In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), the family is placed in the suborder Polypodiineae.

[1] Alternatively, it may be treated as the subfamily Tectarioideae of a very broadly defined family Polypodiaceae sensu lato.

[1] In 1990, Karl U. Kramer and coauthors treated Pleocnemia and 7 of the currently recognized genera as a subfamily of Dryopteridaceae.

In 2016, a cladistic analysis of Tectariaceae separated two new genera, Draconopteris and Malaifilix, from Tectaria sensu stricto.

[8] Didymochlaenaceae Hypodematiaceae Dryopteridaceae Nephrolepidaceae Lomariopsidaceae Tectariaceae Oleandraceae Davalliaceae Polypodiaceae Malaifilix Draconopteris Pteridrys Arthropteris Hypoderris Triplophyllum Tectaria Arthropteris Draconopteris Malaifilix Polydictyum Pteridrys Hypoderris Triplophyllum Tectaria As of November 2019[update], the Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World accepted the following genera.