I have two main goals in investing:
1) Don't screw up. This is the number 1 problem with most people's investing. I avoid this by not picking shares, funds or countries.
2) Don't waste money on fees. Simple, just keep costs as low as possible. But you need to consider all the costs.
The total expense ratio is an annual cost, while transactional costs (fee percentage + spread percentage) happen when you buy and sell. The Easy Equities 0.25% cost is a transactional. That's why when most unit trusts charge 1% they take far more money than an ETF charging 0.4% with transactional costs of 0.25%.
As an example, if you had to buy R100 000 in STX40 (don't do that, you can buy the ASHT40 much cheaper!), and reinvest the dividends, using easy equities, you'd pay about the following for the first year:
EE buying fees (incl VAT): R285
+Spread % (from midpoint, currently 0.17%): R170
+EE Reinvestment fees (3% div assumed): R8.55
+TER: R440
Total costs=R903.55
Your costs are R903.55 of your R100 000 in the first year. With a unit trust charging 1%, you would spend R1000 in the first year, so it's pretty close, but then let's go on to the second year where you invest an additional R100 000, assuming a 10% growth in the first year:
EE buying fees (incl VAT): R285
+Spread % (from midpoint, currently 0.17%): R170
+EE Reinvestment fees (3% div assumed): R17.95
+TER: R924
Total costs=R1396.95
So in the second year, your total costs would be R1396.95, while with the 1% unit trust, they would be R2100. A much bigger difference.
Feel like seeing year 3? Ok
EE buying fees (incl VAT): R285
+Spread % (from midpoint, currently 0.17%): R170
+EE Reinvestment fees (3% div assumed): R28.30
+TER: R1456.40
Total costs=R1939.70
So in the third year, your total costs would be R1939.70, while with the 1% unit trust, they would be R3310. Are you seeing the trend? The TER is the big influencer in the prices. That's the one you really must aim at to keep costs low.
And now, as always there is a caveat. If you can get a unit trust with the same TER and performance as the ETF then the unit trust will be cheaper. In the states you can buy the Vanguard funds through an ETF or unit trust (they call them mutual funds) at the same TER. In those cases the unit trust will be cheaper overall.