In the given paper several types of direct frequency converters are described and compared. Mathematical models and results of simulation are presented. First mentioned type of direct frequency converters is 3-to-l-phase double-zone converter. It based on 2 series connected controlled voltage sources, and can generate 49 possible output voltages. Different types of control can be used in such converter, for example - amplitude phase synthesis or pulse-width modulation. In the article 340-3 matrix converter is also described. Details of the pulse-width modulation and space-vector modulation in such converter are discussed. Implementation of multi-level principle in the matrix converter is briefly analyzed. In the final part the comparison of mentioned converters is done.