Gene therapy as a strategy for disease treatment requires safe and efficient gene delivery systems that encapsulate nucleic acids and deliver them to effective sites in the cell. Due to the insecurity of viral vectors, non-viral vectors have gained great attention recently. Additional advantages of non-viral vectors include their safety, flexibility in packaging nucleic acids, and ease of production. To construct an ideal gene carrier, peptides can be incorporated into non-viral gene delivery systems as functional motifs to overcome the current barriers in gene delivery. In this review, we summarize recent developments in peptide-based gene delivery vector research.