Guide · US Large Cap Growth
Best large-cap growth ETFs
Growth funds overweight the high-revenue, low-yield end of large-cap: Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon. VTI already owns those names at market weight, so adding VUG or SCHG is a growth-vs-value bet. QQQ is the Nasdaq-100, not a growth-factor index; it drops financials and is the most traded ETF in the US. SCHG and VUG do the same job at 3–4 bps.
Published May 18, 2026 · Updated Sep 16, 2026 · Fund data as of Oct 24, 2026
Why the ranking looks like this
Cost separates the field. SCHG and VUG run at 3-4 bps and hold near-identical exposure to the broad large-cap growth universe. QQQ at 18 bps is the most famous fund here but tracks a different index (Nasdaq-100, ex-financials) and is best understood as a high-tech-concentrated subset rather than a pure growth-factor fund. IWF tracks the Russell 1000 Growth and sits between the two in concentration.
See the methodology for the full formula behind each sub-score.
The funds
This order is editorial. The composite on each card is live. The full score-ranked table is on the category page.
-
86
composite / 100
Schwab's large-cap growth fund. 4 bps; tracks the Dow Jones US Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index. Highest-scoring catalog fund in the category on cost alone.
- Expense
- 0.040%
- AUM
- $63.85B
- Issuer
- Schwab
- Detail
- SCHG page →
-
86
composite / 100
Vanguard's growth fund. 3 bps; tracks the Morningstar US Large Cap Growth Index (formerly CRSP). The largest of the catalog growth funds by AUM and the most-discussed on Boglehead forums when growth tilts come up.
- Expense
- 0.030%
- AUM
- $392.07B†
- Issuer
- Vanguard
- Detail
- VUG page →
-
83
composite / 100
Invesco's Nasdaq-100 trust. 18 bps; tracks the Nasdaq-100 (100 largest non-financial Nasdaq listings). The most-traded ETF on US exchanges and the default "tech" expression in retail portfolios — but it's not a clean growth-factor fund. QQQM is the same fund at a lower 15 bp fee for buy-and-hold investors who don't need QQQ's ultra-deep options market.
- Expense
- 0.18%
- AUM
- $498.95B
- Issuer
- Invesco
- Detail
- QQQ page →
-
81
composite / 100
iShares Russell 1000 Growth fund. 18 bps; tracks the Russell 1000 Growth Index — broader than QQQ's Nasdaq-only universe but more expensive than VUG/SCHG for similar growth-tilt exposure.
- Expense
- 0.18%
- AUM
- $127.74B
- Issuer
- iShares
- Detail
- IWF page →
† Whole fund: this ETF is one share class of a fund that also sells mutual-fund shares, and the figure covers all of them. Our sources don't report the ETF class on its own.
Also in the category
Other funds in the same category, ranked by composite score.
Growth ETFs are not a replacement for a total-market core
A total-market fund already holds the same megacap growth names (AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, etc.) at their market weight. A growth ETF deliberately overweights them, which is a directional bet on growth-vs-value relative performance. Over the post-2010 era growth has won decisively; in earlier multi-decade windows value won. Whether the tilt is worth holding through a period of growth underperformance is the actual decision being made when a growth ETF is added to a portfolio.
QQQ vs VUG vs SCHG
QQQ's top-10 weight runs ~50% and is concentrated in tech megacaps; VUG's top-10 is closer to 40% across a slightly broader index; SCHG sits between the two. The compare page for any pair shows holdings overlap directly. Most Boglehead-leaning portfolios that include a growth tilt use VUG or SCHG rather than QQQ because the broader index avoids the explicit Nasdaq-only listing screen.
Funds are pulled from the live composite for this category. Notes are editorial and refresh with the catalog.
PlainIndex publishes data and editorial commentary — nothing here is personalized investment advice. Read the methodology for how the scores referenced here are computed.