Biodiversity hotspot assessments provide a scientific basis for planning nature reserves and conservation measures; a popular topic in biological conservation research. Assessment methods based on species richness are most common for biodiversity hotspot research, but the applications of the methods are often limited by the shortage of species data. So, surrogate indices are introduced in the research to solve the problems arising from data limitation. Here four main surrogate methods based on species richness are introduced: indicator species, higher taxon, environment model and landscape heterogeneities. All methods were assessed from three aspects: data availability, operational convenience and the representativeness. No single method could entirely reflect species distributions realistically. A proper assessment method is one that balances research aim, time and cost. Lastly, the combinations of methods that were most complementary to each other for the three aspects considered are discussed.