While there has been an increasing number of studies on smart cities, there are still issues in assessment and governance of these cities. This study aims to analyze and provide insights into the research done in smart city maturity models by conducting a systemically review of related literature. The study discusses and analyzes 22 maturity frameworks from the peer-reviewed articles. The discussion also included the alignment of the smart city to the United Nations sustainable development goals. The analysis shows that there is an increased emphasis on the development of maturity models over the years 2011-2018 However, only 9 out of the 22 models were comprehensive, other models were focused on specific aspects such as citizens, data and IoT. In addition, 50% of the models from the literature included components related to technology but most of the models lacked assessment of the environmental aspects. This review indicates the need for a comprehensive smart cities’ maturity model to assess the cities in their smartness transformation. © 2019 IEEE.