Single crystals of glycine zinc chloride (GZC), a semi-organic compound, were grown by conventional as well as unidirectional Sankaranarayanan–Ramasamy (SR) methods. Transparent GZC crystal of diameter 15mm and length 50mm was obtained by employing SR growth method. The average growth rate along <101> is 0.32mm/day and 1.25mm/day for crystals grown by conventional and SR methods. The crystals grown by conventional and SR methods were analyzed using chemical etching, UV–Vis and Vickers microhardness. The results show that SR method grown crystals exhibit higher transmittance and hardness possessing less dislocation density as against crystals grown by conventional method.