Hydrogen-induced disproportionation (HID) during the cycles of absorption and desorption leads to a serious decline in the storage capacity of the ZrCo alloy, which has been recognized as the biggest obstacle to its application. Therefore, the prerequisite of a ZrCo application is to solve its anti-disproportionation problem in the field of rapid hydrogen isotope storage. Beyond surface modification and nanoball milling, this work systematically reviews the method of element substitution, which can obviously improve the anti-disproportionation. From a micro angle, as hydrogen atoms that occupy the 8e site in the ZrCoH₃ lattice are instable and are considered to be the driving force of disproportionation, researchers believe that element substitution by changing the occupation of hydrogen atoms at the 8e site can improve the anti-disproportionation of the alloy. At present, Ti/Nb substitutions for the Zr terminal among substitute elements have an excellent anti-disproportionation performance. In this work, up-to-date research studies on anti-disproportionation and its disproportionation mechanism of the ZrCo alloy are introduced by combining experiments and simulations. Moreover, the optimization of the alloy based on the occupation mechanism of 8e sites is expected to improve the anti-disproportionation of the ZrCo alloy.