Fixed-Income Fund Screener: Bond ETFs & Mutual Funds
Filter real bond and fixed-income funds by yield, region, risk and type — government, investment-grade corporate, high-yield, agency MBS, municipal, international and emerging-market. These are funds that hold bonds, not bonds themselves, so price and yield move with the market like any other traded fund. Data is real and sourced, refreshed periodically, not a live feed.
| Fund | Type | Region | Risk | Yield ▼ | Maturity profile | Cost (ER) ▼ |
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How This Screener Works
Building a true live bond scanner — quoting individual bonds by ISIN with real-time prices — needs a market-data license most independent sites don’t carry, and we’d rather say that plainly than fake it. What we built instead is a filterable table of real, well-known bond and fixed-income funds (mostly ETFs), each one individually sourced and dated, with the specific numbers a bond screener is actually used for:
Risk = blend of credit risk (issuer default chance) and interest-rate/duration risk (how much the price swings when rates move)
Cost = the fund’s annual expense ratio (OCF/TER for UK-domiciled funds)
The “Risk” column deliberately isn’t just credit quality. A 20+ year US Treasury fund has effectively zero default risk, but its price can swing harder than a high-yield corporate bond fund when interest rates move — so it’s labeled Medium-to-High here, not Low, because that duration risk is real money to whoever holds it. We explain each fund’s specific risk drivers in its description in the table above.
Data is refreshed periodically, not continuously. Always check the fund provider’s own factsheet or your broker for the current live price and yield before making a decision — the numbers here are a starting point for comparison, not an execution price.
What Are Bonds & Fixed-Income Funds, and Why Invest in Them
A bond is a loan: you (or, here, a fund acting on your behalf) lend money to a government or company for a set period, in exchange for regular interest payments and your principal back at maturity. “Fixed income” is the broader term for that whole asset class — bonds make up most of it, but it also covers things like bank loans and preferred shares. Every fund on this page holds a basket of many bonds rather than a single one; see “What’s the difference between buying a bond directly and buying one of these funds?” in the FAQ below for how that changes what you actually own.
Investors add fixed income for reasons that have little to do with chasing the highest number in the table above: steady, contractual income instead of a market-dependent dividend; a way to reduce how much a portfolio moves day to day, since bonds and stocks don’t always fall together; and, for money you’ll need in the next few years, somewhere to hold it that isn’t fully exposed to equity-market swings. None of that makes bonds risk-free — rising rates hurt existing bond prices, and lower-rated issuers can default — but it’s a different kind of risk than owning stocks outright.
Tax matters more here than the headline yield suggests. Two funds on this list — MUB and VTEB, both tagged “Tax-exempt (US)” in the table — hold US municipal bonds, whose interest is generally exempt from US federal income tax (and sometimes state tax, if you live in the issuing state). That’s why their headline yields look lower than a similarly-rated corporate fund: the after-tax comparison can flip the ranking entirely for a US taxpayer in a high bracket.
If you’re investing from the UK, “tax-free” usually isn’t about the fund itself — it’s about the wrapper. Holding any of these funds inside an ISA or SIPP shelters the income and gains from UK tax, regardless of whether the underlying fund is a US municipal bond or not.
This is general information, not personal tax advice — your own tax rate, state or country of residence, and account type change the answer. Check with an accountant or adviser before assuming any fund here is “tax-free” for your situation.
Where Else Can Your Money Earn Yield
Bond funds are one rung on a much longer ladder. Here’s roughly where savings accounts and peer-to-peer lending sit relative to the funds above — and, critically, which of these are actually protected if something goes wrong and which aren’t.
Savings accounts — protected, lowest risk
Peer-to-peer lending — NOT deposit-protected
Full ratings, risk breakdown and methodology on our P2P Lending hub.
Bond funds — for comparison
This is not a recommendation to prefer one option over another — a much higher headline rate usually means meaningfully higher risk, whether that’s a platform’s credit losses, a fund’s exposure to below-investment-grade issuers, or interest-rate sensitivity. Compare the risk, not just the number.
