Through a brief excursus into the history of microanalytic methods for the study of facial behavior, this review aims to present the main facial coding systems, alongside with their applications in recent literature. In particular, we will describe psychometric aspects, areas of use, as well as intrinsic limits of the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (MAX), the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and the Facial Action Coding System for Infants and Young Children (Baby FACS), an adaptation of FACS for the detection of facial actions in the early developmental stages.