Kinases play crucial roles in the life of cell. Their functional abnormity usually leads to many human major diseases including tumors. The prospecting of ATP-competitive small-molecule kinase inhibitors targeting kinases of therapeutic interest has become the focus of researches. Due to the high conservation of the catalytic domain of kinases, the selectivity of kinase inhibitors is poor in general. However, along with the development of structural biology and computer-aided drug design, great progress in the research of selective, ATP-competitive kinase inhibitors has been achieved in recent years. In this account, the review has been made on the development of the design of selective kinase inhibitors.