In this paper, first-order and second-order sliding mode controllers for underactuated manipulators are proposed. Sliding mode control(SMC) is considered as an effective tool in different studies for control systems. However, the associated chattering phenomenon degrades the system performance. To overcome this phenomenon and track a desired trajectory, a twisting, a supertwisting and a modified super-twisting algorithms are presented respectively. The stability analysis is performed using a Lyapunov function for the proposed controllers. Further, the four different controllers are compared with each other. As an illustration, an example of an inverted pendulum is considered. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. In this paper, first-order and second-order sliding mode controllers for underactuated manipulators are proposed. Sliding mode control (SMC) is considered as an effective tool in different studies for control systems. However, the associated chattering phenomenon degrades the system performance. To overcome this phenomenon and track a desired trajectory, a twisting, a supertwisting and a modified super-twisting algorithms are presented respectively. The stability analysis is performed using a Lyapunov function for the proposed controllers. Further, the four different controllers are compared with each other. As an illustration, an example of an inverted pendulum is considered. Simulation results are to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.