday of March, June, September, December |
| Expense ratio | 0.07% | 0.03% |
| Number of stocks | 148 | 147 |
| Top ten as % of net assets | 59.0% | 63.1% |
| Median market cap | $1,429.6B | $1,797.3B |
| Price/earnings | 31.5x | 35.6x |
| Price/book | 9.1x | 12.5x |
| Return on equity | 33.4% | 36.1% |
| Portfolio turnover, latest fiscal year | 20.1% | 12.3% |
| Standard deviation, 3 years | 16.57% | 17.42% |
| ETF net assets | $26,315 million | $223,246 million |
| Net assets, all share classes | $26,385 million | $378,844 million |
| Inception | 7 September 2010 | 26 January 2004 |
| Exchange, dividends | NYSE Arca, quarterly | NYSE Arca, quarterly |
Two rows deserve a second look. VUG is more than eight times the size of VOOG as an ETF, and its parent fund is larger still because it also has mutual fund share classes. And VOOG turns over more of its portfolio, 20.1% against 12.3%, even though its index rebalances once a year and VUG's ranks four times a year. Neither Vanguard nor either index provider explains why, so treat the rebalancing schedules as context rather than the cause.
One thing the fact sheets will not let you compare: sector weights. Vanguard classifies VOOG's sectors under GICS and VUG's under ICB, which are two different schemes with different sector names. Lining up VOOG's "Information Technology 52.3%" against VUG's "Technology 69.2%" is not a like-for-like comparison, and we have not printed one.
How Much of These Two Funds Is the Same Stock
Different providers, different factors, different universes. So how different are the portfolios in practice? Nobody publishes that number, so we calculated it from the funds' own holdings filings with the SEC.
Each Vanguard fund files a Form N-PORT every quarter listing every position and its percentage of net assets. We pulled both filings, kept the common-equity lines, dropped the cash sweep, and aggregated by issuer so that Alphabet's two share classes count once.
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Equity issuers held by VOOG | 144 |
| Equity issuers held by VUG | 145 |
| Issuers held by both funds | 86 |
| Overlap, adding the smaller of the two weights for every shared company | 74.9% |
| Share of VOOG's money in companies VUG also owns | 82.0% |
| Share of VUG's money in companies VOOG also owns | 89.4% |
Read the first number again. About three quarters of these two funds is the identical position at an almost identical weight. Only 86 companies appear in both, out of roughly 145 in each, yet those 86 carry 82% of VOOG's assets and 89% of VUG's, because the shared names are the largest ones.
The issuer-published top tens make the same point from the other direction. These are from Vanguard's own fact sheets, both dated 30 June 2026, so the date problem above does not apply.
| # | VOOG | % | VUG | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NVIDIA | 13.6 | NVIDIA | 12.6 |
| 2 | Alphabet | 10.6 | Apple | 11.7 |
| 3 | Microsoft | 7.8 | Alphabet | 10.3 |
| 4 | Apple | 6.0 | Microsoft | 7.6 |
| 5 | Broadcom | 5.0 | Amazon.com | 4.5 |
| 6 | Micron Technology | 3.7 | Broadcom | 4.3 |
| 7 | Meta Platforms | 3.5 | Meta Platforms | 3.4 |
| 8 | Amazon.com | 3.5 | Tesla | 3.3 |
| 9 | Eli Lilly | 2.7 | Eli Lilly | 2.8 |
| 10 | Advanced Micro Devices | 2.7 | Advanced Micro Devices | 2.6 |
| Top ten | 59.0 | Top ten | 63.1 |
Nine of the ten names match. VOOG's tenth is Micron Technology, VUG's is Tesla. Both funds put roughly 60 cents of every dollar into ten companies, VUG a little more than VOOG. Anyone holding both of these is not diversified across two strategies; they own one concentrated mega-cap portfolio twice.
Where the Two Portfolios Part Company
The remaining quarter is where the two rulebooks show up. Two things separate the funds: which companies each one owns alone, and how much weight each gives the shared ones.
| Held only by VOOG | % of VOOG | Held only by VUG | % of VUG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micron Technology | 3.04 | Costco Wholesale | 1.15 |
| Berkshire Hathaway | 2.42 | Intel | 0.79 |
| JPMorgan Chase | 1.43 | Marvell Technology | 0.75 |
| Caterpillar | 1.13 | Western Digital | 0.62 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 0.89 | Texas Instruments | 0.39 |
| Cisco Systems | 0.70 | Vertex Pharmaceuticals | 0.36 |
| RTX | 0.67 | Starbucks | 0.34 |
| Goldman Sachs | 0.53 | Equinix | 0.30 |
| AbbVie | 0.49 | Synopsys | 0.25 |
| Philip Morris International | 0.43 | Snowflake | 0.25 |
Look at VOOG's column. Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan, Caterpillar, Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs and Philip Morris are not the companies anyone pictures in a growth fund. They are there because of the middle band described earlier: S&P assigns only the top third of index market value entirely to growth and splits the middle 34% of value across both style indexes. Neither provider publishes a per-company style split, so we cannot tell you which of those names is fully classified as growth and which is a partial allocation, but the mechanism is in the methodology and the holdings are in the filing.
VUG's column is more recognisably a technology list, with the notable exception of Costco, plus several semiconductor names that sit outside the S&P 500 Growth basket.
The weights matter more than the names. Here are the ten largest weight differences between the two funds on the shared and unshared names alike.
| Company | VOOG | VUG | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | 6.37% | 11.67% | 5.30 points more in VUG |
| Micron Technology | 3.04% | none | 3.04 points more in VOOG |
| Berkshire Hathaway | 2.42% | none | 2.42 points more in VOOG |
| Microsoft | 9.29% | 7.61% | 1.68 points more in VOOG |
| NVIDIA | 14.26% | 12.63% | 1.63 points more in VOOG |
| Broadcom | 5.89% | 4.28% | 1.60 points more in VOOG |
| JPMorgan Chase | 1.43% | none | 1.43 points more in VOOG |
| Costco Wholesale | none | 1.15% | 1.15 points more in VUG |
| Tesla | 2.11% | 3.27% | 1.15 points more in VUG |
| Caterpillar | 1.13% | none | 1.13 points more in VOOG |
Apple is the single biggest disagreement between the two rulebooks: a 5.3 point weight gap in one company, which is larger than either fund's entire position in anything outside its top four. That is what happens when one screen counts price momentum and the other counts forecast earnings growth.
The Same Decade, a Very Different Year
Both Vanguard fact sheets report total returns to 30 June 2026, so this is a clean comparison over identical periods.
| Total return to 30 June 2026 | Quarter | Year to date | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VOOG, NAV | 21.88% | 11.98% | 25.63% | 25.82% | 14.46% | 18.01% |
| S&P 500 Growth Index | 21.89% | 12.01% | 25.71% | 25.93% | 14.57% | 18.14% |
| VOOG shortfall vs its index | 0.01 | 0.03 | 0.08 | 0.11 | 0.11 | 0.13 |
| VUG, NAV | 18.70% | 6.37% | 18.61% | 22.92% | 13.18% | 18.02% |
| Spliced Growth Index | 18.69% | 6.36% | 18.61% | 22.96% | 13.21% | 18.05% |
| VUG shortfall vs its index | none | none | 0.00 | 0.04 | 0.03 | 0.03 |
| VOOG minus VUG | +3.18 | +5.61 | +7.02 | +2.90 | +1.28 | -0.01 |
The bottom row is the point of this page. Over the last twelve months these two funds were 7.02 percentage points apart. Over ten years they were 0.01 apart. Two genuinely different definitions of growth, applied to two different universes, and a decade later they arrive at the same number.
Two footnotes matter before anyone leans on those figures.
VUG's ten-year benchmark is a spliced series. Vanguard's fact sheet defines it as the "S&P 500 Growth Index (formerly known as the S&P 500/Barra Growth Index) through May 16, 2003; MSCI US Prime Market Growth Index through April 16, 2013; CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index thereafter." The ten-year window used above sits entirely inside the last segment, so that line is clean, but the fund's since-inception figure is not comparable with VOOG's for this reason and because the two funds started six years apart.
One decade is one sample. The last ten years were an unusually good run for mega-cap technology, which is where both funds keep most of their money. The near-identical result says these two are close substitutes over a long holding period. It does not say the next ten years will land in the same place, and the twelve-month gap above shows how far apart they can travel in the meantime.
What the gap compounds to, for context:
| Hypothetical $10,000 held for 10 years | Ending value |
|---|---|
| At VOOG's 10-year NAV return (18.01%) | $52,383 |
| At VUG's 10-year NAV return (18.02%) | $52,427 |
| At the S&P 500 Growth Index return (18.14%) | $52,963 |
| At the Spliced Growth Index return (18.05%) | $52,561 |
| Difference, VUG over VOOG | about $44 |
This is educational information, not personalized investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, all investing carries the risk of loss, and the figures above are backward-looking arithmetic rather than a projection. Style-tilted funds concentrated in a handful of companies can fall harder than the broad market. Verify current figures with Vanguard and consider speaking with a licensed advisor before acting.
Want to run the same maths on your own contribution schedule? Use the compound interest calculator.
What the Extra Four Basis Points Costs
Both fee figures come from the ETF Shares fee table in each fund's own prospectus, which matters because both funds have other share classes at other prices and it is easy to quote the wrong one.
| Annual Fund Operating Expenses, ETF Shares | VOOG | VUG |
|---|---|---|
| Management fees | 0.06% | 0.02% |
| 12b-1 distribution fee | None | None |
| Other expenses | 0.01% | 0.01% |
| Total annual fund operating expenses | 0.07% | 0.03% |
| Prospectus cost example on $10,000 over 10 years | $90 | $39 |
Now compare that with how closely each fund followed its own index. Over ten years VOOG trailed the S&P 500 Growth Index by 0.13 percentage points a year while VUG trailed its benchmark by 0.03. The difference in shortfall is 0.10 points. The fee gap is 0.04. The rest is not explained by either issuer, and we are not going to invent an explanation: different indexes have different rebalancing costs, and VOOG's 20.1% turnover against VUG's 12.3% is one plausible contributor rather than a measured one.
What is fair to say is the direction. VUG is the cheaper fund and also the one that has stayed closer to what it promises to track. Over a ten-year holding period that showed up as a $44 difference on $10,000, which is less than most people expect and still the right way round.
The Rule Change That Could Redefine VOOG
On 28 August 2026, S&P Dow Jones Indices opened a consultation on the factors behind every S&P U.S. style index, including the S&P 500 Growth Index that VOOG tracks. The announcement says S&P DJI is "conducting a consultation with market participants on potential changes to the descriptor framework used to define Growth and Value characteristics within the S&P U.S. Style Indices Methodology."
The proposal for growth is short and consequential: keep the two fundamental factors and delete momentum.
| Growth factors | Current | Proposed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Three-year net change in EPS (excluding extra items) over current price | Three-year net change in EPS (excluding extra items) over current price |
| 2 | Three-year sales per share growth rate | Three-year sales per share growth rate |
| 3 | Momentum (12-month % price change) | Removed |
The consultation document asked for responses "by September 25, 2026", and if the changes are adopted they would take effect at "market open on Monday, December 21, 2026", with pro forma files from 4 December 2026. As of 28 September 2026 the survey has closed and S&P DJI has not published a decision. We are not going to guess the outcome.
Why it matters here: momentum is the one factor that makes S&P's growth definition different in kind from Morningstar's rather than different in detail. Take it out and the two screens become more alike, both resting on historical fundamentals plus, in Morningstar's case, forecasts. If you are choosing VOOG specifically because you want a momentum-influenced growth screen, that reason may not survive December. Check S&P DJI's announcements page before acting on it.
Which One Fits You
Choose VUG if you want one large-cap growth holding and do not have a strong view about index construction. It costs 0.03% against 0.07%, it has tracked its index more closely over every published period, and it is by far the larger of the two. On the evidence Vanguard publishes, that is the default.
Choose VOOG if you want your growth exposure drawn only from S&P 500 members, or you specifically prefer a screen that includes price momentum, or you already hold other S&P 500 style funds and want the sleeves to line up. Those are real reasons. Higher trailing returns over the last one, three and five years are not one of them, because the ten-year record shows how quickly that lead can be given back.
Do not hold both. Three quarters of the two portfolios is the same stock at the same weight, and nine of the ten largest positions are identical. Combining them adds cost and complexity without adding diversification.
Already hold one in a taxable account? The case for switching is weak in either direction. Recovering 0.04 percentage points a year takes a long time to outweigh a capital gains bill today, and the ten-year record gives you no performance reason to move. Redirecting new contributions is the low-friction version. Inside an IRA or 401(k) there is no tax friction, and the switch costs you a spread.
Still deciding whether you want a growth tilt at all? Both of these funds put roughly 60% of your money into ten companies. VOO, the plain S&P 500 fund, put 37.9% there on the same date. Start with VUG vs VOO for the growth-versus-market question, VOO vs VOOG for the S&P 500 version of it, and VTI vs VOO if you are choosing a core holding in the first place. For a cheaper rival to VUG on the same idea, see SCHG vs VUG, and for the background on style investing, growth vs value stocks. If you are tempted by the trailing returns specifically, read time in the market versus timing it first.
Sources & Methodology
Every figure on this page was read from Vanguard, an SEC filing, or the index provider that owns the rulebook. None of it came from a fund-screener site or another comparison page.
- Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF fact sheet, 30 June 2026: benchmark, 0.07% expense ratio, net assets, inception, 148 holdings, top ten, median market cap, valuation ratios, turnover, standard deviation and all VOOG returns.
- Vanguard Growth ETF fact sheet, 30 June 2026: the same fields for VUG, plus the Spliced Growth Index definition and Vanguard's notice of the coming rename.
- Vanguard Admiral Funds, Form 485BPOS filed 19 December 2025: VOOG's ETF Shares fee table (0.06% management plus 0.01% other), the $90 ten-year cost example, the 20% turnover figure, and the statement that the target index held 213 constituents at 31 August 2025.
- Vanguard Index Funds, Form 485BPOS filed 28 April 2026: VUG's ETF Shares fee table (0.02% plus 0.01%, restated to current fees), the $39 cost example and the 12% turnover figure.
- Vanguard Index Funds, Form 497 dated 29 July 2026: the CRSP to Morningstar renames for both the funds and the target indexes, effective 29 July 2026, with objectives and strategies unchanged.
- S&P Dow Jones Indices, S&P 500 Growth: the index description, the modified market cap weighting, the December rebalance with quarterly reviews, the 30 May 1992 launch date, and characteristics at 31 August 2026 including 148 constituents and a 59.4% top-ten weight.
- S&P U.S. Style Indices Methodology: the three growth factors quoted above, the winsorizing and standardizing of raw values, and the 33% growth basket with the middle 34% split across both style indexes.
- S&P DJI consultation, 28 August 2026: the proposal to remove momentum, the 25 September 2026 response deadline and the 21 December 2026 proposed implementation.
- Morningstar Market Indexes Methodology Guide, July 2026: the six growth factors and their weights, the 85% cumulative market cap breakpoint for the large-cap index, the quarterly ranking on the first Friday of March, June, September and December, the five-day transitional reconstitution, and the Style Multiplier.
- VOOG Form N-PORT, period ended 31 May 2026 and VUG Form N-PORT, period ended 30 June 2026: every holding and its percentage of net assets, from which we calculated the overlap, the unique holdings and the weight gaps.
- Vanguard's live VUG page: confirmation that the fund is now published as the Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF at a 0.03% expense ratio.
How the overlap was calculated. We parsed the security list in each fund's Form N-PORT, kept only common equity, dropped the Vanguard Market Liquidity Fund sweep and derivative lines, and grouped positions by issuer so Alphabet's two share classes count once. Overlap is the sum, across companies held by both, of the smaller of the two weights. The two filings are dated one month apart because the funds sit in registrants with different fiscal quarters; there is no common N-PORT date, and we have said so on every table that uses them.
What we could not verify, stated rather than guessed. We could not open a Morningstar Indexes data page for the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index itself, so no Morningstar-published constituent count or top-ten weight appears here; where index-level figures are quoted for VUG they come from the index column of Vanguard's fact sheet. Neither Vanguard nor either index provider publishes a return attribution, so nothing on this page explains performance by reference to a particular holding, and the gap between the funds' tracking shortfalls and their fee gap is arithmetic rather than an attribution. Vanguard's VOOG fact sheet paraphrases S&P's first growth factor as a "three year earnings per share growth rate"; S&P's own methodology defines it as the three-year net change in EPS over current price, and we have used S&P's wording. We found no primary source publishing comparable bid-ask spreads or trading volumes for the two funds, so neither is quoted. Finally, the S&P 500 Growth Index constituent count has moved a great deal: Vanguard's prospectus put it at 213 on 31 August 2025 and S&P DJI's own page put it at 148 on 31 August 2026. Both are primary. The basket is defined as a share of index market value rather than a headcount, so the number is not fixed, and we have not attributed the change to any single cause.
