Reliable acoustic characterization is fundamental for patient safety and clinical efficacy during high intensity therapeutic ultrasound (HITU) treatment. Technical challenges, such as measurement variation and signal analysis, still exist for HITU exposimetry using ultrasound hydrophones. In this work, four hydrophones were compared for pressure measurement: a robust needle hydrophone, a small PVDF capsule hydrophone, and two different fiber-optic hydrophones. The focal waveform and beam distribution of a single element HITU transducer (1.05 MHz and 3.3 MHz) were evaluated. Complex deconvolution between the hydrophone voltage signal and frequency-dependent complex sensitivity was performed to obtain pressure waveforms. Compressional pressure (p+), rarefactional pressure (p-), and focal beam distribution were compared up to 10.6/−6.0 MPa (p+/p-) (1.05 MHz) and 20.65/−7.20 MPa (3.3 MHz). The effects of spatial averaging, local nonlinear distortion, complex deconvolution, and hydrophone damagethresholds were investigated. This study showed a variation of at least 10-15% between different hydrophones during HITU pressure characterization.