The short version
- Global trackers come in three kinds. Some hold only developed countries (MSCI World). Some add emerging markets such as China and India (FTSE All-World, MSCI ACWI). A few add smaller companies as well (FTSE Global All Cap, MSCI ACWI IMI).
- Charges have fallen fast. The funds here charge 0.05% to 0.20% a year: on £20,000, that's £10 to £40. Invesco, Vanguard and Xtrackers all cut charges in 2025 or 2026.
- The charge isn't the whole cost. iShares' SWDA charges 0.20% but did better than its index in 10 of the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, by 0.08 percentage points a year on average.
- The choice of index has mattered more than the choice of fund. From 2012 to 2025, a developed-only ETF did better than an all-country one in 10 of 14 years, in pounds. That was about the US doing well and emerging markets lagging, which may not last.
- All the funds here are listed alphabetically. None is a recommendation, and the cheapest isn't automatically the best for you.
- 0.05–0.20%yearly charges of the global tracker ETFs on this page
- 1,249 to 10,222companies in the indices behind them, from MSCI World to FTSE Global All Cap
- 10 of 14years a developed-only ETF beat an all-country one, 2012–2025, in pounds
Three kinds of global tracker
Every fund on this page tracks an index of shares from around the world. The difference is how much of the world the index takes in:
- Developed markets only. The MSCI World holds about 1,250 large and medium-sized companies in 23 developed countries. It leaves out emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil.
- Developed and emerging markets. The FTSE All-World and the MSCI ACWI add emerging markets: about 10% to 12% of the index.
- Smaller companies too. The FTSE Global All Cap and the MSCI ACWI IMI add thousands of smaller companies, which make up roughly a tenth of the value.
Whichever you pick, the US is the biggest part: between 62% and 73% of each index at the end of September 2026, and the ten biggest companies made up between 23% and 28%.
What's inside each index
Share of each index by market value at 30 September 2026, from MSCI and FTSE Russell. Hover over, tap or tab to a bar for the figures, including how much the ten biggest companies make up.
The funds side by side
These are the main global tracker ETFs listed on the London Stock Exchange, in alphabetical order. Each fund’s name links to its own page. Many have two London lines, one in pounds and one in US dollars: they’re the same fund, and for most UK investors the pound line avoids a currency charge on each purchase. Accumulating or distributing explains acc and dist.
The global tracker ETFs side by side
Fund facts from each provider, checked on 20 October 2026. Filter by what the index covers, sort, and put in your own pot size to see the charge in pounds. Open a fund for its tracking difference year by year.
| Fund and London lines | Index | Charge | Size and holdings | Tracking difference |
|---|
All the facts in one table
| Fund | London lines | Index | Charge | Fund size | Holdings | Replication | Tracking difference a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amundi Core MSCI World | MWRL (£, acc) | MSCI World | 0.12% | $19.4bn | not published | Physical | 1 year(s) only |
| Amundi Prime All Country World | PACW (£, dist) | Solactive GBS Global Markets Large & Mid Cap | 0.07% | $9.6bn | not published | Physical | 1 year(s) only |
| HSBC MSCI World | HMWO (£, dist), HMWS (£, acc) | MSCI World | 0.15% | $19.5bn | 1,222 | Physical (sampled) | +0.23 pts (2016–2025) |
| Invesco FTSE All-World | FWRG (£, acc) | FTSE All-World | 0.15% | $5.3bn | 2,090 | Physical (sampled) | 2 year(s) only |
| Invesco MSCI World | MXWS (£, acc) | MSCI World | 0.05% | $10.5bn | not published | Synthetic (swap) | +0.11 pts (2016–2025) |
| State Street SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI | IMID ($, acc) | MSCI ACWI IMI | 0.17% | $9.6bn | 5,988 | Physical (optimised) | −0.09 pts (2016–2025) |
| State Street SPDR MSCI All Country World | ACWI (£, acc) | MSCI ACWI | 0.12% | $22.4bn | 2,251 | Physical (optimised) | +0.04 pts (2016–2025) |
| Vanguard FTSE All-World | VWRP (£, acc), VWRL (£, dist) | FTSE All-World | 0.14% | $87.3bn | 3,821 | Physical (sampled) | −0.02 pts (2016–2025) |
| Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap | VALL (£, acc) | FTSE Global All Cap | 0.07% | $2.6bn | 6,977 | Physical (sampled) | – |
| Xtrackers MSCI World | XWLD (£, acc), XDWD ($, acc) | MSCI World | 0.12% | $30.9bn (£23.2bn) | 1,252 | Physical (optimised) | +0.07 pts (2016–2025) |
| iShares Core MSCI World | SWDA (£, acc) | MSCI World | 0.20% | $152.0bn | 1,250 | Physical (optimised) | +0.08 pts (2016–2025) |
| iShares MSCI All Country World | SSAC (£, acc) | MSCI ACWI | 0.20% | $36.6bn | 1,655 | Physical (optimised) | −0.06 pts (2016–2025) |
Sources: each provider's product page, factsheet and key information document, 16–20 October 2026. Fund sizes are for the whole fund. Tracking difference is the average of the calendar years shown, from the provider's own figures.
