Glycerol as a platform chemical has wide applications in chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries and is a useful feedstock for the production of bio‐based chemicals. There is an increasing demand for sustainable glycerol production and microbial glycerol production is a promising alternative. The paper highlighted this new trend and summarized recent research progress on microbial glycerol production, and focused mainly on the efforts achieved in rational design of S. cerevisiae, as well as Escherichia coli, to overcome the limitations of glycerol production in these two microorganisms. More efforts are required for overcoming hurdles in yield and productivity enhancement for large scale production. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry