Wealthy PotVUG vs VOO: Large-Cap Growth or the Whole S&P 500?
VUG and VOO cost exactly the same, 0.03% a year, which removes the usual tiebreaker and leaves one real question: do you want the whole S&P 500, or only its large-cap growth wing? VOO holds all 500-odd companies across every sector. VUG holds about 147 growth-classified large caps, most of them technology. Below, every figure comes from Vanguard's own fund fact sheets as of June 30, 2026, plus the July 2026 announcement that changed VUG's name and benchmark.
The Short Answer
- Want one core holding you never have to second-guess? VOO. All sectors, roughly 500 companies, a top-10 weight under 40%, and near-zero turnover. It is the steadier fund by every measure in the table below.
- Want to lean into large-cap growth on purpose? VUG. It packs more than 60% of its assets into ten mega-cap names and has compounded faster over the past decade. You pay for that with sharper drawdowns whenever growth stocks fall out of favor.
Same fee, different bet. VOO is the market. VUG is a wager that the biggest growth companies keep leading it.
What Each Fund Owns
- VOO is the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. It tracks the S&P 500: about 506 holdings spanning technology, healthcare, financials, energy, industrials, and consumer companies, weighted by market value.
- VUG is the Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF, known until late July 2026 as the Vanguard Growth ETF. It tracks the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index, the growth-classified slice of the large-cap U.S. market, about 147 companies. Financials, energy, and most industrials are screened out, which is why the fund is dominated by technology and a handful of consumer and communication names.
Both funds own the same mega-cap leaders at the top. The difference is what surrounds them: VOO adds the other 350-plus companies and every value-oriented sector; VUG drops them. For the thinking behind that growth-versus-value split, see growth vs value stocks.
VUG's 2026 Index Rename
If you look VUG up and see two different names, that is not an error. Morningstar completed its purchase of CRSP, the University of Chicago index provider, in early 2026, and on July 28, 2026 rebranded the CRSP indexes as Morningstar indexes. Vanguard followed by renaming the funds that track them: the Vanguard Growth ETF became the Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF, and its benchmark, the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index, became the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index. The ticker stayed VUG.
What matters for holders is what did not change. Morningstar states the rebrand "affects naming only" and that index methodologies are unchanged. Vanguard's own June 30, 2026 fact sheet describes the switch as a name change for the fund and the benchmark, with no change to what the fund holds or how it is run. So the comparison below is unaffected: VUG owns the same growth basket it owned before the rename. Articles that describe VUG as tracking a "CRSP" index are simply using the pre-July name.
VUG vs VOO Side by Side
| Feature | VUG (Large-Cap Growth) | VOO (Full S&P 500) |
|---|---|---|
| Fund name | Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF (formerly Vanguard Growth ETF) | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF |
| Index tracked | Morningstar US Large Cap Growth (formerly CRSP US Large Cap Growth) | S&P 500 |
| Expense ratio | 0.03% | 0.03% |
| Number of stocks | ~147 | ~506 |
| Top 10 weight | ~63.1% | ~37.9% |
| Median market cap | ~$1,797 billion | ~$456 billion |
| Portfolio turnover (latest fiscal year) | 12.3% | 2.4% |
| Sector profile | Growth, very tech-heavy | All 11 sectors |
| Inception | Jan 26, 2004 | Sep 7, 2010 |
| Net assets (ETF) | ~$223 billion | ~$979 billion |
| 10-year return (avg annual, NAV) | 18.02% | 15.47% |
| Growth of $10,000 over those 10 years (hypothetical) | $52,430 | $42,140 |
| Best for | Growth tilt / satellite | Diversified core |
The Concentration Trade-Off
Cut the S&P 500 down to its growth names and the weight piles up at the top:
How much rides on the top 10 holdings
Higher bar = more concentrated in a few companies.
Over 60% of VUG sits in its top 10, mostly mega-cap tech. VOO spreads across ~500 names and all sectors. Source: Vanguard fund fact sheets, Jun 30, 2026.
Ten companies carry roughly 63 cents of every dollar in VUG, against about 38 cents in VOO. A bad quarter for two or three of those names moves VUG far more than it moves the broad index. That is the mechanism behind both VUG's stronger decade and its harder falls, and it is the single most important line in the table.
Turnover and Company Size
Two fact-sheet numbers rarely make it into VUG-versus-VOO comparisons, and both are telling.
- Turnover: 12.3% versus 2.4%. An S&P 500 fund barely trades; companies enter and leave the index a few at a time. A growth index has to re-sort stocks between "growth" and "value" as their fundamentals shift, so VUG turned over about five times as much of its portfolio last fiscal year. Turnover is still low in absolute terms, but it is one reason a style index can realize more taxable gains than a plain market index, a point worth knowing if you hold VUG in a taxable account.
- Median market cap: about $1.8 trillion versus $456 billion. The typical VUG holding is roughly four times the size of the typical VOO holding. VUG is not just "growth," it is mega-cap growth. If you wanted exposure to smaller, faster-growing companies, this is not the fund that delivers it.
What the Ten-Year Gap Does and Does Not Tell You
Through June 30, 2026, VUG compounded at about 18.0% a year over ten years against 15.5% for VOO. Two and a half points a year is a large edge, and it is exactly what you would expect from a fund concentrated in the companies that led the longest growth run in modern market history.
What the figure cannot tell you is whether that leadership continues. Growth and value have swapped the lead repeatedly; the 2000s were a lost decade for the biggest growth names while value and small caps did fine, and 2022 showed how quickly a growth-heavy fund can give back gains when interest rates rise. VUG's outperformance is a record of a particular ten years, not a property of the fund. If you buy it, buy it because you want a deliberate growth overweight and can hold through the reversals, not because the trailing return looks better. Our guide to time in the market versus timing it covers why chasing the recent winner tends to backfire.
Which One Fits You
Choose VOO if: you want a single, diversified core for a retirement account or brokerage portfolio and you would rather own every sector than guess which style wins next. Its 2.4% turnover also makes it the more tax-friendly of the two in a taxable account.
Choose VUG if: you have already decided you want a mega-cap growth overweight, you understand it will fall harder than the market in a growth sell-off, and you are sizing it as a satellite next to a broad core. Because its top holdings are also VOO's largest positions, adding VUG to VOO concentrates you further rather than diversifying you. For the S&P 500's own growth subset, a somewhat less concentrated alternative, see VOO vs VOOG; for the Nasdaq-100 route to a similar tilt, see QQQ vs VOO.
FAQ
Is VUG or VOO better?
Neither wins outright, and both charge 0.03%. VOO is the broader, steadier fund: about 500 stocks across all sectors with 38% in its top 10. VUG holds about 147 large-cap growth names with 63% in its top 10, and it has returned more over the past decade with more volatility. Most investors use VOO as the core and add VUG, if at all, as a tilt.
Did VUG change in 2026?
Only its name and its index's name. In late July 2026 the Vanguard Growth ETF became the Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF and its benchmark was renamed from the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index to the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index, after Morningstar acquired CRSP. Morningstar and Vanguard both state the index methodology is unchanged. The ticker is still VUG.
Do VUG and VOO hold the same stocks?
They share the same mega-cap growth leaders, but VOO also holds the roughly 350 companies VUG excludes, including nearly all financials, energy, and industrials. VUG is close to a subset of VOO's largest growth names.
Should I own both VUG and VOO?
Only if you intend to overweight large-cap growth. VUG's biggest holdings are already VOO's biggest holdings, so the combination adds concentration, not diversification.
Which is more tax-efficient in a taxable account?
VOO, modestly. Both are ETFs and both rarely distribute capital gains, but VOO's 2.4% turnover versus VUG's 12.3% means the growth fund does more buying and selling. Inside an IRA or 401(k) the difference does not matter.
Related comparisons: VOO vs VOOG · QQQ vs VOO · VGT vs QQQ · VTI vs VOO · All ETF comparisons
Primary sources: expense ratios, indexes, holdings, top-10 weights, median market cap, turnover, net assets, and returns are drawn from Vanguard's official fund fact sheets for VUG and VOO, both as of June 30, 2026. The fund and index renames are per Morningstar's July 28, 2026 announcement and Vanguard's updated fact sheet. For background on index investing, see the SEC's Investor.gov guide to mutual funds and ETFs.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal, and past performance does not guarantee future results. Concentrated, style-tilted funds can be more volatile than the broad market. Expense ratios and fund assets change over time; confirm current figures on the issuer's site before investing. Consult a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.
