This paper presents a comparison of Novel Power Loss Sensitivity, Power Stability Index (PSI), and proposed voltage stability index (VSI) methods for optimal location and sizing of distributed generation (DG) in radial distribution network. The main contribution of the paper is: (i) optimal placement of DGs based on Novel Power Loss Sensitivity and PSI methods, (ii) proposed voltage stability index method for optimal DG placement, (iii) comparison of sensitivity methods for DG location and their size calculations, (iv) optimal placement of DG in the presence of load growth, (v) impact of DG placement at combined load power factor, (vii) impact of DG on voltage stability margin improvement. Voltage profile, the real and reactive powers intake by the grid, real and reactive power flow patterns, cost of energy losses, savings in cost of energy loss and cost of power obtained from DGs are determined. The results show the importance of installing the suitable size of DG at the suitable location. The results are obtained with all sensitivity based methods on the IEEE 12-bus, modified 12-bus, 69-bus and 85-bus test systems