This paper presents a comparative analysis of a cascaded multilevel power converter of 5 symmetrical levels, in the both sub-topologies: single DC source and separated sources. The comparison was performed by implementation the two prototypes that were tested without load, with resistive load and with load delay. The converters were feed by a PWM modulation with optimized harmonic content using a genetic algorithm. The output currents and voltages waveforms, harmonic spectra, THD and RMS values were analyzed and compared. Finally a comparison of power and efficiency was made.