We have studied blue vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) based on second-harmonic generation (SHG) grown on (411)A and (311)B GaAs substrates in order to investigate suitable substrate orientations for SHG-VCSELs. The comparison among substrate orientations has been made on three parameters, SHG conversion efficiency, transparency current density and gain coefficient. The transparency current density and the gain coefficient are characterized by edge emitting lasers grown on the above substrates. We also discuss the transparency current density and the gain coefficient for (311)A reported previously by Takahashi et al. [M. Takahashi, M. Hirai, K. Fujita, N. Egami, and K. Iga, J. Appl. Phys. 82, 4551 (1997)]. SHG conversion efficiency is 38 and 30% W for SHG-VCSELs grown on (311)B and (411)A substrates, respectively, which is consistent with theory, assuming identical nonlinear coefficients for the A face and B face. Transparency current density for (311)A, (311)B and (411)A is 80, 105 and 60 A/cm2, and gain coefficients for (311)A, (311)B and (411)A are 20, 13 and 18 cm−1, respectively. There are no significant differences between (311)A and (411)A, while those for (311)B are less than those for (311)A. In conclusion, SHG efficiency is dependent on crystal orientation consistent with theory and thus the (311) orientation is preferable. Optical gain is independent of substrate orientation, while it is dependent on substrate face and A face is preferable.