Polymer-derived ceramics is a new method of in-situ preparation of ceramic coating. The selection of precursor with higher ceramic yield and the addition of fillers are important ways to reduce the porosity and shrinkage of ceramic coatings in the preparation of polymer derived ceramic coatings. Filler can play a very important effect in the process of fabricating ceramic coatings. The performance of ceramic coatings can be further improved and their functional properties can be extended by adding fillers. The filler may be subdivided into four basic types:inert, active, fused and sacrificial fillers. In this paper, the types and characteristics of four different fillers were compared, the mechanism of action and selecting principles of filler reinforced ceramic coating were described, and the latest development about preparation of polymer-derived ceramics coatings reinforced by fillers were viewed. The mass and volume of inert filler remains unchanged in the pyrolysis process, so high volume fractions of inert filler can be added to receive thick ceramic coating. The active filler can react with the polymer, with gaseous products generated during pyrolysis or with the pyrolysis atmosphere, achieving near net shape of ceramic coating. The fused fillers may melt during pyrolysis, sealing porosity and densifying the coating, also enable the relaxation of thermomechanical stresses caused by thermal expansion mismatches between substrate and coating, and between fillers and precursor matrix. The sacrificial filler decomposes to form a porous coating, which can control the stress in the ceramic coating, reduce the effective elastic modulus of the ceramic coating, and enhance the strain strength of the ceramic coating. According to the service conditions of ceramic coating, select the appropriate type of filler, determine the critical volume fraction of filler, reveal the effecting laws of filler on ceramic coating composition, grain boundary structure, coating densification, crack defects and pyrolysis process, and develop novel processing techniques and strategies to control stresses arising during conversion into ceramic coatings should be paid much attention in subsequent study.