The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by a pedagogical reform which has resulted with numerous pedagogical conceptions. The most significant of them are Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio and Agazzi. These pedagogies have slightly different approaches, but they all have the same goal which is the well-being of the child and child’s overall development. All alternative pedagogies are focused on child, giving him freedom, autonomy in work, encouraging him to learn by his own experience in interaction with the environment. It is very important for children to develop creativity, on that way they will be able to treat the world with responsibility and actively participate in its creation. The aim of this paper is to analyze the fundamental characteristics of alternative pedagogies. The emphasis is on comparison of Montessori and Waldorf pedagogy, as the two most widely used pedagogies in the world and in Croatia as well. In both pedagogies the child is in the central position. Maria Montessori gave a child freedom from a young age, with adults giving him indirect help. On the other hand Steiner believes that child can make his own decisions only after puberty. Both base their education on the needs of the child, believing that this will lead to meeting the needs of society as a whole. What they have in common is that they consider adults to be role models for children, they imitate their behavior, appearance, mimicry and word choice. Montessori believes that adults need to offer a child a help for self-help, and for Steiner adults are the role model that children should emulate. Both pedagogies stress the importance of the natural materials and keeping in touch with nature.