Organic coatings, which isolate metal from corrosive environment through physical shielding, have become the main anti-corrosion measures because of their economic, effective and convenient operation. However, environmental factors often inevitably lead to cracks in the coating and eventually lead to the failure of coating. After the coating with self-repair ability is damaged, it has attracted extensive attention because of its ability to actively repair the damaged part of the coating. Compared with the coating with single physical shielding performance, the coating with self-healing performance can reduce the human and material cost during the maintenance of damaged coating, and has great potential in future development. Based on the healing mechanism and development history of self-healing coatings, this paper divides self-healing coatings into self-healing type, non-self-healing type with the help of external stimulation and intelligent self-healing coating that can respond to specific environment. And expounds its research status, advantages and disadvantages.