2025 and 2026: the year of fee cuts
Global trackers have been getting cheaper. Several big funds cut their charges, and new ones launched below the old prices:
| Date | Fund | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1 July 2025 | Xtrackers MSCI World (XWLD, XDWD) | 0.19% to 0.12% |
| 1 April 2026 | Invesco MSCI World (MXWS) | 0.19% to 0.05% |
| 1 June 2026 | Xtrackers FTSE All-World (new in April 2026) | 0.12% to 0.07% |
| 28 July 2026 | Vanguard FTSE All-World (VWRP, VWRL) | 0.19% to 0.14% |
| 18 August 2026 | Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap (VALL), new fund | launched at 0.07% |
From the providers' own announcements and product pages.
On a £20,000 pot, the gap between a 0.05% and a 0.20% charge is £30 a year. Over 30 years of growth it adds up to more than that, which the fee calculator shows. But it’s small next to the difference the choice of index has made, and next to how a fund actually tracks.
Why the charge isn't the whole cost
The number that matters is what you get compared with the index: the tracking difference. A fund pays its charge, trading costs and taxes on dividends, and it can earn a little back by lending shares or by paying less tax than the index assumes. The net result shows in the factsheet’s table of yearly returns.
iShares’ SWDA charges 0.20%, yet it beat the MSCI World index in every year from 2016 to 2025, by 0.08 percentage points a year on average. Vanguard’s FTSE All-World trailed its index by 0.02 points a year. Invesco’s MSCI World ETF is synthetic: it holds a basket of shares and swaps their return for the index’s, which can also shave the tax cost. Physical vs synthetic ETFs explains the trade-off.
Open any fund in the table above for its year-by-year figures. Bear in mind that each fund is measured against its own index, so the numbers compare funds’ tracking, not which index did better.
Has the choice of index mattered?
To see how much emerging markets have added, compare two iShares ETFs that are alike in everything but the index: SWDA (developed only) and SSAC (developed and emerging). From 2012 to 2025, in pounds, SWDA grew by 13.1% a year and SSAC by 12.2%. Developed-only did better in 10 of the 14 years.
Developed markets only, or with emerging markets too?
Calendar-year returns in pounds of two iShares ETFs: MSCI World (SWDA), developed markets only, and MSCI ACWI (SSAC), which adds emerging markets. The strip underneath is the gap: green when adding emerging markets helped, red when it held the fund back. *2026 to 16 October 2026.
Show the data
| Year | MSCI World (SWDA) | MSCI ACWI (SSAC) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | +9.2% | +9.3% | +0.1% |
| 2013 | +25.3% | +21.2% | −4.1% |
| 2014 | +12.6% | +11.3% | −1.3% |
| 2015 | +4.1% | +1.6% | −2.5% |
| 2016 | +29.6% | +29.6% | +0.0% |
| 2017 | +11.8% | +13.3% | +1.5% |
| 2018 | −3.8% | −4.8% | −1.0% |
| 2019 | +23.0% | +22.1% | −0.9% |
| 2020 | +12.2% | +11.8% | −0.4% |
| 2021 | +23.6% | +20.3% | −3.3% |
| 2022 | −8.3% | −8.6% | −0.2% |
| 2023 | +17.6% | +16.1% | −1.5% |
| 2024 | +21.1% | +19.6% | −1.5% |
| 2025 | +12.6% | +14.0% | +1.3% |
| 2026 so far | +12.9% | +13.5% | +0.5% |
The biggest year for emerging markets was 2017, when adding them helped by 1.5 points; the worst was 2013, when they held the fund back by 4.1 points. Over the whole stretch, the gap came mostly from the US: big American companies did far better than almost anything else, and developed-only indices hold more of them. No index has led for ever. Home bias and Global, FTSE 100 or S&P 500? look at why spreading across countries is the usual starting point.
What matters less than it seems, and what matters more
- Fund size: all but the newest funds here hold billions of dollars. Size matters mainly because tiny funds can close; that isn’t a worry for any of these.
- A pound or dollar line: the fund is the same and so is the currency risk. The line only changes whether your platform converts your money when you buy.
- Number of holdings: most funds hold a sample of their index rather than every share. The tracking difference shows whether that works.
