All about Vanguard in Europe

In the United States, Vanguard is widely known for letting customers open an account to invest in stocks, bonds, options, ETFs and mutual funds, especially index funds, whose only goal is to track an index.

In Europe, only UK residents can open a retail investment account directly with Vanguard. If you live anywhere else in Europe, you can’t use Vanguard’s own platform. However, you can still invest in Vanguard ETFs through other brokers.

Want to discover the best alternatives to a Vanguard account, and which Vanguard ETFs you can buy in Europe? Keep on reading!

Founded in 1975, Vanguard is the second-largest asset manager in the world (after BlackRock), with more than $10 trillion in assets under management and more than 50 million clients.

John Bogle, Vanguard’s founder, made history in 1976 by launching the first index fund for retail investors (people like you and us). Originally called the “First Index Investment Trust”, it’s now the “Vanguard 500 Index Fund”. Its central idea was that buying and holding the whole market would deliver better results than trying to beat it by picking active managers. Since then, investment costs have fallen dramatically for all investors.

Besides mutual funds and ETFs, Vanguard offers brokerage, financial planning and trust services (mainly for US investors), as well as Vanguard business accounts. Its brokerage was designed for long-term, buy-and-hold investors rather than short-term traders.

Vanguard’s retail investment platform is only available to investors in the US and the UK. Unless you are a professional investor, you can’t open a personal account with Vanguard in any other European country*, and Vanguard hasn’t announced plans to launch its platform in other countries.

However, not being able to use their platform doesn’t mean you can’t invest in Vanguard’s products. As a European, you can invest in the wide range of Vanguard UCITS ETFs listed on European exchanges, tracking indices such as the FTSE All-World, the S&P 500 or the DAX. You can choose from around 50 Vanguard ETFs, all domiciled in Europe (mostly in Ireland), which matters, as we explain below.

Instead of its own platform, Vanguard has been growing in continental Europe through partnerships with brokers and digital platforms. Vanguard ETFs are available at most European brokers, including apps such as Trading 212* (no commissions; other fees may apply), Revolut and Scalable Capital, often with savings plans. In some countries, such as Spain, Vanguard’s Irish index funds can also be bought through local platforms and robo-advisors. Vanguard briefly ran its own direct platform in Germany (Vanguard Invest) but closed it in 2023, choosing to grow through partnerships instead.

In August 2026, Vanguard also launched the Vanguard FTSE Global All-Cap UCITS ETF (VGLA), which tracks around 10,000 companies worldwide, small caps included, for 0.07% a year, the cheapest way to own the global stock market in a single Vanguard ETF in Europe.

These are some of the most popular accumulating Vanguard UCITS ETFs for long-term investors in Europe (distributing versions are also available):

In the US, many investors talk about mutual funds, especially index funds. In Europe, everyone talks about ETFs. What’s the difference?

The main difference is that ETFs can be bought or sold at any time during the trading day on a stock exchange (like a stock), whereas index funds are bought from or sold to the fund provider at a price calculated once a day.

In practice, ETFs and index funds that track the same index should deliver very similar returns, since they hold the same assets.

Index funds are usually bought directly from the provider or through local distributors, so they are less common across borders. In Europe, Vanguard’s own platform for index funds is only available in the UK, although some local platforms in other countries distribute them.

ETFs are much more common in Europe because they are listed on multiple stock exchanges and can be bought at almost any broker.

In the end, the structure matters less than the costs: small differences come mainly from tracking error and the TER.

You have probably heard of SPY, VOO or IVV, some of the largest ETFs in the world. They are domiciled in the US, and European retail investors can’t buy them. Why? Because of the EU’s Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) regulation, which protects consumers.

Since January 2018, PRIIPs has required investment products sold to retail investors in the EU to come with a Key Information Document (KID), a short, standardised document that presents the product’s objectives, risks, costs and performance scenarios. Since 2023, UCITS funds (including ETFs) also use this KID, replacing the older KIID.

US-domiciled ETFs don’t produce these KIDs, since their clients are mainly based in the US, so European brokers can’t sell them to retail investors. In the UK, PRIIPs was replaced in April 2026 by the Consumer Composite Investments (CCI) regime, which requires a similar “product summary”.

Some investors, such as those classified as professional clients, can still buy US-domiciled ETFs. Even so, for most European investors, UCITS ETFs (domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg) are the better choice: they are easy to buy, trade in euros or pounds, and avoid US estate tax and US tax paperwork issues.

These brokers let you follow the same long-term philosophy as Vanguard, with low costs and access to Vanguard ETFs.

Here are our top picks:

All three are well-established, regulated brokers that have been through several periods of market stress, from the Covid-19 crash in 2020 to the 2022 rate-hike cycle and the 2025 tariff volatility. Like any broker, they can have occasional technical issues on extremely busy days, so it’s worth keeping a second account if you trade actively.

Vanguard alternatives in Europe

eToro is the world’s leading social trading platform, with around 40 million registered users. It has been listed on Nasdaq since May 2025 (ticker: ETOR), which adds another layer of transparency through public reporting. Its platform lets you automatically copy the portfolios of other investors in real time.

