Background The aim of this study was to reveal the short-term and long-term outcomes of single-incision laparoscopic colorectal resection (SILC) compared with multi-incision laparoscopic colorectal resection (MILC) for colorectal cancer using propensity score matching analysis. Methods The study group included 235 patients who underwent SILC and 730 patients who underwent MILC for colorectal cancer between April 2009 and September 2014. The propensity score matching for age, gender, body mass index, tumor location (right-sided colon/sigmoid colon/upper rectum), lymph node dissection (D1/D2/D3), pathologic T (≤T3) stage and TNM (0–I/II/III) stage produced 107 matched pairs. The exclusion criteria for SILC were as follows: (1) tumors located at the transverse, descending colon or lower rectum, (2) stage IV tumors, synchronous or previous malignancies, (3) locally advanced tumors >T4, (4) acute obstructions or previous major abdominal surgery and (5) obese patients: BMI > 30. Results No significant differences were observed in operating time, bleeding volumes, starting time of liquid diet and length of hospital stay between the SILC and MILC groups. However, the SILC group showed less analgesic requirements (1.1 vs. 1.9 times; p  = 0.0006) and shorter length of incision (2.7 vs. 4.3 cm; p  = 0.0000) compared to MILC group. The overall rate of postoperative complications was similar in both groups (2.8 vs. 3.7 %, p  = 0.70). The 5-year overall survival rate of SILC and MILC was 100 and 95 % ( p  = 0.125) and 5-year disease-free survival rates in stages 0–III were 97 and 94 % ( p  = 0.189), 100 and 92 % in stage II and 90 and 85 % in stage III, respectively. Conclusions This study suggests that SILC for colorectal cancer is a safe and feasible option with better cosmetic results and less pain in strictly selected patients. SILC can also produce good oncological results with similar postoperative outcomes to MILC.