This article is for general education and is not investment, tax or legal advice. Fund data changes daily, index returns are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly, and past performance does not guarantee future results. Concentrated, style-tilted funds can be more volatile than the broad market, and all investing carries the risk of loss. Check current figures with Vanguard and consider speaking with a licensed financial professional before making a decision.
FAQ: VOOG vs VUG
Is VOOG or VUG better?
For a single long-term growth holding, VUG on the published evidence. It charges 0.03% against VOOG's 0.07% and has tracked its index about 0.10 percentage points a year closer over ten years. The funds' own ten-year returns to 30 June 2026 were 18.02% a year for VUG and 18.01% for VOOG, so the performance record gives you almost nothing to choose between them and the fee gap decides it.
What is the actual difference between VOOG and VUG?
The index. VOOG tracks the S&P 500 Growth Index, which scores the 500 S&P constituents on three factors: three-year change in earnings per share over price, three-year sales per share growth, and 12-month price momentum. VUG tracks the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index, which scores the top 85% of US market value on six factors including two analyst forecasts of future earnings growth, with no momentum factor at all.
Does VUG hold a lot more stocks than VOOG?
No, not any more. At 30 June 2026 Vanguard reported 148 stocks in VOOG and 147 in VUG. That is a change from the picture many older articles describe. What differs is which companies and at what weights: only 86 issuers appear in both funds, and Apple's weight differs by 5.3 percentage points.
Do VOOG and VUG overlap?
Heavily. Adding the smaller of the two weights for every company held by both gives an overlap of about 74.9%, calculated from the funds' SEC holdings filings at 31 May and 30 June 2026. Nine of the ten largest positions are the same companies. Owning both concentrates you further rather than diversifying you.
Why is VOOG more expensive than VUG?
Its prospectus fee table shows a 0.06% management fee against VUG's 0.02%, with both funds charging 0.01% in other expenses. VUG is by far the larger fund, with $223 billion in the ETF share class against VOOG's $26 billion at 30 June 2026, which is the usual pattern behind a lower fee at Vanguard. The issuer does not state a reason.
Why did VOOG beat VUG by seven points over the last year if they are so similar?
Because the last quarter of each portfolio is genuinely different. VUG held Apple at 11.67% against VOOG's 6.37%, and VOOG held Micron, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan and Caterpillar, which VUG did not hold at all. Vanguard publishes no attribution, so we cannot tell you how much each position contributed. What the ten-year figures show is that gaps of this size have historically closed.
Why does VOOG hold Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan in a growth fund?
Because S&P's style methodology does not force every company into one box. The top 33% of index market value goes entirely to growth, the bottom 33% entirely to value, and the middle 34% is split between the two indexes according to how close each company sits to each basket. Morningstar does something similar using what it calls a Style Multiplier.
Did VUG change in 2026?
Its name and its index's name did, on 29 July 2026, after Morningstar acquired CRSP. The Vanguard Growth ETF became the Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF and the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index became the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index. Vanguard's SEC supplement states that the fund's objective, strategies and policies are unchanged, and the ticker is still VUG.
Could the S&P 500 Growth Index change what VOOG owns?
Possibly, and soon. S&P DJI opened a consultation on 28 August 2026 proposing to drop price momentum from the growth factors, with responses due 25 September 2026 and a proposed effective date of 21 December 2026. No decision had been published as of 28 September 2026. If it is adopted, VOOG's growth screen would rest on two fundamental factors only.
Which is better for a Roth IRA, VOOG or VUG?
VUG, for the same reason it wins generally: a lower fee over a long holding period. There is no tax reason to prefer either inside a Roth, since both are tax-efficient ETFs and distributions inside the account are not taxed. VUG's lower turnover, 12.3% against 20.1%, is a mild point in its favour in a taxable account instead.
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"VOOG vs VUG: Two Definitions of Growth, One Nearly Identical Decade." Wealthy Pot, 2026. https://wealthypot.com/voog-vs-vug/
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