With coastal erosion and the increased interest in beach monitoring, there is a greater need for evaluation of the shoreline detection methods. Some studies have been conducted to produce state of the art reviews on shoreline definition and detection. It should be noted that with the development of remote sensing, shoreline detection is mainly achieved by image processing. Thus, it is important to evaluate the different image processing approaches used for shoreline detection. This paper presents a state of the art review on image processing methods used for shoreline detection in remote sensing. It starts with a review of different key concepts that can be used for shoreline detection. Then, the applied fundamental image processing methods are shown before a comparative analysis of these methods. A significant outcome of this study will provide practical insights into shoreline detection.