- UK reporting status matters outside an ISA. Without it, gains are taxed as income rather than capital gains. Every fund in the table is on HMRC’s list of reporting funds. Xtrackers’ new FTSE All-World ETF, launched in April 2026 at 0.07%, wasn’t on the list published on 6 October 2026 (HMRC). Investing outside an ISA explains reporting status.
- Your platform’s charges can be bigger than the fund’s. UK investment platforms compared sets them side by side.
Switching from one tracker to another
Inside an ISA or a pension, selling one tracker and buying another has no tax consequences; you pay the dealing charges and the spread on both trades. Outside one, selling at a profit can mean capital gains tax. Because global trackers overlap so heavily, moving to save a few hundredths of a percent rarely changes much. Moving to a different index is a bigger decision than moving to a cheaper fund on the same index.
How this comparison was done
The funds are the main global equity tracker ETFs with a London listing, chosen for being widely used rather than ranked; there are others. Charges, fund sizes, holdings, replication and the calendar-year returns come from each provider’s product page, factsheet and key information document, checked between 16 and 20 October 2026. Index facts come from the MSCI and FTSE Russell factsheets for 30 September 2026. Tracking difference is our subtraction of the index return from the fund’s, both in US dollars as published; State Street and Xtrackers publish the difference themselves. The yearly comparison of SWDA and SSAC uses their London closing prices from Yahoo Finance, in pounds; both are accumulating, so dividends are included.
Common questions
- What’s the difference between VWRP and VWRL?
- They’re the same fund. VWRP is the accumulating class, which reinvests dividends inside the fund; VWRL is the distributing class, which pays them out. Both trade in pounds in London.
- Is VWRP in pounds or dollars?
- VWRP trades in pounds on the London Stock Exchange. The fund’s base currency is US dollars and it holds shares priced in many currencies, so its value in pounds moves with exchange rates whichever line you buy. VWRA is the dollar line of the same fund.
- SWDA or VWRP?
- They track different indices: SWDA holds developed markets only, VWRP adds emerging markets and holds about three times as many companies. Over the last decade developed-only did better, but that says nothing certain about the next. This site doesn’t recommend either.
- Is the cheapest global tracker the best?
- Not automatically. Check what it tracks, how closely it has tracked (newer funds have no record yet), whether it has UK reporting status, and what your platform charges to buy it.
- Is a synthetic ETF riskier?
- It adds counterparty risk, which UCITS rules limit. Physical vs synthetic ETFs covers how it works.
- Do I need an emerging markets ETF as well?
- Not if you hold an all-world or all-cap fund: it already includes them. With a developed-only fund, some investors add one; that’s a choice about how much of the world you want, not a requirement.
This page compares funds on facts their providers publish. It isn't a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any of them. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future returns, and you may get back less than you put in. Read the full disclaimer.
Sources
- Amundi Core MSCI World UCITS ETF, Amundi: product page, factsheet and key information document
- Amundi Prime All Country World UCITS ETF, Amundi: product page, factsheet and key information document
- HSBC MSCI World UCITS ETF, HSBC: product page, factsheet and key information document
- Invesco FTSE All-World UCITS ETF, Invesco: product page, factsheet and key information document
- Invesco MSCI World UCITS ETF, Invesco: product page, factsheet and key information document
- State Street SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI UCITS ETF, State Street: product page, factsheet and key information document
- State Street SPDR MSCI All Country World UCITS ETF, State Street: product page, factsheet and key information document
- Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF, Vanguard: product page, factsheet and key information document
- Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap UCITS ETF, Vanguard: product page, factsheet and key information document
- Xtrackers MSCI World UCITS ETF, Xtrackers: product page, factsheet and key information document
- iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF, iShares: product page, factsheet and key information document
- iShares MSCI All Country World UCITS ETF, iShares: product page, factsheet and key information document
- MSCI World Index factsheet, 30 September 2026
- MSCI ACWI Index factsheet, 30 September 2026
- MSCI ACWI IMI Index factsheet, 30 September 2026
- FTSE All-World Index factsheet, 30 September 2026
- FTSE Global All Cap Index factsheet, 30 September 2026
- Xtrackers MSCI World (XWLD, XDWD) charge change, 1 July 2025
- Invesco MSCI World (MXWS) charge change, 1 April 2026
- Xtrackers FTSE All-World (new in April 2026) charge change, 1 June 2026
- Vanguard FTSE All-World (VWRP, VWRL) charge change, 28 July 2026
- Offshore funds: list of reporting funds, HMRC, 6 October 2026
- Xtrackers FTSE All-World UCITS ETF, DWS
- Daily closing prices of SWDA and SSAC (London listings) from Yahoo Finance, to 16 October 2026, for the yearly returns in pounds
Fund facts checked on 20 October 2026.