Disturbance of reactive species produced through various physiological and biochemical processes causes damages to the cells, leading to cell apoptosis. In addition to medical importance, compounds with antioxidant activity can prevent radical species linked damages in food industries. Antioxidants can be described as valuable food preservatives, which promote food nutritional values via preventing oxidation of various diverse contents, majorly lipids, in addition to food deterioration. Due to the high costs and dangerous effects on human health reported for synthetic antioxidants, the search for natural antioxidant compounds has increased. Therefore, the objective of the present review was to overview natural antioxidants from plants and microorganisms as well as their diversity and industrial uses. Plants and microorganisms are significant natural sources of diverse antioxidants. Nevertheless, the vast diversity of microorganisms and their metabolites as well as their easier manipulations highlight the environmental-friendly antioxidant production techniques from microorganisms that must be revised, compared to plants or synthetic antioxidants. Phenolics and terpenoids are the dominant antioxidants produced in plants, while the microbial antioxidants vary, including carotenoids, polyketides and polysaccharides. This review clearly highlights the competency of microbial bioactive metabolites as the alternative sources of bioactive antioxidants for future of food industries. Elucidating structural and physicochemical characteristics of microbial antioxidants enables the discovery of emerging antioxidants and their mechanisms of action, leading to the disclosure of various strategies in the industries