The purpose of laser-assisted coating technology is to protect exposed manufacturing products or parts and structures that are vulnerable to chemical damage. To find a trade-off between good performance and high expense of materials, the main parts can be made of cheap materials to optimize the cost design through coating. In this paper, emphasis is placed on the introduction of the research progress of laser-assisted technology in recent years, and a group of revolutionary processes using laser as heat source to manufacture mechanical parts are also introduced. This includes the use of laser-based processes to produce material deposits on selected areas to provide a protective layer and enhance the corrosion and wear resistance, heat transfer and mechanical properties of the substrate. Up to now, many laser-assisted technologies have been introduced and studied, including AM additive manufacturing, laser surface alloying (LSA), laser surface cladding (LSC), laser-assisted plasma spraying (LPS), laser chemical vapor deposition (LCVD) and many other laser-assisted coating technologies. This paper highlights the advantages of each process, as well as the disadvantages that always limit their application. In this paper, the methods of laser-assisted coating are classified and summarized, and a comparative study of these techniques is proposed in order to provide a clearer picture and select the appropriate coating technology, so as to obtain the optimal coating design scheme according to the practical application. Finally, a vision is given that better protection performance could be obtained through the development of more advanced technologies and materials in the future.