Infectious diseases that result from pathogen infection are among the leading causes of human death, with pathogens such as human immunodeficiency virus, malaria, influenza, and ongoing SARS-COV-2 viruses constantly threatening the global population. While the mechanisms behind various infectious diseases are not entirely clear and thus retard the development of effective therapeutics, vaccines have served as a universal approach to containing infectious diseases. However, conventional vaccines that solely consist of antigens or simply mix antigens and adjuvants have failed to control various highly infective or deadly pathogens. Biomaterials-based vaccines have provided a promising solution due to their ability to synergize the function of antigens and adjuvants, troubleshoot delivery issues, home and manipulate immune cells in situ. In this review, we will summarize different types of materials-based vaccines for generating cellular and humoral responses against pathogens and discuss the design criteria for amplifying the efficacy of materials-based vaccines against infectious diseases. This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Infectious Disease.