Abstract In this paper, a variety of chromium-free protective coatings were evaluated as alternatives for hard chromium (HC) electroplating for valve applications, such as nanostructured cobalt-phosphor (NCP) deposited by electroplating and tungsten/tungsten carbide (W/WC) prepared by chemical vapor deposition. A series of laboratory tests including hardness, micro scratch, pin-on-disk and electrochemical polarization measurements were performed in order to compare the performance of the different coatings. In addition, mechanical resistance and fatigue resistance were evaluated using prototype valves with coated ball under severe tribo-corrosion conditions. It was shown that W/WC coating exhibits superior resistance to wear and corrosion due to high hardness and high resistance to pitting, respectively while NCP exhibits better wear resistance than HC with alumina ball and low corrosion potential which allow to use it as protective (sacrificial) coating. Both nanostructured coatings exhibited attractive tribo-mechanical and functional characteristics compared to hard chromium.