Abstract: As the advancements of modern science and technology, the conventional hard and superhard coatings have achieved remarkable development. Indeed, partial coatings even have been used in some filed. The performance, applications, preparation technique and development tendency of the conventional hard coatings of nitrides, carbides, oxidates and borides have been introduced mainly, as well as superhard coatings of diamond, DLC, cBN, nano multilayer and composite coatings. Moreover, the existing problems regarding to performance improvement and feasible development trend henceforth of the partial common coatings was pointed out.