Existing types of solar cells may be divided into two distinct classes: conventional solar cells, such as silicon p-n junctions, and excitonic solar cells, XSCs. Most organic-based solar cells, including dye-sensitized solar cells, DSSCs, fall into the category of XSCs. In these cells, excitons are generated upon light absorption, and if not created directly at the heterointerface as in DSSCs, they must diffuse to it in order to photogenerate charge carriers. The distinguishing characteristic of XSCs is that charge carriers are generated and simultaneously separated across a heterointerface. In contrast, photogeneration of free electron-hole pairs occurs throughout the bulk semiconductor in conventional cells, and carrier separation upon their arrival at the junction is a subsequent process. This apparently minor mechanistic distinction results in fundamental differences in photovoltaic behavior. For example, the open circuit photovoltage V-oc in conventional cells is limited to less than the magnitude of the band bending phi(bi); however, V-oc in XSCs is commonly greater than phi(bi). Early work on solid-state excitonic solar cells is described as are excitonic processes in general and the use of carrier-selective (energy-selective) contacts to enhance V-oc. Then studies of DSSCs, which provide a particularly simple example of XSCs, are described. A general theoretical description applicable to all solar cells is employed to quantify the differences between conventional and excitonic cells. The key difference is the dominant importance, in XSCs, of the photoinduced chemical potential energy gradient delmu(hnu),, which was created by the interfacial exciton dissociation process. Numerical simulations demonstrate the difference in photoconversion mechanism caused solely by changing the spatial distribution of the photogenerated carriers. Finally, the similarities and differences are explored between the three major types of XSCs: organic semiconductor cells with planar interfaces, bulk heterojunction cells, and DSSCs.