Best Gold & Commodities ETFs
Published by Radif Partners · Updated
BeginnerCompare ETFs tracking gold, precious metals and commodity indices. Traditional safe havens and inflation hedges for portfolio diversification.
This guide reviews 23 Gold & Commodities ETFs funds available in Europe. They track 17 different indices, which is the first thing to check: two funds filed under the same theme do not necessarily hold the same securities, and a one-year performance gap is often explained by that rather than by how the fund is run. Their ongoing charges start at 0.09% for an average of 0.34%, and 7 of them pay their dividends out while the rest reinvest them. 11 are domiciled in US, which sets the withholding tax the fund suffers on the dividends it receives. The oldest, XLB, launched in 1998, giving 28 years of history, enough to see how it behaved in a fall. The order on this page does not follow past performance: over the horizons published it says more about the index tracked than about how the fund is run, and it does not repeat. What counts are the fees, the assets and the tracking quality, the figures that are known in advance.
Updated 2025-05
Gold has been considered the ultimate safe-haven asset for millennia. During periods of economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions or high inflation, the price of gold tends to rise while equity markets fall, making it an excellent diversification tool for any investment portfolio.
ETCs (Exchange-Traded Commodities) and ETFs backed by gold provide exposure to the gold price without physically owning bullion. Most products are backed by physical gold stored in secure vaults (London, Zurich), meaning each share corresponds to an actual quantity of precious metal. Other products track broader commodity indices including energy, industrial metals and agricultural products.
This category is particularly relevant in 2025, with gold reaching new all-time highs driven by central bank purchases, geopolitical uncertainty and expectations of rate cuts. This comparison ranks the leading ETCs and gold/commodity ETFs available in Europe to help you make the right choice.
0.34%
+18.1%
387.1B
23
GLD, LBMA Gold Price
SPDR Gold Shares
Simulated from available data points. Past returns do not guarantee future results.
Best Performance
Lowest Cost
Largest Funds
How to choose a gold or commodity ETF
For physical gold, the product structure is the main criterion. Physically-backed ETCs (like Invesco Physical Gold, iShares Physical Gold or Amundi Physical Gold) actually hold gold bars in vaults. They offer the best replication of the gold price with very competitive fees (TER of 0.12% to 0.25%). Avoid synthetic gold products, which add unnecessary counterparty risk.
An important nuance: technically, most gold products in Europe are ETCs (debt notes backed by a physical asset) rather than ETFs in the UCITS sense, because a UCITS ETF cannot hold a single physical asset. In practice, the difference is minimal for investors, gold ETCs trade exactly like ETFs on the same exchanges.
For broader commodity exposure, ETFs tracking the Bloomberg Commodity Index offer diversification across energy (oil, gas), metals (gold, copper, aluminium) and agriculture. Watch out for contango, which can erode the performance of futures-based commodity ETFs, unlike physically-backed ETCs.
Full Comparison
| # | Name | TER | AUM | Replication | Distribution | 1Y | 3Y | 5Y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GLDSPDR LBMA Gold Price | 0.40% | 141.7B | physical | accumulating | +1.2% | +27.7% | +17.9% | |
| 2 | IAUiShares LBMA Gold Price | 0.25% | 62.2B | physical | accumulating | +1.3% | +27.9% | +18.1% | |
| 3 | GLDMSPDR LBMA Gold Price | 0.10% | 30.7B | physical | accumulating | +1.5% | +28.1% | +18.2% | |
| 4 | SLViShares LBMA Silver Price | 0.50% | 30.0B | physical | accumulating | +17.1% | +34.0% | +18.0% | |
| 5 | GDXVanEck NYSE Arca Gold Miners | 0.51% | 26.3B | physical | distributing | +20.5% | +43.8% | +21.6% | |
| 6 | SGLDInvesco LBMA Gold Price | 0.12% | 20.0B | physical | accumulating | +1.3% | +27.9% | +18.1% | |
| 7 | PHAUWisdomTree LBMA Gold Price | 0.39% | 18.0B | physical | accumulating | +1.1% | +27.6% | +17.9% | |
| 8 | IGLNiShares LBMA Gold Price | 0.12% | 17.0B | physical | accumulating | +1.4% | +28.0% | +18.2% | |
| 9 | GDXJVanEck MVIS Global Junior Gold Miners | 0.52% | 8.4B | physical | distributing | +15.8% | +46.9% | +19.9% | |
| 10 | XLBSPDR Materials Select Sector | 0.09% | 7.8B | physical | distributing | +14.4% | +10.6% | +3.7% | |
| 11 | SGLAabrdn LBMA Gold Price PM | 0.17% | 5.0B | physical | accumulating | – | – | – | |
| 12 | VAWVanguard MSCI US Investable Market Materials 25/50 | 0.10% | 4.5B | physical | distributing | +10.9% | +11.1% | +3.9% | |
| 13 | XMESPDR S&P Metals & Mining Select Industry | 0.35% | 4.1B | physical | distributing | +1.1% | +27.3% | +17.8% | |
| 14 | PHAGWisdomTree LBMA Silver Price | 0.49% | 3.5B | physical | accumulating | +19.3% | +35.7% | +18.1% | |
| 15 | XDBGXtrackers Bloomberg Commodity | 0.19% | 2.1B | synthetic | accumulating | – | – | – | |
| 16 | USOUS Commodity Funds WTI Crude Oil Futures | 0.60% | 1.7B | synthetic | distributing | +121.0% | +26.1% | +22.8% | |
| 17 | COPAWisdomTree Bloomberg Commodity Total Return | 0.49% | 1.5B | synthetic | accumulating | +24.1% | +19.8% | +7.1% | |
| 18 | PHPTWisdomTree LBMA Platinum Price | 0.49% | 800M | physical | accumulating | – | – | – | |
| 19 | XDWMXtrackers MSCI World Materials | 0.25% | 798M | physical | accumulating | +23.0% | +13.7% | +8.2% | |
| 20 | BCOML&G Barclays Backwardation Tilt Multi-Strategy Capped TR | 0.30% | 505M | synthetic | accumulating | +39.2% | +15.8% | +10.9% | |
| 21 | UNGUS Commodity Funds Henry Hub Natural Gas Futures | 1.06% | 458M | synthetic | distributing | -17.8% | -26.8% | -32.0% | |
| 22 | XEXAXtrackers Bloomberg ex-Agriculture and Livestock 15/30 Capped 3 Month Forward | 0.21% | 93M | synthetic | accumulating | +39.4% | – | – | |
| 23 | RICIiShares Bloomberg Commodity (Total Return) | 0.19% | 63M | synthetic | accumulating | +26.6% | +11.2% | +12.7% |
Key takeaways
- 1The cheapest physical gold ETCs have a TER of 0.12%, making them a very low-cost hedge against uncertainty.
- 2Gold generates no dividends or interest, its performance depends entirely on price appreciation.
- 3A 5-10% gold allocation in a diversified portfolio has historically improved the overall risk-adjusted return.
- 4Gold ETCs are generally not PEA-eligible, they sit in a standard brokerage account (CTO) or life insurance wrapper.
- 5Gold is priced in US dollars: euro-based investors face a currency effect that can amplify or reduce returns.
- 6Broad commodity ETFs (Bloomberg Commodity, etc.) offer additional diversification but often suffer from contango on futures contracts.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a gold ETC and a gold ETF?
Does gold really protect against inflation?
How much of my portfolio should I allocate to gold?
What’s the difference between a gold ETF and a physical gold ETC?
Is gold a good inflation hedge?
What percentage of gold should I hold in a portfolio?
Data sourced from fund factsheets. Last updated 2025-05.