The protection of wood elements in the exterior use, such as window frames and doors, can be performed with various type of coatings. The most diffused in use are conventional coatings – solvent-based (alkyd, modified alkyds etc.). Last years, because of the restrictive normative regarding the solvent emission, the trend of coatings development leads to the reduction of volatile organic components. Organic solvents are reduced or substituted by environmentally safer solvents such as water or aliphatic solvents. Water based coatings are in constant development. Besides the reduced solvent emission, water based coatings have many other advantages, as well as some disadvantages in comparison with classic, solvent type of coatings. In this paper, the characteristics of water based (acrylic dispersions) and urethan modified alkyd coatings are analyzed and compared.