This study presents a comparison of energetic and exergetic performance of a vapor compression refrigeration system using pure hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants. In this study, four different pure HCs propane (R290), butane (R600), isobutane (R600a) and isopentane (R1270) are used in theoretical analysis. R22 and R134a are also used in the analysis. For the analysis, EES package program was used for solving thermodynamic equations of the refrigerants. Results have been presented graphically. According to results, differences of coefficient of cooling performance values of these refrigerants are quite small. Energetic and exergetic efficiency values obtained with R1270 and R600 are higher than R600a and R290. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.