Although it is claimed to represent the voice of ordinary people, populism can also pose a potential threat to democracy. This paper deals with a comparative analysis of populist parties and their typologies in Europe. The main goal of the paper is to explain in detail the concept of populism, present a range of current typologies of populism, and ultimately, select and analyze the most relevant and recent typology of populist parties. It starts with a thorough description of some of the most important theories and definitions of populism by different authors. It is assumed that populism is not necessarily just an "anti-establishment" movement, but it contains elements that vary among multiple types of populism. Accordingly, an analysis of the typologies of populism demonstrates the basic differences between two distinct typologies of populism. To delve even deeper into the topic of populism, representative cases of parties at the individual level are described. An analysis of representative parties is necessary to demonstrate how populism affects the internal structure of political parties and the influence it has on shaping their policies. The comparative analysis of populist parties is the central part of the paper and refers to the comparison of basic elements of political movements through qualitative textual and tabular analysis of the DEMOS project. Using four dichotomies: inclusiveness/exclusiveness, authoritarianism/non-authoritarianism, strong nativism/weak nativism, and radically democratic/conspiratorial populism, 17 European populist parties are classified and categorized.