Background Diabetes-related foot ulcers (DFU) are associated with poor patient outcomes, particularly in cases of large and deep wounds, requiring frequent intervention and high rates of amputation. Skin grafts offer a surgical approach to improved wound healing; however, they carry their own operative risks, costs and limitations and are often contradicted in the vascular patient cohort. This review aims to analyse the promise of emerging therapies from the past 5 years to provide an overview of new options for the management of DFU in Australia, including skin substitutes, dressings and topical drugs. Method A review of PubMed and EMBASE of articles from 2020 to present found 421 articles regarding emerging technologies in the management of DFU. After applying inclusion/exclusion criteria to capture clinical trials and a review of titles and abstracts, 56 relevant articles were identified. Results Of the identified articles, 20 papers investigated the use of novel skin substitutes as an alternative to “standard-of-care" (SOC) wound dressings, while 10 studies compared novel dressings to SOC and a further 4 studies examined the use of negative pressure dressings. 20 studies investigated the use of topical therapies to DFU including topical oxygen, platelet rich plasma, medications and cold atmospheric plasma. 2 papers examined local delivery of antibiotics to DFU with novel techniques. Discussion We found a wide variety of measured primary outcomes, the most common being successful wound healing measured in the outpatient setting. However, the outcome timeframe was highly variable, from 6 weeks to 6 months post-intervention. SOC was inconsistent, with many studies comparing novel technologies to alternatives not suggested by the latest guidelines from the International Working Group for the Diabetic Foot. While many of these novel treatments show promise, there is further comparative work needed to determine clinical superiority for our patient populations.