ETF Comparison Tool
Find and compare the best ETFs for Irish investors. Choose where to invest, how you want to earn a return, and instantly find the cheapest options.
Did you know?
Index ETFs have historically outperformed most investment professionals over the long-term
Region
Use of Income
Structure
Currency Risk
Best Index Funds Ireland
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We compare the widest range of investment platforms and products available to Irish investors, making it easy to compare apps, ETFs, and indexes, all in one place.
We compare the widest range of investment platforms and products available to Irish investors, making it easy to compare apps, ETFs, and indexes, all in one place.
10+
Investment Apps
170+
ETFs Compared
How This Tool Works
| Input | What it means |
|---|---|
| Region | The part of the world the ETF invests in, including Global, North America, Europe and Emerging Markets. |
| Use of Income | How the fund uses income earned from its investments. Distributing ETFs pay it out as a dividend. Accumulating ETFs reinvest it. |
| Structure | How the fund tracks the index. Physical ETFs will buy and hold the underlying shares. Synthetic ETFs will use financial contracts called swaps to track the index. |
| Currency Risk | Whether your returns will be affected by currency movements. Hedged ETFs eliminate currency risk while Unhedged ETFs leave you exposed to it. |
Understanding Your Results
Our comparison tool breaks down everything you need to know about an ETF into three categories: Fund Overview, Fund Details and Trading Details
Fund Overview
- Provider: The investment firm that manages the fund
Domicile: The country where the fund is legally based. This affects how it’s regulated and taxed.
Index: The index the fund tracks.
Index Constituents: The number of companies measured by the index.
UCITS Compliant: Confirms whether the fund meets EU investor protection rules.
Fund Details
Total Expense Ratio: The yearly cost of managing and operating the fund, expressed as a percentage of the fund’s assets. This negatively impacts returns so the lower the percentage, the better.
Use of Income: Whether the fund pays out a dividend or reinvests income automatically.
Distribution Frequency: How often dividends are paid.
Structure: Whether the fund holds the underlying shares directly or uses a swap to track the index.
Replication: The specific replication method the fund uses to track the index.
Asset Currency: The currency the fund’s underlying assets are denominated in.
Currency Risk: Whether the fund is hedged against currency movements or left unhedged and exposed to them.
Securities Lending: Whether the fund lends out its holdings to other institutions in exchange for extra income.
Key Insight: Securities Lending adds a small amount of extra income to the fund, but it isn’t risk-free. If the borrower fails to return the securities, the fund could lose out. Most funds mitigate this risk by requiring the borrower to post collateral that’s worth more than the securities on loan.
Trading Details
- ISIN: The International Securities Identification Number used to locate the fund on your investing platform.
- Share Class Currency: The currency used to calculate the Net Asset Value (NAV) of the fund and to pay dividends
- Available On: The investing apps where you can buy shares in the fund.
- Factsheets: Links to the ETF and index factsheets as well as the key information document. This is where you can check constituents, performance history, and other important information.
Written by:
Dan Malone
How We Select ETFs
Four Major Regions
Global, North America, Europe and Emerging Markets
Broad-Based Indices
Indexes that represent each region as a whole
No Subsets
No subset indexes, like high dividend yield or ESG screened indices
Passively Managed
Passive ETFs only for better long-term results. No active decision making.
Diverse Features
A balanced mix of ETF features
Low TERs
The lowest total expense ratios we can find
The ETFs contained within our comparison tool have been handpicked with our strict selection criteria in mind. We only include ETFs that:
- Provide exposure to a major region of the global stock market
- Track broad-based indexes that are representative of that region as a whole
- Exclude specialised subset indices
- Are passively managed for the best long-term results
- Offer a diverse set of features to appeal to different investor needs
- Have the lowest and most competitive total expense ratios
Expert Tip: We recommend using the comparison tool in conjunction with our dedicated regional guides, where we also reveal our top pick ETFs for each region:
Understanding What’s Next
Once you find an ETF that works for you, click into it and you’ll be shown a list of investing apps that you can use to invest. You’ll need to download at least one investing app to start buying shares in ETFs. We recommend using multiple investing apps for greater coverage under EU protection schemes, better investment selection and flexibility around features and fees.
