Collagen is a kind of natural biopolymer material, which has good biocompatibility, biodegradability and low immunogenicity, so it was widely used in the field of biomedical materials. Porous microspheres based on collagen not only have good affinity to tissue, but also have excellent properties such as large specific surface area, low density and good cell adhesion, so they are an excellent choice for cell culture and drug delivery system. In this paper, the physiological properties of collagen, the preparation technology of porous microspheres and the advantages of porous microspheres in cell culture and drug delivery were reviewed. The practical applications of porous microspheres based on collagen in drug carriers and cell culture in recent ten years were summarized, and their future development was prospected.