Abstract: As a kind of renewable forest product resource with abundant yield and low price, rosin is widely used in food, agriculture, rubber, ink, coating, and other fields. The tricyclic diterpene structure of rosin possesses extreme hydrophobicity, and hydrophilic groups can be introduced into rosin by means of catalytic isomerism, Diels-Alder addition, and other means to prepare high value-added and biodegradable green surfactants. Rosin-based surfactant literatures and patents published in China and abroad were retrieved from four categories: anionic, cationic, nonionic and amphoteric surfactants. The surfactants with the anion of carboxylate, sulfonates, sulfates, and phosphates, and the cation of quaternary, polyols and polyoxyethylene nonionic surfactants, and betaine and amine oxide amphoteric ionic surfactants were analyzed especially. The industrialization development of new technologies and new products of rosin-based surfactants were discussed, and the potential application fields of rosin-based surfactants instead of traditional surfactant were proposed. Meanwhile, the research and industrialization development of rosin-based surfactants were also evaluated and prospected.