In this paper two different control strategies for a PWM rectifier without line voltage sensors are compared. The direct power control (DPC) which has no need for line voltage measurements is compared to the conventional voltage oriented control (VOC) strategy in rotating coordinates with a novel line voltage estimator. The steady-state performance of both strategies is compared with regards to voltage unbalance and pre-distorted grid. Furthermore, the use of discontinuous modulation is motivated in the classical control strategy and is analyzed along with the novel line voltage estimator. It is shown that the VOC strategy with line voltage estimator exhibits several advantages compared to DPC. Some simulations and experimental results verifying the comparison are presented.