How to Actually Buy These Funds
Every fund on this page is bought the same way you’d buy a stock: through a brokerage account, using the ticker symbol shown. Not every broker lists every fund here, though — the ten UCITS funds (IGLT, SLXX, IBGS, IBGL, PRIR, IGLE, IEAC, IHYE, SPFE, SEML), listed on the LSE and other European exchanges, need a broker with UK/European market access, which also happens to be a requirement for most European investors, since EU PRIIPs rules generally block retail access to the US-domiciled funds on this page. The three US mutual funds (VBTLX, DODIX, FTBFX) are typically bought directly through the fund company or a full-service brokerage rather than a discount trading app. Which of the three below makes sense depends on how much of this list you actually need access to.
- 13,000+ ETFs, 1M+ bonds across 30+ countries
- 150+ global exchanges — covers all ten UCITS funds here too
- No minimum deposit for a cash account
The most complete option for this whole list, including every LSE/Euronext-listed UCITS fund. The trade-off is a less beginner-friendly interface.
Read full review →- 500+ commission-free ETFs, bought as real holdings
- $50 minimum deposit in most countries
- No individual bonds, and a narrower fund lineup than the other two
Easiest onboarding of the three, and covers many of the larger US ETFs here (AGG, TLT, HYG-type names). Not the pick if you specifically want the UCITS-listed or mutual-fund options.
Read full review →- 1.7M+ instruments across 50+ exchanges
- Direct government & corporate bonds, not just funds
- €10,000 minimum deposit, plus a 0.3%/year bond custody fee
Built for consolidating several asset classes — equities, bonds, futures, forex — in one regulated account. The entry cost puts it out of reach for a starter portfolio.
Read full review →AllinAllSpace may receive compensation if you open an account through the broker links above. This doesn’t affect which funds are listed in the screener or how they’re ranked — see the disclosure at the bottom of this page.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, and we’d rather tell you that directly than fake it. A true bond scanner quoting individual bonds by ISIN with live prices needs a market-data license that most independent sites don’t have. This table shows real, individually-sourced fund-level yield and cost data, refreshed periodically — not a real-time feed.
An individual bond has a fixed maturity date and coupon — hold it to maturity (barring default) and you get your face value back. A fund like the ones listed here is a basket of many bonds with no maturity date of its own; its price and yield move continuously with the underlying bonds. Funds are easier to buy and diversify through a normal brokerage account, but they don’t offer the “guaranteed number back on a set date” that a single held-to-maturity bond does.
It’s a blend of credit risk (how likely the issuer is to default) and interest-rate/duration risk (how much the fund’s price swings when interest rates move). That’s why a long-dated US Treasury fund — zero default risk — is still shown as Medium-to-High risk: its price sensitivity to rate changes is real.
It’s the trailing 12-month distribution yield — the cash the fund actually paid out over the last year, divided by its current price. It’s a look backward, not a guaranteed forward-looking number; a fund’s future distributions can be higher or lower.
Through a normal brokerage or investment platform, the same way you’d buy a stock or any other ETF — using the ticker symbol shown. We don’t sell or hold any of these funds ourselves.
Two funds here — MUB and VTEB, tagged “Tax-exempt (US)” in the table — hold US municipal bonds, whose interest is generally exempt from US federal income tax (and sometimes state tax too). For everything else, “tax-free” is usually about the account, not the fund: holding any of these inside a UK ISA or SIPP, or a US tax-advantaged account, shelters the income from tax regardless of what the fund itself holds. This is general information, not personal tax advice — check with an accountant or adviser for your specific situation.
No. This is an informational comparison tool, not a ranked “best of” list or personal advice. Do your own due diligence, and consider talking to a licensed financial adviser before investing, particularly in higher-risk categories like high-yield or emerging-market bond funds, or before depositing money outside your home country.