The endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery is an ancient system that deforms membrane and severs membrane necks from the inside. Extensive evidence has accumulated to demonstrate the conserved functions of plant ESCRTs in multivesicular body (MVB) biogenesis and MVB-mediated membrane protein sorting. In addition, recent exciting findings have uncovered unique plant ESCRT components and point to emerging roles for plant ESCRTs in non-endosomal sorting events such as autophagy, cytokinesis, and viral replication. Plant-specific processes, such as abscisic acid (ABA) signaling and chloroplast turnover, provide further evidence for divergences in the functions of plant ESCRTs during evolution. We summarize the multiple roles and current working models for plant ESCRT machinery and speculate on future ESCRT studies in the plant field. ESCRT is an evolutionarily conserved machinery for membrane deformation and scission from the inner face of a membrane away from the cytoplasm. Plants encode most ESCRT isoforms in their genome, including ESCRT-I, -II, -III, and VPS4/SKD1, with the exception of the canonical ESCRT-0. TOL (TOM1-like) proteins were identified as upstream ESCRT factors that partially fulfill ESCRT-0 function in plants. Extensive evidence has accumulated to demonstrate the essential and conserved functions of ESCRTs in endosomal sorting in plants. Plant-specific ESCRT components have been identified. In addition, ESCRTs in plants are also involved in a variety of non-endosomal sorting events such as autophagosome maturation, chloroplast turnover, cytokinesis, and viral replication. Plant ESCRTs are also actively involved in hormone signaling and plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.