Compare Canada's all-in-one ETFs
Canada's one-ticket, auto-rebalancing index portfolios — the iShares Core and Vanguard suites — backtested side by side on growth, worst-case drops and fees. Educational only; nothing here is advice.
Pick the ETFs to compare
The iShares Core and Vanguard suites, paired by stock/bond mix — select both at a tier (e.g. XEQT + VEQT) for an apples-to-apples read. Not sure which to pick? →
Add regular contributions or withdrawals (optional)
Withdrawals trace one historical path — they're not a test of whether your money would last in retirement. For that, use the retirement calculator.
Crunching the numbers — fetching live prices…
Growth of your investment
Performance & fees
| ETF | Final value | Growth / yr | Worst drop | Total return | Volatility | Sharpe | MER |
|---|
This window is short — only a few years of mostly-rising markets that never included a 2008-style crash or a long bond bear. Read these returns as what this stretch happened to deliver, not what to expect going forward. And mind the drawdown: in a severe bear an all-equity fund can fall roughly 50% — as global stocks did in 2008–09 — far deeper than the worst drop shown here. The most honest read is CAGR and max drawdown together. Returns are after each fund's MER, in CAD, and ignore taxes and trading costs.
Which mix is right for you?
The choice between these funds is really a choice about how much stock you hold — more stock has historically meant higher long-run growth and deeper drops along the way. A rough, general guide (not advice — your own goals, timeline and tolerance for losses decide):
| You won't touch the money for 15+ years and could watch it fall 40%+ without selling | 100% equity — XEQT / VEQT |
| You have a medium horizon and want some ballast in downturns | 80/20 or 60/40 — XGRO·VGRO, XBAL·VBAL |
| You may need the money within ~5–10 years, or big drops would keep you up at night | 40/60 — XCNS / VCNS |
| You're drawing income in retirement | Income — XINC (20/80), or VRIF (managed ~4% payout) |
Hold one, not several. Each of these is built to be your whole portfolio — combining two usually just averages their mixes and undoes the point. And horizon isn't everything: your job security, your emergency cushion, and whether the goal can flex matter too. Money you'll need within a year or two doesn't belong in any of these, even the bond-heavy ones.
Once you've picked a mix, iShares versus Vanguard barely matters: the fee gap is about $4 a year per $10,000, and both hold a similar global basket. Far more important — all of these cost roughly 0.2% a year, versus 1%+ for a typical advisor or 2%+ for old-style mutual funds.
The funds, at a glance
iShares Core vs Vanguard, paired by stock/bond mix — the two columns are direct peers, row by row.
| iShares Core | Vanguard |
|---|---|
| XEQT iShares Core Equity ETF Portfolio | VEQT Vanguard All-Equity ETF Portfolio |
| XGRO iShares Core Growth ETF Portfolio | VGRO Vanguard Growth ETF Portfolio |
| XBAL iShares Core Balanced ETF Portfolio | VBAL Vanguard Balanced ETF Portfolio |
| XCNS iShares Core Conservative Balanced ETF Portfolio | VCNS Vanguard Conservative ETF Portfolio |
| XINCincome iShares Core Income Balanced ETF Portfolio | VRIFincome Vanguard Retirement Income ETF Portfolio |
Under the hood they all hold the same kind of thing — a globally diversified basket of stocks and bonds spanning Canada, the US, international and emerging markets — just in different stock-to-bond ratios. MERs and target splits are sourced from each provider and last verified June 2026; verify the current figure on the fund's own page before deciding anything. The iShares and Vanguard funds pair up cleanly by stock/bond mix (XEQT ↔ VEQT, XBAL ↔ VBAL, and so on) — except VRIF, which is a managed ~50/50 retirement-income fund targeting a ~4% payout, so it isn't a like-for-like peer to the 20/80 XINC. VRIF also has the shortest history (it launched in 2020), which shortens the shared backtest window whenever it's selected.
Before you decide
- Taxes aren't in here. Where you hold the fund changes the outcome: the foreign stocks inside face withholding tax that differs by account (RRSP vs TFSA vs taxable), and bond interest is fully taxable — so the bond-heavier funds are least tax-efficient in a non-registered account. VRIF's payout also includes return of capital, taxed differently again.
- Past returns aren't a forecast. The growth above comes from one short, unusually strong stretch. Don't lean on it as the return you'll get — plan for lower, and for deeper drops than the worst shown.
- Don't pick on a tiny fee gap. 0.20% versus 0.24% is about $4 a year per $10,000 — noise next to choosing the right stock/bond mix.
Common questions
Which is better, XEQT or VEQT?
Both are 100%-equity one-ticket portfolios, so their long-run behaviour is very similar. The main differences are a slightly lower MER on XEQT (0.20% vs 0.24%) and how much each tilts toward Canadian stocks — VEQT has historically held a larger Canadian weight. Run the backtest above to see how close they actually track. Educational only, not a recommendation.
What's the difference between XEQT, XGRO and XBAL?
They're the same family at different stock/bond mixes: XEQT is 100% equity, XGRO is about 80% equity / 20% bonds, and XBAL is about 60% / 40%. More bonds means a smoother ride and shallower drawdowns, usually at the cost of lower long-run returns. The Vanguard equivalents are VEQT, VGRO and VBAL.
Do the backtested returns include the fees (MER)?
Yes. The backtest uses each fund's adjusted-close price, and a fund's price (NAV) is struck after its management fee is deducted — so the returns shown are already after-MER. The MER column is there for context, not subtracted twice.
Why is the backtest only a few years long?
These all-in-one ETFs are recent: the Vanguard funds launched in 2018–2019 and the iShares Core funds in 2019. The backtest can only use real history, so it starts when the funds actually existed — which means it hasn't lived through a prolonged bond bear market or a 2008-style crash. Treat the numbers as a short, incomplete sample.
Are these ETFs good for a TFSA or RRSP?
They're designed to be a complete portfolio in one ticket, which many Canadians hold in a TFSA or RRSP. Note that the foreign stocks inside them can face US/international withholding tax that differs by account type. This tool is educational and doesn't account for your tax situation — it isn't advice.