Currently, as the population continues to grow, the preservation of the world’s water resources is becoming a serious challenge. The seawater desalination process is considered a sustainable option for the future. The two most common technologies used in desalination are reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane distillation (MD). However, membrane fouling caused by the accumulation of contaminants membrane surface is an emerging and growing problem. then a pre-treatment stage is required to reach an optimal efficiency during desalination process, since this stage is crucial for a successful desalination process. In this regard, developing new material-based composite membranes has the potential to upgrade the anti-fouling features of RO membranes and thereby enhance the desalination efficiency due to the characteristics of these composite membranes especially, their high permeability, hydrophilicity, selectivity mechanical strength, thermal stability, and anti-bacterial property. The objective of this review is to present the main techniques for seawater pre-treatment. the results of several membrane types and methods of modification were also discussed. Finally, the performance of composite membranes for seawater pre-treatment is defined and future perspectives are highlighted.