Chemotherapy of viral infections is still challenging. Salicylanilides demonstrated a wide range of biological activities including antiviral potency and the review summarizes this field. Niclosamide was described to be able to affect coronaviruses. Some salicylanilides and salicylamides could inhibit HIV virus by targeting of HIV-1 integrase or reverse transcriptase. Hepatitis C virus is another virus, which could be potentially afflicted by salicylanilides on the level of two enzymes--NS3 protease and NS5B RNA polymerase. Nitazoxanide is a nitrothiazole derivative of salicylamide useful for the treatment of protozoal and bacterial infections with an extended range of antiviral activity and innovative mechanism of action, especially against hepatitis and influenza viruses or rotaviruses. Nitazoxanide, its metabolite tizoxanide and their derivatives are a very promising stream in the development of new antiviral compounds. In this review, we summarize the antiviral activity of structures containing salicylanilide and partly salicylamide moiety.