Best ETFs in Canada for 2025

By Michael McCullough on May 12, 2025
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Back for the 13th edition, here are the top exchange-traded funds among Canadian, U.S., international, fixed income, cash alternative, all-in-one and—fan favourite—desert-island picks.

Image by Racool_studio on Freepik

Another year, another series of milestones for the ETF industry. When we started surveying the best exchange-traded funds available to Canadian investors in 2012, they were just a new niche in Canada’s investment industry for DIY and couch potato investors. Today, by contrast, they’ve surpassed mutual funds in sales for three straight years and many investment advisors and financial planners use these assets for clients now, too.

Canadians use ETFs to populate not just their retirement accounts but tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs), registered education funds (RESPs), first-home savings accounts (FHSAs) and taxable accounts—wherever they might benefit from the wide diversification, liquidity and low fees that ETFs provide.

The best ETFs in Canada for 2024

ETF	Ticker	Best ETFs category
BMO Aggregate Bond Index ETF	ZAG	Fixed income ETFs
BMO Money Market Fund ETF	ZMMK	Best cash alternative ETFs
BMO MSCI EAFE Index ETF	ZEA	International equity ETFs
BMO S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF	ZCN	Canadian Equity ETFs
Global X Cash Maximizer Corporate Class ETF	HSAV	Best cash alternative ETFs
Global X High Interest Savings ETF	CASH	Best cash alternative ETFs
iShares Core Balanced ETF Portfolio	XBAL	One-decision ETFs
iShares Core Canadian Short Term Bond Index ETF	XSB	Fixed income ETFs
iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF	XBB	Fixed income ETFs
iShares Core Equity ETF Portfolio	XEQT	One-decision ETFs
iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI Index ETF	XEF	International equity ETFs
iShares Core S&P U.S. Total Market Index ETF	XUU	U.S. Equity ETFs
iShares Core S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF	XIC	Canadian Equity ETFs
Purpose High Interest Savings ETF	PSA	Best cash alternative ETFs
TD Growth ETF Portfolio	TGRO	One-decision ETFs
Vanguard FTSE Canada All-Cap Equity ETF	VCN	Canadian Equity ETFs
Vanguard FTSE Developed All-Cap ex-North America index ETF	VIU	International equity ETFs
Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap Index ETF	VEE	International equity ETFs
Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF	VFV	U.S. Equity ETFs
Vanguard Short-term Canadian Bond ETF	VSB	Fixed income ETFs
Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF	VTI	U.S. Equity ETFs
Vanguard US Total Market Index ETF	VUN	U.S. Equity ETFs

In Canada, the ETF inflows in 2024 smashed the old record set in 2021 of $53 billion, with a net investment of $76 billion. With more than $500 billion in assets under management, Canadian ETFs now hold roughly one-fifth the total of mutual funds. The story is even more pronounced stateside, where ETF inflows last year surged past USD$1 trillion.

With that popularity has come a huge proliferation of new funds, especially the actively managed kind. More than half the ETFs now trading in Canada are actively managed. However investors’ preference still leans heavily towards passive funds that track a published index and typically have very low fees. They represent 69% of assets under management.

So how is the typical Canadian investor supposed to choose from among all that’s on offer? That’s where MoneySense’s Best ETFs guide comes in.

Our methodology—How we choose the Best ETFs in Canada

For 2025, we assembled a panel of 10 investment advisors, analysts, coaches and bloggers to recommend funds with a combination of appropriate market exposure, low fees, liquidity and good past performance that would sit well within any Canadian retail investor’s portfolio. Then we asked our panel to vote on a long list of nominee funds in six different asset categories:

Canadian equities
U.S. equities
International equities
Fixed income
Cash alternative
One-decision

The three ETFs (or more, in the case of a tie) with the highest number of votes in each category are listed below.

While our judges considered active, factor and sector-specific funds, the consensus tended to push our final picks toward low-cost, index funds that will appeal to most ETF investors. Lest our recommendations get too boring—and, let’s face it, smart investing usually is boring—we also offered our judges the opportunity to pick a more exotic “desert island” ETF that wouldn’t typically rise to the top of our voting process.

Of course, the ETF landscape is not immune to the volatility that’s taken hold in markets generally in 2025.

“Given the current state of chaos, having a broad exposure to baskets of different assets that are diversified globally is a reasonable approach, and my ETF picks will be leaning on this narrative,” remarked panellist Aman Raina, who is a Canadian investment coach.

Table of contents: Best ETFs for Canadian Investors

Meet the MoneySense “Best ETFs in Canada” panel

Tony Dong is the founder and owner of ETF Portfolio Blueprint. He graduated in 2023 from Columbia University with a Master’s degree in risk management. He holds the Certified ETF Advisor (CETF) designation from The ETF Institute and has passed both the Canadian Securities Course and FINRA’s Securities Industry Essentials.

Alain Guillot is a former financial advisor, but now maintains his personal finance blog, alainguillot.com, which launched in 2013.

Travis Koivula is a Senior Wealth Advisor with Island Savings Wealth Management and Aviso Wealth in Victoria. He helps small-business owners and executives make better financial decisions and live with fewer regrets.

Mark McGrath is a semi-retired financial planner and associate portfolio manager, formerly with PWL Capital. For the past decade, he has worked primarily with Canadian physicians and their families, helping them make sound financial decisions around portfolio management, retirement planning, tax planning, estate planning and risk management.

Aman Raina iis an investment coach and founder of Sage Investors. He teaches individual investors how to make successful investment decisions buying/selling stocks and ETFs.

Michelle Robertson is a financial planner, a CPA and founder of wealth and financial planning company Ms. Money and Math. She simplifies money for women who want to multiply their net worth so they have the freedom to build a life they love.

Sam Rook is a portfolio manager and managing partner at Q Wealth Partners and founding partner at Bird’s Eye Wealth Planners in Toronto. With a focus on ETFs as part of his investment style, he is a strong supporter of ETFs for all investors.

Mark Seed is the founder and blogger behind the site My Own Advisor, which caters to do-it-yourself investors and takes a hybrid approach to investing. In using this approach—owning ETFs and individual securities—he has reached financial independence.

Ioulia Tretiakova is vice-president and director of quantitative strategies at PUR Investing Inc. She specializes in risk management and quantitative portfolio construction, and she is the lead author of several peer-reviewed papers in the Rotman International Journal of Pension Management and the Journal of Retirement.

Mark Yamada is CEO of Toronto’s PUR Investing Inc.. He has written about investment issues for publications, such as Advisor.ca. He speaks regularly at ETF conferences and publishes academic papers about advanced pension strategies.

Watch: MoneySense – BMO ETFs – ETFs and Mutual Funds fees

About Michael McCullough

Michael is a financial writer and editor in Duncan, B.C. He’s a former managing editor of Canadian Business and editorial director of Canada Wide Media. He also writes for The Globe and Mail and BCBusiness.

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