Of those ASX investors who love buying and investing in Vanguard index funds, there are two real choices if an investor wishes to gain broad exposure to the Australian share market. The preferred choice of many is, of course, the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS).
This exchange-traded fund (ETF) is, by a large margin, the most popular index fund and ETF in Australia, with more than $26 billion currently under management.
VAS offers investors simple, easy access to our most well-known shares by mirroring the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO). As its name implies, this index tracks the largest 300 stocks listed in Australia. That's everything from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS), and Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW), to JB Hi-Fi Ltd (ASX: JBH), Ampol Ltd (ASX: ALD), and Metcash Ltd (ASX: MTS).
However, there is another Vanguard index fund that addresses one of investors' chronic concerns about ASX index funds – that they are too heavy on sluggish bank shares and mining stocks.
That Vanguard ETF is the Vanguard MSCI Australian Small Companies Index ETF (ASX: VSO). Instead of buying 300 of the largest stocks listed on the public markets, VSO only holds about 170. These are all taken from the bottom end of the ASX 300, so no CBAs or Telstras here.
Instead, you'll find the likes of BlueScope Steel Ltd (ASX: BSL), NextDC Ltd (ASX: NXT), and Orica Ltd (ASX: ORI) amongst its largest holdings. VSO is designed to give extra weight to these smaller, and potentially more nimble and mobile stocks, at the expense of the ASX's largest blue chips.
That all sounds grand. But today, let's check out the numbers, and see which ASX ETF has actually delivered the best returns for investors.
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VSO or VAS: Which ASX index fund comes out on top?
Let's start with the Vanguard Australian Shares ETF. As of 31 May, this index fund has delivered a 1.38% return year to date. Over the past 12 months, the number is 7.091%. That stretches to 10.94% per annum over the three years to 31 May, 7.92% over five years, and 9.03% over ten.
These returns account for fees and include both capital growth and dividend distribution returns.
Meanwhile, VSO units have gone backwards by 2.6% in 2026 so far. However, over 12 months, investors have enjoyed a 13.27% return. That morphs into 11.42% per annum over the past three years, 7.02% over five years, and 9.33% over ten years.
As you can see, there isn't a lot of distance between these two Vanguard ETFs. Both VAS and VSO come out ahead over different periods, but an investor who put all of their eggs in either VAS or VSO five or ten years ago would largely come out level.
It seems, going off the historical data at least, it didn't matter if investors chose one, the other, or both.
