For more than 6 decades, thermal barrier coatings have been used to protect structural parts in both stationary and aviation gas turbines. These coatings allow the use of significant higher operation temperatures and hence increased efficiencies. In the 1970s, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) was identified as outstanding material for this application. As major deposition technologies both electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) and atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) have been established. Although the topic is already rather old, there are still frequent activities ongoing to further improve the technology, both with respect to materials and microstructural issues also regarding the use of advanced coating technologies, especially in the field of thermal spray. The paper tries to summarize major developments in both fields, the materials and the processing focusing on thermal spray methods. The impact of both materials and processing are summarized by the results of burner rig tests for various systems. Furthermore, a short outlook on possible future directions of developments will be given.