In this work, a comparative study of various porous materials to be used as an alternative to store hydrogen by a physical adsorption process was presented. There was selected, among those commercially available, a set of the most recognized microporous materials namely: zeolites, activated carbons, carbon nanotubes and metal-organic frameworks. These samples were exhaustively characterized by nitrogen adsorption-desorption and studied in hydrogen adsorption at sub atmospheric and high pressure conditions. Discussions of the correlation between surface area and micropore volumes were performed through the adjustment of specific models, analyses on adsorbate adsorbent interaction and differences in the adsorbed volumes of hydrogen by each material. Finally were discussed the properties that should be improved in the materials to make viable the hydrogen storage by adsorption. Copyright (C) 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.