In this paper, the perturbation method is used to study the velocity shift of surface acoustic waves (SAW) caused by surface pressure and temperature variations of piezoelectric substrates. Effects of pressures and temperatures on elastic, piezoelectric, and dielectric constants of piezoelectric substrates are fully considered as well as the initial stresses and boundary conditions. First, frequency pressure/temperature coefficients are introduced to reflect the relationship between the SAW resonant frequency and the pressure/temperature of the piezoelectric substrates. Second, delay pressure/temperature coefficients are introduced to reflect the relationship among the SAW delay time/phase and SAW delay line-based sensors' pressure and temperature. An objective function for performance evaluation of piezoelectric substrates is then defined in terms of their effective SAW coupling coefficients, power flow angles (PFA), acoustic propagation losses, arid pressure and temperature coefficients. Finally, optimal selections of piezoelectric substrates and crystal cuts for SAW-based pressure, temperature, and pressure/temperature sensors are derived by calculating the corresponding objective function values among the range of X-cut, Y-cut, Z-cut, and rotated Y-cut quartz, lithium niobate, and lithium tantalate crystals in different propagation directions.