Frequently asked questions
Compare share index tracker fund costs by index
We've found 14 share index funds
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Ongoing charges are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund each year as a percentage of assets invested.
All Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. For more details please read the FAQs.
Fund - Traditional mutual fund, you deal directly with a fund manager who creates or cancels shares or units of the fund when you buy or sell, usually once per day.
ETF - Exchange-traded Fund, often listed under the ‘Shares' section of investment platforms. ETFs are, unlike traditional funds, traded on a stock market so they can be bought or sold at any point the market is open.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are broadly three types of charges commonly associated with buying and holding index funds: Management costs (also called OCR (Ongoing Charges Rate) or TER (Total Expense Ratio), Transaction Costs, and Bid-Offer Spread.
Management costs ('TER' or 'OCR') are the most commonly found on fund information sheets, and are the upfront costs charged by the fund provider to run and manage the fund (e.g. audit, depository, legal, registration and regulatory expenses) each year as a percentage of assets invested.
Transaction costs are the charges the fund incurs when buying/selling underlying securities to maintain its target fund size and to match any changes in the index. These change each reporting period depending on a number of factors, including market conditions and fund structure - you can find the historic values for these from your broker or from a fund manager directly.
A bid-offer spread is where the price for buying and selling the security is different (and does not apply to all index funds - some traditional funds buy and sell at the same price instead recovering fees from other costs), when buying funds with a bid-offer spread, a cost is effectively incurred at point of purchase and point of sale.
This comparison page only includes ongoing management costs, for bid-offer spreads and historic transaction costs please consult your share dealing provider.
Please remember all Information is provided "as is" and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. We accept no responsibility for its accuracy and you should independently check data.
A fund is a pooled investment vehicle. The money from many individual investors is pooled together to buy a range of securities (e.g. bonds or shares), giving investors certain benefits, including economies of scale and diversification.
In the UK, there are two main types of fund structure (sometimes called 'traditional funds') - OEICs and Unit Trusts. When buying either of these, you are buying shares or units of the fund, the value of which will closely track the underlying assets (e.g. shares or bonds) the fund is investing in.
The costs for buying and holding 'Funds' on an investing platform is often higher than for ‘ETFs’ . Please see our Investment ISAs and Share Dealing platform comparison pages to see how platform fees vary.
An exchange traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that includes a collection of securities—such as shares or bonds—that often track an underlying index such as the FTSE 100.
ETFs are similar to traditional mutual funds, however, they are listed on an exchange and traded between investors during the day just like ordinary stock (which also means you can buy and sell them at any point the exchange in open, whereas with traditional funds you can only buy and sell once per day).
An Index Tracker Fund passively tracks a market index such as the FTSE 100 or S&P 500.
They are designed to give investors broad market exposure at a low cost. As there is no manager involved in the decision making process, the ongoing costs are generally very low. More niche indexes, such as those found in emerging markets, will typically incur higher fees.
Index Tracker funds have surged in popularity in recent years, with investors receiving, on average, better long-term results than with actively managed funds. Please read our Article for more information.
The list of funds included here is not exhaustive - there may be other providers available.
The list we have compiled is based on the providers that are available from a sample of the major UK share dealing online brokerage providers.
Fund data contained has been obtained from fund published annual reports and other sources believed to be reliable.
When picking an index fund, you should look at the underlying securities (e.g. shares) in the index to make sure they are suitable for your portfolio.
Typically an index will cover a specific region or country. You may choose to invest in a domestic index (e.g. FTSE 100 if you are in the UK), which would mean your investments are likely to rise and fall with the strength of the local economy. Or you may choose to invest in a foreign region or country, where you investments may be more protected from any domestic economic down-side risks.
The size of the companies within index will influence the index funds performance. Large well-capitalised firms, like those found in the FTSE 100, will typically have an international customer base, and so will be partially shielded in the event of local economic downturn. Mid and small-cap firms, like those found in the FTSE 250 and AIM Market are more likely to only serve customers within their country of origin and so will rise/fill with economic standing of the country.
The type of the companies within the index also has bearing on performance. You should check the split between growth and value stocks, as well as the distribution of industries such as Health, Technology, Financial Services. Cyclical industries or growth-focused companies will result in bigger ups and downs based on economic conditions.