The non-conventional energy source-based distribution generation systems are suitable for low-power applications. These renewable energy system (RES)-based networks very often experience vast changes in the inverter output voltage, due to certain power quality issues like fluctuations, voltage sags, etc. Usually, a conventional boost converter is connected between the DC source and inverter to boost up the DC voltage when the available voltage is less than the required voltage for a particular application. If a highly boosted voltage is needed, the duty ratio of the converter needs to be fixed at maximum which creates serious reverse recovery issues. In order to overcome the aforementioned problems, single-stage power inverters are the best solution. Impedance-source inverter (ZSI), switched boost inverter (SBI), quasi-switched boost inverter (QSBI) are some of the single-stage step-up inverter topologies. These converters can either buck or boost the available DC input voltage, which provides better electromagnetic interference immunity and need not to be operated at extreme duty cycle, and it can produce both direct and alternating voltages from a single DC source. Because of all the above-mentioned advantages, single-stage boost inverters are appropriate for nanogrid applications. This paper reviews the features and operations of single-stage boost inverter topologies like ZSI, QZSI, basic SBI and family of QSBI topologies. The MATLAB simulation studies are carried out with the same design parameters for all the topologies, and the results are presented in detail including performance comparison. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018.