Background: Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) has emerged as a viable treatment option in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to compare survival outcomes after SBRT with other front line local treatments for HCC. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of patients identified through our cancer registry from 2000 to 2016. Patients treated with any local therapy alone were eligible: SBRT, surgery, conventional external beam radiation (CEBRT), and other local therapies including brachytherapy. Patients treated with combined therapies such as SBRT plus liver transplant were excluded. The primary endpoint was overall survival which was estimated from the time of diagnosis. Differences between the groups were compared using log-rank test. The data are presented as median (95%CI). Results: A total of 756 patients with a median follow-up of 45 months (mo) met the selection criteria: 116, 380, 43, and 217 patients received SBRT, surgery, CEBRT, and other local treatment, respectively. Median age was 61, 60, 61 and 60 years, respectively. The median overall survival/3 year overall survival rate were 49 (32-66) mo /53% (44-65%) for patients treated with SBRT, which were not significantly different from 75 (57-94) mo /63% (58-69%) of surgery (p = 0.27), non-significantly better than 22 (13-31) mo /41% (27-60%) of CEBRT (p = 0.13), significantly better than 15 (13-20) mo /26% (20-34%) of other local treatments (p = 3×10^-7). After adjusting for significant prognostic factors including age, race, status of tobacco abuse, history of alcohol use, tumor size, histology grade and stage, the survival outcomes of SBRT remained to be insignificantly different from surgery (HR = 0.8, p = 0.2), have a trend of significant difference from CEBRT (HR = 1.4, p = 0.1) and remarkably superior to that of other local treatments (HR = 1.8, p = 2×10^-4). Conclusions: This study suggests that SBRT is an excellent front line option for HCC, potentially comparable to surgical resection and associated with longer survival than other front line local treatments. Randomized studies are needed to validate these findings.