According to the characteristics of seaside saline-alkali land in Nantong City of Jiangsu Province, a field plot experiment was conducted with seven treatments: control, straw, puffed chicken manure, rotten cow dung, functional organic fertilizer, conditioner I and conditioner II, to compare the improvement effects of different ameliorative materials on sandy saline-alkali soil. The results show that soil pH of the modified groups are significantly higher than that of CK. In two different soil layers (0-10 cm and 10-20 cm) in each group, the material improvement significantly reduce salt content compared with CK, and there are certain differences in salt contents among different groups. When the application rates of straw, puffed chicken manure, decomposed cow manure, functional organic fertilizer, conditioner I and conditioner II are 3.0, 1.12, 4.5, 0.45, 0.045 and 0.060 kg/m², soil salinity at 0-10 cm depth is decreased by 91.1%, 93.0%, 94.3%, 88.8%, 81.8% and 78.5%, respectively, while soil salinity at 10-20 cm depth is decreased by 75.3%, 73.8%, 69.3%, 79.0%, 68.2% and 61.5%, respectively. The results indicated that different improvement materials and application rates have different effects on soil improvement, but they can all play a certain role in reducing soil salinity and improving saline-alkali land. Among them, 3.0 kg/m² straw has the best improvement effect on the coastal sandy saline-alkali land in Nantong City.