Membrane separation is large-scaled and high selectivity technology which applied in the fields of water treatment and gas separation. In recent years, the preparation of novel metal-organic frameworks (MOF) membranes by combining MOFs with membrane-based materials become one of the hotspots in membrane research. Since MOFs have similar molecular sieve and spatial topological structures, they have potential applications in separation and catalysis. Zeolitic imidazolate framework materials (ZIFs), as one of the important branches of MOFs, have been applied to membrane separation due to their excellent thermal and chemical stability. The zeolitic imidazolate framework materials have the advantages of adjustable pore size and high porosity, thus are expected as ideal membrane materials to sieve molecules precisely. Duing to the very close in the mixtures' physical properties, it is extremely challenging to finely separate them. In this review, the preparation of zeolitic imidazolate framework materials membran polycrystalline and hybrid membranes by in-situ growth, interfacial/contra-diffusions, layer-by-layer assembly, secondary growth, vapor deposition, and microfluidic treatment are discussed. Also, the applications of zeolitic imidazolate framework materials composite membrane in dye and heavy metal ions removal, gas separation, natural gas purification, biological medicine, and electrochemical sensing are introduced systematically. Afterwards, it is concluded that four adsorption mechanisms of zeolitic imidazolate framework membranes towards dye and heavy metal ions removal, gas separation, and natural gas purification, which are complexation/chelation, electrostatic interaction, coacervation, and synergistic effect. The analysis shows that the introduction of zeolitic imidazolate framework materials greatly improves the separation and purification performance of ZIFs composite membrane, which has certain reference value for the future research. Finally, the problems and challenges in the preparation of ZIFs composite membrane are summarized, and the future research direction of ZIFs composite membrane is prospected.