With the rapid development of wireless communication technology, various indoor location-based services (ILBSs) have gradually penetrated into daily life. Although many other methods have been proposed to be applied to ILBS in the past decade, WiFi-based positioning techniques with a wide range of infrastructure have attracted attention in the field of wireless transmission. In this survey, the authors divide WiFi-based indoor positioning techniques into the active positioning technique and the passive positioning technique based on whether the target carries certain devices. After reviewing a large number of excellent papers in the related field, the authors make a detailed summary of these two types of positioning techniques. In addition, they also analyse the challenges and future development trends in the current technological environment.