Pholidosauridae was named by von Zittel and Eastman (1902) [Also Williston 1902 mentioned as possible author]. Its type is Pholidosaurus. It was considered monophyletic by Jouve (2009), Fortier et al. (2011), paraphyletic by Bronzati et al. (2012).

It was reranked as the subfamily Pholidosaurinae by Nopcsa (1928); it was reranked as the unranked clade Pholidosauridae by Jouve et al. (2006), Fortier et al. (2011), Martin and Buffetaut (2012), Young et al. (2016), Souza et al. (2019).

It was assigned to Crocodili by Jaekel (1911); to Goniopholidiformes by Hay (1930); to Crocodilia by Delair (1958); to Metamesosuchia by Buffetaut (1982); to Mesosuchia by Kuhn (1946), Huene (1954), Kuhn (1966), Carroll (1988); to Goniopholidae by Nopcsa (1928), Martin and Buffetaut (2012); to Coelognathosuchia by Martin et al. (2013); to Neosuchia by Jouve et al. (2006), Jouve (2009), Fortier et al. (2011), Bronzati et al. (2012), Montefeltro et al. (2013); and to Tethysuchia by Andrade et al. (2011), Young et al. (2016), Souza et al. (2019).