Starting with the introduction of planar magnetron cathodes in the mid-1970’s, magnetron sputtering has sustainably changed nearly all industrial branches, dealing with thin film coatings. With the proceeding development also different powering approaches like RF, DC, pulsed DC, HIPIMS and AC evolved over the years. Furthermore, the operation of one or multiple cathodes as well as different shape (round, rectangular, cylindrical, …) opens further flexible options. Differing powering options with examples for characteristic applications in each case will be presented. There will be some discussions on the benefit and drawback in these cases.