We present a characterization of one-component inner functions in terms of the location of their zeros and their associated singular measure. As consequence we answer several questions posed by J. Cima and R. Mortini. In particular we prove that for any inner function $Theta$ whose singular set has measure zero, one can find a Blaschke product $B$ such that $Theta B$ is one-component. We also obtain a characterization of one-component singular inner functions which is used to produce examples of discrete and continuous one-component singular inner functions.