In this paper, the performance of meta-heuristic algorithms is compared using statistical analysis based on new criteria (powerfulness and effectiveness). Due to the large number of meta-heuristic methods reported so far, choosing one of them by researchers has always been challenging. In fact, the user does not know which of these methods are able to solve his complex problem. In this paper, in order to compare the performance of several methods from different categories of meta-heuristic methods new criteria are proposed. In fact, by using these criteria, the user is able to choose an effective method for his problem. For this reason, statistical analysis is conducted on each of these methods to clarify the application of each of these methods for the users. Also, powerfulness and effectiveness criteria are defined to compare the performance of the meta-heuristic methods to introduce suitable substrate and suitable quantitative parameters for this purpose. The results of these criteria clearly show the ability of each method for different applications and problems. پرونده مقاله