The two most common surgical interventions for spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage in the basal ganglia of patients more than 65 years old are either minimally invasive puncture and drainage or craniotomy. This study aimed to compare the curative effects of these two procedures in such patients. A retrospective study of patients older than years with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage was conducted between January 2012 and December 2015. Of the 86 patients, 47 received minimally invasive puncture and drainage and 39 underwent craniotomy. One year after surgery no statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups with respect to: evacuation rate of the hematoma five days after the operation, volume of residual hematoma, occurrence of rebleeding, development of infectious meningitis, length of hospitalization, fatality, or Glasgow Outcome Scale and Barthel Index scores. However, the amount of blood loss during the procedure (P < 0.001), total cost of hospitalization (P = 0.004), and incidence of epilepsy (P = 0.045) were significantly higher for the craniotomy group than the minimally invasive puncture and drainage group. It was found that, in patients older than 65 years with basal ganglia hemorrhage, minimally invasive puncture and drainage is less invasive, more cost efficient and induces less bleeding during surgery than craniotomy.