For each app, we show:
- The ETF Order Fee
- Whether you can invest with as little as €1
- Whether Auto-Invest is available
- The Welcome Bonus on offer
To make detailed comparisons between the investment apps available to Irish investors, try out our Investment App Comparison Tool.
How To Choose An ETF
Choosing the right ETF(s) depends on many factors including, but not limited to:
- 1Whether you want a single ETF or multiple ETFs
- 2Your prior knowledge and experience
- 3Whether you want to receive dividends
- 4Whether you want currency returns
- 5The investing app(s) you use
Fees & Taxes
Two things you can control when investing in an ETF are fees and taxes.
Fees
Fees eat into returns. Over the long-term, seemingly small costs can leave a huge dent in your portfolio. We built a tool to illustrate this, check it out for yourself.
That’s why we rank ETFs by total expense ratio (TER) from lowest to highest – in recognition of the importance of fees when choosing an ETF for the long-term. But it’s not just ETF fees. Investing apps can charge you to invest, some more than others. We highlight the ETF order fee charged by a platform before you download and you can see their full list of charges using our comparison tool.
Taxes
Deciding whether you want to receive dividends from an ETF is important. If you don’t need them, don’t take them – you’ll pay less tax today.
Key Insight: Dividends received from distributing ETFs are taxed at 38% in Ireland. Most Irish investors invest in accumulating ETFs to avoid this. An accumulating ETF will reinvest the income without paying it out. This defers tax to a later date, allowing your returns to compound tax-free.
If you want to learn more about what to consider when picking an ETF for long-term investing, check out our ETFs for beginners guide.
Tracking Difference & Tracking Error
Tracking difference tells you how much a fund deviated from the index over a given period for better or worse. It matters more than the total expense ratio in isolation because it captures the real net cost, if any, of holding the fund.
Two ETFs can charge the same TER but deliver different returns after all costs and revenues have been absorbed. The tracking difference reflects that.
Tracking error measures the variability of the tracking difference throughout the year. A high tracking error suggests returns are inconsistent and volatile.
Key Insight: If Fund A has a tracking difference of 0% and Fund B has a tracking difference of -0.15%, Fund B is costing you an extra 0.15% a year to hold. On a €10,000 investment held for 20 years, that gap costs you ~€300, before accounting for the growth you would have earned if it stayed invested.
Frequently Asked Questions
TER stands for Total Expense Ratio. It’s the yearly cost of managing and operating an ETF, expressed as a percentage of the ETF’s assets. A TER of 0.10% would cost you €0.10 per year for every €100 invested. It’s taken directly from the fund. You won’t see it as a separate charge in your account.
Yes. If the shares are listed in a non-Euro currency, your broker will execute a currency conversion every time you buy or sell using Euros. That conversion comes with a fee, which adds to your cost. Investing in Euro-denominated shares or using a multi-currency account to invest helps avoid this fee.
Fees are very important, but they’re not the only thing to consider. You need to ensure you’re investing in an ETF that provides you with the exposure you’re looking for, in the way you want it and at the lowest cost.
Many investing apps nowadays allow you to start investing in ETFs with as little as €1. That’s made possible by buying fractions of shares. Where an app doesn’t support fractional share investing, you’ll need to have enough money to afford one whole share in the ETF.
In most cases, it’s because the ETF is less than a year old. EU investment rules only permit performance figures to be shown once a fund has a full 12 months of history. A blank performance column usually means the fund is new. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with the ETF.
Euro-hedged ETFs are funds that use forward currency contracts to eliminate the impact of exchange rate fluctuations between foreign currencies and the Euro on investment returns. They protect you from currency risk and ensure that your return depends on how the underlying assets perform. That protection comes at an extra cost, accounted for in the TER.
The ETF factsheet tells you information about the fund you’re buying: its fees, size and how it provides the index return. The index factsheet provides a list of companies being tracked. When comparing ETFs, the ETF factsheet is the one to read.
