Which is cheaper, DFAL or ESGU?

DFAL is cheaper, by 0.03 percentage points a year. That is about $3 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do DFAL and ESGU overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 54% of DFAL and 97% of ESGU by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

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DFAL vs ESGU: Differences, Returns & Fees

DFAL and ESGU hold 42% of their weight in the same names. Net assets: $1.5bn on Jul 31, 2026 for Dimensional US Large Cap Core Equity Market ETF, and $18.3bn on Oct 9, 2026 for iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF.

DFAL costs 0.03 points a year less; ESGU is 11.5 times larger.

	DFAL	ESGU
Expense ratio	0.12%	0.15%
Net assets, as of Jul 31, 2026	$1.5bn	$17.8bn
Total return, 1 year	not published	+17.3%
What it tracks	not published	MSCI USA Extended ESG Focus Index
Holdings in common	42%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	56.6%	37.9%

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Jul 31, 2026 and Oct 8, 2026.

+6.3%

DFAL total return, since launch, Jun 23, 2026

+17.3%

ESGU total return, 1 year

0.12%

DFAL expense ratio

0.15%

ESGU expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, DFAL and ESGU hold 42% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Above 50%, holding both is close to holding one of them twice. Holdings dated Jul 31, 2026 and Oct 8, 2026.

50%

half

42% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding DFAL ESGU

NVIDIA CORPORATION 3.93% 7.97%

APPLE INC. 3.83% 7.38%

MICROSOFT CORPORATION 2.82% 5.58%

AMAZON.COM, INC. 2.38% 3.60%

ALPHABET INC. 2.09% 3.49%

BROADCOM INC. 1.57% 2.46%

ALPHABET INC. 1.27% 1.92%

META PLATFORMS, INC. 1.07% 2.18%

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. 0.87% 1.29%

TESLA, INC. 0.70% 1.58%

ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC. 0.58% 1.55%

VISA INC. 0.52% 1.17%

Only in DFAL

iShares Russell Top 200 Growth Index ETF 13.12%

Ishares Russell Top 200 Value Index Fund 8.84%

DFA Dimensional US Marketwide Value ETF 7.98%

Dimensional U S Core Equity 2 ETF 6.89%

iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF 4.68%

ELI LILLY AND COMPANY 0.85%

WALMART INC. 0.41%

APPLIED MATERIALS, INC. 0.32%

Only in ESGU

ELI LILLY 1.37%

APPLIED MATERIAL INC 0.75%

GE AEROSPACE 0.45%

TEXAS INSTRUMENT INC 0.39%

TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC 0.39%

LINDE PLC 0.37%

EQUINIX REIT 0.35%

WILLIAMS 0.34%

Check overlap with more funds →

On the same fields

DFAL

Dimensional US Large Cap Core Equity Market ETF

ESGU

iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer Dimensional iShares

What it is Equity fund Tracks an index

Total return, 1 year +6.3% (since launch, Jun 23, 2026) +17.3%

S&P 500 over the same days +6.4% (since launch, Jun 23, 2026) +17.3%

Gap to the S&P 500 −0.1 pts (since launch, Jun 23, 2026) +0.1 pts

Expense ratio 0.12% 0.15%

Already in the S&P 500 53.9% 97.4%

Holdings 545 269

Net assets, DFAL as of Jul 31, 2026 and ESGU as of Oct 9, 2026 $1.5bn $18.3bn

DFAL and ESGU on the fields both publish, as of Oct 9, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

DFAL in plain words

The prospectus expense ratio is 0.12% a year. By its holdings filed for Jul 31, 2026, 54% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 545 positions, with the top ten at 56.6%.

ESGU in plain words

ESGU tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +17.3% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.15% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 8, 2026, 97% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 269 positions, with the top ten at 37.9%.

Questions people ask

Which is cheaper, DFAL or ESGU?: DFAL is cheaper, by 0.03 percentage points a year. That is about $3 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do DFAL and ESGU overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 54% of DFAL and 97% of ESGU by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

DFAL vs DGRW DFAL vs ITOT DFAL vs VIG DFAL vs SPYM ESGU vs SEIM ESGU vs PDP ESGU vs USXF ESGU vs QQQE

DFAL on its own →ESGU on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →Standards and sources →

Where these figures came from

DFAL filings on SEC EDGAR ↗DFAL prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗Dimensional website ↗ESGU filings on SEC EDGAR ↗ESGU prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗iShares page for ESGU ↗

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement. A comparison is not a recommendation.

How this is computed

Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.

Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown

ETFIQ, DFAL against ESGU, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/dfal-vs-esgu

Open data

Free to use with attribution for figures ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.