Contemporary urban design, requiring a deep understanding of urban form and its performance, has recently shifted its focus on the vibrancy of waterfronts in coastal cities. Based on analytical methods of quantitative urban morphology, this study aims to explore the common morphological features of waterfronts with high urban vibrancy. We selected vibrant waterfront cases from different countries as the benchmark and collected the multi-sourced urban data. The quantitative analysis extracts the common morphological characteristics of vibrant waterfront by calculating the range of those indicators in different cases. The results indicate that those successful waterfronts comprise compact street networks and are mostly dominated by building types favorable for urban vibrancy. They possess high development intensity and mixed functions. Consequently, the compact urban form and dense-mixed land use are recommended for developing vital waterfronts. Moreover, considering the problematic waterfront area of the Jinshatan area in Yantai, quantitative urban morphology methods can be adopted to develop precise urban design guidance for vibrancy-oriented design practice. This study, thus, provides comprehensive insights for shaping the vibrancy of the waterfronts in coastal cities.