Today there are several types of photodetectors that can cope with the task of detecting a single photon, however, avalanche photodiodes are most widely used for applications in fiber-optic communication systems and quantum cryptography. In the past 5 years experimental fabrication of single-photon avalanche detectors within conventional complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology and by the method of molecular beam epitaxy have made possible many demonstrations of avalanche photodetectors with exceptional performance characteristics and opened wide perspectives for development of devices of new generation. In this work, we review state-of-the-art designs of single-photon avalanche photodiodes based on group IV materials, their operating characteristics, and achieved values of basic parameters, as well as the methods of their synthesis, and outline the perspectives of using such structures in emerging device applications.