It isn’t just about social trading: eToro is a multi-asset platform with stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies and CFDs on commodities, forex and indices. eToro offers 0% commission on ETFs (other fees apply), and stocks cost $1 per trade in most cases.

The website and app are nearly identical, attractive and very simple to use. Opening an account takes only a few minutes, and there’s a demo account if you want to practise first.

eToro is regulated by top-tier authorities, such as the FCA in the UK and CySEC in Cyprus.

On the downside, it charges a $5 withdrawal fee on USD accounts. And if you use leverage, you’re trading CFDs, not real stocks or ETFs, so you pay spreads and overnight fees.

If you are interested, read our review of eToro.

Founded in 1978 and listed on NASDAQ (ticker: IBKR), Interactive Brokers is a global online broker that has come through major financial crises, showing resilience and rigorous risk management. European clients are served by Interactive Brokers Ireland, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Interactive Brokers offers an advanced platform with a wide range of products (stocks, options, mutual funds, ETFs, futures, bonds and currencies) on more than 160 markets, solid order execution (IB SmartRouting) and a full set of technical and fundamental tools.

Beginners and intermediate investors have educational tools to explore, but the learning curve is steep. That’s why we mainly recommend it to more experienced investors. Customer service gives clear answers, so there’s little need to go back and forth.

On the downside, Interactive Brokers’ fee structure is complex, and the registration process is lengthy (although fully online). However, its low currency conversion fees, tight spreads and stock lending programme can still make it cheaper than most brokers.

If you’re a beginner, IBKR GlobalTrader is a simpler mobile app to trade stocks, options and ETFs, ideal for beginner investors, with automatic currency conversion, fractional shares and a demo account.

Want to know more about Interactive Brokers? Check our Interactive Brokers review.

Founded in 2013, DEGIRO is a low-cost broker that has become very popular thanks to its low fees. It is part of the German group flatexDEGIRO, which serves more than 3 million customers across Europe, and it’s known for its do-it-yourself approach: you have everything you need to start investing on your own.

It offers a wide range of assets, including stocks, ETFs, bonds, options, futures, warrants, investment funds and some leveraged products (not quite the same as CFDs; more info here).

ETFs in its Core Selection, which includes several Vanguard ETFs, cost a €1 handling fee per order, while other ETFs and stocks cost around €3. The web platform is basic but efficient and easy to use, and the same applies to its app. On the downside, research tools are limited, a €2.50 annual connectivity fee applies per foreign exchange, and it doesn’t offer fractional shares.

In terms of security, DEGIRO is the Dutch branch of flatexDEGIRO Bank AG, a German bank supervised by BaFin. In the unlikely event that segregated assets can’t be returned, DEGIRO clients are covered by the German investor compensation scheme, which covers 90% of the loss up to €20,000, so keep this in mind if you plan to invest large amounts.

Cash held with flatexDEGIRO Bank AG is also protected up to €100,000 by the German deposit guarantee scheme.

Still have doubts? Read our DEGIRO review.

As we saw above, you can choose from around 50 Vanguard ETFs in Europe. Other providers also offer ETFs in other asset classes and, in some cases, cheaper than Vanguard’s.

• iShares: part of BlackRock, iShares is the largest ETF provider in the world and in Europe, with 400+ UCITS ETFs covering every asset class;
• Amundi: after acquiring Lyxor in 2022, Amundi became one of Europe’s largest ETF providers, with 300+ UCITS ETFs across all asset classes;
• Xtrackers: a family of ETFs managed by DWS, part of Deutsche Bank, with 200+ ETFs covering all asset classes;
• Invesco: a US asset manager with a strong European ETF presence, offering 100+ UCITS ETFs, including one of the largest S&P 500 ETFs in Europe.

Before choosing an ETF, check its replication method: physical or synthetic. Physical ETFs hold the actual securities in the index, whereas synthetic ETFs use derivatives (usually a swap with a bank) to deliver the index return.

Synthetic ETFs can be cheaper or more tax-efficient in some cases, but they add counterparty risk: if the bank on the other side of the swap fails, the fund could suffer a loss. UCITS rules limit this exposure to 10% of the fund’s value, and swap counterparties usually provide collateral, so the risk is limited. Still, if you want to keep things simple, physical ETFs avoid this extra layer.

Take a look at the full list of ETFs available in Europe.

Bottom line

Whether you’re looking for an alternative to Vanguard’s platform or a European ETF that gives you the same exposure as a US-listed fund, the options above have you covered. You can’t open a Vanguard account outside the US and the UK, but you can buy Vanguard’s European ETFs, including VWCE and the new VGLA, at almost any broker.

Choosing an ETF is fairly simple. Choosing a broker can be harder: look at the fees, make sure it’s regulated by a top-tier authority, check which products and exchanges it offers and how responsive its customer service is.

What matters most is finding the platform that best fits your needs. Take your time and choose wisely.

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