Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is of great importance in analytical science, the noble-metal such as gold and silver are widely used in SERS research and applications. However, noble-metal based substrates are hampered in practical application. As for comparison, the Non-noble metal especially the semiconductor materials are the emerging SERS research frontier. Non-noble metal (such as C, Ti, Zn, Cu, Mo, W, etc.) nanomaterials based SERS substrate have been widely studied and applied due to their superior stability, selectivity, biocompatibility and low cost comparing to noble metal materials. As the chemical enhancement dominate its total SERS signals, it also provides an ideal platform for the investigation of chemical enhancement mechanism. In this review, we explored the development of non-noble metal SERS substrates, focusing on its enhancement mechanism and SERS performance of different materials as well as the future development direction.