The present paper is devoted to a comparison-based investigation of two fractional slot permanent magnet machines: (i) a surface mounted permanent magnet (SPM) machine and (ii) a consequent poles permanent magnet machine (CPM). This latter is obtained by the substitution of the PMs that corresponds to south poles by iron pieces of same geometry. In a first step, the analytical model of the air gap flux density generated by a SPM topology is presented. To fit the CPM concept, such model has been rearranged based on a virtual SPM machine. The validation of both analytical models is carried out using a EMWorks2D software package. The second part of the paper focuses the no-and on-load features exhibited by the two machines under investigation. The comparison of these features highlights the cost-effectiveness improvement of the CPM machine over the conventional SPM one.