Which is cheaper, DFAL or SPY?

SPY 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 SPY overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 54% of DFAL and 100% of SPY by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

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DFAL vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees

DFAL and SPY hold 54% 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 $817.2bn on Oct 8, 2026 for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.

SPY costs 0.03 points a year less; SPY is far larger, $795.3bn against $1.5bn.

	DFAL	SPY
Expense ratio	0.12%	0.09%
Net assets, as of Jul 31, 2026	$1.5bn	$795.3bn
Total return, 1 year	not published	+17.3%
What it tracks	not published	S&P 500 Index
Holdings in common	54%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	56.6%	39.1%

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%

SPY total return, 1 year

0.12%

DFAL expense ratio

0.09%

SPY expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, DFAL and SPY hold 54% 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

54% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding DFAL SPY

NVIDIA CORPORATION 3.93% 8.34%

APPLE INC. 3.83% 7.42%

MICROSOFT CORPORATION 2.82% 5.80%

AMAZON.COM, INC. 2.38% 3.73%

ALPHABET INC. 2.09% 3.06%

BROADCOM INC. 1.57% 2.56%

ALPHABET INC. 1.27% 2.45%

META PLATFORMS, INC. 1.07% 2.38%

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. 0.87% 1.32%

ELI LILLY AND COMPANY 0.85% 1.40%

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. 0.76% 1.42%

TESLA, INC. 0.70% 1.58%

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%

iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF 0.11%

ELEMENT SOLUTIONS INC 0.06%

ONEOK, INC. 0.06%

Only in SPY

WELLTOWER INC 0.24%

SIMON PROPERTY GROUP INC 0.10%

DIGITAL REALTY TRUST INC 0.09%

ONEOK INC 0.09%

REALTY INCOME CORP 0.08%

VYLOR INC 0.07%

PUBLIC STORAGE 0.07%

VIVMARK RESIDENTIAL 0.06%

Check overlap with more funds →

On the same fields

DFAL

Dimensional US Large Cap Core Equity Market ETF

SPY

SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer Dimensional State Street

What it is Equity fund Tracks the S&P 500

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) 0.0 pts

Expense ratio 0.12% 0.09%

Already in the S&P 500 53.9% 99.8%

Holdings 545 504

Net assets, DFAL as of Jul 31, 2026 and SPY as of Oct 8, 2026 $1.5bn $817.2bn

DFAL and SPY 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%.

SPY in plain words

SPY tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +17.3% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 8, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 504 positions, with the top ten at 39.1%.

Questions people ask

Which is cheaper, DFAL or SPY?: SPY 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 SPY overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 54% of DFAL and 100% of SPY by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

DFAL vs IVV DFAL vs VTI DFAL vs VOO DFAL vs SPYM SEIM vs SPY PDP vs SPY SPY vs USXF QQQE vs SPY

DFAL on its own →SPY 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 ↗SPY filings on SEC EDGAR ↗State Street website ↗

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

Open data

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