Which is cheaper, DFAL or QUAL?

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 QUAL overlap with the S&P 500?

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

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DFAL vs QUAL: Differences, Returns & Fees

DFAL and QUAL hold 24% 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 $49.0bn on Oct 9, 2026 for iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF.

DFAL costs 0.03 points a year less; QUAL is far larger, $46.5bn against $1.5bn.

	DFAL	QUAL
Expense ratio	0.12%	0.15%
Net assets, as of Jul 31, 2026	$1.5bn	$46.5bn
Total return, 1 year	not published	+17.1%
What it tracks	not published	MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality Index ?
Holdings in common	24%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	56.6%	45.8%

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

+6.3%

DFAL total return, since launch, Jun 23, 2026

+17.1%

QUAL total return, 1 year

0.12%

DFAL expense ratio

0.15%

QUAL expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, DFAL and QUAL hold 24% 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

24% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding DFAL QUAL

NVIDIA CORPORATION 3.93% 6.56%

APPLE INC. 3.83% 7.14%

MICROSOFT CORPORATION 2.82% 7.86%

ALPHABET INC. 2.09% 1.96%

ALPHABET INC. 1.27% 1.54%

META PLATFORMS, INC. 1.07% 4.66%

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. 0.76% 1.80%

VISA INC. 0.52% 3.17%

EXXONMOBIL HOLDINGS CORPORATION 0.51% 2.31%

JOHNSON & JOHNSON 0.51% 2.01%

MASTERCARD INCORPORATED 0.43% 2.23%

WALMART INC. 0.41% 0.95%

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%

AMAZON.COM, INC. 2.38%

BROADCOM INC. 1.57%

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. 0.87%

Only in QUAL

ELI LILLY 3.64%

TJX 3.42%

APPLIED MATERIAL INC 3.04%

LINDE PLC 1.00%

ACCENTURE PLC CLASS A 0.84%

TRANE TECHNOLOGIES PLC 0.79%

PROLOGIS REIT 0.73%

ILLINOIS TOOL INC 0.70%

Check overlap with more funds →

On the same fields

DFAL

Dimensional US Large Cap Core Equity Market ETF

QUAL

iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer Dimensional iShares

What it is Equity fund Tracks the MSCI USA Quality Factor

Total return, 1 year +6.3% (since launch, Jun 23, 2026) +17.1%

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) −0.2 pts

Expense ratio 0.12% 0.15%

Already in the S&P 500 53.9% 97.2%

Holdings 545 119

Net assets, DFAL as of Jul 31, 2026 and QUAL as of Oct 9, 2026 $1.5bn $49.0bn

DFAL and QUAL 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%.

QUAL in plain words

QUAL tracks the MSCI USA Quality Factor. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +17.1% 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 119 positions, with the top ten at 45.8%.

Questions people ask

Which is cheaper, DFAL or QUAL?: 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 QUAL overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 54% of DFAL and 97% of QUAL by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

DFAL vs SCHX DFAL vs ITOT DFAL vs VIG DFAL vs IVV QUAL vs SEIM PDP vs QUAL QUAL vs USXF QQQE vs QUAL

DFAL on its own →QUAL 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 ↗QUAL filings on SEC EDGAR ↗QUAL prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗iShares page for QUAL ↗

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 QUAL, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/dfal-vs-qual

Open data

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