Astaxanthin, a red pigment from the xanthophyll family, is renowned for its exceptional antioxidant activity and bioactive properties, making it widely used in food, feed, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals. While cost-effective synthetic astaxanthin is available, its safety concerns have driven efforts to optimize natural production from sources like Haematococcus pluvialis, Haematococcus lacustris, and Scenedesmus acutus. Natural production faces challenges despite commercial scaling due to expensive upstream and downstream processes. Recent advancements include improving yields through stress factors like light, salinity, and nutrient deficiency, achieving up to 2.5-fold increases. Innovations in downstream processing and alternative growth systems, such as mixotrophic cultivation, have enhanced cost efficiency by up to a significant amount. These developments, alongside expanding applications and biosynthetic pathway insights, aim to overcome production bottlenecks and establish natural astaxanthin as a viable, safer alternative to synthetic forms.