The best dividend UCITS ETFs
Dividend ETFs come in two main flavours. High-yield funds like VHYL simply buy the companies paying the biggest dividends today, while dividend-aristocrat funds buy companies that have raised their payout year after year, which tends to mean steadier but lower yields. The table below ranks the main UCITS options cheapest first; check each fund's page for what it actually holds.
- Cheapest: VUSA at 0.07% a year (Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (USD) Distributing).
- Hands-off pick: GGRA, dividends reinvested automatically.
- For income: VUSA, pays dividends out as cash.
- 1VUSA0.07%+19.5%+82.2%Paid out
- 2ES30.28%+34.2%+124.1%Paid out
- 3VHYL0.29%+24.7%+71.7%Paid out
- 4SPYW0.30%+11.5%+48.7%Paid out
- 5UDVD0.35%+13.2%+40.1%Paid out
- 6GGRA0.38%+13.9%+45.4%Reinvested
- 7FGEA0.40%+21.7%+30.4%Reinvested
- 8GLDV0.45%+17.3%+44.6%Paid out
- 9EDVD0.55%+8.3%+36.3%Paid out
- 10CLR0.60%+6.8%+0.7%Paid out
How this ranking works
Funds are ranked by annual fee (TER), cheapest first, using the same live dataset that powers the rest of TickerCompare; returns are total returns converted to USD and refresh throughout the trading day. Funds tracking the same index are near-interchangeable, so we treat cost as the main tiebreaker and flag dividend policy so you can match the fund to how you invest. This is educational information, not financial advice.
Available on Interactive Brokers
Buy VUSA, ES3 and thousands of other UCITS ETFs on Interactive Brokers.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the cheapest dividend UCITS ETF?
VUSA (Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (USD) Distributing) is currently the cheapest at 0.07% a year. Because index funds tracking the same index hold the same things, the cheapest fund usually wins over time.
Which dividend ETF performed best over five years?
ES3 returned +124.1% in USD over the past five years. Performance differences between funds tracking the same index are tiny; fees and dividend policy matter more than past returns.
Should I pick the accumulating or distributing version?
GGRA reinvests dividends automatically (accumulating), while VUSA pays them out as cash (distributing). Long-term investors who do not need the income usually pick accumulating for effortless compounding.